kipwinger

Can anyone tell me what...the hell...Green Day has to do with hockey?

I don't really understand Cholowski. He's reasonably big, really fast, has good offensive instincts, and doesn't seem to be as stupid as most pro athletes. I don't get why he's not in the NHL. I get that he's not Seider defensively, but you'd have to think he'd be able to manage that side of the game well enough to be a bottom pair d-man in the NHL.

I'd probably stay away from him, but maybe I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. I suppose it comes down to what NYR wants for him. I'd hate to lose a decent prospect (like we did with Regula for Perlini) only to have Tony D wash out. However you're right, maybe this is all completely overblown (as Staal indicates) and he's a prime reclamation project. If they trade for him and shelter him on the 3rd pair I'm not gonna throw fits or anything but we already get pinned into our zone a lot. Going to be WAY worse with him on the ice. Worth noting that when talking about Cholowski a few weeks ago Blashill said (I'm paraphrasing) "we want him to be an ELITE powerplay quarterback. His offense needs to make up for his defensive lapses". That pretty much describes Deangelo FWIW.

Apparently playing the most minutes on the team, and being tied for the team lead (with Larkin and Mantha) in points as a defenseman is "disappointing"? Nah. Find another whipping boy. Hronek is FAR from a problem.

I completely agree with the bolded. I'm typically very happy after these games, even when they lose. For a few years people kept saying that they were a team that didn't have the horses, but they played like a team that didn't have a clue. NOW we look like a competent hockey team...that just doesn't have the horses. Except for the powerplay. Holy hell that powerplay is shameful. I have no idea how they can't scrape together ONE decent powerplay unit out of Larkin, Mantha, Hronek, Rabbri, Ryan, Gagner, Bert, Zadina. Any five of those guys should be able to score...sometimes?

I would give anything if Detroit had another halfway decent center. I have no idea why this isn't a burning issue for them considering we've been looking for a 2C since signing Stephen Weiss.

Yeah, I don’t like Fabbri at center. I actually liked Rasmussen at center when he was up, but he should never have been on the 2nd line.

I don’t think he’s a 1st line talent, but I think he’s been really good otherwise. He’s a really good forechecker and creates tons of chances for Larkin and Zadina off his ability to get to loose pucks. I don’t hate him there until Bert gets back. Guys like him are so frustrating because if he worked as hard as Namestnikov (for instance) he’d be a 40 goal guy. Instead he’s a 20 goal guy who pisses away his talent about 40% of the time.

Mantha is sooooo lazy. Imagine how good he’d be if he hustled, like, at all.

Theodor Niederbach with another goal today. For those keeping track of him in Sweden, he started the year torching the J20 league before earning a call up to the SHL where he looked pretty overwhelmed. He's since been loaned to the Allsvenskan (2nd tier men's league) where he's got 8 pts in 14 games. He was on the younger side of his draft class so its good to see him playing well in a men's league, albeit a 3rd tier men's league. Gotta figure this bodes well for him considering he's still an embryo.

Woof. Our bottom two lines are despicable. We REALLY need Bertuzzi to get back.

So he’s not a victim of political persecution, he’s just an assh*le?

He WOULD help their power play. But then again so would I.

I don't know what Yzerman is thinking. Wouldn't pretend to. But there's no harm in checking in on the guy. Like I said, maybe NYR is motivated to move him. Maybe the controversy around him is overblown. Maybe he's worth taking at a reduced cap hit and flipping at next year's trade deadline. Maybe he takes this as a wakeup call and changes his behavior. You don't know unless you inquire.

He's being thorough. If you were a GM with cap space, and you thought MAYBE another team was desperate to get rid of a player, wouldn't you at least call and see what else NYR would be willing to part with to sweeten the pot?

Whew! Dodged a bullet on this one. I was advocating trading for DeAngelo a year ago. Now we don't even bother taking him for free. Definitely got that one wrong. It's easy to look as his points and like what you see. I certainly did. But it's pretty clear he's a problem. You don't typically see a team draft a 1st rounder and trade him two years later (after completely dominating) for a 2nd. Also, he's basically the Andreas Athanasiou of D-men. He was on the ice for FOUR goals against in one of his last NYR games. Teams target him because he's f*cking terrible at everything aside from the powerplay. Buyer beware.

I was talking about Wayne.

Mantha = Primeau 2.0

I was soooo hoping he was going to be a center piece in a Dubois trade, but alas.

As has become tradition, let's see some bold predictions for the 2021 season. I'd stick with 3 each, and try not to make easy choices. Saying "McDavid will lead the league in points" isn't really that interesting or fun. Here goes: 1. Bertuzzi will score more goals than Mantha. 2. Detroit finishes 5th in their division (ahead of Nashville, Florida, and Chicago) but still misses the playoffs. 3. Troy Stecher produces career highs in goals and assists and finishes the season with 23-27 points.

I've been pleasantly surprised by Jon Merrill and Matthias Brome. Both of those guys are better than I thought they'd be. Namestnikov is as expected (Filppula 2.0), and Stecher has been worse. And Marc Staal blows but we already knew that. Also, anybody seen Anthony Mantha? For some reason I thought he was on this team.

Ahahahahaha he’s so good at center that he can’t play there on a s***ty team in a 3rd rate league, and he does better when he’s NOT playing there, and you think the Wings management is going to ignore that? Especially considering they were the ones that sent him to that s***ty team in that 3rd rate league in the first place? As I’ve said before, you are the Larry Nassar of mental gymnastics.

So Veleno not scoring until he got moved to the wing is proof that he will be a better center than a winger? First rate thinking bud.

Lol. Nice try. I've NEVER said he couldn't play center in the NHL. I said he won't be a top six center. And you know that because we've debated this many times. You're being deliberately obtuse now because you're trying to win an argument. You know perfectly well what my point is and yet you lie and obfuscate and deflect because you can't just admit that Veleno isn't a very good center, which is what pretty much all the evidence up to this point suggests. Lol. You didn't change your opinion on Hronek over time. You projected him as a bust AND a top four defenseman in the same thread.

I'm not being negative. I was correcting you about your misconception over Veleno being the 2C for Malmo. The team says otherwise. I've said many times that Veleno could be a 3C in the mold of Jordan Staal, or could play in the top six as a winger. Only fanboys think those projections are negative. Veleno isn't even good enough to play center on his current (bad) team. Justin Abdelkader played center his whole career until he got to the NHL too. So did Helm. So did Franzen. So did a whole bunch of guys. Only difference is that they didn't get exposed until they got to the NHL. For Veleno it's happening a little earlier. You argue both sides of points all the time. That's nothing new. And then when you called out for being wrong about one side, you embrace the other. For instance, you've literally said that Filip Hronek would both be be a "bust" and a "top four" defenseman in the past.