stormboy

i agree with you that holland has made some bad moves, has inherited a good team, and is not a god. i also agree with you that he is still one of the best GMs out there. losing quincey was obviously a blunder. i don't know the details of what was going down then, per se...maybe he had no other choice. probably, he f***ed up. regarding the bolded part, that's the only thing that i really disagree with. yeah, we have a "log jam," sort of: we have a lot of d-men, but very few if any wings fans want to see ericsson or lebda or meech on the ice right now. it's different now that we're not far and away the best team in the league. two or three years ago when we were running away with the prez trophy, you could say "our seventh defensemen would be the fourth d-man on most other teams!" this year, not so. we don't want those three because they suck. it's kinda like maltby: not really an upgrade over anyone. yeah, helm might get us some trade value: low salary, high upside, good work ethic. and that's why he's not going to be traded. but you can't just be like "here's all our leftover, crappy d-men...give us a draft pick!" unless another team *needs* a high-speed, low-skill d-man, they're not going to give us anything for lebda, ever. i mean, i'll eat crow if i'm wrong here, but that's just how i see it.

done. people want blockbuster moves so that they can get hope that so-and-so will turn things around for the organization. we have all the skill we need. it's just a matter of staying healthy and, more importantly, getting the best out of our players. datsyuk-zetterberg-filppula-helm is IMO one of the best four lines of centers in the NHL. sure, we have some weak or inconsistent wingers...but even bert and willy and cleary can produce at times. god knows franzen and homer can crank out good numbers when hot. draper's still got some speed, and miller and eaves have proven to be hard workers who at least can cause some trouble and at most can score some very timely goals. people want to get all bent out of shape when some wet dream doesn't come true at the deadline. but there's a reason we have gone to the playoffs for 19 straight years, and part of that is that we haven't consistently traded away picks and prospects for rental players. we won't do it this year, and i believe we'll still make the playoffs. in kenny we trust. and really, who would you rather have? who has had more success of late? word. i mean, i remember that one time where mattias scored two goals in his first game with i think the panthers (not checking right now...too lazy) and everyone was all "we got an injured bertuzzi for HIM!?!?!?" and then he hasn't done much since. holland was trying to do something to spark the team...but it was ultimately a low-risk/low-gain deal. now, if we were to trade a good roster player, some blue-chip prospects and our best picks for the next couple of years just to TRY to get into the playoffs this year, and then...well, even if we made it, but got booted in the first round (which is what will probably happen anyway) people would be pissed that we gave up those players and didn't win a cup. damned if you do, damned if you don't. but you also make a good salary, so i guess it's not that bad to be a GM.

yeah reals. listened to it on the radio but i wanna watch some f'n highlights. bummer. maybe people are slow getting their s*** back together after a vacation.

right, i mean, why fill out rosters or select coaches. s***, let's not even play the games. just flip some coins on a randomly generated bracket and hand out medals accordingly. there's obviously no element of skill or teamwork involved.

yes. yes, you absolutely have to love it. f'n hate perry. just to play devil's advocate, watch the difference between about 0:12 and 0:35 in and the first 0:38 of this clip, and tell me that doc isn't more on top of the play than the CBC guy, and i defy you to tell me that doc's call isn't the more exciting of the two. also, furthermore, look at the OT goal clip by helm in this clip, also CBC, as compared to doc's call of the same play in the original i'm not saying the CBC call was bad in this second situation, but look at where helm is before the announcer actually says "scores!" they're both a little late, but the CBC guy is even later. i'm not saying that that's such a huge deal, but to say doc is WAY late on everything when he's actually a hair ahead of the best the CBC has to offer on an OT, series-ending goal is a little silly.

man, i must have watched that highlight about seventy-five thousand times after it happened. doc's call was my facebook status for like a week. man...that gets the blood going.

yeah, i wouldn't say "dominate" either, but do see the possibility of renewed energy after the olympics. some players will get rest, others will have the enjoyment of playing with their countries and doing something a little different. hopefully it will be good for everyone.

heh...yeah, i mean, he's got some quirks and a few annoying habits, but i think overall he calls games well. i can get a little tired of him after a couple of series, but he always puts a lot of energy and emotion in to it, and, a little crosby-hyping aside (he's far from the worst), calls games evenly. he would have been just as excited if canada scored to tie it, but no more so.

hmmm...while i don't think it will happen in any case, i do think it's an interesting point. i guess i don't see it as rewarding failure. penalty shots are (obviously) for when you prevented from taking a shot on a breakaway, so they simulate that by giving you a free breakaway. still, if the play that caused you to not take the shot was a trip or a hook that would normally be called a 2-minute minor, then i don't see why the team shouldn't still get a 2-minute powerplay. obviously, if you get a PS and a PP, the odds of scoring from one infraction are very high. but i think that they should be: a hook on a breakaway is worse than a hook elsewhere, because not only did you cheat, you cheated while the other team had a clear opportunity to score. if a guy gets hooked in the corner, there's no PS because he wasn't in a position to score, but you still get a really good chance to score on the PP even though there was no immediate threat of the player that drew the penalty scoring. so i don't see why you shouldn't get that benefit from the other team cheating plus a recreation of your scoring chance if you're tripped or hooked on a breakaway. plus, that would really incentivize people to not hook or hold or trip when an opposing player has a breakaway. as it is now, it almost makes sense to haul the guy down because at least on the PS, your goalie has a chance to get set (the skater has a better chance to plan, too, obviously, but to me the advantage goes to the goalie when the breakaway is no longer spontaneous). so there's about the same or a little better chance of a goalie making a save when the PS is called, and you might get lucky and not get called for anything. but if there's a risk of getting a PS and a 2-min minor (if the PS fails) then players would think even more about diving after a guy on a breakaway. so, for me, i guess it makes sense. i can see why people might disagree, but i feel like a few posters in this thread are militantly against the idea, and i'm not totally sure why that is.

