number9

Rousey could wreck a lot of male MMA fighers, and I say this as a huge UFC fan. McGrattan would be in an arm bar pleading for mercy before he knew what happened.

I was joking

True. Half the reason McCarty performed less point wise in the 2000's is because we basically had an all-star team at that point. I still believe the salary cap exists almost solely because of us.

Duh But what would it take to get him???

McCarty is easily my favorite grinder of all time. Love Abs but Id take McCarty every time. Honestly the grind line was just plain unreal. Best bottom 6 line of all time. With Kocur or McCarty.

First Emdog, now Anddog? Say it ain't so.

Not even close. McCarty was 3rd in TOI among forwards in the 98 playoffs. Only Yzerman and Fedorov had more ice time as forwards. For a man who loves tough guys, you drastically underrate McCarty's ability as an actual hockey player. His downfall was his lifestyle catching up with him in his later years.

Hexstall's tears sustain me to this day. It was the game-winning goal if I recall correctly. Been a while.

Interesting to see that your grandfather grew up in Detroit and now resides in Grand Rapids, with all the Muskegon/GR/Kalamazoo hockey. I grew up around around metro Detroit, but ended up living in GR for a number a years when I was older. If I ever come back to Michigan I'll move back to GR. The east side will always be home to me, but GR is one of my favorite cities for some reason.

97 finals game 4 break away goal. Nuff said.

Abdelkader isn't a top line player and yet he plays there. I'd also argue Holmstrom was never a top line player caliber, and yet he played there. They bring something to the line that Yzerman can't offer. Elite players need 3rd line tough guys with them a lot of the time. Especially back then. I don't think Yzerman took a backseat like you're implying. In fact I think he and his line mates were used very effectively.

Only girls use wifi... back when hockey didn't suck we used hi-fi

McCarty, Holmstrom, Kocur, etc. were tough as nails, but they could play hockey. Sandstrom is an enigma. McCarty was a lot like Abby in a way, and Abby also plays with elite players. You've grown too fond of McGrattan, who's as tough as McCarty, but plays hockey like a stick in the mud. Thread becomes a fight thread in 3, 2, 1...

very cool, really enjoyed the vidya. Thanks for sharing!

Math freaks ruined hockey

Screw Colorado

The narrative from Mantha and the team going into the season was that he had a shot, and was going to compete for a chance, with the big club. An injury ended that chance, but i doubt he would have made it anyway. As I've already stated throughout this thread I though that expectation was too high from the get go. However, with his size and talent, I fully expected him to play a larger role with the Griffins. This is a blue chip prospect we're talking about it. The expectations ARE higher for him than other players. I've already said I'm not ruling out the role that an injury played. Sitting with an injury can effect conditioning and screw up his rhythm during a transition year. But we have no reports that he played injured or had a nagging injury of any kind. And it would have been really dumb to play a kid his age on an injury, or unconditioned enough to get an injury. The Red Wings/Griffins are not that dumb. He is lazy. Watch him play. I don't think he does it consciously, but he does not move his feet away from the puck on offense or defense for much of the time. I'm not trashing him, I'm telling you what I saw. All the scouting reports said he played an uninspired game in the QMJHL, and that's exactly what I saw of him with the Griffs. It's the style of game he's always played and he's still playing it. Which is why he only earned 3rd line minutes. Suddenly acting as if this style of play is because he's injured is a cop out. It's like saying: "Well if Ericsson hadn't gotten injured last year, he would have played more physical" No he wouldn't have, because that's not how Ericsson plays when injured or healthy. I will be very happy if he turns his game around and stays healthy next year and lights it up. But I'm not going to pretend like this wasn't a disappoint for him, as a player, and for the organization. Devellano used a few too many very's, but he's right... for a player that was hyped (and deservedly so) he was extremely underwhelming/ frustrating to watch this past season. Simple as that. I think I'm being pretty honest and fair with assessment here. Even Krsmith and all his Griffin watching expierence agrees he plays an uninspired game. I still have hope for the kid though.

"Yes but he has the talent and scoring ability, that doesn't go away" Yes it does. It goes away the second he gets his pay day after his 1 year deal lol.

I'm gonna bridge the Pulks and Mantha discussion for a second. Pulks and Mantha are actually in similar situations sorta. When we drafted Pulks the knocks on him were skating ability, and back check/compete level. Very similar to Mantha. But when Pulks got here it was clear he fixed those things either immediately or b4 ever getting to GR. Mantha has yet to do that. The sad part is, I bet Anthony can probably make it in this league on his raw size and talent alone. Pulks had to make the adjustment if he was ever going to be good enough. So it's up to Anthony how good he wants to be really. Pulks is pretty one dimensional right now, but he's not a liability in any department.

Yeah I've read it. Exactly which of my points do you think is... ridiculous?

"I think Anthony still needs to learn to work as hard as you have to work, shift in and shift out, moving his feet, in order to utilize that skill set at the American league level and the NHL level. And it would have been impossible for him to realize he had to do that at the junior level, because he didn’t have to." I think that sums it up. I've already said I think the expectations of him were too high. And injuries gave him less time to adjust. But despite those two things, the bottom line is his game has some glaring holes in it. And they're the same holes that have followed him from junior. Sure being healthy and having more reasonable expectations would be a plus... but that's not going to suddenly fix the obvious flaws in his game that he's had for a while now. Too avoid another disappointment, I think he needs to spend a lot more time working on his game away from the puck.

Yeah, I'm not ruling it out. I'm just saying if I knew nothing about Franzen prior to this season you'd probably describe him to me as a good goal scoring power-forward that doesn't play all that physical. Fair? Now if Franzen got injured right away in October, and then came back and didn't play physical... I wouldn't blame it on the injury, I'd go back to what you told me about him and say, he's never played physical, that's just how he his. Same with Mantha. By all accounts this is his game and how he plays it. It was exactly what was described to me and exactly what I saw. So I'm not going to blame too much here on the injury. I don't think just staying healthy here is his issue, as Blashill described, he still has a lot to work on in his game, including work ethic and keeping his skates moving.

Pulkkinen sucks... there I said it.

I agree, I think it was very un-wing like, but I think his statements are accurate at least. And they likely reflect the feelings of the entire organization even if they're a little less brutally blunt about it. I doubt Devellano is some rogue and is the only one who thinks this about Mantha.

Mantha sucked this year. And I don't think it had anything to do with his injury. Saying it hurt his confidence, or that the injury was nagging him are all 100% shots in the dark/guesses on your part, and yes you're using them to make excuses for his poor play when you have no idea if they're true or not. Look at lil Bertuzzi. He missed a lot of time with a significant injury and came back looking better than before the injury. But the real reason I don't think the injury excuse is valid with him is bc of what I saw of his play. Sure he's big and talented, but he is terrible away from the puck. Goes invisible for long stretches, and does a lot of waiting for the puck to come to him. That's exactly what the knock on him in juniors was, and it's exactly what I saw out of him this season. Maybe he got away with it there, but that needs to change if he's gonna be able to hustle with the big boys in this league. So I don't think it was injury at all and I'm disappointed that he played like that all season. We all know with his talent he could do better.