Carman

Yea, umm he'd have to sign these guys during the old CBA.

Ericsson is not very effective yet. And I'd argue they would be in a worse situation because you would be stuck with mediocre defenseman for 5-8 more years. If Enstrom hit the open market, and Holland didn't go after him I'd hold him accountable. But the players you mentioned would not make us a better team in the long term, although that is just my opinion of course.

I'm having trouble getting behind seeing that as our defense for 5+ years. That's almost worse in my eyes than our current situation. Who would kill penalities on the back-end? Allen and Ericsson? Why would you get rid of White? Would Kronwall-Wisniewski play well defensively together given both have tendencies to pinch a ton. I'd prefer our current situation. We have options to explore trades, be near the top of every top tier free agent defensemans list.

Hah, Franzen will need to win a Hart trophy before that happens. I want to see Howard get a you know what tonight, and Brunner gets on the board officially.

That's the thing Carle, and Allen are not top flight talent. They would be here for an extended period of time taking up considerable cap hits. Carle just wouldn't fit with what we need, Carle is an offensive guy, that makes a ton of errors. Compare him to White, he might score slighty more, but it's not much, and White is much more reliable. Not to mention the difference in salaries, I would easily rather have White's .37 PPG for 2.8 than Carle's .43 PPG for 5.5. I would much rather Holland sign smart deals in free agency, than just sign whoever is available to long term contracts because of a short term problem. And I'd love to know what you think constitutes top flight talent? Because by all stats, and sources Brendan Smith is about as good of a defensive prospect that there is outside the NHL coming into the year.

Yea, I'd like to see him play more. But I believe it was due to the penalty kills, then powerplays in the second and third periods, then we got behind and started double shifting Dats and Z.

Hopefully the groin was the reason it seemed Sammy couldn't skate. He's looked terrible the start of the year.

Decent move. If Huskins can play like he did with Demers then Smith or Quincey might be able to start developing offensively. He's a safe, shot blocking defenseman, which is what we need. I still believe Holland is biding time to work out a deal to get a top 4 defenseman. There haven't been that many defenseman moved the past few years that would have helped for the right price. Wisniewski would be a better offensive version of Quincey, but more expensive and arguably more negative considering he'd have to play on the top pairing and play more often.

Called posturing, he's not going to come right now and say we need defensive help, because that would only hurt him when he talks to other teams. I think he's hand will be forced with the injuries. On another note, keep in mind we'll probably have to overpay significantly to get a top 4 defensive guy. They seem to be rare these days, and if Quincey was had for a first rounder you can imagine what a player like Volchenkov will demand.

Yea, I'm on the Volchenkov bandwagon. Get it done Kenny. We need some defensive depth with all these injuries. I want Holland to make a move to make us better not bide time.

Happy with the win, at least we can see now that this team can play well. Cleary was brutal tonight, just doesn't seem to have the legs in shape, he's not as fast, or strong as he needs to be for his role on this team. He seemed to have a good shift in overtime though, so hopefully he can find his legs. Smith and Quincey can't play together, they are not good enough defensively and take too many chances. They need to be split up and paired up with White, and Ericsson so they can get some freedom to create. Howard was overall solid, he bailed us out a couple times when we broke down, would really like to see him stop a breakaway though when the team needs it. Lots of goalies are having issues early in the season as well, so nothing to worry about here. Franzen looked fine, he was making plays, nice screen on the first goal, good pass on the second. And I actually saw him backchecking a few times. Datsyuk/Zetterberg/Brunner are going to be good, Brunner is getting the chances, he's hesitated a few times, but he's getting the chances. Datsyuk looked better tonight, still doesn't seem to be all there all the time, although that might just be revisionist memory from me. Zetterberg played well, could protect the puck better, but nothing too serious. Filppula is playing like I'd expect him to, hard worker, just not the offensive instincts that we'd all hope. Sammy doesn't have his legs yet much like Cleary, they need get better. Not enough Tootoo! I though he created a lot of havoc on the forecheck, would like to see him play more than 8 minutes, then again all the penalties had something to do with that.

Quincey and Smith need to not play together. They are both risk takers and it's just not going to work out. Kronwall-Lashoff, White-Smith, Quincey-Ericsson will hopefully be the go to pairings until Lashoff proves he can't handle it. The kid was real good tonight, Babcock even said he played better tonight, then he's seen him play in the AHL. Time to start giving these young guys that play will room to grow, at least until they prove that they can't help the team.

Really nice game for Lashoff, made all the plays that were expected, really only can recall that turnover on the penalty kill, but that was after a really nice shot block, and rushed to get the puck out. Rookie mistake and just assumed he didn't have the time to make a better play.

Not yet atleast. He hasn't done anything yet to warrant it, but he's going to get every opportunity. And it's not like he has anything fundamentally wrong with his game, he's got the skill and the size to be a very good defenseman, and he's proved in the past that he can be an effective top 4 defenseman. He just has to correct his defensive breakdowns, which is much easier said then done.

This is called depth, and forecasting. If we brought up Nyquist at the start of the season we would have lost Mursak, Emmerton etc. for nothing. Better to have too many forwards and when injuries happen you can call up the players still on two way deals. And if things go really bad, then you can still make the roster moves later. Just gives the team much more options.

Yikes man, saying Franzen has more talent than Hossa is saying a lot. I mean Hossa is a year older than Franzen and has 632 more points, I know he's played longer, but Hossa still has a .93 PPG in his career, compared to Franzen's .58 PPG....

Might not score as much, but he is a much better two way player. I understand we couldn't have both, and that Hossa would have cost considerably more, but Hossa is a better player than Franzen. Hossa might not be as good in the playoffs as Franzen, but let's not act like Hossa is Thornton, Hossa has the same PPG in the playoffs as Datsyuk...

That's odd, Kyle Quincey was our ice time leader.

That's a sign of a good coach, I'm sure he's letting them have it off the camera. When things go well he focuses on the negatives. When things go bad, he focuses on the positives. Lots of good coaches do this.

Wow Datsyuk just let his guy go. Don't see that often.

ok, we just need 6 straight goals and my prediction will hold true. Plenty of time.

alright this powerplay wasn't too bad. Decent looks. Welp, spoke too soon?

Here we go. Power play time, let's try and get it in their zone, and maybe even get a shot!

Sure is playing like it. Not going to argue with ya.

Quincey was at some point a very productive player, he's young, good size, not afraid to use it. He has the tools, but man does he make bad decisions since coming over.