kipwinger

"Quincey sucks!" "Quinces sludge!" "Qwertzy snwerks!" "Durka durk!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7ScD6-AWPEQ

I'm not comparing the two coaches. Obviously Babs is a better coach. What I am saying is that people act like it's the end of the world to make the playoffs and lose early. If I've read once I've read a thousand times "we don't want Blashill to be another Dave Lewis", to which I assume they mean they don't Blashill to win his division, makes the playoffs, and lose to a Stanley Cup finalist in each of his first two years as head coach. I'd take it. Did they expect him to win the Stanley Cup? How many rookie coaches in any major league sport do that? But if I had to compare...as far as the roster, Lewis had the pretty much same roster in 03-04 as Babs had in 2005 and got the same results. His 03-04 roster was also significantly worse than anything Bowman had in 99, 00, 01 and he got the same results. He really only "tanked" in 02-03...as a rookie head coach in the NHL. Clearly he's not as accomplished as those guys but he wasn't as experienced as those guys either.

I don't get the Dave Lewis bashing around here. You're hardly the first to do it either. He took the Wings to the playoffs and lost early. How is that any worse than what Babs' has been doing since 09? It could be worse guys. People make it seem like he had a losing record or something. He got fired because back then Holland's mantra was "we want to compete for the Cup every year". Now it's "we want to make the playoffs every year".

Lol, when he joined the Leafs I told my dad he left the second most scrutinized job in hockey for the first most scrutinized job in hockey.

Just when you thought professional athletes weren't idiots, "Tootooruututootooruutootoo durr hurr".

We're still going to end up having to trade at least two of those guys...maybe even three of them. Unbelievable that after having a s***ty defense for like 5 years we'd finally develop this many defensemen in the span of a couple years.

I agree with your point in general, but I would point out that it's not unheard of for a rookie to step in and play on the second or third pair without too many issues (Dekeyser). I think you can't assume that every prospect will be able to handle that, but I don't think a team should be so risk averse that they end up playing worse defensemen just because they're not rookies. I think part of the reason that Dekeyser was able to step right in is because he was an NCAA product, meaning he was used to a more defensive game (as opposed to Canadian Junior Hockey) , he was used to playing against men, and he was a little older when he finally made the jump. Certainly those are characteristics that Jensen AND Marchenko have in common with him. I wouldn't be surprised if either of those guys were able to step into a limited role on this team and play better than your average 18 year old junior hockey graduate would. Not a guarantee, but I wouldn't be surprised either.

Brendan Shanahan?

I'd rather face the tough schedule early than late. Everybody will be finding their legs at the beginning of the season, so it's reasonable to assume we'll win (and probably lose) at least a few games that we otherwise might not. Given some of the question marks with our team, I'd be thrilled if we could steal some games during the tough part of our schedule.

I think that post was tongue in cheek.

If we continue to play well (and get better) without any outside acquisitions does that make Ken Holland a genius again? It's hard for me to keep up with who is and isn't a genius in this league these days.

I can guarantee you one thing, if Tootoo and Ruutu are on the same line you'd better keep your head on a swivel.

The easiest way to tell that your defensemen are sucking hard? They only give up one goal against an early season conference favorite. Horrible.

Due to some catastrophic computer failure (about 5 minutes before puck drop) I missed all of the game minus the last ten minutes. At which point it was a penalty-fest and wasn't worth much to watch. Anybody willing to give a recap of the high points?

In college I used to stay up the night before drinking ice beer and watching all my favorite hockey movies before skipping class the next day and getting to the bar...early. I tend to think that would be frowned upon these days.

It was Nyquist getting hit, Brunner doing the tossing. Hence the joke, Nyquist's pregame ritual is getting hit in the balls. I'm juvenile.

Awesome.

Are you suggesting that you wife's bio-rhythms are attuned to the important dates in Henrik Zetterberg's life?

Who has two thumbs and is The Bryz' biggest fan? This guy.

I thought this was...

Well, I wouldn't go that far. I obviously don't like the top line. I would prefer the current second line actually be the third line. And I'd prefer Joakim Andersson go the f*** away. But other than that I suppose it's as good as it's going to be until Datsyuk gets back and Weiss figures out the secret handshake or whatever Babs needs in order to accept his bona fides.

I wasn't.

As much as the forward lines make me want to puke, I will say that there's potential for the Nyquist-Helm-Nestrasil line to do a little damage. It's the same basic dynamic as the Tatar-Sheahan-Jurco line except that Nyquist is a little better offensively than Tatar and Jurco is a little better than Nestrasil.

Was Freddy Kruger not available?

Friends? More like besties.