Nev

He injured Darren Helm with a knee on knee hit in 2008 game 6 that put him out - but because we won the cup that night, no-one noticed or cared. Then a couple of years ago he injured Franzen with a knee on knee hit. No-one saw it or cared - because it was a pre-season game. Bertuzzi supposedly pounded him in a fight, but footage of the hit and fight were never released in the highlights package by the pens.

Why does the sight of Kopecky on the opponents roster strike such an irrational fear in me?

As a fully paid up member of the Franzen Compliance Buyout Society, let me just state how delighted I am with his current level of play. But this is part of the problem - we all know he is capable of playing at this level, just he does it so rarely. And how long will this stretch go? Will he get to his regulation 25 goals and call it quits for the season like normal, or will he carry on with his monster play? Whats caused the turnaround? Has he changed his meds like Daniels said on air, or did Holland tell him there was a compliance buyout with his name on it? Meanwhile - go Tats and Gus!

He just isn't playing as well as last season (or other seasons). Doesn't make him a bad (or average) goalie. He's a good goalie who is out of form right now.

Because she's a beat writer. She's in the locker room every day talking to the players, flying on the plane with them to road games etc. Beat writers don't insult players, they try and chummy up to them, so they're more likely to get a decent quote out of them for their daily updates.

Well played sir!

FWIW, Ott is supposed to be available from BUffalo. We'd have to give up either Quincey or Sammy to fit him under the cap - when I say give up, I mean make Buffalo take them - plus the usual picks/prospects. Doubt KH would be willing to give up a 1st for anybody after getting his fingers burned with Quincey.

"Quincey has been mediocre since arriving via trade in February 2012." Wow, for a beat reporter - and a beat reporter who catches a lot of flak for being (in the eyes of some fans) little more than a mouthpiece for Ken Holland, those are incredibly strong words. Thats the kind of language that ass-hat columnists like Drew Sharp use, not a beat reporter who spends every day in and around the locker room.

Is Jimmy definately starting?

Looks like you're all set drumnj! You're going to be a busy boy And in all the hoopla over the actual Winter Classic, and the alumni games, I never realised that the Griffs were playing the Marlies! That should be awesome - a chance to get a good look at all our kids, and a re-match from last years playoff run.

I agree - Sproul and Oullet in particular. However, we've seen this so many times with our realgud prospects, especially defensive ones. In the minors - This kid is great! Why isn't he on the Wings???? Ken Holland you suck! First few games - This kid is great! He's got a really great future here 40 games later - This kid sucks!! He needs to be traded whilst he still has value! Ken Holland you suck! 5 seasons later - This kid is a solid piece of our core.

You do realise you're talking about Oullet/Sproul/Backman/Marchenko/Jensen/deHaas/McKee exactly like people talked about Smith 1 - 2 years ago? Hockey forums - where undeveloped, unproven kids are always better than actual NHL players.

Yeah, I've been on the "buyout Franzen" bandwagon for quite a while, but even I've got to admit that he's been amazing since he came back. Anyway, the shock is starting to wear off now. The good news is we're still 8 points clear of 9th spot, our PK is 2nd, our PP is 7th. Kronwall, Ericsson, Smith, Gustavsson, Alfredsson, Helm, Abdelkader, Franzen, Nyquist are all playing great. If we can go just .500 till we get Dats back we should hang onto a playoff spot easily.

W.T.F?

A couple of weeks in the big league will do him good. He gets to see if he can really cut it - either it gives him confidence that he can be an NHL player, or he realises he's not there yet and needs to go away and work on his game. Plus it give Holland + Babs a chance to evaluate him. Do they need to keep a 2014 roster spot open for him, or are they going to wait till 2015.

I know where you're coming from Dobbles, its just poor terminology when people refer to a "true #1 d-man", when they actually mean elite/HOF quality. There are only about 3 active players that fit their criteria who are either elite offensively and very good defensively (or vice-versa) and if you're elite at both your name is Nick Lidstrom, Ray Bourque or Bobby Orr. Kronwall is good to very good at both ends of the rink but is neither elite defensively (eg Chara, Webber) or elite offensively (eg Subban, Karlsson) to push him into that top-10. He's in that next group down in the 10-20 ranking. What annoys me is people don't apply the same strict criteria to other positions. Where Crosby, Malkin and Stamkos are the only "true #1 centres" in the NHL.

Interesting - anyone wanna guess who? Mrazek as Jimmys backup? Jurco who is our most NHL ready offensive guy? Ferraro/Sheahan/Callahan who are all out of options? Oullet who has already got time up here? There's likely to be 1 or 2 forward spots up for grabs, and 1 spot on D.

Well this sucks big time. Sucks for Z who was playing his best regular season hockey in years. Sucks for the team just as we were hitting our stride. There's me thinking we've got a relatively light schedule in the next month and could really push the Bruins for 1st place. Right now, with no Dats, Z or DD I'd just be happy with a wild-card spot and a healthy roster going into the playoffs.

Agree with pretty much everything you wrote except Alfredsson. 40 years old and 21 points in 23 games - what's a guy got to do to get an A?

5 hours sleep later... Would just like to point out that we've scored 9 goals in the last 2 games and Datsyuk and Zetterberg have combined for 0 goals and 0 assists. Doesn't that feel nice? (but hurry back soon please Pav )

Not our greatest performance, but 'll take the 2 points. I gotta be up for work in less than 5 hours, night all.....

TBH we're pretty lucky to be up 2-1. Sens are just physically outmatching us right now. 2 nice goals by us, but they're not representative of the play so far.

Hell, I'd settle for the team that beat Buffalo! And in all seriousness, did Cleary even touch the puck that period? I noticed him on the ice once.

Any word if Bert is back?

Who else will we be sending? Definately Kronner and Franzen. Possibly Ericsson and Nyquist?