Nev

Wasn't it Bert who christened Helm and Abdelkader "Dumb and Dumber"? Yeah, they're not going to sit there talking about their usual stuff like which waitress they'd most like to bang when the cameras are rolling.

Here's the thing, that wasn't just a terrible performance, it was a terrible game of Hockey, period. Both teams played less than 24 hours previous and it showed. Lets not pretend like TB came in and outplayed us, they didn't. Their 12 foot 9 goaltender looked like a brick wall, we had a perfectly good goal disallowed, and they took advantage of a couple of our mistakes. That's it I can forgive the team for having no jump (and Jurco playing his 3rd game in 3 days), but the line combo's were mostly terrible and they looked like a bunch of strangers out there. Just a couple of weeks ago we were rolling 3 great lines, now we can't seem to find 1 with any chemistry.

3rd in the East is legitimately up for grabs. There's Boston, and there's Pittsburgh, and then there's the rest. Before the injuries hit we were genuinely in the mix for 3rd. We still haven't seen what this team can do with a full roster. I agree with the second part of your post, its something I've commented on previously.

Sheesh, what a terrible period of hockey. Both teams looking like they played less than 24 hours ago. 4th line has been the only line with any sustained pressure in the TB zone.

This afternoon, I watched The Polar Express with the kids. The main character is a kid from Grand Rapids, Michigan who "believes". If that's not an omen, then I'm wearing Sydney Crosby underpants.

Arghghghghg! Their rookie backup is from Detroit!!! If I'd have know that I wouldn't have been remotely bullish last night

If you watch it closely, Thornton catches Orpik right on the chin with the first (gloved) punch, by the time he hits Orpik with the second (bare fisted) punch Orpik is already out cold.

I don't have a problem with 15 games for this. I do have a problem with Neal - 5 games for deliberately kneeing a defenceless player in the head Clarkson - 2 games for going out of his way to lay a hit to the head on a unsuspecting player, and being a repeat offender. Cowan - 0 games for deliberate elbow to the head, causing concussion on superstar. Honestly for all the good Shanahan uses, they may as well employ Judge Nutmeg and his Wheel of Justice

Look, they're a good team, but you folks are making them out to be the second coming of the 1970s Canadiens - just like folks here do about Boston, who we've beaten 2 out of 3 times. Pittsburgh have lost 10 games in regulation (that's more than us BTW ). They played last night. Go to a Pens forum, see their fans weep and wail about Bylsma sucking, about their lack of forward depth. They're playing their backup. So are we, but ours has been awesome. They might win, we might win, but this isn't Buffalo v Chicago. Quite frankly my biggest concern is that Crosby's kryptonite is on LTIR.

Yeah, cos they're like a whole 3 points ahead of us, with an even worse injury list. I only want two things tonight - a win, and Crosby to get a good old fashioned Kronwalling

Say what now? Please tell me how Z, Dats, Franzen, Alfie and Kronner are "not producing"? Those guys are not the problem. Injuries, the 4th line, an out of form Howard, Quincey, the shoot out - they are the problem. And despite all that, we're still hanging in there. As for Weiss looking frustrated - maybe because he's been playing injured and his body can't perform like how he wants it to?

Ironic you make this thread on the day we play Pittsburgh

The only reason Emmerton was called up is because his was the cheapest salary and the only one they could fit under the cap. With Z on LTIR (and possibly Howard to follow) and having done nothing of note, there was no reason to keep him up. OTOH, the call up of Glendenning is baffling. Callahan and Sheahan are out of options next season, so why we wouldn't call them up to get a good look at them I don't know.

You know you have to let him leave when he wants though Kira, right?

On the bright side, we have the 2nd fewest regulation losses in the East......... I know everyone is weeping and wailing over our shoot-out record, but lets be honest if we were 6-0 in the SO people would just be bitching and moaning that our record is artificially inflated, we still suck, will lose in the playoffs etc etc etc.

He also gets to spend time with the team,get to know the guys, get to learn a little bit more about the NHL. Train with NHL players, train with NHL coaches. He may even get a game or two. It all helps with the transition in 2014 or 2015 when he becomes Jimmys backup. 2 weeks isn't going to kill his development.

Honestly, could you imagine Crosby coming up with answers like this?

Thing is, I thought we'd turned the corner on this. Won in Buffalo, NYI and Ottawa. Finally seemed to have it figured out........yeah, but no.

I think we're going to struggle to re-sign Monster. As someone else pointed out Mrazek is only waiver exempt for one more season, so we're unlikely to offer Monster more than 1 year. With the way he's played this year, someone is bound to offer him a multi-year deal - either a team with really sucky goaltending, or a contender looking for a realgud backup.

This is the thing - firstly we aren't going to have that many roster spots open. Secondly, there aren't going to be many good players available, except via trade. Teams lock up their best players on long term contracts now. The result is that the mid-level free agents who last summer were getting $5-6M are now going to be getting $7-8M. The real winners here are teams like Chicago and Pittsburgh who've got all their core talent locked up on long term cap friendly deals. They'll have no problems continuing to re-sign their bridge players or fill gaps with whichever FA's become available.

Yeah, this is it. You can be trying your hardest, but sometimes your body just won't respond. If the tank is empty, doesn't matter how hard you push the pedal, you ain't going any faster.

Nope. When we called up Emmerton, someone tweeted that the Wings were quite literally $1000 short of being able to call up Callahan.

I think you're just seeing what you want to see. Aaaaaaand the stats back it up Teams are worse on back to backs, especially on the road. And the Wings were one of the better back to back teams......

Did he really call them Team Bettman? And kipwinger is right, you need to knock it off with the Soccer Moms schtick, it does your arguments no favour.

You're right it will lead to the ban of fighting, but for more than the reasons you suggested. You say enforcers need to provide protection and keep teams honest., we're forever hearing on this board how we need Probert/Kocur/McCarty 2.0 to stop teams cheap-shotting us. Yet here we are with a Bruins star player getting kneed in the head. A Bruin. A big, bad, Boston Bruin. A team (supposedly) so nasty they could play Rollerball. And all their toughness and meanness did nothing to stop one of their star players getting kneed in the head. So tell me again how enforcers police the game and stop cheap-shots.