kipwinger

And the Maple Leafs hire Jacques Lemaire too. Toronto Maple Leafs ‏@MapleLeafs 10m10 minutes ago The #Leafs have hired Jacques Lemaire as Special Assignment Coach. #TMLtalk Hmmm...Shanahan, Lamoreillo, Babcock, Lemaire. Sounds like a good management group. I just wonder if they've got enough ego ya know? Like, do they have someone willing to take charge and be the boss, is my concern. Lol. I can't wait for this to fail. I mean, what could go wrong with a plan to remake the 1995 New Jersey Devils, only without all the great players and in an era where that style of play is largely unsuccessful?

It's not "just like being in Detroit". But It's probably not significantly more tempting for a young person than places like Miami or LA. This notion that after parties in Vegas spell impending doom for young players, but the ones in South Beach don't, is absurd and completely overblown. Didn't Jarret Stoll just get busted for cocaine in LA? What do you think he'd do if he played for a team in Vegas...cocaine? Or is the implication that he'd be on heroin or meth? In general this entire thread seems to be full of people attempting to justify their knee jerk distaste for a team in Vegas. Which is entirely unnecessary. Why not just own up to the fact that many hockey fans are extremely protective of their (niche) sport, and are uncomfortable with the idea of it being played in places (and by people) who are incompatible with our traditional notions of what is "hockey-like"? In other words, "we don't want them playing it, because this is our sport, and they aren't like us". Hockey is perceived as a northern sport and we don't want southerners or westerns playing it, even if it's perfectly viable in the south and west (which is mostly is).

I think we can all agree that there's only one man who can put an end to all the madness? You guessed it...

If Jeff Blashill really means it when he says " I don’t tend to look at what players can’t do. Now, we certainly want to get better in areas that they need to get better at. I always judge players on did they make more positive plays than negative plays ..." then Brendan Smith is by no means a lock for that sixth defense spot. Ya know, given that the only thing he seems to really excel at is "not being Jakub Kindl". Edit: Also, a little tidbit from Khan: "Coach Jeff Blashill has indicated he might play Helm on the wing on the third line, centered by Luke Glendening".

HERO charts are adjusted for usage FYI

Because the NHL is responsible for marketing EA video games now?

I absolutely DO think that Pacioretty would score more on another team. That said, with regards to Kane it's a little less clear. I'm not sure how much Kane benefits from playing for an offensive juggernaut of a team given that he's the primary reason that the team is so offensively potent in the first place. Certainly I think other guys benefit from playing on a team with Kane (looking at you Brad Richards) but I'm less convinced he benefits as much from playing with Saad, or Shaw, or Richards, or whomever. The two most offensively talented guys on the Blackhawks, other than Kane, are Toews and Hossa and he doesn't play much with either of them anymore. It's a little like saying Datsyuk only scores like he does because he's been (largely) on great teams. Aren't they great precisely BECAUSE Datsyuk scores like he does? Not saying you're wrong, just that it's a little bit of a chicken and egg thing.

Mike Babcock Sheets: For an additional 50 million dollars they'll come in Maple Leaf Blue.

Franzen should have given the sheets t0 Kindl. Just to ensure that Jakub always remembers that he'll never be good enough.

People all over the internet keep saying "I want these sheets!". They're nuts. Who the hell wants Mike Babcock's disapproving glare watching over everything they do in bed? You can almost see him thinking "Luke Glendening works harder than that" whenever you're making love to your partner. Screw that.

I already scooped you on this. Story of your life...always just a minute too late. Sucker!

Lol. theScore ‏@theScore 44m44 minutes ago Johan Franzen buys custom Mike Babcock bed sheets for Babcock's 'son' Gustav Nyquist. http://thesco.re/1L4cqk5 129 retweets 130 favorites

Professionals will be professionals, whether they're in Vegas or not. They'll be fine. Conversely, the types of guys tempted by the combination of booze, money, and stardom won't. But that's true everywhere. Darren McCarty didn't need to be in Vegas to throw his career down the toilet. He did it right here in crummy old Detroit. And he had arguably the most player friendly organization in sports behind him. He screwed it up because he's a screw up and that's what screw ups do. I hardly think a determining factor in the league's expansion plans should be how the location will affect the playing careers of the various screw ups around the league.

