As we patiently await the return of Sens hockey tonight in Manhattan, enjoy some schadenfreude and ponder the minutiae of hockey fandom with me.
As Shaan noted on Thursday, the Preds locked up their captain, Roman Josi, to an eight-year $72.4M contract last week, making Josi the highest-paid left-handed defender in the league next year. Josi has had an impressive career in Nashville accumulating 362 points in 577 NHL games with an extra 32 playoff points to boot. The stats crowd, however, don’t seem sold on this contract.
"But he plays tough competition" is mostly disingenuous nonsense from most corners but a) all of the predators top four have faced ~identical opposition profiles for years now, it's an extremely distinctive aspect of their team and b) it's dwarfed here, like usual, by teammates.