kipwinger

Aha. There I go taking life too seriously again.

I never trust a promise from the Red Menace. I can spot a Chairman Mao sneak attack from a mile away. Shame on you!

Anyone interested in oppressing revolutionaries (except the tax hating kind) pm ME.

See: Wells, H.G.. "There is no frigate like a book...", my friend. Whatever you say Fidel.

But aren't we all slaves, in the Marcusian sense of the word? I mean, think about it.

Oh look, you found a hockey fight website that's more obscure than hockeyfights.com to support your preconceived ideas about McGrattan. That's as cute as McGrattan's hair in the photo below, taken after his very last fight with Colton Orr. Also, for the record. You brought up Orr. Not me. Sigh. Edit: Haha, who made that website you just sent me? Why would you ever put any stock whatsoever into a website so clearly designed by a child? Is your point that some half wit, with a rudimentary web building program, likes McGrattan a whole lot? Who knew the very first website ever put on the internet was about hockey fights? It looks like it is hosted by Geocities lol. http://gizmodo.com/5983574/remember-the-hilarious-horror-of-geocities-with-this-website

My boy? I have a long and very explicit hatred of fighting in hockey. That's well established around here. You're the one who loves fighting, but can't face up to the fact that Colton Orr consistently mashed McGrattan's face whenever they fought. Which is precisely why I bring it up. I have a hard time figuring why you enjoy fighting so much, but then idolize the second best fighter of his era. It's a little bit like if Scottie Pippen was your favorite Chicago Bull in the 90's.

He's perfectly fine defensively. He's no worse than any other puck moving d-man. It's just a tag he got stuck with because he broke into the league when he was like 20, and wasn't great. Since then he's played 20+ minutes a night, on a defense first team, with a defense first coach. It's just like how Franzen can have an almost identical ppg average year to year and be inconsistent, or how "Osgood lets in the occasional floater" 15 years after he let in the occasional floater. It's just something people say because that's what other people say, and they said it because somebody else once said it too. If Yandle played here every single person on this forum would absolutely cream themselves. He's REALLY good.

No doubt. He'd make Johan Franzen into Mark Messier. Such is the power of McGrattan.

Too bad they didn't reacquire Brian McGrattan. They would have punched their way to a Stanley Cup championship by now, am I right?

Agreed. The last thing the Oilers want is to start winning right now. Eakins will be their fall guy right after they draft McDavid.

There's some lines you just don't cross. Karlsson has WAY too nice a flow to play defense. I know it. Ottawa knows it. And now Paul MacLean knows it.

Exactly. They've got an average team (at best). How is that the coach's fault? They've got like 4 players who aren't completely outclassed in every single game they play.

Brandon Prust.

Well lets not go throwing away pieces just because we've got them. We have enough pieces to make a meaningful trade, but I would NEVER trade Helm, 1st, and Backman for Bogosian or Myers. First of all, neither of them are that good. Secondly, neither really fits our new powerplay that well. Myers is too slow to run that single point system (you need to be a good skater when you're the only guy up there), and Bogosian doens't have a great shot (he's not too different than Dekeyser in that regard). I'm all for upgrading. But not stupidly. Holland's got this.

Dear god no!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not against trading for a d-man. As I said above, I think if we can upgrade Helm's wing, and trade for a powerplay QB puck mover (like Mike Green), we'd be lethal. Absolutely lethal.

Yeah, I definitely don't want to make it seem like we NEED to trade or anything. I'm just saying we've got the pieces to make something happen if we decide to make a push for a Cup. And as good as this team is playing, I'm not sure why you wouldn't make that push. There's no telling whether you're going to get this kind of play out of Dats, Z, Franzen, Kronwall, going forward. It seems like we've got the absolutely perfect mix of youth and veteran presence. A little tweaking and we're elite. I'd upgrade that Helm wing position, and get that right shot d-man (who's also a powerplay QB), and I think we're dominant. But, it would be hard to blame Holland for sitting tight. This team is pretty good without any moves at all. Although, sooner or later we're going to lose some of these prospects anyway, so why not use them to make a push? I have to change my tune from the last couple years. I bitched because he didn't make moves, but it's clear (in retrospect) we weren't a contender and so what good would it have done? We are a contender now, and a trade or two would A) shore up our few weaknesses for a push, B) mean we wouldn't lose prospects for nothing. So I definitely think it's a greater possibility now than the last couple years.

Me too, but I'm not going to hold my breath on that. He'd be SUPER expensive because he's under contract and he's awesome, and I'm sure someone will give more than us. So yeah, I'm not going to bother thinking about that. Aha, well then you're right, he'll get a bigger return. I was thinking he was a UFA since he's been in the league since he was 12 or something.

Agreed, but Boedker is a free agent after this season. Not going to get too many "long term assets" for a guy that most teams can sign in free agency in July.

Please take this back. Please? Exactly. No knock on Bernier. I'm sure he's a nice guy and all. He's just kinda dumb. I'm kinda dumb too, so it's not like I'm casting stones lol.

Which is why I originally asked "Helm plus what?". Also, I don't know that it would be WAY more. Boedker's a free agent at the end of the season and he's not a superstar. They'd definitely want more, but how much more is debatable. Helm plus a second would be a good starting proposal, and I'd possibly be willing to add one of the defense prospects (Jensen or Backman probably), if they really required it. Edit: For context's sake, Tomas Vanek was traded a year ago at the deadline for a high prospect and a conditional second round pick. We'd be giving Arizona a roster player (and they want centers) and a second. It's in the ballpark.

Right. Did he not google Mandela on the way to the event? Ohhhhh, you know what it is. He probably forgot to look it up, and couldn't on the way to the event because everbody knows that smart phones still don't exist in small provincial Canadian towns like Toronto.

I'm not sure why anybody thinks it is dumb for a reporter to ask a hockey player about Nelson Mandela when said hockey player is attending a ceremony specifically to honor Nelson Mandela. If Justin Verlander attended Margret Thatcher commemoration night, and when asked said "Ms. Thatcher is the best player the WNBA has ever seen, and I loved watching her play when I was a kid", he would be a fool. As is Bernier, clearly.

Helm is playing top six winger minutes. Boedker is a top six winger. He plays the same style as Helm. He's just better, younger, bigger, and more durable. Why wouldn't he produce more? I could see your argument if I was suggesting we bring this kid on, reduce his ice time, and bury him on the third line. But he'd be coming onto this team and playing with Datsyuk and Tatar (as things are currently). That's an excellent recipe for offensive success. Think about this Nyquist-Z-Abby Tatar-Dats-Boedker Franzen-Sheahan-Weiss Miller-Glendening-Jurco The only thing Helm provides that Boedker doesn't is the ability to play center. And given how old and injury prone Dats and Z are, that's valuable. But I'm increasingly confident that Sheahan can play the second line center in case of injury, and obviously Weiss can do it as well if he keeps trending upward. I'm not here to bash Helm. He's really come along after a slow start. But I like big, strong, fast, durable, defensively responsible players. I like them even better when they're all that and 24 years old. I'd always trade an extra center for a guy like that.