kipwinger

Two things: 1) I hope so, 2) If anybody could do it it's the Leafs.

Which do you think is more likely... Kindl is actually regressing as a player each and every game and very soon he'll be worse than when he started. or... He's the same crummy player he's been all season, but since he's your whipping boy you're just spending more time scrutinizing each and every little thing he's doing wrong.

Here's the part that gets me. If I'm Smith, and I just got beat like a circus elephant, and I'm rushing back on a guy who's clearly about to tap in the game winning goal I don't love tap him into the net and let him get a stick on the puck...I wipe him out completely, take the penalty, and save the goal. Not touching him at all ends in a goal, touching him a little bit ends in a goal, destroying his life saves a goal. I'm not blaming Brendan for not doing it, I just wish he had.

Guilty. I do have an agenda. It's called using video and statistical evidence to prove to everyone that Smith's not ready to be a top pair defenseman. Good work detective, you caught me red handed. I think probably the reason why people give Dekeyser a break are twofold. First, he actually plays defense. Secondly, none of his turnovers led to the game winning goal for Columbus. Edit: Also watch the video at the link below starting at 3:08. It wasn't a bad bounce at all, the Columbus forward chipped it over Smith's stick (as Smith desperately lunged for the puck rather than getting back) and had nothing but space and time. Why oh why do people feel the need to constantly make excuses for this guy? http://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/en/recap?id=2013021085&navid=nhl:topheads

Addressing your point about Boston, I agree. If the Bruins where missing pieces like we are they'd probably struggle too. And when they did I sure hope their fan base wouldn't go blaming loses on their third line wingers and bottom pair defensemen. Because that would be misguided...and stupid. Of course Bertuzzi makes bad plays, he's a washed up veteran who can hardly skate. But replacing him with a kid who's clearly not ready for NHL competition doesn't help you at all either. Because guess who else makes bad plays? Kids who are in over their heads. For the time being we've got nobody better to play on this patched up third line than Bert. When Jurco's back it probably won't be an issue anymore.

I'm not mad at Smith for knocking the net off the moorings, however, I am mad at him for being so out of position that he gave up a 2 on 1 and only caught up to the play (despite his elite skating ability) as the goal was being scored. His pinch was terrible and it cost us last night...with or without the net mooring incident.

Don't forget the astoundingly stupid interference penalty he took in the first, which led to a goal, and was nowhere near the play itself. Ok, having said that I'll say this. Smith looked better the two Minnesota games, and didn't look bad (or good) against Pittsburgh. As you mentioned his decision making is not up to snuff, and that problem is going to be exacerbated with more minutes against better competition like he's getting on the first line. So as a coach Babs needs to determine whether the potential benefits (like in Minnesota) of having Smith on the top line outweigh the negatives. So far, I'd say it's a wash. He helped win a game (the first in Minny) and last night he helped lose one. Time will tell.

The Bert hate around here is absurd. First of all, he didn't have a terrible game minus the penalty at the beginning which was incidental and happens a thousand times a week in the NHL. Secondly, Bert's not an X factor on this team. He's a washed up injury replacement who wouldn't be playing on a healthy roster. We neither win nor lose based on Bert's play. Wanna blame anyone? Blame Kronwall, Alfie, and Franzen for not showing up in a week (at least). Oh, and our terrible defense. Everybody around here always thinks that the reason we're no good some nights is because a third liner or bottom pair defenseman isn't very good...as if other teams don't have those too. Guess what? Boston's Shawn Thornton isn't very good and has, almost certainly, taken dumb penalties/got outclassed by more skilled players to the detriment of his team. Yet they win anyway. Why? They don't rely on bottom line players to win them games.

Tatar scores.

Yes it does. It says exactly those words. In order to award a goal in this situation, the goal post must have been displaced by the actions a defending player or goalkeeper, the puck must have been shot (or the player must be in the act of shooting) at the goal prior to the goal post being displaced, and it must be determined that the puck would have entered the net between the normal position of the goal posts.

What it is mother f***ers?!?!? My mind's racing right now from all the booze and things I couldn't say during the game. 1) Where the f*** are our veterans? Nobody expects Bertuzzi to be good, he's washed up, where are Alfie, Franzen, and Kronwall? 2) Don't go giving "the best coach in the league" too much credit for the recent upswing considering his two best players (the guys clawing this team into the playoff picture) are guys he actively worked to keep out of the lineup by bringing back Cleary and playing, Sammy, and Bert, and he over the kids. This was never in his plan. 3) Just when you think Brendan Smith is trending upward he goes full on retard. -2 tonight, including a horrible pinch in the third (very bad idea), empty netter (not his fault), and a terrible penalty in the first (away from the play) that resulted in a goal. Meanwhile Kyle Quincey was even with more ice time. 4) If I was Tomas Tatar's agent I would jam Holland up this off season. Make that f***** pay. What? He's not going to re-sign you? 5) Callahan looked good...or at least he looked like a real winger. Speaking of which, get Andersson off the wing, he literally had ZERO impact all game. 6) Jimmy was fine...don't blame Jimmy.

