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In my opinion Chowlowski was the best defenseman on the ice. He plays with his head up and seems to gain confidence every game. He's smooth and poised with the puck. Picks good times to join the offense and always gets back defensively. I know he's supposed to go to jrs after this but the way he's been playing the might be too easy for him. Maybe he'll be able to tear it up offensively there and gain even more confidence. Hicketts was very good as well. His size means nothing to him. Kid will battle anyone. Also a solid skater and puck mover. Made a few mistakes but nothing too serious. I would honestly put these two kids on the Wings now over some of our options. I wouldn't want to hinder their development tho. So far XO has been the biggest disappointment for me. I thought he was ready to have a breakout year. Heard he lost 15lbs and gained a step skating wise but those 15lbs must have been between the ears. He's made some really stupid choices with the puck and looks like a smaller version of E out there at times.

Cholowski was assigned to Prince George of the WHL today. It was expected sooner or later, but I would have liked to see him play another game or two. Oh well, hopefully he dominates the W this season and helps the Griffins this spring.

Well Holland was after Suter and Stamkos in their primes when they became available. He managed to sign Hossa in his prime. So he has gone after big names in free agency. As for mismanaged, the Wings missed the playoffs for the first time in 26 years last season. The Isles haven't been past the 2nd round of the playoffs for 24 years and have been a joke of a franchise for decades. Not saying Tavares is interested in the Wings, but we're not worse than the Isles in any way.

No, I agree with you. Vanek couldn't run the entire power play himself, and neither can Frk. There's some deeper issues there that need to be fixed. However just having a hard RH shot in the lineup is a step in the right direction... even if that is just cycling Frk in for Vanek

Ummm.... Watching the game. Why is everyone so worried about Rasmussen? He has a goal. Screened/distracted the G for Tatars goal, and has provided Nyquist and Tatar several great passes that lead to them getting off good shots on net. Where are these supposed flaws? Yes he is 18. Yes it is preseason. But tonight he is one of top 4 or 5 F's on the ice. No the Pens are not playing their stars, but it is most of their 3 and 4th lines and 3/4 D pairs. In other words NHL players. Mantha and Larkin are clearly playing better then the line of Tatar, Nyquist, and Ras are playing great. Ras is providing more O tonight than Sheahan did Saturday night while playing with Tatar and Nyquist. That being said. Yes he needs to get bigger and stronger. Just think what he will be at 20-21. 6-6/235 with skating ability, toughness, and SKILL! I love it!

He's got a ton of poise and composure under pressure for such a young player. He just doesn't panic at all, so he's making the correct decisions. I don't know all the details, but it sounded like he was just disappointed with his first college season and decided to make the change to juniors. As much as it's nice to see young guys commit to school, in the end it distracts from hockey, and if he really wants to be a professional hockey player I think this will be a good move for him. He will dominate juniors.

AA is first line upside potentially in my opinion. On top of that, it's bad logic. It implies we should let our prospects walk to improve our chances to land a generational talent. I would rather let our veterans walk to further that chance.

Bertuzzi is hurt, they don't think Svechnikov is ready, PAP or Booth aren't going to hold them back, plus I'd rather have one of them as the 13th guy sitting in the press box than a kid who could be playing in GR instead. I'd still rather have Svechnikov in Detroit, but Holland is going to do his thing

For all the heat Cholowski and Rasmussen have taken because "but but Holland different draft the guy I wanted!" both have looked really good in preseason. Big Ras looked right in step last night. Not exceptionally fast, but more than kept up, sometimes skating faster than Nyquist and Tatar. Very responsible, excellent passing and shooting, very good net screening, and a little bit nasty in front of the goalie. Looks like a very composed and confident player. Like Ras Cholowski looks calm and collected out there. Above average decision making. Smooth skating for a D-man. Will probably never be a flashy player, but does all the little things right like Lidstrom did. Real potential to be an anchor on the backend for us. Frk has that nifty slapper, but he looks like sort of a blah one-dimensional player to me. Other than those 3, nobody else has really made a big impression on me.

IF Green is traded, it would be because we're out of playoff contention. In which case, it would be wise to give players like Hicketts, McIlrath or whoever else a look, not rely on a 34 year old veteran to eat big minutes.

Cricket is the 2nd most popular sport worldwide.

I was just providing the counterargument. "Vanek is better than Frk, and if the power play sucked with Vanek, expecting Frk to make a big difference is probably misplaced optimism. At the end of the day, the problem with the power play isn't the left half-wall. It's x, y, and z." I think there are lots of things wrong with our power play, but I don't think it's wrong to feel Frk could, in theory, provide a spark and help move the needle in the right direction.

Its one thing when u get a crosby or a kane on that type of deal. Its another when you sign 2 low end supertars to it. They committed that franchise to the Parise/Suter show for the next decade. Unfortunately that show is probably always gonna be slighly behind the Crosby/Malkin, Toews/Kane, Kopitar/Doughty, etc etc shows

Vanek was not what was wrong with that powerplay. He was at times the only bright spot in it.

Missed the game. Just watched the highlights. Power moves from Mantha and Rasmussen. I like. We had the better lineup, same as the previous game against Boston. Still, it's nice to see us doing good things and handily winning the games we should be handily winning. How did Cholowski and Hicketts look?

Fear the LCA!

This so much.

That shot tho. The thing I like about having Frk on the power play is that he's a serious "shot threat." PKers would, in theory, have to respect that option, which would, in theory, allow us to more effectively push-and-pull the PK box and wrench it out of shape. It would give us a strategic anchoring point for our cycle. We've lacked an honest-to-goodness weapon on the half-wall who can blast the puck and can also really skate and is also more than willing to bump and grind and scratch and claw and battle it out along the wall and in the corners. If you put him and Nyquist on the same unit and have Nyquist play the high slot role, great things might happen.