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Since Ras plays in my area and I've gotten to watch him a few times, I posted earlier this season that I thought the kid really had the potential to be a beastly dominant player but the points weren't showing that. He really knows how to use his size and reach to his advantage. I didn't know why the points weren't coming in even stronger for him, but I guess now we can probably chalk it up to his injury and him most likely rehabbing it and looking out for his health all season. Now that he's in the playoffs he's absolutely flipped the switch and gone full Franzen-postseason beast mode. Super happy for him, I knew he could turn it on. He may really be on this team next year.

Glad I'm not the first to mention this. Should Holland have started the rebuild sooner instead of holding on to the playoff streak? Sure, I won't disagree with anyone who wants to argue that point. However, all of you who see Hollands name and automatically scream about the sky falling, cannot claim these last 2 seasons of rebuilding haven't been wildly successful on his part. Tatar = 1st, 2nd, 3rd (fantastic haul for a middle 6 forward) Mrazek = 3rd, 3rd (great haul for a backup goalie that could be in Europe next year) Sheahan = 3rd (sucks we couldn't get more, but his value was at an all time low and we needed the cap for AA) Ott = 6th (fair) Vanek = 3rd (fair) Smith = 2nd, 3rd (highway robbery with Smith in the minors screwing up NYR's books) Jurco = 3rd (fantastic haul for an AHL/NHL tweener) Datsyuk = 2nd (between a rock n a hard place, traded out Chychrun for Cholo and got the cap space, fair) Kindl = 6th (thrilled just to get anything) I'm not at all mad about a single trade he's done since the rebuild started. And the Mrazek, Tatar, and Smith trades have me particularly happy. For a man who's never had to rebuild before he's doing grade A quality work so far. If you need every roster player to be traded in order to be happy, I think you're being a bit unrealistic with your expectations. Where I do draw issue, and where I think most of this boards frustrations truly lie, is with Blashill coming back. The whole "fresh voice" thing hasn't worked at all. Young players who had bright futures under Babs almost immediately regressed, and he's getting subpar performances from our vets as well (though aging plays a role with some). If we should damn anyone right now it's Blash, and if you wanna put Holland on blast, blast him for keeping Blash, otherwise Holland has been fantastic the last 2 seasons.

I'm happy Holland is back. I agree with others, I like the trades he's made the last couple years. I don't have a problem with him not starting the rebuild sooner. When you have Datsyuk, Zetterberg, and Kronwall on your roster, you do what you can to do to make the playoffs and win. As soon as Datsyuk retired, the rebuild began. After 2 years, Holland's done a good job unloading disappointing players (Tatar, Smith, Mrazek), and getting draft picks. I'm fine with Blashill back. We're not ready to contend yet, so there's no rush to bring in a big named coach yet. We'll see in the next two years if Blash is the guy or not, while we rebuild, to see if he's the coach to take us to the next level.

Pens up 3-0 after one. Hoping Elliott gets the yank and Mrazek plays out of his mind for another short stretch of games... We need Mrazek to win 6 games and Philly to make the ECF... Highly unlikely, but here's to hoping...

Exactly, 4 veteran Dmen locked in, with 2 spots remaining for younger guys. Maybe 5 vets and 1 spot for a young guy if Green is signed. Both scenarios are fine with me. I'd like to see Hicketts make the team full-time and have Hronek as the call-up. Ouellet, Russo, Lashoff, and Jensen are all pretty trash and are not worth developing any farther, especially not at the NHL level. But if we don't sign Green, I'd pick Jensen to be the 6th Dman, as Hronek probably isn't ready for fulltime duties yet as he's not even received a single callup yet. So I don't see Daley as a bad fit at all. In fact he was a pretty good fit on our blue line all season and I was happy with the way we played our defensive prospects this year.

I actually like what I've seen from Holland over the past couple years. I've been happy (or wrongfully unhappy) with most moves he's made in that time. This is a big off-season for him. I don't expect any huge moves, but it'll be interesting to see what he does. If he can make one or two trades to offload some dead weight (Ouellet) / bad contract (Nielsen) and continues the youth movement (Rasmussen), I'll be happy. I'd also like to see him make a good hockey trade to acquire a young potential top end defenseman, but not holding my breath on that one... If you asked me last year, or even a few months ago, I would have said no way to bringing Holland back. I'm okay with it though. Show us what you got Kenny!

100% of the reason for the decline is the decades success and lack of any high draft picks. It's like you're blaming the pilot for eventually having to land to refuel. We simply can't trade for or get in FA the impact players we need anymore in today's NHL. No GM or front office could have kept us contending or going deep into the playoffs. People need to cool off.

Playoffs start Wednesday. Post your predictions and comments. Here's the bracket:

I believe thems is fancy words for a blood clot. They kept Stamkos out for about 3 months. Hopefully he's ready to go in the fall. So no Turgeon or Lorito. Bummer.

Rasmussen should be on the opening night roster.

It’s possible I suppose? I think if he’s close/on the bubble they’ll at least give him the amount of NHL games that he can play without burning a year of his ELC (9 I think?) then at that point, decide if going back to juniors or staying in the NHL would be more beneficial to his long term development.

Hopefully he shows he’s ready next year! Doesn’t look like he can progress much further in juniors and I believe he’ll still be too young for the AHL.

Rasmussen having a solid playoff I can’t wait to see how far he’s come next training camp/preseason.

Here's the funny thing, if we were able to land Stamkos that summer, everyone would be singing Datsyuk praises for the huge favor he did for this team. But we didn't and now it's like he's being ostracized for not staying the one last season.

Hey now, the flyers won last time.. they could do it again

Way to be "Glass Half Full".

GO PETR!!

What a tragic story. As hard to read as that was, thanks for sharing. Here’s to hoping everyone involved in profiting off of preventing people from getting clean gets caught and locked up for a long time. I have so much respect for Ken for using this story to try to help as many people as possible; it can’t be an easy thing to talk about.

BB come back

Bertuzzi not going down to GR for the playoff run. According to Holland he wants him to stay in Detroit and live in the gym for the next 6 months. A 210 lb Bertuzzi would be great for the youth movement.

Or more likely to sign them to bad follow-on contracts