kipwinger

Tatar did not play one single second in the AHL last year.

Classy. Atta boy Alex. That little girl was freaking adorable.

The Panthers?

Dude, you're must making s*** up now. You're now saying "I'm not talking about jumping Scuderi", but in your earlier post you said "I don't think he would have asked Scuderi if he wanted to go or not, Scuderi's only choice would have been defend yourself or else". Just stop already. Your position on fighters is tenuous, at best, and it's made much worse when you say contradictory things and act like we're all too stupid to notice. You absolutely WERE talking about jumping Scuderi, you're just changing your tune now because you realize it was a dumb thing to say in the first place.

Oh, enforcers are better at some other part of the game than our fourth line? What's that? Fighting? Well that doesn't sound like circular logic at all does it? We should sign a fighter because they're better at fighting than non-fighters. Smart. Unless you weren't talking about fighting. Which part of the game are enforcers better at again? Taking penalties? If the mass waiving of goons like Orr and McLaren this offseason wasn't already an indication that having enforcers no your roster is retarded, wait until the end of the season and see how Calgary did with their enforcer fourth line. We already know it will give Krys Barch a boner, but outside of that I suspect that the team will stink and the line itself will be putrid statistically. But here's the kicker. That's what Burke wants. He want a s***ty team so he can draft McDavid. And while his team is s***ty, he'd like to sell some tickets, so he goons it up. This isn't a strategy to be a good team. It's a marketing ploy to be a bad team but still excite dummies like Krys Barch. Apparently it worked.

So being worse is preferable? It seems like you're arguing that because we weren't great at something last year, we shouldn't care about it, and make it even worse by adding a fighter. Smart.

I'm sure Drew Miller would prefer to play against Krys Barch 82 games a year too. Who wouldn't want to line up across from a guy who can barely skate and only has a rudimentary understanding of how to actually play the game of hockey? Glendening and Andersson? Yes, yes they do.

I do too, we'll get a good scoring chance out of the deal.

I'm not sure why you think that Ouellet being on the team would have any affect on either of those forwards. It wouldn't. If Quellet had stayed up then KH would have had to waive one defenseman. Likely, it would have been Kindl or Lashoff. But in lieu of Babs' strange "Kindl and Lash are safe" comments and "we're not looking for bottom pair help, we're looking for top four help" comments, I'm starting to wonder if the organization didn't see Ouellet as competing with Smith and/or Quincey and not Kindl and Lashoff. Maybe the reason Quellet was sent down was because KH was reluctant to cut Smith or Quincey, and not Lash and Kindl as we're all assuming. Edit: I know technically he could go with 8 defenders. But since he hasn't reliably done so since becoming the GM I'm assuming he'd have waived one and kept 14 forwards.

That's not the case at all. Find me one single time in which McGrattan just attacked a guy for a clean hit. Also, why (in your fantasy scenario) is McGrattan on the ice with Datsyuk in the first place? McGrattan, like most heavy weight enforcers, only fights other heavy weight enforcers. So no, he wouldn't have jumped Scuderi. And even if he had, he'd have just got a suspension for it the way your boy Shawn Thornton did when he mugged Brooks Orpik for a clean hit. Exactly what did that solve? Certainly didn't "keep the Pens honest" as James Neal kneed Marchand in the head half a period later.

And McGrattan (or whatever talentless meathead you like) can be our goal scorer.

Well, I don't think it's inconceivable that the team could have kept around one or two defensive prospects to fill out the points on the PP. At which time you'd only need six forwards. And we've at least six who are much more qualified to do that job than Helm. Sadly, however, we've apparently got exactly two defensemen that Babs feels confident enough to put on the powerplay (and one of them is Dekeyser). Justify it however you want. If you're comfortable with Darren Helm on your powerplay I don't know what to say to you. Speaking of, why is it that Babs would rather have Helm and Nestrasil on the powerplay than Smith? I thought he was supposed to get a shot this year?

The best players will play.

If he's got "stone hands in front of the net" then he shouldn't be on the powerplay, since the powerplay is all about scoring and all.

That's the beauty of it. The Detroit Red Wings don't worry about playing to people's strengths. As a matter of fact, in our system, players don't have strengths. Anybody is just as good as anybody else, at any position. Don't t you get it? It's impossible to key on any one player when you use all the players on your team in the exact same way. Brilliant.

In theory. But if Helm were any good at that then his offensive production would be significantly higher than it is. The fact is, so far, Helm's speed has not translated into much offensive productivity. I'm not really sure why he seems to be the guy Babs is counting on to fill holes in the offense. Maybe I'm wrong, but I just see Abby all over again. "Well, put him alongside Datsyuk and he'll score just fine...". *facepalm*

I hope so. I guess I have to give them the benefit of the doubt for now. I just can't help but think they're grasping at straws. Like when they put Hudler on the PP point. Or Eaves. Or Alfie. Or Sammy.

What the hell kind of power play units are those? Helm? Nestrasil? Jesus. I hope they see something I don't.

There are a lot of things that make Helm a better option for some teams than Semin, but it's funny that you picked out speed and versatility. Semin is versatile and really fast too. Semin's got as many facets to his game as Helm. They're just different ones. Helm's fast, defensively responsible, and good on PK. Semin's bigger, also very fast, excellent offensively, dangerous on the PP, and is a righty. oh, and he's actually pretty good defensively too. Per fancy stats... http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capitals-insider/post/statistical-analysis-alexander-semin-criticism-is-unfair/2011/09/21/gIQAMfyClK_blog.html. http://thehockeywriters.com/overtime/alexander-semin-and-ignoring-the-10-percent/ But again, I was really only screwing around. That ship sailed a long time ago.

I thought Weiss looked fine in the preseason. Or, at least no worse than 90% of the rest of the team. I feel like Nestrasil, Ouellet, and Tatar were the only ones that were doing any scoring so I can't really single Weiss out. Get him some finishers and he'll be just fine.

I had no idea that Pavel Datsyuk was the general manager of the Detroit Red Wings. f*** you, Datsyuk, for re-signing Cleary, and trading for Quincey, and not bringing back Hossa...ya know, cuz you call the shots now. (all in jest)

I don't think they would either. I'm being a smart ass. They'll stick with Helm or Abby on the top line wing, because surely those guys are better scoring line wingers than...Alexander Semin lol. But just look at that shot.

Helm and Kindl, packaged together, wouldn't get you much. But they'd probably get you Alexander Semin. Just sayin'. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEVLG8oyKnA Then again, Semin's got too obvious a skill set. Babcock would invariably make him the fourth line goalie or something.

Well it's a good thing we don't have anyone like that now.

I'll take you guys' word for it. I'm just skeptical because I've never seen any fan, anywhere, ever, who wasn't a raging dick about their team when said team has the best record in the league. Walk into any bar next Sunday, and the cockiest, most arrogant, most obnoxious a-hole in the place will be the one with the best team in the league. As much as I'd like to think we're different I don't believe we are. Maybe. But it's hard to believe. I just assumed all this "Pavel Datsyuk is magic" and "Mike Babcock is a the world's best coach", etc. started in 2008. The fact that it all came along since then is actually kinda funny. And sad.