Pacioretty is pretty awesome, and underrated.

When it comes to any discussion of Franson, I feel like it's important to remember that most analysis of him is in comparison to other defensemen in his salary range. He's definitely not a bad defender. He's probably better than 60% of all other defensemen out there. He's clearly a top four defender, and among those he's shown that he can score better than most. But he's also worse defensively, and his skating isn't great. But again, that's in comparison to other top four guys looking for 5+ million. I think sometimes we focus so much on these guys' positive and negative attributes that we end up getting tunnel vision and fail to think about them in context. Cody Franson is a pretty good defenseman. He's not Brendan Smith or Jacub Kindl. He's like the inverse of Kyle Quincey. A top four guy who's a little worse than average defensively, and a little better than average offensively. His problem is that he thinks 30+ points per season puts him into Matt Niskanen salary range. Which it doesn't, given his limitations.

Somewhere Jeff Carter is either A) weeping quietly to himself, or B) going through hell and high water to bust his pal out of the clink. Get it? They're best buds.

Not wanting to play for Detroit isn't, by itself, a reason for me to dislike a player. Obviously I'd like all the players I really like to play for my favorite team, but that's not realistic. I didn't like Kesler when he was a Canuck because that entire team was pretty despicable with their whiney, divey, cheap brand of play. But that really was the culture they promoted up there. Since that time though, I've had the opportunity to watch a lot of Kesler and the guy is a committed, two way, workhorse. Very few guys bust their ass on the ice like he does. He was the Ducks best player in the playoffs this year, playing very solidly against Toews, and generally being the on ice leader that neither Getzlaf or Perry ever will be. He was also a beast in the 2010 Olympics for team USA. By all accounts he's a complete dickhead, and almost every other player hates his guts. But I've never minded guys like that. They usually rise to the occasion. Bob Kaser of the Griffins has compared AA to Kesler on a number of occasions based on his skillset and mentality. I truly hope he's accurate.

Kesler.

Slava Fetisov, former Red Wing defenseman and star of the wildly popular documentary "Red Army", wants Russian law to ban Russian hockey players from coming to the U.S. before their 28th birthday. You'll recall Fetisov's story. He bucked Soviet law preventing him from coming to the U.S. to play hockey, by refusing to play for their national team. In the documentary he explained how he wanted to be free to make his own decisions, make his own money, and determine his own future, without being coerced by federal authorities. And now he's a federal authority. And he's trying to restrict young players from having those very same liberties. Here's a thought Slava. Rather than using a draconian legal system to force people to stay against their will, how's about you work toward reforming said legal system, and equally restrictive and authoritarian economic policies, so that people will WANT to stay in your s***ty country. You are, after all, a Senator. What a dick. http://espn.go.com/nhl/story/_/id/12931779/slava-fetisov-wants-ban-young-russians-going-nhl

The odds of beating goalies clean, for ALL players, is higher on the powerplay than it is at even strength. Because there are fewer defenders and better shooting lanes. You stated that it's harder for other people to beat a goalie clean than Nyquist because he has more PP goals. Which is faulty evidence. All that proves is that he's a better powerplay scorer. But all players, including Nyquist, have a higher probably of scoring a clean goal on the PP than they do at even strength.

I said it's not AS hard to beat a goalie clean on a powerplay, which is empirically true. Nice try.

Datsyuk wasn't even in the lineup for much of November. He missed games on November 7th, 9th, 18th, 20th, 22nd, and 24th. Tatar had 7 goals and 4 assists in November alone. 4 goals and 2 assists came in games Datsyuk didn't play in. In the entire month of November Datsyuk only assisted on 1 of Tatar's goals. So your attempts to make it seem like Datsyuk was "gifting" him points is a bit overstated, regardless of when they started playing together.

Gifted? He started the season on the third line. Roughly half his goals were set up by Sheahan. The rhyme and reason was that he was leading our team in goals despite being given significantly less icetime. So they gave him more.

Lol. You're arguing that its harder to score on the power play? Cute. Its cool though, think what you want. I like the guy who played his way on to the top line and led the team in goals and was among the league leaders in puck possession. You like the guy who is a whiz on the power play and lost his spot in the top six to Erik Cole (until his injury).

Its not as hard to beat the goalie clean on a power play.