Dater’s Daily: “Too early to tell” on Grubauer talks

LEBANON, N.H. – Hello, from my lifelong friend (or close enough) Chris’ house, in New Hampshire. Chris and I bonded as friends in eighth grade here in New Hampshire, and are still hanging out 43 years later.

I took a few days off from doing much of anything, content-wise, but returned earlier this afternoon with a story about Nazem Kadri his tough offseason, and I bonded some with him too on that.

Like Naz, It’s been a rough few weeks for me personally, since I put my size 13 feet in my mouth with that ill-fated question to Nathan MacKinnon on Zoom when the playoffs ended. I have always thought of myself as kind of a screwup, except when it came to one thing: my professionalism on the job. Then, I go and foul that up too.

I have had a lot of people tell me they are sick of me feeling bad about this and to stop apologizing, and I will from now on. It was kind of a comedy of errors as to why I babbled such an incoherent question to No. 29, and I don’t blame anyone for wondering if I was totally out of my mind, chemically or otherwise, at that moment. No, I wasn’t. I just kind of choked under some self-imposed pressure on a Zoom call in which I was unprepared to ask the question. I didn’t realize I had my “hand up” on the call, then I was late unmuting myself, then, in haste, I just blurted a rambling, nonsensical question and thought, in my feeble mind, that I was in the locker room all of a sudden with Nate and could throw the F bomb around freely like normal in that situation. It was just a complete screwup by me.

I asked a very long, coherent question to Jared Bednar about two minutes after the ill-fated MacKinnon question, but nobody remembers that lol!

But I would say it was one of the worst 2-3 weeks of my life after that. I thought about quitting the business, even though this site has been very successful since its launch two years ago. I listened to the question on video and just couldn’t believe that was me. It was/is totally embarrassing.

I want to be upfront and say I have some issues I must continually work on, as your humble correspondent. The biggest is kind of, what I would describe as, an anxiety/OCD issue. It’s not the kind of OCD thing where I have to wash my hands all day long or anything. I would try to more accurately describe it as something like, “I can’t shut my brain off, especially if there is something I think I have to worry about, either real or imagined.” 

For a long time, my solution to shutting off the noise from my brain was with alcohol or, later, prescription pills. I got some good therapy a few years ago, where I was able to recognize the “trouble” coming to the brain and deal with it through other, better, things such as: mindful meditation, the Bible, good music, more communication with friends and family, more communing with nature.

But there are still times when I feel like I’m ill-prepared with the storm clouds that come into the mind. That’s when I feel like I need to get away and go back home, to the people who have been there the longest in my life. So, thanks to Chris and to my mother and stepfather for taking me in this whole week. Chris and I are going to watch the Denmark-England game tomorrow. Chris is the biggest fan of Denmark, probably, in all of North America. He is praying for me to use every single DaterJinx known to man to get Denmark the win. Will they work or not?

So, some Avs and NHL notes/thoughts for a Tuesday:

• I touched base with the Philipp Grubauer “camp” today and was told it’s “too early to tell” if things can be described as optimistic or not regarding a new contract between him and the Avs. That can be interpreted any way you want. All I can do is check in as the days progress and report back. I think he’ll be back with the Avs, but this is an unpredictable business.
• I said it before and I’ll say it again though: I think the July 21 expansion draft will start the cascade of dominos with regard to a lot of Avs contract stuff. The Avs are still waiting to see if they lose a guy like Logan O’Connor, at a minimum salary, or a guy like Joonas Donskoi, at a $3.9 million cap hit. That will determine the next steps on guys like maybe Grubauer and Brandon Saad. The Avs will only have a week to get things done after that, though. July 28 is free-agent day.
• Personally, I think Saad is gone.
• Why do I think that?
• Because the Avs just won’t have much cap room, either way, to sign him. I believe they DO want to sign Grubauer, along with Gabe Landeskog. That’s going to take up a good portion of their roughly $23 million in cap room. Don’t forget, Cale Makar is going to take up a huge chunk of that too.
• I figure Makar will come in at $9 million, Landeskog at $7 million and Grubauer at $6 million. That’s the $23 million right there, minus the salary off-loaded to Seattle.
• Maybe you can entice Saad back at $3-4 million with the savings, but I doubt it. Players most always will go to the highest bidder.
• ESPN: It was tragic news, and the NHL did well to hold a moment of silence before Game 4 for Blue Jackets goalie Matiss Kivlenieks, who died this weekend in a fireworks accident at the age of 24. 
• Daily Faceoff: Nashville Predators GM David Poile stirred an NHL trade rumor hornets’ nest on a local radio interview. He tipped his hand that Nashville is pushing the Seattle Kraken for a side deal so that Seattle will select a specific player. 
• Philly Hockey Now: Columbus GM Jarmo Kekalainen says nearly every GM in the league has called about defenseman Seth Jones. The Philadelphia Flyers remain front runners. \
• Detroit: From Red Wings historian, author, and Detroit Hockey Now beat writer Bob Duff–Here are five things you didn’t know about Gordie Howe.