PavelValerievichDatsyuk

I think on back-to-backs you almost always have to switch up the goalie, so I think it's a good call to put Jimmeh in. Green being injured is not good Predictions: - Bertuzzi continues to ruffle feathers. - Jensen scores leaving XO as the only guy who hasn't scored - If we win people will complain about the team being too good. If we lose, people will complain about how bad the team is.

Agree with this comparison. But for them chemistry really wouldn't have amounted to much because I don't think they played on the same line much, since they were both centers. I wouldn't put much into weight into potential chemistry between the brothers Svechnikov. The Sedins were twins and played together at every level, I think. Other brothers probably only played road hockey together. Might help to have a close locker room, though. The Kostitsyns are interesting to bring up because they seemed to be bad influences on each other. They were big partiers and were quite a story here about 10 years ago with pictures with a local crime boss and drug dealer. Doesn't really have to with them being brothers - just that guys being close isn't always necessarily a good thing, haha.

What no 5 minute misconduct for that slash?

WIT!!!!!!! Breakaway, haha

Not so sure about that. They already have Clarke MacArthur's 4.65 mill on LTIR retirement for the next 2 years since he won't be playing again (apparently he even moved out of Ottawa to Florida). So if Gaborik gets injured into retirement then they'd have a potential 9.525 mill in LTIR players. That's more than the 10% margin for teams with players on LTIR to go over the cap in the offseason, so the contract would still mark against cap space (for the current cap it would be 2.025 million over). Put that together with the fact that they'll have a 1.75 miil caphit from Phaneuf's contract for the next 4 years, so I think it'd be like them carrying somewhere around a combined 3 million caphit of dead weight if Gaborik were to LITRetire in the next 2 years. I wouldn't call that a great way to be free of the Phaneuf contract. I guess they could trade one of those LTIR contracts to ARI or someone else in that case, though.

And TATS!!! Seems like a good answer game so far after the meltdown from the last game.

3 goals in the past 2 games for Mantha. Good to see he's shaken off his scoring slump.

I feel like our Swedish Tank is more like this:

This is one of the best and worst games we've played.

And...4 powerplay goals

Ah... the tank conspiracy. now I get it. Initiated by Tavaras so that he can join us once we have Dahlin?

Really??? 5 minute misconduct for that ?? That's ridiculous...

Haha, Helm seems to have had a hand transplant recently - 6 points in the past 4 games

Daley's looking really good tonight

Ah, that's totally possible. I don't remember that storyline, but that would be a little game of chess between the 2 GMs that would make you trust Yzerman a little less., haha.

I think If we were gunning for Namestnikov so much we wouldn't have traded our 1st round pick to Ottawa for the 2 2nds. We would have been ahead of TB's pick and got him for sure. There must have been some reticence about him - or maybe Jurco was the target and we knew we could get him later. Having Namestnikov instead of those 2 2nd round picks (jurco, XO) would definitely be nice, but hindsight is never a fair judge. P.S. Tampa did damn good in that draft picking 27th each round, they got Namestnikov, Kucherov (2nd), and Palat (7th). Examples like this should counteract the notion that you have to finish dead last to get a good player.

Especially early in the season, I thought there were a large amount of our PP goals that were due to Abby's screening/ net front work even though he didn't get a point on the goals. You have to add to your second statement the context of the team: Tatar and Mantha each have 7 PP goals, Frk has 4, Abby's actually 4th on the team with his 2 PP goals https://www.hockey-reference.com/teams/DET/2018.html And, yes, -as Kick points out - you undercut your own complaint about Abby getting just under Nyquist and Z's PP time by showing yourself that he has more goals than those 2.

Yeah, was just a joke. There is definitely an aspect of Canadian culture that often seems to need to play up the difference between the states and Canada because we're so inundated with American culture and because there's many similarities. Growing up in Southern Ontario especially, I remember it. Joke was just that Canadians would probably be quick to correct you, even if it's technically correct. Let's Go Wings!!!

Try calling a Canadian an American to their face to test whether that works, though.

Yeah, I don't get the sentiment of "people coming out of the woodwork when he has a good game." You don't just pick a horse and keep supporting it even after it's been turned into glue. They have to look like a viable option to argue the team to go forward with them. Haven't given up on him and wanted them to give him some starts so that we could see where he's at and whether he could get his game back. Glad to see that happened and that he's taking advantage of the opportunity. I'm not a Howard hater by any means, but, Mrazek should definitely get extra consideration because of his age and what he could mean for the team's future. Also, his age and his flashes of great play mean the possibility of him developing to a higher level than Jimmy. His recent games at least starts that conversation, but I think it's way too early to judge. I do think this surge in play should stop any conversations about trading him for a lower pick. I rather keep him beyond the trade deadline and see if this continues.

Great game for Mrazek. To update for the goalie flame war, their stats are now damn close Mrazek: GAA: 2.86, SV% .910, 3 Shutouts Howard:GAA: 2.82, SV% .911, 0 Shutouts

Mrazek looked shakey in that shootout, but got it done!

The great 8!!

Night of the 5 holes AA goes to AAA mode

It's too obviuous that we're trying to set up Frk. Switch it up