kipwinger

This is a bummer. I was kind of pulling for Verrier to get a contract. I liked his story. Better luck at McGill kid.

I didn't realize I'd said anything which wasn't specifically addressing Kane, or the woman, involved in this particular case. I also didn't realize I'd said anything political. I was trying my hardest NOT to politicize rape. My bad.

I actually agree. Wings fans would do the same thing. That doesn't change the fact that he shouldn't be at training camp right now.

A little from column A, a little from column B?

It's also not like Babs only did this with the defense. Remember when he moved Filppula to the wing and wanted him to shoot more? He lost one of his teams' better playmaking centers, and gained a below average winger (who still didn't shoot more). He'd have been better off putting Zetterberg on the wing (since he had no problem shooting) and letting Filppula center him (since he had no problem passing). Filppula still would have had all the extra assists that he ended up getting that year anyway, but you'd have gained a guy with proven 40 goal potential on the wing. Babs was infatuated with trying to jam square pegs in round holes.

I think the argument is not that Babs doesn't like offensive defensemen (he seemed to like Lidstrom, Rafalski, Schneider, and Kronwall just fine). But rather, that given the limitations of our blue line, it might have been better to play to the strengths of our defensemen (many of them are better offensively than defensively) rather than try to turn them into something they've never been. The opportunity cost of such a strategy is high. When you play away from someone, or something's strengths, you limit its effectiveness exponentially. Take Smith for example, he needs work. Clearly. But it would be easier to turn him into an effective point producer than to turn him into an effective shutdown guy. So why ask him to do the latter? In the best case scenario you only end up with an ok defender, rather than a pretty good puck mover. It would be like making Pulkkinen pass more if our offense wasn't very good. Best case scenario you lose a good shooter to create and ok passer. It's dumb. If you've got a bunch of under achieving guys with a particular skill set, you try to maximize the potential of that skill set. Not move completely away from it. If Babs is such a brilliant strategist, he should have developed a strategy based on active, good skating, defensemen. Since that's what he had a team full of. Instead, he clipped their wings and tried to make them be good at something they'd never done (or been good at) in their entire careers. Not surprisingly, they didn't respond well to it, and worse yet, it completely limited the offensive potential of the team overall.

RA-PIST, clap, clap, clap RA-PIST, clap, clap, clap

Ironically, you'd be a perfectly decent garbage man. Otherwise, you're worthless.

Wow. f*** this guy.

Of course he is. He's not from Ontario.

Bingo.

And now Nylander is "cocky" too. Despite the fact that he has not played a single shift of professional hockey, we've already seen him enough to judge his character. Right. Apparently if you're European, and a hockey player, you should hang your head in shame when playing for an NHL team. How dare you think you're any good.

The league isn't a court of law and doesn't have to play by the same rules. Pretty much every Commissioner in every sport has discretionary authority to suspend players if they're accused of something which tarnishes the league's image, or has the potential to do so. Which is why Roger Goodell could suspend Tom Brady and Ray Rice, even though neither of them were convicted of a crime. It's the job of a judge and jury to determine whether Kane committed a crime. It's the job of Gary Bettman to determine whether or not Kane is a problem for the league, which he might be, regardless of his guilt.

I should have said "unfortunately for him". Since this basically ends his chances of getting a contract this season. I'm not worried about Helm. He's a boss.

Verrier makes more sense than Nedomlel. Richard is HUGE. Verrier, unfortunately, is not. There goes his chance of getting a contract. Bummer kid. Better luck next year.

Richard Vinnik, Daniel Panik, what's the difference? The only thing that matters here is that SOME Maple Leaf is better than Jurco. Because the Maple Leafs do it right, and the Wings don't. Hence their respective levels of success throughout the years.

You mean like how you always used to say that Subban was "cocky"? Or like how Chara and Weber absolutely kill Johnny Gaudrea because he's so small? Do you ever get tired of just repeating the same tropes over and over again or is that half the fun?

William Nylander shouldn't see the NHL until after he's gone through puberty.

I'm confused, are we saying that PK Subban pledged 10 million dollars to charity because he's insecure? Seems like being rich, famous, and a professional athlete would take care of that problem. Guess not. Maybe he should just bang every woman (or man) on Montreal. Probably easier for him than giving away 10 million.

Pick your pony: Quenneville and his team full of PTOs wins another Cup Or Babcock and his team full of PTOs makes the playoffs

But they're all veterans. And ties go to the veteran.

Yeah, but why trade for a guy to do that for when there are a million guys who wouldn't cost you any assets to acquire. I think they'll plan on keeping Grabner. He's Babs' new Helm.

I don't know how much offense they'd generate but they'd be hellish hard to score on I'd think. Both those guys are pretty good in the defensive zone.

Some interesting things I'm seeing in those lines. -Glendening on the wing -AA back in the middle (love this) -Franzen on what would be our 3rd line during the regular season -Kindl on his off side -Andersson back at center -Cleary with Mantha (saw that coming) -Blash seems to favor a digger, and a scorer, on each line (just as Babs did) Lol. I was just responding to the post from HockeytownRules19. He said Quincey was with Kindl, and Marchenko was with Smith. Which doesn't appear to be the case.

The link has Quincey with Marchenko and Smith with Kindl. Is that a mistake?