dat's sick

Who cares. We only need to care about ourselves, as long as we get points it doesn't matter who else does.

Play Dekeyser more... Kronwall is being horrible and plays constantly. Not good. Ugh, my nerves are gonna kill me until we're either in the playoffs or out of it for sure.

As soon as we get close to the other teams' net we lose all confidence. Looks like everyone has forgotten how to score goals and are overthinking everything.

This season it really feels almost hopeless as soon as they fall behind. Hoping they find a way to actually put that round rubber thing into the net this game.

Helm was the dangerous one... Not a good start here but lots of time left. Come on Wings...

Oh please. You think Cory Schneider thought that way? "Damn, I'm not gonna be 'the guy' in Vancouver for a long time...". If Mrazek keeps being awesome and keeps developing he'll get his chance, and if he outplays Howard he'll be the #1. The way I see it, next year Mrazek is full-time #1 in GR. Then you have atleast 1 year, maybe 2 years as a backup to Jimmy. Best case scenario it develops into a 1A-1B system. Holland had to sign Jimmy, and the money is right in the ballpark of what he's worth if you look around the league. He plays a ton of games and he does it well. Sure it would be nice to have it a bit cheaper or take off a year or two, but it's not that easy. Key thing is we've locked up quality goaltending for the forseeable future, even if Mrazek would somehow, some way, turn out to be a bust.

I know he hasn't played much and it's not fair to judge him based on that, but he has really, really....sucked...when he has played. So I don't care if he sits out a broken nail, it's not hurting us as much as it seems to hurt us when he's actually playing. And if he needs a couple of games to 'get his legs back' or whatever, we don't have that time to spare. We need everyone in the lineup the last 9 games to be contributing and helping us win.

They called up Sheahan, that could have been Tatar.

Tough loss but that's the way it goes. We deserved to win, we didn't. We had enough chances to score a couple of goals, but the puck didn't go our way. Blues got a fluke goal and sat back the rest of the way. If it's one thing Hitchcock knows it's how to protect a lead, and he has the defensive pieces to do it. I thought the key moment that killed our chances of a comeback was when Babcock decided to put Abdelkader out on the 4-on-4. Lots of space on the ice, great for skilled players like Nyquist right? Well no, let's play a guy whose biggest strenght is playing along the boards, something there's a lot less of in 4-on-4 hockey. So he gets the puck, and Kronwall is completely open in a spectacular scoring opportunity. It's a pass even I could put on the tape, but Justin puts it behind Nicky so instead of stepping into the slot and scoring he has to slow down, awkwardly take the pass with his skate and nothing comes of the chance at all. Kronwall is so frustrated by the bad pass he takes a stupid penalty shortly after. Babcock has to start playing the guys who actually make things happen for us. If we can call up Shehan, we can call up Tatar. Time to sit Daniel Cleary because he doesn't help us win. Time to make Abdelkader a 4th liner like he's supposed to be. Tatar, Nyquist, Zetterberg and Datsyuk are the guys who drive our offense, backed up by Filppula and Franzen (who was looking good today). Right there you have our top 6. LOAD THAT SH*T UP. Also Dekeyser looks ready to play more minutes.

Silly comment. He's been uncharacteristically careless with the puck the last couple of games, and kinda looks like he isn't 100%, but overall this season he's been playing with some of the most enthusiasm I've seen from the guy. Looks like he's been having A TON of fun this year, dekeing guys out of their pants, scoring highlight goals etc. Guess people/experts just use the whole "he's going back to Russia" rumor to over-analyze everything Pavel does. He was never someone to show a whole lot of emotion on the ice.

But...Selanne is a euro player and couldn't possibly succeed without being supported by north-american 'bulldogs'!

Lidstrom/Rafalski pairing was one of, if not THE best in the league for a couple of years. Raffi was perfect for our system and perfect for Lidstrom. He had a rough last season but that doesn't take away from the rest of his time here. Definitely miss those two and their blue-line play, starting off rushes, getting point-shots through etc.

