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Nice to see some new blood. Hopefully LA, Chicago, and Pittsburgh all get bounced first round this year. I would love to see the Jets make a run.

Bert screwed the pooch, he's not been good tonight either.

Yeah 40 seconds of PP time I believe.

Seriously. Would've been an awesome first NHL goal for Bertuzzi. PP Pro tip: Score here.

Omg AA what did I just witness? What an unreal set of moves right there.

He has been very noticeably bad tonight.

In other news, Dylan Larkin is still really good at hockey. We are lucky to have him. Out of Town Action - 12/29 Edition Buffalo comes from behind to tie it in the third! Ottawa comes from behind to tie it in the third! Tonight belongs to losers (like AA)!

Don't get me wrong. I am not saying you don't put skill players on the PK. Z and D could do it, because they were both really good 2 way players. Larkin fits into that mold which is why he is used. Mantha is more of a power forward type, and you don't really see guys like that on the PK. He's more in the mold of a Hull or Shanahan, and I don't recall either of those 2 ever being used on the PK. Mantha may be decent defensively, but like Hull or Shanny, I wouldn't describe him as a 2 way forward. AA is more of a speed guy like Helm, but with more offensive ability. Not sure I would prefer AA on the PK until he improves his defense. If/when he does, he would be a good fit there. And unlike Helm, he hopefully pots a few shorties on his breakaway chances.

Easily the worst player on the ice tonight. Booth needs more ice time, and where the heck is Witkowski?

Power play is killing my soul tonight. End of 2nd. 1-1. Better period. Unfortunately, AA sucks.

Pretty sure AA is AHL bound after this miserable effort tonight. This Z line tonight seems to be doing nothing together, a couple chances early from Nyquist is all I can really think of.

The things we do for this team! P.S. AA sux. Sheahan would've scored there.

I'm feeling confident that the trash talk is working though, he's in a zone right now. It's totally because of our mojo in this thread.

I'm surprised he can see at all with those eyebrows weighing down his eyelids AA just completely robbed wow

AA nice shot 1-1 game What a terrible goal, gonna be at least another 16 before he scores one again.

ATHANASIOU! 1-1! Guys, let's keep trashtalking AA!

Helm looked drunk in that pass attempt. This reminds me of that South Park episode where they are trying to lose their baseball games so baseball didn't cut into their summer break if they made playoffs.

It's tempting to say AA's mentally checked out and Blashill's giving him the opportunities he's giving him mostly for showcasing purposes. Or maybe AA simply hasn't figured out that the whole one-man bum-rush thing isn't working for him. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Alcohol: This season's MVP.

He looks like he's overplaying every situation, trying too hard to create things himself and losing the puck and turning it over as a result.

https://www.nhl.com/standings The playoff race is shaping up to be really interesting. Could be very profitable for sellers. The rise of Vegas, Winnipeg, New Jersey means we could be looking at several should-be-contenders being on the outside looking in from here on out. Currently not occupying a playoff spot: Calgary, Anaheim, Chicago, Pittsburgh. All four of those organizations are in "We want the Cup" mode and all four of the respective GMs are willing to make big trades. Additionally, one or two or all three of the aforementioned Knights, Jets, Devils could decide to go all in on a Cup push.

Residents have no room to spend that kind of money. Go to Dave and Busters bro.

Eric Lindros was injury prone because he skated with his head down.

He's arguably been our best player over the past two games. I wouldn't call him a bona fide first-liner in the NHL (at least, not yet), but I think this promotion is well-deserved. In theory, his skill set could complement Nyquist and Zetterberg quite well. I mean, it's not like we have much to lose at this point anyway. Might as well try some new things out.

That doesn't pass the common sense test to me. Bigger guys are more durable. If Lindros and Lemieux "suffered far more...being bigger targets" it's because they they were targeted since they were stars and constant offensive threats. That's why teams used to put enforcers to protect stars like McSorley-Gretsky. And as krsmith pointed out, you can find many "smaller contemporaries" that had injury problems