kipwinger

They recalled Hronek today. Not sure if he's in the lineup or not though. Edit: Looks like he's in tomorrow.

Larry Murphy says he likes Athanasiou's "package". Don't we all Murph, don't we all.

#FreeFreeFreeAthanasiou

Surprised Brady Tkachuk has any thumbs given the look of him.

Surprised Guy Boucher bothers dressing forwards at all. Has anyone ever dressed 18 defensemen in a game before?

AA is so good and he just plays with scrubs all the time. Imagine if that centering pass just now went to anybody else other than Glendening?

#FreeFreeAthanasiou

#FreeAthanasiou

I'd give him a two year contract. I think we went from losing and looking really bad a year ago to playing a lot of close games this year with a bad roster. I like that we play with speed, our defensemen are active, and we're a little meaner. Plus, ALL of our young guys have developed into legit NHL players, and in some cases difference makers, under Blashill. I think he's earned the right to see what he can do with a real roster...something he's never had as an NHL coach. If he flops in two years, find someone else.

I'd be SUPER irritated if we took a defenseman with our top pick. This is a weak year for defensemen and a very strong year for centers at the top of the draft class. Unless we somehow fall down the draft board a bit I would consider taking a defenseman a reach in the top 10. Maybe Byram, but I'm not even sure about him. Then again, a lot will change between now and draft day.

I'm pumped about Berggren too. He's been injured, but people were comparing him to Arvidsson when he was drafted. Some going as far as to call him the steal of the draft. I'm looking forward to seeing what he can do when healthy. Even if he turned into another Tatar I'd be thrilled. We should be a player with elite upside in this year's draft. I'm happy with whomever as long as they're a center (Dach, Zegras, Krebs, Newhook). And then we go shopping to fill in the gaps. But again, "elite" is really hard to nail down anyway. You've said before you don't think Kuznetsov is elite, and that dude was the Caps leading scorer in the playoffs a year ago and looked like a man amongst boys. So maybe you don't need "elite" per se. Maybe you just need dudes like that, whatever they're called.

I've been saying for a while that our defensive prospects were better than what people thought. Some of the stuff I've been reading on Lindstrom suggests he's the same type of guy too. I'm genuinely excited about the potential for a Cholo-Lindstrom, McIsaac-Hronek top four. Two lefty/righty pairs (for those who care about that), two offensive guys, two fast skating/hard hitting defensive guys. And that's not counting this year's draft and our project guys from the last two years either. As I've said elsewhere, people who think Kenny hasn't done a good job with the rebuild probably aren't paying attention to just how good some of these guys are playing.

I'm being glib. He'll definitely make it and he definitely deserves it. That guy is a beast this season. I'm particularly thrilled with how he's turned into kind of an on-ice bully this season. Like he throws elbows and slashes guys and stuff. We need more of that attitude. More mauler sh*t.

Sadly, unless he goes on an absolute tear he won't hit 30 goals like he was projected to hit. Bums me out, I REALLY wanted AA to be the first to 30 since 2009. Instead it will be Rasmussen a couple years from now, which will be almost as good. Haha, I'm right there with you man. First his acne, and then his spindly little legs, and now late period penalties. I'll tell you this much right now, the most manly things I can possible think of are 1) WWE superstar Razor Ramon, and 2) Lil Wayne's song "I'm Me". Neither of those things had acne. F*ck Dekeyser.

Seriously though, I'm genuinely excited about where this team is heading. We're loaded with good prospects, we're about to have another huge draft, and we have TONS of cap space for UFAs going forward. Long as we don't do anything stupid like fire the GM who's navigating this ship we're going to be a top team in the east in like 2 or 3 seasons.

Yeesh...you got oddly specific there bud. Hope everything is ok at home ;-) But yeah, Dekeyser is an estrogenic beta male.

We don't need luck, we've got the best GM in the biz leading us down the winning path. Everybody talks s*** now because we're fans and we're all super fickle. But in two years when Cholo and Hronek are scoring like maniacs and Lindstrom and McIsaac are smashing dudes in the open ice a-la-Kronwall everybody will be singing a different tune.

Tell me that you haven't at least once or twice thought to yourself, "Danny Dekeyser was conceived by a weak sperm". Search your feelings, you know it to be true.

On the one hand I'm glad to see them win one for the dads. On the other hand, I'd like to slap half those dads in the head for conceiving these hacks. I can't wait until we have a real roster.

There Mantha, was being an alcoholic, sleazing on drunk college girls, stickhandling in a phone booth, and deking defensemen out of their jocks. He woke up in a cold sweat, his senses slowly coming back to him, and smiled contently once he realized he's just the same giant pud he's always been. Welcome back to reality Anthony.

I'm convinced that when Anthony Mantha looks in the mirror he sees Patrick Kane.

I'm not making any judgements at all about Trotz. I'm just saying that quite a lot of people were not convinced that Trotz' system was conducive to playoff success prior to the Caps win. He was regularly talked about as being too "old school" and defensive to win in the modern game. Clearly people were wrong about that, but that's kinda my point. Nobody ever thinks these guys are any good until they win, then suddenly it's like "I always knew this guy was great". People literally did the same thing with Ovechkin actually. I remember like 3 years ago when people were saying he was washed up and needed to be traded.

I mean, why not use Jerry "The King" Lawler? At least he's from Tennessee (and as far as I know isn't a bigoted, wife swapping, douchebag). In other news, imagine how often AA would score if he wasn't on a line with Glendening and Christopher Ehn. Someone like...I dunno...Matt Duchene.

Did I just hear Hulk Hogan on a Predators promo package? Do you think the Preds media team knows he's a gigantic racist scumbag?