kipwinger

If I was Toronto I'd be all over McLellan and Chiarelli. If they wait too long, and put all their eggs in the Babcock basket, they might actually get him.

Agreed. I sure hope he plays his very, very, best hockey. As far as roster decisions in general, I try to think about the ones that are most likely to happen, and not the ones I'd personally most like to see. Barring a serious injury or two, Ouellet is playing for GR in the playoffs this year. But I don't hate the idea in theory.

Marchenko really looked lost last game. No harm no foul bringing Smith back in. We've got to do something to wake our team up, and sticking with the same old thing isn't going to hack it. I sure hope Brendan's ready. We need mistake free hockey.

Well this has been a tremendously satisfying series. Try as they might, the Sens just can't seem to get past the unavoidable fact that eventually they were going to have to play actual hockey games against Montreal. And in an actual hockey game, with real players, in the real playoffs...Ottawa was just completely, absolutely, 100%, outclassed. Maybe next time they should make some adjustments after the first loss? Switch up the game plan? Identify weaknesses and mismatches? Well, that or spend all our time threatening injuries to the other team and deftly using Chris Neil (Lol.) as a decoy. That's Canadian hockey for you.

He really did have an INSANE season. Seems to almost score at will. Very very impressive.

OK enlighten me. Which things make smith physical?

He's contributed less offense than any defenseman on the team. Are you guys just picking stuff at random? If you want more offense, why wouldn't you bring in Kindl? He did, after all, have more points in fewer games than Riley's brother.

Smith has fewer hits per game than Kindl. Not sure why you keep saying he's physical. He's empirically not.

Here's a crazy though. Instead of trying to shut down/shot suppress the best offense in the league, a team that couldn't be shut down all year, how about taking the puck out of their hands and making their (questionable) defense win or lose this series for them? We're not going to win this series by trying to shut down their offense. Because our defense isn't as good as their offense is. BUT, maybe our offense is better than their defense is. I mean, it's not like they're defensive stalwarts. Or we can just keep doing the same thing over and over.

This game is not an improvement over last game. That's just more Babcock doublespeak. If you "played better" and got murdered 5-1 then you really didn't play better at all. We got dominated just as bad this game as we did last game. Sure the shots are closer, but if you ever believed that we were in this game you're nuts. If we lost then next game 10-2, but the shots on goal are the same for both teams, is that an improvement? Of course not.

Marchenko's having a hard time of it right now. Kid's definitely getting introduced to the NHL playoffs the hard way.

Danny Dekeyser is freaking awesome. Do people pay attention to all the plays he busts up with his positioning and his stick work? He is going to be a very, very, good defender as he hits his prime. He'll probably not score a million points, but he'll be excellent defensively while giving you 35-40 pts. He's like a young Jay Bouwmeester, who's not worth his contract, but good nevertheless.

And everybody will eat it up. Because Babcock platitudes are like soma to Red Wings fans.

We were one of the worst even strength teams ALL SEASON long. Injuries are no excuse. I know the powerplay was good all season, but it's a mistake to think it will be just as good in the playoffs. The opposition is better, and you'll get fewer opportunities. Think about it? Do you think our PP would have been as good as it was if we ONLY played against playoff caliber teams? Of course not. Well that's all that's left, good teams. They're not going to get dominated on the PP. And if that's the only way you can score, you're in trouble.

The point was that relying on your powerplay is a bad idea in the playoffs, because you might not get many of them. And we haven't. So I"m not sure what the problem is? Did you honestly think we'd be a competitive team in the playoffs with our track record at even strength? Or did you think we'd just get more powerplays than any other team (like we did during the regular season)? If you did, I'm not sure what to tell you.

And you can make excuses for his system all you want, but if you get the same exact result for five or six years (despite your roster) suggests maybe you need a new approach. Seemed to work well for Washington and Nashville so far. Why is it so hard to believe that maybe there's a coach out there who's system is more suited for the roster we already have? The other option is to fire the GM, team President, scouts, trainers, prospect developers...and replace them with a more Babcockian alternative. Which is brilliant if it weren't for the fact that Ken Holland's organizational philosophy is DRAMATICALLY more effective than Mike Babcock's. For the millionth time. Babcock is a good coach. But he's not the right coach for this team. Get someone else, or get the same results.

I once visited Dostoevsky's home in St. Petersburg. I can't say I blame him for being in pain. He was a creative guy in an uncreative environment. He was like the Tomas Tatar of Imperial Russia.

I'm just telling you how many goals he had. Someone said he had 3 in the last year. Which is demonstrably false. It is a FACT that he's scored 9 goals in the last year. Any other discussion is a discussion I wasn't having.

Why is anybody surprised? We haven't scored goals in the playoffs since 2009. Did people think we were going to start dominating possession all of a sudden? We're doing what we've done for 5 years. In the playoffs all the teams are good, and there are fewer penalties. If you can't control the puck at even strength, you're not going to do too well in the NHL playoffs. Babcock wants to win games the way Team Canada won games. Too bad the Red Wings aren't Team Canada.

He had 9 goals this season. What are you talking about?

How many times do you have to dump the puck into the offensive zone, and then lose the puck battle on the boards, before you try something different? This is the most one dimensional team in the league. We are not Winnipeg, Columbus, or St. Louis. Chip and chase hockey isn't going to work with this roster. As long as Babcock continues to do the same thing, with the same results, we'll never win a god damn thing.

Thank god our "compete level" is where it needs to be. God knows that's what matters.

And Babcock "likes our play". Because they're "trying" really hard. And that's the important thing. f*** this clown.

We should totally just keep trying the same point shot look on the powerplay. It's working really super well. Don't mix it up or anything. Can we please, pretty please, get a coach who actually cares about scoring goals?

Do Jeff Blashill's teams know how to play at even strength? Just curious.