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So is Seider a healthy scratch?

If you go back and look at Tampa's possession metrics during their peak you'll notice they're very "Detroit-like". I don't think that's accidental. I don't really think Yzerman cares about shots, and I know Lalonde doesn't. I think they operate under the assumption that a professional caliber goalie will stop shots that he sees. As such, the job of your defensemen is to be big enough to win battles and clear the crease, and skate well enough to get the puck out of our zone. Now look at our defensemen. The other thing I'd say is that every team in the conference has serious flaws, except maybe Florida or the Rangers. If that's the standard then every team is just as good/bad as we are. But you can't escape the unavoidable fact that when we play top end teams around the league we win far more often than we lose. I agree that it only takes "a bad run of games" to fall out of contention, I just don't think we're any more likely than other teams to experience that. Toronto is currently riding high on the back of a goalie that they waived a few month ago. Is that more stable than what we've got happening? Boston has been so bad since December that they lost their stranglehold on the division and Florida has overtaken them for 1st. I agree we have flaws, so does every team. But I think we're much more critical of our own flaws, and we downplay our own strengths more than we should.

I dont think weve ever had a finnish scout on staff. Just Swedes and Russians. Fun fact: I went to HS with Filppulas wife, and one time i held her younger sisters hand. So me and Val are like basically bros now. Our only successful Finn.

This is silly. You're telling me that McDavid is the best ever because he scores a lot (but doesn't win) on mediocre teams? He has no records, he has no championships. He just scores. Cool. Fine, I'll play along. Forget Edmonton and forget winning. Gretzky's five best seasons with Los Angeles were SO MUCH better than McDavid's five best with Edmonton. If scoring on bad teams makes you the best player ever then Gretzky IS STILL better than McDavid by your own metric. The only thing McDavid does better than Gretzky is skate. He's a better athlete, I'll give you that. In every other conceivable metric he's less accomplished.

McDavid is LIGHT YEARS ahead of Gretzky. Gretzky is the Cadillac DeVille of Hockey. McDavid is a Lamborghini Hurican. It's like comparing an NES system to playstation 5. THAT different.

I love me a good cocept

1. Whatever swede whos the highest ranked left on the board

I never cease to be amazed by this whiz kid. He's doing the same thing he did in Toronto, but with players that are 12 years older. What a brilliant hockey mind.

Never a bad idea to bet on Toronto to win in the playoffs. That's easy money.

I mean, I'm a pretty big believer in this team, but I don't really disagree with @Scott R Lucidi. It's not that we aren't good...it's just that we're living in the age of parity and all it takes is a run of bad games to knock you out of a race like this. We saw it last season. Granted, we're a better team this season. But we've still got flaws, just like any other bubble team. Like, I D-E-S-P-I-S-E the fancy stats arguments for why we aren't a good team - but, in fairness, the arguments aren't totally unreasonable. For one thing, we're fundamentally incapable of locking down our half of the ice. Every night we write a blank check for 33+ shots against us and we hand it to the other team and they cash the check. Maybe most of those shots aren't "high-danger," but it's playing with fire. It was killing us before Lyon stepped in and stepped up. Fortunately, we can flat-out score. Which means we have two engines: scoring and Lyon. Either one can falter a bit and it won't necessarily be catastrophic, provided the other one holds up. The concern is that both Lyon and our shooters are probably overachieving a bit and are probably due for some regression. If that regression hits on both fronts at the same time, that could be the season right there. But I'm optimistic. The 2nd wild card spot is ours to lose. The Devils haven't shown that they're any better than us. Nor have the Isles. The Pens are fading. The Caps refuse to die, but we'll see. As far as I'm concerned, that's our competition right now. Those four Metro teams. We're not catching the Leafs. (Watch me eat those words.) F*** them and everything they stand for - but if there's one thing they know how to do, it's finish 2nd or 3rd in the division (and implode in the 1st round). Finishing above the Bolts is more realistic, but they're a veteran team that you expect to get serious when things get serious, and things are getting pretty serious for them. The funny thing in all this is that I really like our chances against the Bruins or Rangers in a best-of-seven. (I want no part of the Panthers, but I'll embrace it if that's how it's gotta be.) I like our chances so much that I almost feel like going toe-to-toe with one of them would be easier than this race we're in now.

How do you figure that Tanev is taking Eds spot? Tanev would be our 2nd pairing RHD while Edvinsson would be our 2nd pairing LHD I think both would be solid on the 2nd pairing and move Chiarot to the bottom pairing and use Maatta as trade bait.

I am sure the racial differences between the offender and the victim played no part in how the media covered it.

Not my forte. I’m more of a bottom.

You're a pessimist (perhaps purposely). The season is 5 months old and I'd say we were as good as the Leafs for 4 of the 5. Same with Tampa. We dropped points in a month were we were missing our top two centers and had a revolving door in goal. Otherwise we've performed as good or better than both those teams. At our current trajectory we'll finish ahead of Tampa by 4ish points and should fall right below the Leafs (assuming they don't self destruct in goal). Something tells me neither Tampa nor Toronto would be sitting where Detroit is if they were without their top two centers for a month like we were in December. We're a really good team. We consistently beat other good teams more often than they beat us. We are currently 6-4 against the four teams ahead of us in the Atlantic Division. I know it's more entertaining to write "We Suck!!!!!" posts all day everyday, but the reality is that we aren't significantly worse than any of the teams in our division despite some key injuries and a pretty tough schedule so far.

I always look at it as "Who are we better than?" I don't think we're going to pass the Leafs because I don't think we're better than that team. I don't think we're going to stay ahead of Tampa because I don't think we're better than Tampa. I do think we're better than New Jersey, so I think we'll finish ahead of them.

All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy... All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy... All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy... All Work And No Play Makes Chris Chelios A Dull Boy...

This is why I don't see a rental coming here. Tanev just doesn't make sense at this time, but Chychrun or Hanifin does. I'm still adding Andersson in there, although I never hear his name out there as a trade target. Again, G's are different. Markstrom wouldn't be a rental with 2 years left, but he probably won't be part of a nucleus either. He would be a great goalie to have while we wait and see where Cossa and Augustine top out. My D choices in order are Andersson(if available,) then Chychrun, then Hanifin IF he'll re-sign. No thanks to Tanev.

Fersure, the Tuzzi suspension was wayyyy too harsh

Moore got what he deserved.

Bertuzzi had to f*** Moore up. You cant have guys like Joe Veleno and Adam Erne concussing your top player for no reason during game 37 of the regular season. I wish somebody in the league would have f***ed up Matt Cooke really bad. I hate guys that continuously knee, slewfoot, board, etc other players and never get their ass handed to them. I have ZERO sympathy for Steve Moore. Elbows Naslund in the head and ruins his career. Then he wont turn around and engage Bertuzzi for a few punches to his nose. Total jerkoff. Hockey has a simple code. Guys that dont respect it can get whatever they get.

Anyone else see this?