not being a hockey expert, i sort of like the four divisions - top four teams from each making it in, division, conference, etc. for the playoffs. but, even though i don't like his method, i think the luke skywalker poster said that the NHL does NOT need to be trying to add new teams right now. that just makes sense to me. i don't see it so much as a KHL threat, though that might actually be the case and i just don't realize it, but i see is as the same amount of money being more thinly distributed between players and teams. your introductory statement makes me think that you're a huge dick...and though i still don't agree with your arrogance, i have to say that i don't mind this division alignment, generally. but... right now, and trying not to be a total homer, i think that the wings get boned a bit by the conference alignments in that they are the ONLY western conference team in the eastern time zone (i.e. lots of travel [though not the most], and THE most games played in later time zones), but in your system anaheim gets f***ED. i mean, some other divisions, they might be the only PST team, but there are some MST and CST teams thrown in. patrick has three basically east coast teams and ONE west coast team. i mean, far be it from me to look out for ANA, but they would have a damn good reason to *****. not meaning to diss, just looking at arguments for the sake of, well, argument.

i agree in that a lot of second assists are just a result of being one of the last two guys to touch the puck...i made a lengthy post about this in another thread, so i'll keep it brief(er). i think that on the one hand, it's easy to see dazzling passes made by guys like datsyuk and assume that guys like flip aren't "earning" their assists. while admitting that not everyone "deserves" the icetime the get (e.g. meech has only been on the powerplay because of injuries, not because he's really good enough, and flip can at times benefit in the same way) he's on the ice with other good players because the coach sees that he does better with that icetime than the other options. and, yeah, flip doesn't deserve datsyuk's minutes not his linemates, but while i've heard people criticizing flip and saying he's over-valued, i haven't head much suggestion of who *should* be taking his minutes. and so, if he benefits from better linemates, that says something about him that he's earning those minutes. also, i think it can be said that although many of his secondary assist passes are not dazzling, they are an example of him making the right decision and executing it properly. obviously, the other two guys involved have to make the right decisions and executing them properly, too, but maybe if flip decides to go down low with the pass instead of back to the point, the play doesn't happen the same way. i think that in many situations, it's showing that he's reading the play well and knowing where to go with the puck, even if he doesn't make a stunning play with it. just my two cents. also, i wasn't able to watch the game last night...but i hear a lot of people saying we got really lucky last night...i was just wondering if anyone could give me a brief summary of how we got so lucky. i see we got outshot, but other than that i'm just curious what happened for us. thanks!

this thread is cracking me up. the person i could possibly see would be homer if we were way way out of the playoff hunt by the deadline because his contract is up and some teams would probably find him valuable, since he's having a good year, or at least a better-than-expected year. i think if we're even close to eighth seed by the deadline no major moves would be made. we need to get rid of some people (e.g. leino, meech/lebda) but i doubt they would have enough value to a team making a cup run to fetch anything. i also love how everything turns into either a goalie war or a filppula debate. it's amazing to me how polarizing that guy is. some people will gripe about other players (stuart especially of late) but filppula starts wars. just kind of cracks me up.

it would be nice to have a goalie that you could say makes a "great" save every once in a while. if that zetterberg shot were on either of our goalies i have no doubt that it's in.

*sigh*

HEY GUYS GUESS WHAT WE DIDN'T SCORE IN THE SECOND PERIOD!!!

eeeeeaves....oh my god! gotta bury that kid.

yeah...i think that's at least three times he's been caught up ice and given up an odd-man rush. not sure if he doesn't have his game legs back or if he's just making bad choices...

ozzie finally making some stops! what's with helm and all the penalties lately? he had i think four minors all year, and now three in two games. c'mon, helmer!

i mean, i'm not happy about being down by one at the end of one, either. but the game is hardly over. if ozzie can tighten things up, or howard gets in, i have faith the team and get a couple more. i don't have *high* hopes, but i do have hopes!

it's cool. .500 save pct is just fine. go ozzie!

lol. dats vs miettnen (sp)

i'd love our goalies to make a "good" save every once in a while. if the puck isn't already going to hit them, they don't make the save. urggghh.

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was that stuart standing right next to the guy who scored the goal?

oh christ, i never thought i'd be this happy about seeing big number three back in the lineup. or even thinking about him back in. C'MON ANDREAS! GO GO GO!