VM1138

To keep on the injury topic--you know, the relevant one--here's a crazy question. Do we want Cleary back if there is some miraculous recovery and he can skate perfectly fine once more? My head is about to explode with all the scenarios these injuries have opened.

How many of those awards are heavily inflated by his scoring? He's a competitor for sure but I don't think I'd make him a captain.

Every team needs a high scoring floater. Ovechkin is a complementary player, not the guy to hoist the team on his shoulders.

Is that how It works? If we play Pittsburgh than the second round would be against a Metropolitan team and not our own Atlantic? I miss the old playoff system. Actually, I'd like to see divisions done away with for the playoffs. Teams shouldn't make playoffs with fewer points than teams on the outside (as has happened in the past).

That website is amazing. I favorited it and I don't even watch the Oilers. Something about the angry disappointment weeping between the words...

As the rest of the hockey world says: "Who the hell is this Nyquist guy and why is he scoring on us?"

I'm really, really, really, really, really tired of people trashing Weiss. Really tired of it. Were you also one of the ones saying Colaiacovo sucked? People seem unable to separate injuries from quality of play. Both Cola and Weiss are very good players. But Cola was injured so he "sucked." Not playing due to injuries does not equal sucking. Because he's injured for a season, and played with the injury in a new system early in the year, some people want to say he sucks. At no time in Weiss' career has he sucked, or been overrated. He's been overlooked for the most part. Right now, he's an X-factor of sorts because we don't know when he's coming back or if he'll be 100% this season, but that's about all I think anyone can say about him right now. If we look at his career the chances of him bouncing back look very good. And Legwand is a solid top 6 guy. Yes, on a stacked team it'd be best to place him on the third line. In the sense that he'd be VERY dangerous there. I think people are just not understanding that he's not a goal scorer. He's a playmaker. In addition to all the panic about trading Jarnkrok, we're forgetting that we won't ever personally suffer from that trade. He's on Nashville. Even if he becomes a star, it's unlikely that team will ever truly be good, and we'll only have to worry about them in a potential Finals matchup, the odds of that happening are very slim. So we miss out on a potentially good center. Well, we can get one from Europe this summer (there's a guy over there who we're rumored to be looking into), or trade for another one if need be. But I don't know if he'll be better than Weiss or Legwand for several years. So it's not a bad trade. Maybe a little overpayment but it was necessary to address the needs of the team, and it doesn't hurt us for a year or two, if ever.

Yeah, aside from a poor stretch where all of our veterans struggled, Legwand has been really solid, if not great for us. He came in at a crucial moment, performed well and helped this team survive that first week after the trade deadline. But back onto the topic of Nyquist, he's much more dynamic than I first anticipated. The goals he scores are all different kinds. Workhorse goals like the one last night, goal scorer's snipe shots, crashing the net, he's a threat at any point in the offensive zone it seems like. Was he like that in the AHL? Should I be so surprised? I know he changed his game to be more of a scorer in the NHL, but I'm still surprised by the way he's scoring them.

Haven't they had locker room problems, too? I imagine a lot of their struggle relates to chemistry and immaturity in the locker room. They're still very, very young on average, aren't they? Toss in terrible management and it's not really a surprise. I mean, when they were drafting pretty much everyone figured this would happen.

I love the idea of Jurco-Datsyuk-Tatar. Checking, stickhandling and sniping mixed with speed and oversized ambition and aggression. Love it.

I'm not as worried about the rest of you. The pattern will hold, we win two or three ganesh, lose two or three games, and beat the good teams. The only game I'm really concerned about is Toronto and Montreal. Everything hinges on us winning one more point than Washington and Toronto, which is doable since they have similar win patterns.

Well if our pattern holds we should win the next 3.

Before people jump off a cliff, this team has won 2-3 games and lost 2-3 all season. It's a trend that is likely to continue. We can still make playoffs and we can still miss out. We need to stop going so high whenever they win and low when they lose.

I feel like Alfie would benefit from the chaos around the net Tatar and Sheahan cause so often. Plus, having two really strong shots on one line is a good idea. Then, if Franzen gets hot and Nyquist is playing with him look out. That's two or three goals a game from one line.

What about breaking up the vets line? I know we dont want to jinx the kid line but I think it's safe to say Nyquist will score wherever he plays and Sheahan and Tatar will work just as good with Alfie on the wing.

I like Callahan, but he's not wowing me like the other kids have (minus Ferraro). Good kid, keep working, but I think we've hit the bottom of our NHL-ready prospects.

And the fact that this season we win two or three and thrn lose two or three.

It was my impression that Ferraro was never going to be an NHLer. I think they called him up because he's out of options after this year, right? They saw what he could do, which was...well...nothing spectacular.

I hate picking poison but if we're healthy I don't see why Pittsburgh is so scary. We know we can shut Crosby down with Z. We have the depth to keep scoring even with Datsyuk and Z focusing on shutting down Malkin and Crosby. Their defense is iffy (as is ours), their goalies flaky and they melt down in the playoffs without the excuses we've had the past few years. I'm not really too scared about any Eastern team over 7 games, as long as we're healthy. But again, I hate to get cocky and start dismissing teams but Pittsburgh wouldn't be a bad matchup.

Legwand has also accumulated steady points,created some havoc and plays with an edge that makes us harder to play against. Nothing against Jarnkrok but Legwand was a sure thing, unlike Jarnkrok. And think about our last games. Other teams have to focus on him, Franzen and Alfredsson, which allows Nyquist and Tatar to tear things up. I don't think Jarnkrok could have done that here. We had to give up Jarnkrok. It's not like Holland just said "hey, take a great prospect, too!" when he made the trade.

Honestly, none of our wins were well played. We're tempting fate, just hanging on until we get some stars back. Let's hope It keeps working.

Nyquist might hit 30 before the week is out.

Agreed. Statistics and stuff aside, it makes the most sense for us to make playoffs, whatever position. That means as long as we're in 8th, we need teams behind us to lose. It'd be nice if those ahead of us lost, too, but the teams behind us HAVE to lose so that we don't have to win out or end up missing out by one point because of a hot team.

The impression I got was that Datsyuk sat out to heal up through rest. He could still technically play but they didn't want him to reinjure himself. So I've got to imagine that so long as the Wings are winning, they will rest him, but if they need him after this week he'll probably be able to play.

I know "on pace for" stats are always a little iffy, but imagine if Nyquist played the whole year. Even with occasional scoreless streaks, Nyquist could theoretically achieve 40 goal status over a full season. In his first "full" year.