Nev

Any team that is 8th in the Metro division has to be really, really bad. With the big guns starting to trickle back there are A LOT of guys in this line-up battling to keep their jobs, hopefully they play like it and we go into the Christmas break on a nice 3 game win streak

Looked like Ritlola to me - no idea why he would be there though. As for Sheahan v Andersson. First of all lets give Sheahan a few more games before we hand him the 4C spot. Every rookie looks great until we learn their tendancies and decide they "suck" after all. Secondly we mustn't under-rate Andersson's value on the PK. So many times he wins that first face-off in the defensive zone and the puck gets sent down the ice. Instant 20 seconds killed. Sure, he's slow as molasses, but give him speedy wingers and he can be effective.

After getting bitchslapped by Pittsburgh and Anaheim, any points we get with this line-up are just gravy.

You do realise there is an entire sub-forum on this board devoted to such issues? Anyway, thought it was an interesting episode. Crosby and Phaneuf arguing like a pair of 5 year olds was just embaressing for both of them. Seeing the goal against TB that was waved off was cool. Bertuzzi (respectfully) telling the refs that they're wrong, and calling one of them by his first name and the ref to his credit admitting that he made a mistake.

Interesting watching this on 24/7. The ref makes clear that because Getzlaf was bleeding he had to give Quincey a 5 and a game misconduct.....without that its just a 2 minute minor. Certainly explains why there was no hint of a suspension.

Ahhh, a shoot-out win, and suddenly everything is right with the world Seriously, back to back HUGE wins. Had to break the losing streak against Calgary, had to keep it up against the Leafs and get that damn shoot-out monkey off our backs.

I'll give you Abdelkader and Datysuk, but the rest? I don't have a *** bone in my body, but hot damn Ericsson could retire tomorrow and become a successful male model. I understand Andersson, Kronwall, Z, Howard and even Miller are quite popular with the ladies

This. 100% this. Its not like he's a guy we're desperate to get back in the line-up. We've got 5 years and $25M invested in this guy, lets at least give him a chance long term.

Definate HM to Lilja. Somewhere around 2008 he went from whipping boy to cult hero, I think in large part due to GMR's relentless promotion of him as the Pain Train, possessor of the most fearsome pair of fists since Bob Probert. But in all seriousness he was a realgud shot blocker and PKer, we could really have done with him in the 2009 finals.

Easily Mikael Samulsson. He drives you insane game after game, then he does stuff like this and forces everyone to choke down some crow for a while http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xO_57ZN4Oo Then he drives you insane for another year, then does stuff like this and forces you to choke down some more crow. He's been trolling us for a while has our Sammy

Suter is hilarious. He might look like he belongs in The Goonies, and sound like an incoherent fool, but the way he constantly trolls the media is genius. I'd love to see him replace Babs in a few years, just for the lolz.

The DA dropped the case due to lack of evidence, not because Varmalov paid her off to drop the charges.

I don't know about the US Kira, but here in the UK that kind of thing (disabled access) is legistlated into new buildings. Meanwhile, still happy about those 2 points. Our biggest win in a long, long time. Maybe our biggest win since the last game of last season in Dallas.

How good does that feel? Just watched the highlights on NHL.com - Datsyuk, Datsyuk, Datsyuk, Datsyuk, Aldredsson, Datsyuk, Datsyuk, Alfredsson.

Ha! Given how superstitious hockey players are, they've probably been giving HBO the evil eye whenever they see them.

Yep. Look at all the mid-tier guys signed for $5-6M in the summer. People are going to have to start adjusting their concept of what is "fair". The likes of Stamkos, Toews and Kane are going to be getting ~$10M a year 8 year contracts in a couple of seasons time. Interesting that this is only a 3 year contract, definately bucks the trend.

Even with an OK 1st line and three 4th lines, we're still good enough to beat the Flames, right? Right?

Just curious - the big bad ducks - who we just lost to - are just coming out the other side of a horrendous injury list. Are they too soft now? The Pens are without their top-4 D. Are they too soft now? Also notice how after the Quincey hit on Getzlaf, the big bad Ducks all stood around and did nothing. Their bigness and badness did nothing to stop Quincey, and they didn't make him "pay" afterwards in order to deter future hits and injuries to their players.

The irony is that Nick Kypreos would have been great on 24/7 back in his day. His nickname when he was a Ranger was Forrest Gump, because whenever the cameras were filming something important, Kypreos would be there.

No Zetterberg, no Helm, no Weiss, no Franzen, no Abdelkader. Emmerton in GR, Tootoo in GR.......and he still can't crack the line-up. Have we finally seen the last of #37? I wonder if this is Kenny's way of putting pressure on him - now will you waive your NMC so we can do a salary dump trade?

To be fair it was well known that Shanny wanted out of Hartford. I can still remember a fan in the stands wearing a Shanahan jersey and a giant diaper in protest at his attitude.

*hangs head in shame* I deserve the banhammer for this

I'm not sure if you're being sarcastic....because that's 2/3 of the Griffins cup winning 1st line. In other news - Knights of Columbus! When will this end?

I think in large part its because Babcock doesn't want him to fight so much. A couple of years ago he got in a fight against Chicago and Babcock publicly threw him under the bus for leaving the team a D short. Smith is trying to become a legit top-4 player, but he's still on pace for 6 fights this season. Criticising him for not wanting to fight Neil is daft. Neil is a legit enforcer, and Smith was in his first game back after a dislocated shoulder......sustained in a fight. Newly healed part time fighter vs 10 year enforcer? And if Holland is so against fighters, why did he just draft The Nephtuzzi in the 2nd round?

You haven't watched this GR team much have you? They fight.........a lot. Seriously, all you fight fans need to make an effort to watch more of their games, they are exactly the type of team you would love to watch. They played Milwaukee twice this weekend and there were tons of scraps. There was even a moment when an enforcer "policed" the ice exactly like you guys said they do! Pretty funny actually watching an Admiral trying to start ****, then Tootoo skates over and this guy suddenly remembers he needs to be somewhere else