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I think where you exit in the playoffs is extremely overrated. Sometimes teams drift to the 3rd round. Sometimes they have to fight tooth and nail to get there. And sometimes the best teams are upset very early. Getting there is the goal of the regular season. If you do that you deserve praise. The goal of the playoffs is to win the cup. If you don't do that you, you should start focusing on the next regular season and what it's going to take to get back to that position. Not blow up the team.

Franzen legwand and goose was a giant part of our making the playoffs last year

Blog post by Warren Tabachnick "If I were running my own company, I’d be hiring a team of hockey players, for their hockey skills alone. Here are 10 reasons why."https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/10-hockey-skills-real-world-warren-tabachnick

To be honest, I don't see how they don't give Ouellet a spot on the backend next year. There's no way they can't, not given how he's played. Kindl has to be gone, or at least waived, because Babs is using XO over him at every opportunity. If you ask me, they only way X isn't on the roster next year is because he gets traded. Personally, I'd prefer KH to stand pat at the deadline right now, promote Ouellet full time, and probably do just that in the offseason in the backend. If 1 or 2 kids are actually ready right now, I don't see why we don't just put them in full time on the backend, save our selves some cap space, and allow further development from DeKeyser and Smith to bolster our D from within. Now go ahead and shoot me for being too conservative

I'm almost 25 and my parents help me deal with my money. It's not because I'm stupid, it's because they've handle their own money very successfully with minimal input from advisors. If I acquired millions I would definitely trust them to help until I felt I could make good choices with it or until I found an advisor that I trusted to work with. Sucks that he was betrayed by his family.

Don't get me started on Ericsson. 6'4 220lb non-physical floating waste of space.

Edmonton's mismanagement of everything is an atrocity. Chicago and Pittsburgh seemed to have done well with their top pick stockpiles, and did it in fairly short order. Edmonton just can't do anything right. At all. Anywhere.

I'm basing my opinion on Holland. If Holland traded XO it would be startling based on the strategy he's displayed over the years. I believe XO is probably one of the highest on his totem poll. He's always played the long game like that.

That's pretty awesome. Favorite part, hands down: One year, one of my teammateswho barely ever said a wordcame into the dressing room after the second period of a game during a terrible losing streak, put his dress shoes in the shower and set them on fire. He then turned to a bewildered dressing room and declared, I knew those [bleeping] shoes were bad luck.

Russian Sniper > German Sniper > American Sniper

I hope he doesn't pull his groin trying to catch that plane.

Usually he sits tight. It's like he's afraid of screwing up now that he does'nt have unlimited money to fix things. Since the cap came into affect, he has'nt done anything major trade wise. Who knows though, he may surprise us.

Holland MAY be able to land some free agents in the offseason now that the team is on an upswing again and players might want to come here, but in the trade dept. he def is'nt aggressive enough and won't make risky trades for needed pieces. If he does make a move its a depth trade, or a good prospect for an aging veteran at the deadline.

No, expecting the team to get better is'nt being spoiled at all, and if this is our re-tooling phase, were doing damn good. I just mean some people seem to expect too much out of the team every year because we've had so much past success, and I know i'm not the first to say that.

I didn't. You specifically said monster didn't have a terrible injury rep when he signed with us, which was false. The first time he signed here he was already well known for his untimely "groin injuries"

Understood. But when you make as much money as JJ does, you need a professional to handle your investments. If you make as much as him and your parents are handling your money still, I advise you to seek a financial planner.

Lobster. The person below me didn't forget that this was the "person below me" thread, like the two posters above me did.

I'll call it now. We will make the conference finals. After that it's anyone's guess. I have lost all faith in Holland being able to trade or sign free agents. But he has done a wonderful job drafting and developing

I hope that is a fourth forward and not a natural defender.

We've made the playoffs how many years in a row? Four cups in that time. I just think alot of peoples expectations come from being spoiled as Wings fans. Teams go through rough patches where they sit in the basement of the league for years, (although with parity now, that does'nt happen for too long anymore, unless you count Edmonton). That has'nt happened in Detroit since 1991. I'm sure some of the posters on here were'nt even born yet when the streak began. Fans of most teams would be thrilled with that, but around here, it just seems its cup or bust. Fire Holland.

You left out the part where you start dating Emilia Clarke after beating Mayweather for the heavy weight title.

Russian Sniper > American Sniper

It would be more funny if Brodeur was named "Assistant to the Traveling Secretary"

I don't think as many people are s***ting on Jimmy as you suggest. I think Mrazek has the potential to take over the starting job in the next couple years, but it doesn't mean I think Jimmy as anything short of a very good and at times great goalie, and most certainly well above average at just about all times. I do think he has flaws working against him, like any player does, though one of his is playoff performance. Thus far, he's yet to play as well in the playoffs as we've seen him play in the regular season, and while not all bad, there have been some rough outings for him in the big show. If he loses the job to Mrazek, my guess is that's going to be why. But he could also solidify his status by having playoff success this year or next. He and the team are capable of it at this point, and thankfully, there are no shootouts in the playoffs. Don't think for a second that I won't be rooting for him. But also in Mrazek's defense, we've seen a lot more of him at a earlier point in time in his development than we saw of Jimmy. Jimmy was not exactly in the best of shape earlier on, and didn't make the team as a backup until they were out of options for him. And even at that point, three years older than where Mrazek is at now, he had quite a few glaring flaws in his game he still had to work out. And he's never fully worked out his mediocre and at times piss-poor puck handling. And to be fair, Howard, even much further into his career than Mrazek, had a season where 3rd period meltdowns became a semi-regular occurrence just last year. Mrazek clearly has a lot of room for growth and improvement, but there's a lot of potential there and he seems to have the right attitude about it all. Again, I do think at some point in the near future there will be a battle for that number one spot between Mrazek and Howard, but it's a very good problem to have, as Howard is at the very least a very good goalie, so if Mrazek ends up being better, then we are in a great spot indeed.

That's precisely why we should run with a 50/50 Howard/Mrazek setup in the next few years. He's not anywhere near his prime yet. Balance the load and run with the hot goalie in the playoffs. It worked for us in 2008. We haven't really had a chance to try it since.