kipwinger

There was no place else to put this and I didn't want to start a new thread, but did anyone else see that Chris Stewart signed a two year, 8.3 million dollar contract? Makes those contracts for Clarkson, Bickell, and Clowe look like total s*** doesn't it?

Only in a world this bizarre could anyone insinuate that Dan Carcillo is useless and that John Scott is the better option for Chicago or anyone else. I'm flabbergasted!

I can't speak for a Nyquist sweater, but you can probably get a Filppula one for a couple of bucks at Goodwill.

Huck, huck. You can say whatcha want but that gal darn Titus Young story was just dang good tv. 3 times in a week! That's hi-larious! Reminds me of my cousin Ricky-Jo, 'cept Ricky's was all for Meth. Anyway's say whatcha want bout the NFL, but everybody knows football is a man's sport and anybody doesn't like it is a p*ssy and probably a *errorist.

Maybe they should dress a couple more fighters since it's clear that having Orr and McLaren on their fourth line in the playoffs couldn't quite get it done. I mean, it's a recipe for success. First you dress two enforcers who can't play regular shifts, then you tear down some pictures, and then you plan the parade. It's that simple. Good thing they fired Brian Burke, that guy didn't know s*** compared to this bunch.

Well at least the Wings are more popular than the Pistons. You know you've got a s***ty product when your sport (which is played everywhere) is constantly losing ground to a sport played almost entirely above the Mason-Dixon. Anyway, hockey is the most intense, physically demanding sport there is, and baseball is the most cerebral. As such, they are the best. Anyone suggesting an opinion to the contrary is wrong. Yes, I said it, your opinion is absolutely, positively, scientifically verifiably, wrong wrong wrong. "But...But...But...Kip, the NFL has hilarious commercials, sensationalized drama, and tons of play stoppages. You don't even have to pay attention to the game to enjoy it" Shut you face biotches!

I don't know about him consistently, but Ericsson absolutely demolished Bickell during the playoffs, and I doubt anybody else on the team would have been able to do that without taking a pretty serious run. Ericsson is strong as hell.

I like this contract, it's a very good "show us what you've got" contract that puts the ball firmly in Smith's court. Here's hoping he outperforms it in the near future.

I think his game will translate well to the KHL. He was always a good skater, and with all that time and space he might make a difference for his team. Good luck to him. Whatever dude, I've actually been to Russia and it's awesome over there. Obviously I wouldn't want to live there for peanuts, but if you're a millionaire, that place is like a god send. Meech will have a killer time there with all the black market champagne, caviar, and beautiful blonde women that money can buy. And with the exchange rates as they are, his salary will buy a TON of champagne, caviar, and women. I envy Derek Meetch.

Well,if that is how our forward lines shake out (and I'm not sure it will be with all the dead weight we've got hanging around) then I'm not too impressed. Unless, of course, it's 2009 and I'm not aware that I've time traveled. I know it's asking a lot, but wouldn't it be nice if we had one (legit) top six winger who wasn't 30+ years old? Just so I could have one player on the roster that I didn't have to pencil a little question mark next to.

I don't want to make a rank order list because I'm feeling pretty lazy, but I'd add Pietrangelo to your list and probably remove Karlsson. His offensive is obviously WAY better, but as shaky as Kronwall may seem at times, imagine if he were only 175 lbs and much weaker.

Kronwall was fine as a #1. Ideally, your top guy will be well above average as both a puck mover, and defensive defenseman. Kronwall was certainly that. Plus he logged an absolute ton of minutes given all the injuries as well as the growing pains associated with having a lot of young d-men on the team. I don't think this last part can be overstated. Not only did he have to transition into the top spot, but he had to do it without having a supremely capable second pairing. Obviously he's not the best shutdown defenseman in the league or anything, but I don't think there's too many all around d-men who are better at both ends of the ice.

I didn't allude to the fact that Smith "sucked doorknobs", I explicitly said it lol. Just like I've explicitly said over and over and over that he'll eventually get better, but that he wasn't very good last year. The problem that I have with your first post is that you constructed a straw man, and then responded to that. "Hopeless" seems to suggest that Smith's detractors think he'll never get better. Pretty much everybody that calls him out for his play last season also admits that he's only going to get better. I'm beyond debating with you about Smith's performance. We've talked about it enough. But it genuinely hampers discussion when you can't say a single negative thing about him without someone (in this case you and a lot of others) suggesting that you think he's hopeless, or want him traded, or hate him, etc. etc. etc.. Nobody thinks any of that. However I do think that a guy who was as heavily hyped as he was should probably have been better than 0 goals and 8 assists in the regular season (in addition to his obviously poor defense though I don't really hold that against him since he was an offensive defenseman to begin with). Furthermore, when he didn't give a better performance than that, I don't think it's a faux pas to say that he wasn't very good without immediately being rejected by those intent on putting words in your mouth. Edit: Or more simply, just answer these two questions... Given what was expected, did Brendan Smith have a good season? (I answer no). Will he get better? (I answer yes). If you answered the first one differently than I did, then we've reached the root of the problem.