I aim to please.

I mean, I'm not trying to denigrate the guy...what he does well he does pretty well. Good pk, faceoffs, defensively responsible. He's a good bit better than Emmerton and probably better all around than Glendening (though less gritty). And that's precisely his problem, he's too good to be on the fourth line (long term) and not better than Helm, Sheahan, Legwand, Weiss, or Datsyuk...so he ends up playing the wing...where he doesn't take faceoffs, or have as much defensive responsibility...and so the things that make him excel aren't needed.

Well as bad as our PP has been for about three years now I think Babs just puts the units together at random. Babs: "Ok, first unit is going to be Kronwall, Ericsson, Lashoff, Gustavsson, Mrazek" Tatar: "Coach those guys are all defensemen and goalies..." Alfie: "Seriously, at least two of them aren't even in the lineup right now..." Babs: "That's why you've got to compete..." Alfie: "What does that even..." (Short handed goal) Babs: "PLAY HEAVIER!"

Yeah but he's really big...doesn't that mesmerize you?

I agree with that, I also don't think it's fair to him to have him constantly pushed down the depth chart and out of his natural position just because we've got 2 million centers. I really think we need to figure out 5 guys to be centers next season and let the others pursue their careers someplace else if they want too. I'd flip him to a Buffalo, Edomonton, or Florida for whatever pick I could get out of them and watch as the kid played solid third line minutes for them because he's been developed correctly.

Does anyone else hate having Andersson on the wing as much as I do? Slow and doesn't score...awesome. He's good defensively and at faceoffs, I get it, but if he's not going to play center (where those things matter) then why bother?

I'm not comparing Emmerton and Callahan here because I've never seen Callahan play and by all accounts he's good defensively...but...Emmerton (while not being full time NHL material) is defensively responsible and skates well. Given the way he wants to play the game, Babs' has got mad love for a guy who skates well and is good defensively.

Ok, I know that I brought this up and so it's on me. And I definitely don't want to cut your views short. But let's not make this about Subban, we had enough of it during the Olympics. I'm sorry I brought it up, I just liked the way he responded after taking a hard hit. My bad. Can we go back to Callahan now?

I've always respected the fact that Lucic played hard, but he's clearly one of the dumbest players in the league. I definitely lost a little love for the guy after this. Plus, I think the culture surrounding the Bruins doesn't help. They're like Philly, right there on the border between playing physical (which is fine) and gooning it up because that's "Bruins/Flyers" hockey. Edit: Here's how you take a legal hip check like a man. Good on PK.

I completely agree. Here's Lucic's comments following the game. What a complete ******, he even so much as admits it was a clean hit. Guy sounds like a child. I had an older brother who used to play the "you scared?" and "Chicken!" game...when we 8 and 10 years old. "Whether it's fair, legal or whatever you want to call it, if he wasn't scared, he would stand up and hit me and not go after my knees," Lucic said. "It just shows how big of a chicken he is that he needs to go down like that to take me down. It shows what kind of player he is, and on my end, you know you've got to keep your guard up at all times."

I completely disagree with this. Columbus plays a reasonably physical game, much like the Preds and Coyotes the last couple of years, but they don't "take liberties". They're middle of the road in penalty minutes, fights, a major penalties, and very low on the list of misconducts and game misconducts. Hell their penalty minutes leader is Brandon Dubinsky...not exactly a notoriously dirty player. So unless there's some sort of league wide conspiracy to help out the B.J.'s (not even sure the league knows there's a team in Columbus), they're certainly not being called for any of the "liberties" they take. Edit: And speaking of taking liberties, anybody catch Milan Lucic's little temper tantrum after Alexei Emelin dared deliver a legal hipcheck? Apparently you're required to either A) fight everytime you play the Bruins, or B) Play like Cinderella. What a bawl baby.

Aw s***! That was the baddest fight I'd ever seen until Dallas Eakins and Taylor Hall had their tussle. Talk about no-holds barred, did you see Eakins throw that towel at Hall? Oh no you didn't!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that the two lines of thinking aren't mutually exclusive. Chances are we did overpay for Legwand because Poile would be the worst GM in the world to not make us overpay. He had us over a barrel and he knew it, why not try and get more than you would under normal circumstances? If we weren't so injured he'd likely have asked for less rather than lose Legwand for nothing in July. However, that doesn't mean that Legwand is bad, or wasn't worth the price, or that he isn't playing a huge role in our recent successes. There are a lot of instances when a team overpayed for someone AND it turned out to be a good move. I bet Columbus isn't regretting the Wisniewski signing right now, nor Toronto the Kessel trade. So congrats, everybody is a winner in this debate.

As I said before, if he gets into a scrap Babs will never play him again, and he might actually kill Callahan if he takes a bad penalty and costs us a point. I'm excited to see the kid play too, but I'm just hoping for a sound defensive game and hard forecheck/hitting from the kid.