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I have no problem with Darren Helm...as a third line center. I think in that role he's got a comparative advantage over almost every other third line center in the league. I also think, in that role, he can take on more defensive responsibility (which he seems good at), thus allowing us to exploit matchups. Where I don't like Darren Helm, as should be obvious, is on a scoring line wing. Sure he can be made to look decent there (Ian White could be made to look decent on a top defensive pairing too), but that obscures the fact that his talents are better utilized elsewhere, and somone else (who has the skill set needed to be a top six winger) could be slotted in that spot for maximum efficiency. But what do I know? I'm as wrong about the roster as I am right most of the time. Nevertheless, I'll beat the drum for moving Helm, not because I don't like him, but because he's redundant on this team and we've got a couple of needs to fill to be a true Cup competitor (in my opinion).

We are better than the Leafs. In almost every way. Goals Against, PK%, PP%. They only have us beat in goals for. They’re #1 in the league. But they’re a run and gun team with bad defence (#20 in goals against). That is, ultimately, losing hockey.

That dude looks like a bizarro hockey world Crispin Glover.

The world is falling!!! I'm not going to use the last 3 games as a sample size for predicting this teams future, I'd rather use the entire season we've currently played to judge them. It looks pretty good.

Exactly. Not to mention the Wings absolutely dominated the first shootout loss, and it was just more bad luck than anything. Not like they played bad against Florida either. As for last night, I chalk that up to being the 3rd of 3 games in 4 nights. It happens. The team will be fine.

Maybe Crosbys singular beard hair on that side of his face is infected.

Heaven forbid anyone get vaccinated.

He might be unhappy, but European newspaper are notoriously bad at actually reporting facts. They basically say "we want this to happen so we're going to report it like it's actually a possibility." It sounds more like the "___ really wants to come to Toronto" stuff we see out of the media there.

A smile like this?

No that's not even a debate. We HAVE the assets. It's just a matter of do we want to trade any of Tatar nyquist smith dekeyser mrazek mantha Larkin etx etc We have the assets. We just sit wanna give then up. Which is fine it just makes the rebuild a bit longer. Holland clearly feels more comfortable with building from within cause the strengths are scouting and player development not trading.

This roster is one top D and power forward short of being a real contender in the playoffs. Not sure if we have enough assets to make the deals we need.

Thank you. So Crosby is sitting there looking like that amidst a mumps epidemic in the NHL, and the medical staff thinks "yeah, he's good to go."

The biggest problem I have with potentially getting Yandle is he shoots left. If they make a trade for defense or needs to be a RH one that can play the PP. Of trade Dekeyser or Smith as part of the package to bring that as long as it was a guy in his prime.

Ericsson jumped Nolan when he hit Helm from behind.

I knew you'd like it. I was waiting for your inevitable comment lol.

I understand that you're sacrificing for a big name, but getting rid of those 2 would be WAY too much. They are two solid players heading into their prime that can be a solid #3 and #4 (or may develop higher) for the rest of their careers. Not to mention they're pretty cheap at the moment. I really don't know which RH Dman could be worth giving them both up. To me, our Tradable roster Dmen goes: 1.KIndl, 2.Lashoff (does his job, but easily sacrificed) 3.Quincey, 4.Ericsson

No need to trade either of them. Almost every team in the league asks for top young talent, and almost nobody trades it. There's a reason why guys like Stafford, Stewart, Fleishmann, Boyes, Perron, etc. are the names being rumored for trade. Because those are the kinds of guys teams trade. Not their 23 year old future top sixers. Teams can ask all day for Sheahan and Jurco, but they're not going anywhere. Doesn't mean we don't have valuable pieces for trade though.

Smith was actually the best fighter on the ice at that moment. But yes, the Wings don't stand up for teammates enough. The Weber on Zetterberg play is a great example. The league is now about having smaller middleweights who can play hockey and fight. We don't even have those on this team, for some reason.

We'll eat those nancys in the playoffs. Steven Stamkos wants nothing to do with a steady diet of Luke Glendening. Nothing.

I don't mind trusting in Holland, but isn't that kind of a stretch? Yzerman's put together a ludicrously deep team (for a cap era team) that's going to be competitive for a long time. He got Bishop for nothing. He got Garrison for nothing. He flipped Quincey for a first-round pick. He turned the impossible MSL situation into Callahan, a first-round pick, and a second-round pick. He found Johnson. He has Palat and Kucherov, and Drouin, and Hedman, and crazy organizational depth at the goalie position (though, Nabokov was definitely a "You serious, bro?" signing) (though, he's an upgrade over Lindback). Stralman and Boyle were great signings. Flip's been huge for them. Stamkos is a pretty good hockey player. John Cooper - perfect fit. Cutting ties with Salo was the right call, one Holland probably wouldn't have made, because loyalty and veteran leadership and right-handed shot and depth and all that. Losing Panik hasn't hurt them one bit. Yzerman knows what he's doing.

Kronwall is VERY underrated by some of Red Wings fans. He is not Nick Lidstrom, but he is still a good, reliable number 1 and, more than that, is a good leader for this team. I would take Kronners over Yandle any day of the week. The wings will never make that trade proposed and would only tradde the likes of those guys if they were getting Shea Weber. So don't worry about that. If anything, I think a trade for Mike Green would be best for us. We would not give up nearly as much and would be adding a solid offensive dman to our team and who is right handed shot. That could go a long way to determine the extent of our playoff success.

Truth. Case in point: last season, we didn't win our twelfth home game until March. This is a funk. It happens. The Isles just snapped a three-game losing streak. The Bolts have lost to the Sabres, Jackets, and Caps (twice) in the past week and a half or so. The Canucks have lost three in a row, I think. The Kings flat-out suck right now. The Ducks are doing really well, but they had a pretty ugly stretch not long ago. The Flames (I'm not a believer) have lost four straight. The Sharks are surging after a really rough start. You're always going to have your good stretches and your bad stretches, you've just got to minimize the frequency and duration of the latter. Not saying this wasn't a terrible performance. It was. But we were gods in the second half of November, so you knew a crash was coming. Actually, I honestly wonder if all the scoring we were doing isn't sort of backfiring. I remember the best coach I ever played for once said that getting a ton of goals from a ton of different guys every night can be a double-edged sword. Everyone thinks, "Well, we're scoring six goals every night, and everyone's contributing, so I don't really need to be a big factor this week," and so what you get is everyone's effort drops off, all at the same time. Suddenly, that scoring depth, that balanced attack - poof, gone. And once you're in that rut, it can be really hard to get out of it.

Crosby rule 2.0? Any attempt to mump, or accidentally mumping, another player in the head is expressly forbidden by the NHL. Players attempted a clean check are responsible for their salivary glands, spittle, and all other oral residue. Any player found in violation of these rules will be assessed a game misconduct and will be required to forfeit one of their lymph nodes to Sidney Crosby.

I'm still trying to figure out exactly how this is Gary Bettman's fault. I mean, I know it is. I just can't figure out why.

Just a reminder that they are still playing games in Edmonton.