Only saw the last 15 of the 3rd, what little I saw of him looked impressive. Good stickwork and skating. Don't see how we can keep White in the lineup over him. Sure if White was putting up big offensive numbers..

Doesn't feel like it. Certainly not many instances of coming back from 2 goals down. More than 2 goals down and then winning can't have happened once this season can it? No firepower offensively. Part of it is the lack of Lids on D, we miss a guy who can get some decent shots from the point, giving us rebounds and deflections. And part of it is having no Bert, no Tatar, no Helm, no Brunner this game..

No Brunner and no Dekeyser? I am disappoint. We're too close to 9th place for this game to be a loss. Edmonton and Columbus are pushing hard to make the playoffs, we need to get a couple wins to get some breathing room again.

You think he's vital to the future success of this team? You wouldn't send him away in a package for a top 6 winger? It's not the "players who suck" list, I just think Abby is very expendable. Doesn't mean he's the first player I'd want to see moved, far from.

Conditional 7th, not a 4th. But yes it is a very exciting trade.

I'm not upset about nothing being done by Holland this deadline, but sooner or later some fat is going to have to be trimmed from this team one way or another. List of expendable players: Bertuzzi Abdelkader Cleary Miller Eaves Emmerton White Cola Samuelsson List of players NHL ready or soon to be NHL ready: Tatar Nyquist Andersson Ferraro Sheahan Lashoff Almqvist Jarnkrok Dekeyser Sad thing is I don't see anyone but Nyquist, Andersson and MAYYYYYYBE Lashoff being on the team next season. Jarnkrok should be fast-tracked. Give him a locker-room spot next to Zetterberg. Let him watch Datsyuk in what could be his last season in the NHL. Use him on the wing. Use him on the 3rd or 4th line. Trial. By. Fire. The kid will sink or swim. Sending him to Grand Rapids for a year is almost a step back from the SEL, really at most a lateral move. But that's what's going to happen, right? Sigh.

I definitely think so too, but with the lineup decisions we're seeing with this team I don't know. Holland/Babcock actually seems to think we should have Cleary and Abdelkader in our top 6. That Tatar isn't NHL ready. That playmakers like Nyquist and Datsyuk should be playing with...grinders. IF, and that's a BIG if, the right group of players are in the lineup, and are put together in the right way, I think we'll see some sparks. Franzen-Datsyuk-Brunner Filppula-Zetterberg-Miller Nyquist-Andersson-Tatar Abdelkader-Emmerton-Tootoo Assuming Helm and Bert don't get/stay healthy. Our defense could be our downfall in the playoffs, but we have to put our hopes in Dekeyeser being solid and everyone saving their best hockey for last.

If we're not trying to do anything in the playoffs, what good is this season other than giving our kids some experience for next season? Filppula-Zetterberg-Brunner Franzen-Datsyuk-Tatar Nyquist-Andersson/Helm-Miller Abdelkader-Emmerton-Tootoo Kronwall-Ericsson Quincey/Cola-Smith Dekeyser-Kindl/Lashoff Make it so Kenny/Babcock.

Ouch Stevie. Ouch. Bishop is promising.. but for Conacher?? Ottawa has Lehner so Bishop was expendable.. this return was the best they could have hoped for.

Kopecky for a 1st.

No way in hell does Ovie get traded. Face of their franchise, playing really well this season. And I doubt we have the assets they'd ask. Tatar, Nyquist, Filppula, a 1st, Oullet, Sproul, Dekeyser AND Datsyuk maybe.

Source?

Ugly game in the end but we needed the win and got it. Good to see Brunner score a nice one. Nyquist set it up beautifully and was great all game. It's painful to see the personnel decisions this season. We'll see what happens, if anything, before the deadline. It's pretty clear to me this team is not better with White on D. Coliacovo doesn't impress a whole lot either. I'm hoping Dekeyeser can at the very least make solid hockey plays, keep it simple and clear the zone etc. He doesn't have to tear the league apart. Him and Lashoff could make our D atleast bearable. Then maybe we can either pick someone up as a top 6 winger, or atleast bring up Tatar.