kipwinger

He's scoring at .67 ppg despite a pretty big slump (as you point out). He's gone through those before. Nothing about his play this year led me to believe that he wouldn't end with right around 55 pts. Which is usual for him. I dont' see some big, qualitative difference in his play. He was doing what he does every year. I agree, lots of people factor into games even when they don't score. Those guys are better than Franzen. And it's because of those guys that he's no longer necessary. But he is what he's always been. The only difference between then and now is that we no longer rely on him as much. But quite a lot of people here have said, or implied, that his performance is worse this year than in years past. I just don't see it. If Nyquist and Tatar (and Abby to a lesser extent) hadn't emerged into go-to guys, Franzen would have been glued to Zetterberg or Datsyuk's wing like he always is, and his PPG probably wouldn't even have dipped at all.

No doubt. My point is that, if you don't like having him on the team because he's no longer needed is one thing. It's an entirely different thing if you don't like having him on the team because of some perceived decline in ability...which would be a false pretense. I don't care if they got rid of him either. The emergence of the kids makes him unnecessary. But he's the same player he's always been. An injury prone, pretty consistent 50-55 pts. guy. His performance this year has not deviated from that norm.

Like who? Just for my own understanding of your position. I mean, I don't think you're saying that those guys should be traded for a tin of beans. But what kind of player are you talking about here? O'Reilly? Yandle?

Myth 1: Franzen is less productive now than he has ever been. Wrong. His points per game are right around his career average. Myth 2: Franzen is streakier, and disappears more than in the past. Wrong. He's played 33 games. He's got a point in 18 of them. 14 single point games and 4 multi point games. Again, right in line with his career trends. I don't care if he's on the team or not. We can clearly win without him, which is reason enough to want him gone. But can we stop making up crap to make him seem worse than he is? It's the same old Mule, much to the chagrin (or consternation) of the fans.

Lol. Clever girl.

I'm about 90% sure Jarret Stoll is dating, or married, to Erin Andrews. So common beach bimbos are likely beneath him lol. But not Carter and Richards...oooooh no.

Mantha. As I understand it, Larkin's greatest strength is his work ethic and smarts. But other than skating, the report on him is that he doesn't have dynamic offensive ability. As such, I doubt he ever tops out as a "franchise center". Then again, a lot can change. I'm admittedly basing this off scouting reports and other people's projections.

This perfectly illustrates my point. No way can Carter handle all four of those intelligent, young ladies. Two, maybe. But not four. Which is why he needs his wingman? And where is his wingman? Cooling his heels in Manchester, New Hampshire. Now Carter is going to have to try and entertain all four of those women by himself. It's a tragedy.

Slightly off topic, but this is hilarious. Also, we all need to take a minute and acknowledge the real victim here...Jeff Carter. What the hell is he going to do without his wingman?

The best one is of him taking a bottle of scotch to the head, but LGW won't let me post it lol. Mike Richards might be the only guy in the league that could hang with Patrick Kane in a drinking contest.

Mike Richards is the kind of leader, and veteran presence our young guys need in the locker room...er...yeah...

Our team would be better by demoting or reducing the playing time of four wingers, and bringing on another center who's only got 15 points in 47 games? AND he makes almost 6 million a year until 2019. How, exactly, would that make the team better?

I'm not really sure what you're watching. He slams his hand on the glass, it breaks, he points at the ref (or one of the kids) and yells something that sounds like "bulls***" around the :16 second mark. In short, he's a f****** jackass. Edit: Also, seriously, you think the "kick" required that response? Pretty sure the ref on the ice had it under control. I mean, it was quite clearly a super dangerous attack, but looks like the stripes had it handled.

I didn't know his contract was through 2019. I thought he was only signed for a couple more years. The term is the killer on that one. Yikes.

I'm not sure about their cap situation, but if I was Toronto I'd probably claim him.

Totally. Chances are, even if you gave the kid a chance, he'd never make it. I was mostly just trying to see if I could find any.

Is the question, "name players who have played in North America, gone back to Europe, and then returned to North America to have some success?" Jori Lehtera? Jiri Hudler? Mark Streit? Leo Komarov? Brian Rafalski? Johnny Oduya? Radim Vrbata? Anton Babchuk? Robert Lang? Mark Giordano? Jiri Sekac?

I'm confused, what's the debate here?

I never have a problem signing a guy like that to a two way contract, but I'd be really surprised if he could contribute in the NHL right away. The transition from big to small ice takes a while. I'd certainly look into it though.

Sounds like sour grapes to me. Suck it up Slava, you lost bro.

That list shrinks pretty quickly when you consider Holland isn't likely to trade significant roster players if he's trying to make a Cup run (Nyquist, Tatar), role players that Babs really likes (Helm, Abby), no-trade clauses (Weiss), or centers (there's a reason we just drafted 5 of them). Probably your tradeable assets are limited to throwaway guys, defensive prospects, and Jurco/Mantha/Pulkkinen. Of those three, Pulkkinen isn't the only one with a unique skill set. Mantha is perhaps MORE unique given his size, speed, and scoring ability. And as I've said already, given that we've already got Nyquist and Tatar (and no big bodied guys who can score) in Detroit, I don't think it's that unrealistic to think Holland might be ok with moving Pulkkinen. I don't think anybody is saying he should actively be shopped. Or at least I'm not. But given that he's got value, other guys are ahead of him in the depth chart, and other guys are more proven, I don't think he's completely off the table. Or Holland could trade nobody. Or he could trade Jurco, one of the defensive prospects, or Smith. Pulkkinen isn't the only tradeable asset. But it's probably not as big a list as you've made it out to be.

My mistake as well. Your comments came on the heels of speculation that Franzen was deliberately taking extra time to recuperate from injury, despite not needing it. I thought you were adding speculation on his mental health to support that. Nevertheless, I stand behind my two earlier statements. We know why Franzen is out of the lineup, and we know that he's not having a noticeably different year (in terms of production) than previous efforts. So if he is still suffering from anxiety, it doesn't seem to be affecting his ppg too much.

There are all sorts of mental health issues, only some of which deal with emotions. That's the difference. So no, it's not splitting hairs. Otherwise, I agree that it's perfectly reasonable to wonder why a guy's having a down year IF he is indeed having one. However, in this case I think his character is being assassinated based on two things...A) We already know why he's out of the lineup. He's got a neck injury (whiplash) which has been diagnosed. B) He's not having a down year. 22 pts. in 33 games puts him on pretty much the exact same scoring pace as he's produced at for the whole of his career. There's nothing to suggest that his game is suffering, and if it were, there's nothing to suggest it's anything other than the injury sustained during the hit to the head. He's injured. He's not a malingerer, and if he has had (most aren't permanent) mental health issues, there's no reason to believe they're what's keeping him out of the lineup or causing a down year (which he isn't).

Who doesn't love that?

"Overreacting" is an interesting choice of words to use while defending a guy who was yelling, screaming, breaking glass because the refs at a midget hockey game screwed up a penalty call. Lets put it this way, if you find yourself getting angry over a midget hockey game...you're a douchebag.