kipwinger

True but it would put Columbus within two points of us, and we've got back to back tough games against San Jose and Chicago while they've got St. Louis and Minnesota. That's an easier couple of games for them and they're playing much better than we are lately. I'm not worried about the teams above, I'm worried about the ones below.

Yeah for real. Gaborik has a goal and an assist though, so that's good.

Gaborik just had a goal too. That's five points in three games for him with Columbus. Must be nice.

Another one for Ovie tonight, very nice. This is what a shooter can do for you. Guy is unreal.

Geesh, Columbus is beating up on San Jose pretty bad right now. That's not good.

It's pretty hard to give an actual percentage figure on this, but I think there's a pretty good likelihood. It would be far more indicative if he'd brought his kid and wife over here. He didn't. Add to that how much fun he had over there during the lockout, competitive wages in the KHL, and him mentioning leaving in the past and I'd say it's fairly likely. But then again, he's a competitor and there's no league in the world like the NHL so who knows?

Darren Helm doesn't have "back problems". He has had A back problem. Singular. Which has yet to fully heal, but which has yielded zero structural damage by all accounts. People around here make it seem like he's missing time every other week with a back issue. He's never missed a single second of hockey with "back problems" until now. Henrik Zetterberg and Todd Bertuzzi have back problems. As of right now, Darren Helm has a back problem.

I'm not sure that he's injury prone. Aside from one calendar year he hasn't missed much time at all. Now lets look at the injuries he's had during that time. Strained MCL, which is an impact injury and was suffered during a game against San Jose. Nothing can be done. Sliced tendons...c'mon? Fractured cheekbone during offseason when hit by puck...ditto. And finally, torn disc during preseason workout. None of these injuries are recurring, none of them are structural, and any of them (aside from the last one) could just as easily have happened to anyone on the team. Marc Savard.Todd Bertuzzi, and Peter Forsberg were injury prone. Darren Helm is unlucky.

Seconded.

Never heard of that myself. I'd be pretty skeptical.

You're definitely right on the first part, I had that lineup wrong. Thanks for the correction. As for the rest, I'm not necessarily sure that I need you to pontificate about handling adversity. I don't think a losing sports team is any "adversity" at all. It's a sport. I do, however, watch sports to see the team win championships, if I wanted to see a team compete moderately successfully just for the sake of participation, I'd go watch High School sports. We're talking about a professional sports team I pay good money to see win, there are no participation trophies. And when I see that team get further and further away from that goal with every passing season I begin to formulate theories to explain why. Furthermore, when the same things are (or in this case aren't) being done to address the problem year after year, it becomes pretty obvious what a big part of the problem is. Injuries are a form of adversity. Squandering talent and watching your team get less and less competitive is mismanagement. One I can deal with, the other irritates me.

I hear what you're saying, but I don't really think they were counting on him coming back, regardless of what they said. Remember this is the same management which said it was committed to a rebuild, but only after missing out on Jagr. Said that the last six games before the deadline would determine their activity level, and then balked after the team performed quite well. Said that they were only looking for high end talent, and then effectively ensured that wouldn't happen by taking their prospects and 1st round pick off the table. We can't really count on the fact that we're being told anything accurate these days. They're saying these things because it sounds a lot better than, "we're in trouble this season and we're not quite sure what to do to fix it". Perhaps in KH's mind paying lip service is a much better idea than telling everyone what they already know.

Yeah that's a good point, I hadn't thought about it. Either way I think he gets signed, and I think the eventual cap hit will be somewhere in the 4.5-4.75 million range. Which isn't bad considering his versatility and (sad as it is to say) value to a team which might very soon find itself with worse top six issues than it has now.

Best case scenario they extend Filppula and/or Jimmy for one year until the cap goes back up and then give them their paydays. But at this point you've pretty much got to re-sign Filppula no matter what. If our top six going into next season is any combination of the guys we've got right now, without Filppula, we're in real bad shape.

Trade Helm huh? The guy won't even trade a prospect or a pick, and he's going to trade Helm now? I don't see it.

I'm curious to see what he's able to do. I generally think shooters do better at crossing the pond than playmakers, so he should be ok there. But it's a faster game than it is there, and from what I hear he'll not the best skater in the world. It'll be fun to watch though.

Good call. During the lockout I had no skin in the game. I just wanted to watch hockey because baseball was about to be over and those are the only two sports I watch. I couldn't have cared less whether Bettman "won" or Fehr "won". I just wanted the product back and ran back with open arms when it finally was.

You don't need to explain. Your tongue in cheek comment was pretty clear to anybody who...nevermind. It was clear.

Pretty sure two of Filppula's goals are breakaways. Definitely one was, but I think he's got two.

That would be hilarious.

It is an interesting topic, but really what's the better offer is in the eye of the beholder. Hypothetically, we could have offered Nyquist AND Tatar but considering Calgary wanted/needed a goalie prospect (because of this Kipper debacle) they might have placed little or no value on two prospects who are nonetheless very good players. For instance, which is the better offer...Nyquist and Ferraro or Sproul and a 2nd? Depends on the needs of the team in question.

If the only two options you've got to fix a team that got massacred in the first round of the playoffs last year are a few aging vets who weren't all that good to begin with (Sammy, Colaiacovo, Tootoo) OR a bunch of kids with no real NHL experience, then I'd say you've f***ed up. Management keeps "doing all it can" to improve this team and that's the best it's got. Rookies or plugs? What the hell? Remember when we won the cup in 2008. Our third line was Hudler, Filppula, and Sammy. Back then Sammy was only a third line player making 1.2 million per season. Now at 36 years old he's a top sixer worth 3. In what universe? Similarly, back then young guys like Hudler and Filppula were expected to step into supplementary roles until they rounded out their game. Now, we need Nyquist or Tatar to be top sixers or else we have to use Cleary or Abby? Yes we miss Helm and Bert, but only one of those guys is a top six forward. The rest of the top two units are intact and they still can't buy a goal. Does Bert make that big of a difference, or where we expecting Helm to be an offensive dynamo this season? Mismanagement dudes. Plain and simple. Who cares about embarrassing? Since Holland is FINALLY suggesting that we're in a rebuild (only after missing out on Jagr I might add) we might as well think about the long term. And in the long term missing the playoffs and getting the higher pick is probably better than making it, losing early, and getting the 20th overall or whatever it would be. They don't play for bragging rights, they play to win the cup, and even if me make the playoffs we're likely not winning anything. Also, the fact that we're having this discussion is embarrassing no matter what happens with the playoffs.

When/where did he say this?

If he's bought out I'd expect Holland would make him a lowball offer, walk after someone signed for more, then give Sammy a contract extension.

I don't necessarily agree though. Semin was available, Wideman was in play early (rights traded I know), Carle was available. He didn't make an offer to any of those guys. By the time Suter and Parise made their decision we'd already signed Samuelsson, Tootoo, Gustavsson. That was his consolation prize. It was those guys, plus Suter and Parise, or those guys and nothing. That's a huge drop off. I'd have felt a lot better if we'd entered the Suter/Parise sweepstakes after trading for Wideman's rights and making a competitve offer for Semin. Then if we miss out we've still got decent talent coming in. Instead we miss out and have Sammy and Colaiacovo to look forward to.