kipwinger

I found about 2 million streams, and the god damned server at my office blocks them or something. Soooooooo disappointed right now. Edit: Also, when Henrik Lundqvist has an assist you can be pretty sure Erik Karlsson just went end to end.

You think every time Smith tries to hand Abdelkader a beer he turns it over to Andersson instead? Haha, I can't stop thinking about Red Wings beer drinking metaphors now. I bet Abdelkader works SUPER hard to get his beer open and then shoots it wide of his mouth when he finally tries to take a drink.

If you can produce even one article I'll concede. As for the opinions of fans, being a member of LGW has taught me nothing if it hasn't taught me that most "fans" are irrationally gossipy and prone to serious lapses in judgement and analytical reasoning. Hell, there are currently a bunch of "fans" in another forum pontificating (poorly) on the principles of democracy, constitutionality, and representative governance. Nothing about "the fans say so" is convincing to me.

I have not seen or heard one single source suggest that Stewart has played "lazy". If you have I'd love for you to share the info, because until you do it's just speculation.

Where did this come from?

Yeah, for real. I actually don't think he's got an attitude...any more. Even if he did, that dude is about to light it up for the Americans and bring us the gold. I'd gladly watch him punch ten or twelve cab drivers so long as I don't have to feel like I did four years ago.

Haha. At the end of the day it doesn't really matter I suppose. I guess I just don't understand the thinking is all. Which is nothing new, since I find most modern thought utterly befuddling.

What's the point of picking a team in the Olympics if you aren't going to pick your national team? That's literally the ENTIRE point of the Olympics. Unless you're a German hockey fan and don't have a horse in the race, it's completely absurd to root against your country in an event which is specifically designed for nations to compete with one another. I could understand not caring who wins, and only caring about seeing good games. But that means that you would be just as happy to see your team win as any other. But to actively hope another team is better than your national team makes no sense to me. Would you root against our home country's world junior team? How about your hometown high school team? Silly.

I agree that Nyquist, Smith, and 1st is too expensive for Edler. However, Pulkkinen, Backman and a 2nd is WAY too low. You'd get laughed off the phone. If that's all you'd be willing to give for him, then why bother? Why not just say, "Edler's not worth anything more than unproven b-level prospects and garbage" and leave it at that. Either Nyquist + 1st, or Smith + Pulkkinen + 1st would be about fair for Edler at this stage of the game. Secondly, I don't know where you get the idea that Stewart is "bone-headed", takes "dumb penalties", or doesn't bring it. He puts up very big numbers for a guy getting third line minutes, leading one to assume he does in fact "bring it". Also, he's only topped 100 penalty minutes twice in his career, and in each instance a significant portion of those minutes were for fighting. It's not like he's out there taking all kinds of hookings, slashing, tripping, etc. (bad penalties). He takes fewer penalties per 60 minutes than Abby does, and produces about 50000000000000000% more, while still bringing the physical part of the game that presumably makes Abby so valuable.

Dude, I'm going to call you out...I don't want to...but I HAVE to. Our very lives depend upon the telling of the truth. You were on the Smith bandwagon HARD all summer.

Perhaps you're forgetting about a secret little weapon known as Jan Mursak. BOOM! How's it feel to have a bomb dropped on your a**?!!

Because we've got plenty of defensive scoring without Yandle or Byfuglien and we needed players who could actually play adequate defensive defense now and again. Byfulgien is TERRIBLE defensively and putting him out there against Canada or Sweden would be tantamount to handling them the Gold Medal. Yandle is better than Buf, but still why pick him when Suter, Fowler, Shattenkirk, and McDonagh are all scoring as much as he is this year AND play defense better too?

They could be these...yikes!

...is better than everyone's, except Canada?

I agree with your comments on the goaltending, but I'd also add that while the US team does have weaker links like Martin and Faulk, Canada's Hamhuis and Vlasic, or Sweden's Oduya and Tallinder, aren't noticeably better. Every top team has a couple of holes (relatively speaking of course) on defense.

Two things. 1) I assume you're talking about Bobby Ryan. I like Bobby Ryan. But Kessel, Kane, Pavelski, Pacioretty, Wheeler, and Van Riemsdyk all have more goals than Bobby does. Team USA will be fine without him. 2) Team USA's defense is STACKED, they're just not high profile names. McDonagh (30 pts), Shattenkirk (36), Suter (33), Fowler (31) are all top twenty in league scoring, while Carlson's 10 goals are good for 7th in the league. They're also all REALLY good defenders (Fowler's probably the worst). I guess you could say that Martin, Orpik, and Faulk are the weak links, but those guys are all very solid defensively as well. I'd rather our weak links be good defensively than offensively (Subban). They aren't as good as Canada's defense but are miles ahead of any other defense in the tourney.

Maybe we could talk Rafalski into coming out of retirement...oh wait...

You could certainly stand to cut down on the sarcasm since I only asked you a question. I agree they aren't executing, and poor execution generally has a lot more to do with coaching than it seems at first glance. The team didn't forget how to play hockey all of a sudden. So what's the issue? According to Babs they aren't trying hard enough. However, I can't imagine that's the case considering part of what gets professional athletes to the level they're at is their competitiveness and drive to succeed. I certainly don't think the Detroit Red Wings collectively decided that they just weren't going to work hard last night. Also, when you say "all he can do is tell them what he wants done, it's up to them to do it" you're essentially saying that Babs comes up with a game plan, puts the lineup together, and then he's done for the night. Coaches have work to do "controlling" players all game long. And when a team chronically blows third period leads you've got to wonder what's going on. Unless, of course, you believe the Babcock line and think that somewhere between the second and third periods the guys just stopped trying, just as they have a dozen other times this season. I don't know the answer, but I'm calling b.s. on Babs' explanation. Me too. But in case you hadn't heard, the whole team just stopped competing (all at once) in the third period for some unexplained reason.

I want to be clear, you'd agree with Babs that the problem with the team is simply that they aren't trying hard enough?

Well according to our coach is was both the offense and the defense. Apparently they didn't "compete hard enough" in front of the net and if he had just "won our battles" we'd have been ok. If only there was a guy who's job was to ensure that this team was competitive and create strategies for "winning battles".

Man alive, Jurco has kinda got a mean streak doesn't he? He was relentless on the boards yesterday. He looks like he's 12 years old, but he's hard on defensemen. Ask Gudas.

I want to be clear, I don't think Byfuglien is the right guy for this team. Having said that, I think that the weight and fitness comments are a bit off base. Here's a good article Puck Daddy did on the topic of Byfuglien's fitness.. http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nhl-puck-daddy/dustin-byfuglien-apparently-not-locked-refrigerator-summer-photo-053111390--nhl.html Also, I'd have to imagine that all the goals he's scored paired with his two all-star appearances and pivotal role in a Stanley Cup championship should probably dispel any notion that his fitness is somehow a detriment to his ability to play hockey at an incredibly high level.

Jesus, too bad he's horrible at the penalty shot eh?

Nobody mentioning Chris Stewart? I'd take him every day of the week.

I'm sorry, I wasn't trying to single you out or anything. I thought your posts relayed the hesitant optimism that you just spoke of. I was talking about the general habit of discussing him as if he were one of our top defensive prospects, when it's pretty clear that he's topped out in terms of potential. To be honest I hadn't even read your post before I wrote mine, it was just coincidence that mine came so quickly on the heels of yours. You're right though, he's a borderline guy who could surprise with a huge offseason.