Paul MacLean's Mustache

We have a lot of forwards signed....

Can't wait for the 3-year deal he gets at the end of this one!

GROANNNNN

AA's played some big minutes tonight while Abby's been relegated to the fourth. It makes me wonder if Blashill was going for the Sutter way of motivating players. Which means he could be really trolling Mantha.

Nyquist trying to throw all 85 pounds of himself into Hedman. Cute.

Nyquist scores.... We score a power play goal... Ericsson not visibly terrible yet...

What do two separate coaching staffs see on film that we don't with this guy? Unreal that he's not sitting.

I've been waiting my whole life for this.

This season in a nutshell.

Living so close to DC, I hated the term on Green's contract when I saw he signed this past summer. Caps fans waited years for him to hit free agency. Easy to see why.

Nyquist's regression in such a short period of time is Hudler-esque.

God, I miss Mike Babcock.

I'd rather see Richards center the third line. Give the time Sheahan and see if he can benefit from an increased role. As far as the D pairings go, I'm really torn. Green was pretty much delegated to a third-pairing role for the Caps, but given our depth, he's going to fill a second-pairing role. I'd love to see Kronwall-Dekeyser as the first pairing, but you'd be leaving a lot of defensive responsibility on the table with pairings like Ericsson/Smith - Green.

This. Look at how Weiss gets killed here. Living close to the DC market, Green is routinely killed here by fans for his defensive lapses. He's going to get 7mil+ for 5 years at least. I'm quite alright seeing what the young defensemen in the system have to offer.

As much as I'm a fan of this, it doesn't factor in Andy, or Weiss, or Franzen (if he's back). I know Andy can be easily waived, but we're already at a logjam of forwards without Dats coming back. Hope I'm wrong here, but Larkin may have to start in GR regardless.

This for sure keeps Weiss around, which is fine; they can buy him out next year if he has another year like last year with less of an affect on the cap. Sheahan will most likely take the 2C spot again unless Weiss has a phenomenal camp, but like others, I'm hoping this gives Larkin a shot coming out of camp. Can you imagine a Helm-Larkin-Pulks/Jurco third line?

Now reported he won't be ready until November.

Choke Thornton is going to be 36, folks. Gus is ten years his junior with similar production and room to grow.

I'm sure most have thought about this and apologies if it's already been discussed, but what would the sight of Stevie Y lifting the cup up not surrounded by red do for you? I'm thinking I'll ugly cry into a Bud Light Lime.

The product is still very enjoyable to me. Transparency in suspensions would really be my only gripe. The NHL's inferiority complex really shines through here. With having to compete with the NBA playoffs and early MLB schedule, suspending Subban, a marketable star, was out of the question. Meanwhile, Kronwall, is given a game for a hit where the shoulder was the primary point of contact, but his opponent had his head down. I get that Kronwall has a "history" for these kinds of hits, but taking those out of the game are a mistake. The playoffs are known for the increased intensity and harder style of play. With this suspension, I doubt we see a hit like this from Kronwall anytime soon. Hell, it's been sometime since we saw one before game 7. The NHL has been a niche sport nationally for quite some time and they should embrace it. Canadian and true US hockey cities keep the game going and that's what I love about it. I cringe every four years when the Olympics thrusts the game into a national talking point (outside of the 4 seconds allocated on ESPN) and people immediately flag me down at work to talk about players they just discovered because they know I'm a "hockey guy." Keep suspensions and rule enforcement consistent despite the type of player. At least you'll have the respect of the players and the diehard fans that continue supporting the league.

Not looking good for Abby, I guess?

Sad that every article I read today referred to tonight as an automatic win, but when Jimmy Howard's in net, anything's possible.

We can't beat the Arizona Dingoes in regulation....