kipwinger

I agree. I said as much above. "In all cases I think it's too early to tell just how good they'll be". As far as moving prospects, I'm not opposed to it. But I'm not in favor of moving prospects for marginally better talent, on much worse contracts. The good thing about hanging onto homegrown players is that you can manage the evolution of their salaries a little bit easier because of restricted free agency, bridge contracts, and (hopefully) hometown discounts. Which is good for the team's cap situation. So unless it's a slam dunk, and the guy you're trading for is WAY better, it's usually best to just keep your guys. Honestly, I'd rather see Holland overpay in free agency than overpay at the trade deadline.

It's also worth noting that lots of teams have lots of success, without having Datsyuk and Zetterberg type talent on their team. At one point during the late 2000s, those were the two very best players in the world. Yet it only translated into one Cup. I'm far less concerned with finding another Datsyuk or Zetterberg, than I am with finding an organizational make-up which doesn't require a 2008 era Pavel Datsyuk or Henrik Zetterberg to be successful. If one or two of our guys turn out to be that good, then great, but I don't want that to be our only hope of reaching the Cup again. And thankfully, I don't think it is.

I wasn't really trying to criticize GMRwings as much as figure out which players he was talking about. Certainly I'd agree with him that some of our more highly regarded young talent (Smith, Pulkinnen, Jurco) have struggled to live up to those expectations. But other young players (Nyquist, Tatar, Dekeyser, Sheahan) have been better than what was probably expected of them. In all cases I think it's too early to tell just how good they'll be, but it's worth noting that Nyquist and Tatar have had as good (or better) regular and post seasons than Datsyuk and Zetterberg had at comparable stages of their careers. So I wouldn't completely shut the door on some of our guys developing into first rate hockey players, regardless of how unlikely it might seem.

Very true. If you're going to be a team that's completely geared toward shot suppression, you're not going to get a lot of offensive chances. So you need to take advantage of those you do get. In order to win that series we needed our powerplay going, and we needed to capitalize on chances like that Helm/Tatar 2 on 1 in game seven. Unfortunately, neither happened when we needed it to.

As a fourth line winger? I'm not really sure if Ferraro was being counted on to score. The more relevant question would be "I wonder if Pulkkinen was a better option in this series than Jurco or Andersson"? I still don't think so, but that seems a little more of a fair comparison.

My favorite part of the series was when the Islanders picked a fight with him, ostensibly to "deter" him from running over any more of their defensemen. Which resulted in this...after which he continued running over their entire team. Note to hockey teams: It's kinda counter productive to "send a message" by getting manhandled in a fight you started.

Just wait until Tom Wilson makes an impact. If they're bitching about Backstrom being on the edge, they're going to love Wilson. He made the Islanders completely lose their composure. He's a little like Glendening, only way bigger and tougher. If a fourth liner is completely jamming you up, you're in trouble.

There are whiners, and then there is Claude Julien...King of the Whiners.

Ok, but I didn't ask about Abby or Ericsson. I'm asking about Tatar, Nyquist, and Dekeyser because they were our most heralded young players, and you previously said "I've been listening to people for years tell me how great our prospects are, and they turn out to be decent 2nd pair defensemen and 3rd line players, at best". I'm serious just wondering if you're including them in there, or are you talking about our lesser prospect. Because you'd have a point with Pulkkinen or Smith. But I think no matter how you cut it, Tatar and Nyquist are legit top six forwards, and Dekeyser is a legit top four defenseman. And considering they're only just finishing up their sophmore years, I don't think it's a stretch to think they'll continue to improve their games as well.

Trying to. Tickets are hard to come by. As much as most folks would scoff at me saying this, Washington is a pretty good hockey town and Caps tickets sell for high and don't stay available long. A regular season game will run you 100 bucks, easily. But I work exactly two blocks from the Verizon Center, so I'm always on the lookout. edit: Also, I think I mostly want Ovechkin to win the Cup so that all those obnoxious Canadian blowhards (e.g. Don Cherry) have to watch him raise the Cup, and try to come up with more "reasons" why he's really not any good lol.

Wouldn't it be satisfying to watch him run wild all over the Blackhawks in the Cup finals?

Anybody see that Ovechkin snipe? Yeesh. Have fun Henrik.

I'm genuinely not trying to be snarky here, I'm just trying to clarify. Do you think that Tatar, Nyquist, and Dekeyser's ceilings are 2nd/3rd line, and 2nd pair?

I am a big fan of Mike Green. But like a lot of guys in the league, he's an excellent player for a particular role, and not too much more. And over the course of the year I've sorta come to the conclusion that I'd rather have a 30-35 pt. top four defenseman, than a 40-45 pt. bottom pair defenseman (and powerplay specialist). No knock on Green at all. But he just doesn't log the kind of minutes I think we need out of another defender. There's a reason Washington went out and got Orpik (who completely shutdown Tavares by the way) and Niskanen. Green's no good in the top four.

Drew Stafford and cody franson please.

Joe Thornton is an excellent hockey player, but I wouldn't want him. Anything that slows us down, I'm against. If this series against Tampa taught me anything, its that we're dangerous when we are fast, and mediocre when we are slow. Love ya Jumbo Joe, but no thanks.

How often would we need to win the Cup for you to consider our organization "competitive" if we aren't now?

I love her twitter account. You can actually see her getting more and more excited prior to the game. She had no idea what was in store, and how horribly wrong her night was going to wind up. It's like looking into the past and the future at the same time lol.

I honestly doubt it would have made much of a difference. Our defense actually played pretty well this series. Even last night's ad hoc bunch. We didn't lose because our defense is crap. We lost because we blew a third period lead in a game we should have won, and couldn't score any goals in the last two that were close.

I was wondering if that reference would be too in the weeds. I should have known better.

But it's not just "past successes". That's the point. He's still a very successful GM, and his teams are still very successful. It's not like we're stinking up the place, missing the playoffs, and competing for lottery picks. I agree that you should have total immunity at your job. But you also shouldn't be fired if you don't remain at the absolute apex of your industry in perpetuity. We've gone six years since our last Cup. Exactly the same amount of time between our Cups in 2002 and 2008. It would have been a mistake to fire Holland back then, and it would be a mistake now.

Whatevs. You just want another Wing to crush on. Ladies love Ryan O'Reilly. Just ask this chick...

They're breaking with tradition a bit here, and getting people from different venues to do it. Used to be they pretty much only used the various bloggers from SBnation (the local equivalents to our "Winging it in Motown" crew).

He's been a head coach for 3 seasons, went to the playoffs twice, and won a round. I don't know, because I obviously wasn't watching Colorado in 2003-2004, but that doesn't seem terrible. Maybe there is something there, but his record doesn't suggest a wash out to me. But like I said, I don't know. Because he's won a ton of games under arguably the worst possible conditions. And because he's done so with a roster that's about 1/5 as good as our current one. Fun fact. You know how many 80 point players Dave Tippett has coached in his entire career? Two. Mike Ribeiro and Mike Modano. You know how many 80 point players Mike Babcock coached on the 2005 Red Wings alone? Four. Think about that. The best players he's ever coached..ever...were Modano, Ribiero, and Yandle. His best goalie was Bryzgalov. BRYZGALOV!