themcityblues

After his eye injury, perhaps Chris "sees" the game a bit differently now. No offense to people with eye injuries, but I think Chris may be good to know how important player safety is after that horrible incident nearly left him blind.

Nyquist/Zetterberg is a deadly combination. I hope they stay together most of this year. Adding Franzine to the two of them looked good, too. I really like Nyq/Z/Fran as the top line.

Whenever Chris Osgood stumbles over his words Darren Eliot laughs out loud.

I like that there is no lineup change

Why don't they teach one-timer slapshots from the blue line? These are professional athletes, it's not like they can't learn how to unload or carry the puck down the blue line. I wonder if this team has the absolute worst powerplay blue line in the entire league. I've certainly never seen worse.

Well we brought in that coach-dude to help. But yeah, the PP won't get any better until the guys on the blue line actually wake up.

This team's PP still sucks hard.

Howard sold that one

Jimmy Howard season stats: 1 shot faced, 1 goal allowed, 0% save percentage Welcome back Jimmy!

good start to the year

Right. The only line I don't like is the top line.

Maybe Kindl and Kronwall would have some chemistry. Certainly it's not going to be worse than Kindl - Quincey. I don't know how you're supposed to develop as a hockey player paired with Quincey.

I thought Weiss was slightly worse than pretty much any forward out on the ice. Ouch.

Hell yeah, Jurco plays opening night. Abdelkader - Z - Franzine is a weird line. I don't see how that line will be effective. Interesting that Nyquist isn't playing with the kids.

Nestrasil is the #1 doctor recommended NSAID nasal spray on the market.

I'd love for this Kindl saga to be over forever.

Kenny is kind of irritating in two senses. First, his GM decisions are questionable. Second he has far too much say in the daily operations of the team. I get the sense he's controlling these lines/players quite a bit over Babcock's head. Andersson maybe should not go. Miller definitely should not go. Why you think Miller should go is beyond me.

Brunner turning down that 3 year offer from Detroit was a huge mistake. He valued quick cash over development. He wasn't ready for 2nd-line minutes anywhere, and he should have checked his ego.

Lashoff should've been waived for XO. Cleary should not be on the team, just looked terrible.

This is great news.

Well, it's over, and regular season is ready to begin. What did you learn from the preseason? I learned: 1. Weiss can skate a lot better but he still looks invisible and is a real "meh" player to me 2. Cleary does not look any better -- in fact, a bit slower than last year 3. Mrazek is awesome, which we already knew 4. Kindl is terrible, which we already knew 5. Jensen is awesome, which we didn't already know Overall, the team doesn't feel that different from last year. Based on the preseason, I'm not really sure we've improved as a team. There may be age-related deficits from P+Z, Franzine and Kronwall. It looks like Nyquil and Tots will have to struggle to find a scoring rhythm this year. Losing Alfy will hurt our goal production, even if he doesn't skate. Again, Jimmy can't be banked upon. None of the regulars from last year excited me in the preseason. I am afraid this might be a difficult year for the group. Perhaps the streak will end? I do not feel as optimistic as I did during the summer after watching the boys. I figured Weiss and Ericsson were big losses last year but this preseason suggests that maybe they weren't. Anyway, post your thoughts about the preseason and how (if it does) shape your expectation of this season.

" "They're just too physical"

Andersson didn't have his man

Maybe he means "trading" with Grand Rapids and bringing Jurco into the lineup. He can start Jurco in Grand Rapids and tell the media that "this is a man's league", and then later in the season he can call Jurco up and tell the media "a kid like Jurco, he's as good as a trade"

He's no Scotty.