Who said he was hopeless? I hadn't read that...anywhere.

I'm definitely not forgetting, and as I've stated over, and over, and over again...he's going to get better and I'm glad he's on the team. I'm just sick to death of people who either make excuses for him, or whitewash the fact that he didn't play very well. He played like a boneheaded rookie, he'll get paid based on that, and one day down the line he won't play that way anymore (which is a good thing). I'm not against Smith, I just make no illusions about his play thus far. That's about the 2,000,000th time I've said that. In the future it might do you some good to read the posts previous to yours. In this case, the one where I responded to Amato and said the exact same thing that I'm saying to you now. Then you wouldn't have to take all that time to find snarky little gifs to make a point I'd agreed to months ago.

I don't think anyone is saying it's "make it or break it", just that he stunk last year (in Torts' terms), and that he probably won't make much if he has an arbitration hearing. Obviously he's only going to get better.

Considering all teams play roughly the same amount of home games, wouldn't the subjective bias have essentially no effect?

Yeah I agree, he'll get better there's no question about it. And how could he not after last season's performance lol. He'll be fine.

Because he played terrible during that 1/2 season. You could say the same thing about Dekeyser, only he played even fewer games. You know what the difference is? One of them didn't make several boneheaded mistakes each game, while failing to live up to the one thing that got them to the NHL in the first place. Brendan Smith was awful, defensively (which I don't care about as much because it was always a given that he'd need to improve there) AND offensively (which is a worse sin since he was supposedly an offensive defenseman). I'm sure he'll improve. But you can't whitewash the truth. Yes he was a rookie, so is every player at one time or another. But not every rookie sucks doorknobs.

Given how desperately Samuelsson is clinging to that extra million he'll make if he's not bought out, does anybody think there's a chance if we offered him 4 million dollars he'd go hide on that one island with Elvis, Bigfoot, and Tupac?

I came to post the same thing. Atta boy.

Yeah but that's exactly what I'm saying. It's not beyond the realm of possibility that Brunner, with proper conditioning, could get up to around 190 lbs. and certainly get stronger. Which would help him on the cycle, help his defense, and help his shot, and help him when he's playing in the tougher areas. Certainly he was in good cardio condition when he came over, but there's a reason why almost every player gains ten pounds when they make it to the NHL. Obviously some of them are going to grow more anyway because they're young, but Pav and Z both put on about 20 lbs when they got here, and they weren't 18 at the time. Kindl did it too after coming up from GR...20 lbs his first full season. Like I said, there are a lot of perks to being an NHL player and Brunner hasn't really had the opportunity to make good on them yet. So, I'd expect him to improve, though how much is anyone's guess.

That's definitely a legitimate concern, but I think with a full training camp, offseason conditioning, and all the other perks that come along with being a player on a professional club in the NHL, Brunner is only going to improve. How much? I have no idea. But I don't think it's a long shot to assume he'll improve on his transition year. The guy's a good player, and a lot of this contract stuff has soured people on him, but he's not as bad as he's been made out to be by his defectors, and not as good as his supporters. I think tops you're looking at a guy who can basically play Michael Ryder's game. But he's not there yet, and therefore doesn't deserve the money he's asking. For the life of me I don't know why he didn't sign a one year deal and then cash in after a strong performance this season.

I completely agree. All too often though, this "fear the East's physicality" argument boils down to how many penalty minutes are accrued as your previous post clearly pointed out there's no difference in hits or fights. I think when people suggest that our guys will get beat up in the East they're thinking of the dirty stuff. And I couldn't be more delighted if that's the way teams play us all season long. I'd be happy to have an 82 game power play. I'll start worrying when "the East is more physical" means that the East plays a more fast paced, in your face type of game and so far I'm not convinced they do.

Going a little overboard there buddy. Most people don't think Abby sucks, though probably some do, but the majority are just saying Abby wont put up serious offensive numbers. I stated previously that he'll probably produce about as much as Bert did two years ago, which is fine if he does what you're saying and opens up space for the other two. Abby's fine where he's at, and even helpful in that role, but an offensive dynamo he is not.