NHL draft lottery may have been flawed, but so are the conspiracy theories
There’s one question I have after every “Breakfast with Benz” hockey podcast that I record with Brian Metzer of the Penguins Radio Network.
How is it that we spend 20 minutes solving all the world’s problems, yet every week we reconvene, and the world is still an ungodly mess?
It’s quite a vexing reality.
This week is no different as Metzer and I try to navigate our way through what appears to be increasingly choppy waters for return-to-play activities in the NHL. And for all sports actually.
The NHL’s hub cities for a relaunched schedule still have yet to be announced. It appears we’ve reached a “just do it, or don’t” moment for about every league going. And with a lot of individual athletes deciding not to “do it,” the big picture for sports in general is getting murky.
Players deciding not to play has been more of a baseball problem the last two or three days. But as Metzer points out, an undercurrent is rumbling along those lines on the hockey front, too.
We also try to make heads or tails of the NHL lottery draft fallout. On the one hand, yes, the format was stupid. Especially when the first drawing was held. We point out two flaws hockey overlooked in terms of timing.
But we also defend hockey from some of the conspiracy theorists. The notion that the whole lottery has somehow been rigged for one particular club is nuts as far as I’m concerned. Consider how many high-profile teams are still alive for that No. 1 overall prize of Alexis Lafrenière.
Edmonton, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto, both New York clubs … and, yes, the Penguins.
So you want to yell, “It’s rigged for ‘Team E’ overall”? You’re probably wrong. But I’ll listen.
But who “Team E” is going to be? No, not so much. Because I’m not sure which of those teams is that much more of a “win” for the league than anyone else.
Plus, now that we are a year removed, Metz and I also give our final analysis of how the Phil Kessel trade worked out.
Oh, right. We can’t. Because both the Penguins and the Arizona Coyotes are still alive in the rebooted season, so the script isn’t written. We don’t how good Jason Zucker truly is yet and Pierre-Olivier Joseph has yet to make an NHL debut.
But, yeah, aside from that — crystal clear!
Much like the state of sports collectively at this point.
So listen. Make yourself angry. Scream out the window of your car. And then blame somebody else because it’s not really our fault.
We’re just the messengers.
Tim Benz is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Tim at tbenz@triblive.com or via X. All tweets could be reposted. All emails are subject to publication unless specified otherwise.
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