kipwinger

Kostin has three points in three games for San Jose? Maybe Derek was the problem?

You mean the guy who’s scoring at a mediocre rate in the WHL right now?

I don’t think he plays center. As far as the other part I don’t know, I’m just repeating what I read.

I like you just the way you are.

A few weeks ago Corey Pronman of the Athletic linked the top guy, Collin Graf, to the Red Wings. He said we got close to signing him last year.

Seriously, if we don't find an actual 2C in the offseason I'm going to make "Free Dylan Larkin" t-shirts to wear to every game I attend next year. I cannot believe we've been looking for a 2C since we signed Stephen Weiss and we still don't have one.

Meh, I'd rather be arrogant than cynical. But that's just me.

Yeah, I definitely was into the analytics stuff hardcore for a while. I was wrong. I still don't like the Matt Rempe and Ryan Reeves of the league, and I think their staged fights are idiotic. But I'd gladly sacrifice 10-15 points per player to make sure that every guy on my team gives a sh*t and isn't a p*ssy.

Tom Wilson takes a roughing penalty 1:30 into the Caps game, just setting the tone. I'd kill for a guy like that on this team. And Joel Quenneville too.

Here's a thing about Derek Lalonde that drives me insane. Is he aware that he can use timeouts for more than just challenges? Like, ya know, when you're team gets scored on twice in 5 seconds and they look like they're gonna cry? Maybe take a timeout buddy.

Dekeyser: Alex Lyon has bailed this team out time and time again but you can't ask him to do that for 83 games. Yzerman: Wanna bet?

Wouldn't matter. Unless it's a "two way" center with 30 point upside Lalonde will have them in the press box. Look at his last two scratches, Walman and Sprong. Copp hasn't scored since last January and Chiarot is -85 this week, but Walman and Sprong are definitely the issue.

SY: See Drapes, the key to success is zigging when your opponents are zagging. Everybody thinks we need to get bigger and harder to play against after getting bent over by Ottawa last year right? So now's the perfect time to get WAY smaller and less hard to play against.

Steve Yzerman.

Here's another thing probably nobody knew about hockey: Who knew that a bunch of 5'11, 185 lb. wingers would have a hard time winning puck battles? Like, how could SY have known that wouldn't work? One day someone is going to come along and revolutionize the game by using big, powerful, fowards. I'm not sure what these "power forwards" will be called, but I think it'll really catch fire.

I like your optimism but I'm not even sure Debrincat will ever score again. Like, he may literally never score another goal in his career given his current level of play. The good news for him is that for a sizeable portion of the hockey world a missed/blocked shot is just as good as a goal.

Listen to Lalonde already making excuses for this team. "Nobody had us in the playoffs coming into the season". This f*cking guy. Between he and Yzerman I'm not sure anyone in charge is bothered at all that this team is imploding. "Good job guys. Cool your heels a while. Nobody expects you to win, least of all us, so why bother? You've already won in our books."

We've had a zillion powerplays that haven't led to jack squat and our broadcasters are out here talking about not getting any luck. He's a better backup than Howard. But Keating, Murph, and Osgood are the dream team.

Who new the center position was so important eh? Like, you can't really fault SY for not knowing that you need decent centers. NOBODY knew that. Literally nobody has ever said anything like "you need to be strong down the middle" or anything like that. How was Steve supposed to know that having Larkin and three guys who can't consistently score 40 points would be a recipe for disaster?

Debrincat has to be the least accurate “sniper” in the league.

What happened to Murph and why is Dekeyser and some chick doing the broadcast?

Yeah but I loved watching him go bananas because he’s a dog s*** skater and he couldn’t stop Helm from running him.

Agreed. And it's not like we don't have the guys to do it. Sure Raymond, Debrincat, and Kane aren't going to run anyone, but guys like Sprong, Ras, Fischer, Copp, and Veleno sure as well should be able to. Those are big, strong dudes. I'd have had all our forecheckers running guys and Klim Kostin in the lineup every night to make sure anybody who gets butthurt about it can catch a beating too. Anybody remember this:

Neither Chiarot nor Petry are especially good defensively. Petry should be a 7th defenseman and Chiarot should be paired with someone who can actually defend. Also, it wouldn't kill Chiarot to actually play physical (with someone other than Raymond) once in a while. The two most frustrating things about this team's play (not roster construction) are their half-assed passing and their absolute unwillingness to finish a goddamn check. If you're not counted on to score you better be grinding guys down. I have to think that Derek doesn't want guys doing it because there's no other reason why Ras, Veleno, Fischer, Copp, Chiarot, Petry, Maatta, Walman, or Fabbri don't finish checks. It drives me absolutely crazy.

I don't worry too much about expansion drafts. They've basically got it set up to where no team loses any of their elite talent or newly drafted players. Hypothetically if we were to lose a Walman but keep Seider, Edvinsson, and ASP does anyone really care too much? Edit: The other thing I've noticed with Vegas and Seattle is that neither organization was trying to be too good right off the bat. They didn't really take the best players. They took guys on the best contracts. Basically loaded up on guys who either could be flipped at the deadline or were on such good deals that it allowed them to have a zillion dollars in cap space to work with. Not sure if that's a trend that would hold, but it seemed to work for both those organizations.