Theophany

I was checking into my hotel in Vancouver as May, Filppula, Lebda, Eaves and Lidstrom were checking out. I said 'hey' to Filppula and May (they were in front of me in line), and totally wussed out of talking to Lidstrom. I told myself at the time that I didn't want to bother him, but yeah.

Nah, I know I won't win the lotto, so I don't play. In all seriousness, I don't know what will become of Howard. He's had moments of brilliance and moments where I'm wondering if he's ever played the position. He could turn out to be almost as good as Hasek (minus the 'OMG WTF ARE YOU DOING OUT IN THE CIRCLES HASEK'), or he could turn out to be the next Manny Legace.

Ville Leino? JK GUYS!

Because all of the numbers point that way. There are a lot of things he needs to improve on to get to the level you apparently think he's at (or will be at).

This is possibly the worst idea I've ever heard. The amount of stupid that had to go into thinking of this is absolutely colossal.

I can't believe I'm doing this, but please see the Jake Ryan post quoted below. You're not thinking about this logically. It helps to stop looking at all the spots we need to climb and look at the points we need to be in second. 6 points is 3 games, potentially. Win against St Louis, win against Anaheim, win against Nashville, and we're suddenly right in the thick of it and battling for second. What the $%^&, Jake? Why do you just now start making logical posts that have been thought through and are positive, when I've already decided that I don't like you?

Holland said the other night (last night?) that he was expecting Filppula back in early January, Kronwall sometime in January, and Franzen in March (because if he's back mid-February, he won't be playing in the Olympics). Don't get your hopes up with Filppula returning this month.

Ericsson actually needs to play more like Kronwall, and less like Lidstrom. Lidstrom isn't a big guy, compared to Ericsson. He's 6'2" 190; Ericsson is 6'5" 220. Ericsson has the potential to play a style very similar to Pronger (without all the elbows!), and I hate to see him wasting his time trying to play like Lidstrom. Lidstrom is the best. He's also nearly perfect on the ice; trying to do what he does can put you in really bad spots (I should know, I've been trying to emulate his style of play since I was about 10). It's much easier to use physical presence and checking to play defense, rather than use finesse to take the puck away. There's no doubt that finesse is the better way to do it, but it requires such a high degree of precision that unless your name is Nicklas Lidstrom, it's pretty dumb to play that way. I would much rather see Ericsson play a more physical style of defense; use his body to clear the crease and take the body on forwards breaking into the D zone and letting his partner pick up the puck, rather than trying to take away the puck, failing, and the other team getting chances off of that. All that said, he is indeed still a rookie; he's going to get better. I'd just like to see him put the body on someone and stop being a girl.

Yeah, he definitely needs to spend more time with Filppula. His backchecking is awful.

If that was 4 games, what about the Malkin crosscheck frenzy last night? 8 games? Oh wait, I forgot my flow chart.

Shootouts are always a mindf***, if you'll excuse the language. It's very similar to soccer in that both you and your opponent are very nearly at the top of your game, so you know practically everything that the person you're facing can do; you try to reason through all of the choices you have. It's gonna go through everyone's head that Dats just beat Brodeur via a snipe, thus the next guy or two are gonna try and deke. Then the guy that has that thought and knows MB has it too will go one step further and think "well then I should snipe since he thinks I'm gonna deke". Saying "Z and Leino should have deked instead of trying to snipe shots" doesn't really do justice to the thought process they have to go through when they're approaching the center dot. In retrospect, it would seem like you're right, but how about Bertuzzi completely beating MB and tossing his shot away into the glass? Wouldn't that be more significant?

Man Homer sure does suck, what with his leading the team in goals. He's lazy and he sucks.

Holy overreaction, Batman! I was being sarcastic. You're dumb.

Can't believe people are saying that anyone other than Ken Holland should be #1. Lou Lamoriello is the pretty obvious #2, but he's nowhere near Ken Holland.

At least they wouldn't be taking fans away from a team that's won a Cup... I mean, my hometown has more Cups than Buffalo.

Does Pavel really need to be jump-started? He's got 20 points in 25 games. That's pretty good for a playmaker who doesn't have a decent shooter on his line. I like that Pavel and Hank are back together, but I do agree with you that I'm nervous that we're rolling on two 3rds and a 4th.

Your two cents are wrong. Players in other countries grow up watching the NHL and hearing about how the NHL is the greatest competitive level you can get to. Hudler leaving for the KHL was a money issue, but it has nothing to do with him being a euro. Fact of the matter is he could be a top line forward and make twice as much money over there. I probably would have done the same, if I'm frank. You would have too.

Holy s***, are people really blaming Babcock for the team losing now? Do you guys realize we're using two third/fourth liners in our top 6 (Leino, Bertuzzi)? Do you also realize that our second best defenseman is out? Do you also realize that Ozzie has played like crap, and Howard is about as consistent as... something really really inconsistent? I really don't understand this forum sometimes.

Homer will either retire at the end of this year or will take a significant pay cut. But you're saying that the guy that's tied for the most goals on the team is a fourth liner; if that's so, I wish we had more fourth liners. The simple fact is that a lot of people don't understand what specialists are; Brad May is one, Draper is another (Helm is following in his footsteps), etc. Homer is one of the best specialists on the ice. Ask people in Chicago if they'd rather have Homer over Byfuglien. To be completely frank and honest, we're running with a lot of grit and toughness right now. Good old North American boys like Bertuzzi, Miller, May, Abdelkader, etc. We need Franzen and Filppula back, and less grit. Cleary is great because he's got a decent set of hands, but most of our other North American kids lack hands.

You consider the Hawks—a team that hasn't been successful (until last year) since 1993—a rival? The only rival that I acknowledge is the Avs in the 90s; the Ducks pale in comparison. Give it a few more years, and help the Hawks get an enforcer or two on their team and we'll see about rivalries.

I would add Homer to the Sweden list.

To be frank, we need better goaltending (whether it's a one-year deal or whether it's longer-term) until McCollum or Larsson are ready for the NHL; I don't think Jimmy Howard will be a reliable goaltender moving forward. At best, he's an average backup. Our group of forwards is a strong core; we have more than we frankly need right now because of injuries, and when we get some forwards back, we should be doing alright if we keep, say, Miller and Eaves for third and fourth line guys. The main thing we really need isn't anything cap-related, though. We need McCrimmon gone. As in, yesterday. He's not a good defensive coach, and if he wants to remain, we need a stellar goalie that can stand on his head every night, because our defense really isn't developing. Hell, I'd rather see the GR assistant that works on defense up in Detroit; he at least, seems to be doing well.

Yeah, my bad. I don't really pay much attention to other team's singings, especially teams in the East.

Ah, but Hossa was playing while injured. That certainly makes a huge difference; also, going back four years should favor Franzen, since, y'know, he's got more games in four years than Hossa does (Hossa gains 4 games going back an additional two years, Franzen gains 24). You're not being objective if you think Franzen is better than Hossa. Cost has no issue in the discussion, as it was left out of the initial question. I'll be honest with you, I didn't read a word of your post because you type like a retarded kid on speed.

Unless Lids (and a few others) takes a big pay cut and we jettison some of the forwards (i.e. don't re-sign them), he won't be. It would be nice to have him, for sure; we'd be able to play him or Filppula as second line center and allow Datsyuk and Zetterberg to play on the first line. I think he'd due for a pay raise (he's currently $13.5 over 3 years or $4.5m a year) though, which is why I don't think we can afford him.