Theophany

So this thread is taking the silver medal in the "most retarded thread of the year" competition. It came up just short of the thread where someone suggested trading Lidstrom. Seriously, this thread is stupid.

Here's to me being drunk by 10 AM tomorrow morning (games starts at 9:30 my time) to deal with all of the game 7 flashbacks and Crosby-thon that NBC will force on us. We had better ******* get some revenge, but knowing what the NBC coverage is like, I'll be too drunk to remember whether we won or not.

Your defensive pairs are terrible, but I can live with your forward lines.

The hockey gods can detect sarcasm, can't they?

Oh, your name/avatar reminded me: I think it's hilarious that one of your players' nicknames is "free candy". I still laugh every time someone calls him that. Because he really does look like a pedophile.

I like this picture.

I think you saw it tonight. They were great all night long.

I would rather not use them as third jerseys and only use them on special occasions, like the Winter Classic. I'd still like for the NHL to sell them as third jerseys, though.

See, this is an important distinction to make; most people see "rebuilding" as getting rid of our pieces and bringing in a completely new set of players (and possibly coaches). Yes, I do think that we're going to see some moves being made in the off-season. I dearly hope that Lidstrom doesn't retire; we need him (albeit at a discounted rate). Draper has a year left after this, then I see him retiring. Maltby will probably retire or come back at league minimum after this year (which I would not mind). It seems that we're completely full on grinder/energy guys. Like, overfull. We need another top-6 guy, frankly, to take Cleary or Bertuzzi's spot in the top-6 (with Datsyuk, Homer, Z and Franzen being the other 4). If Fil keeps playing at second line center and Abdelkader comes up full-time next year, then that's one less, but I don't think either Cleary or Bertuzzi really are good enough to stay in the top 6. Don't get me wrong, both of them are very valuable, but I see them more of barely-second-more-third-line type of guys. Our defensive and goalie corps seem to be fine, though, with Lilja (hopefully!) coming back. Rafalski is overpaid, but he's been alright on the offensive side of the puck, and Lidstrom is usually there to back him up on the defensive end.

Really? Seems like the entire post was about me. Yes, this is one of the best healthy teams in the league. This team was pretty damn impressive against Chicago in the first home game of the season (last game we had Franzen), and against the Caps in the second home game of the season. Hey, wasn't that the last time the whole team was (nearly) healthy? Oh, yeah.

We've actually been playing pretty well in our own zone, this year. It just seems bad because we can't score. 5 GA in our past two games haven't really helped, but we're in 9th (we used to be in 7th) in GA/G.

Ironic of you to post this and completely ignore the points I made in my post: Lidstrom isn't in a decline on the defensive side of the puck (and not much of one on the offensive side, either), and that injuries have made this year rough. You are the one ignoring points and derailing your own thread talking about random facepalm crap. But then again, I wouldn't even need to post a facepalm if you knew anything about hockey; you don't need to rebuild when your team is half-full of Cup winners. You might replace a few role-players, but the core of this team is solid. No need for rebuilding.

I don't even know that they're selling them anymore; I know for sure that they stopped making the authentic WC jerseys. Does anyone know if Reebok still makes the premier to supply to places like SportsK? It would make sense (since they didn't even make authentics for this year's WC) if they still made the WC replicas, since I see so many.

Yes, let's rebuild a team that's one of the strongest healthy teams in the NHL. Lidstrom isn't really on a decline, TBH. He's still playing better defensive hockey than literally 99.9% of the NHL, and he's been a point machine recently. Injuries have made this year tough, but by no means do we need to rebuild. Maybe one or two acquisitions in the off-season and we'll be fine.

Err, the fourth line isn't better than the third, in terms of scoring. The only argument I could see you logically making is that Eaves should be on that line and Miller should be on the fourth in his place. Otherwise, if you're saying my fourth line is more offensively productive... Uh, dunno what to tell you except to watch more hockey and look at some stats from time to time. More balanced pairings? Lidstrom is the best on the team, Kronwall is second. Rafalski is probably third, and Stuart is fourth (only because Lebda/Meech/Ericsson are terrible on breakouts). I don't see how you can get much more balanced then by having a 1/3 and 2/4 pairing.

Is Hudler playing? I haven't been paying much attention to the KHL. If so, I may tune in.

Bert/Dats/Homer Mule/Z/Cleary Miller/Fil/Williams Draper/Helm/Eaves Leino Maltby Lidstrom/Rafalski Kronwall/Stuart Lilja/Ericsson Meech Howard Osgood End. These are the lines any sane person will come up with. Meech has been better than Lebda (cheaper, too), and Miller has really proved himself.

See, the thing is, I can't justify buying tons of jerseys. I haven't bought a single jersey since I got my authentic Winter Classic, because I have no reason to wear any other jersey. If I didn't have my WC jersey, I might still wear my old premier away Lidstrom or my premier home Filppula, but there's not much reason (actually none) for me to wear them anymore. It's worth it to go authentic.

Pretty much, yeah. Or at least that's what I've gathered.

No one believes me until people start writing articles.

We kinda need this win. And by kinda, I mean: WIN THIS ******* GAME, GUYS.

I like when Tootoo gets injured and their train whistles stop. (I don't think I get this thread. )

This is kinda true, but kinda false. The lettering and numbers will be real tackle twill, but the rest of the jersey will still be the cheap premier stuff. Which for $98 ($128 customized) is a pretty slick deal, TBH. Especially since you're looking at paying over $400 for a WC authentic if you actually can find one (I haven't seen any on eBay since I bought mine in November). Most of what I hate about the premier jerseys are the s***ty NHL.com lettering (name plate and s***ty material), so SportsK is infinitely better, though still not the quality that an authentic gets you.

Can't really go wrong with any of those choices, they're all obviously going to be around the D for a while.

Really? I'm 6'0, 185 and an XL (equivalent of the 54 I wear) is perfect; big enough that I can wear pads with it and still have room to move.