kipwinger

I'm totally optimistic about a team that's barely .500 and has been murdered in the playoffs for three straight years without making one meaningful improvement. What should we be optimistic about? That in 3 or 4 years we MIGHT have Jarnkrok, Jurco, Frk, Nysquist, on the team and they MIGHT actually have decent careers. Yep, there's always a silver lining...oh wait, during that same time we MIGHT lose Datsyuk and Flip, and Zetterberg, Kronwall, and Franzen PROBABLY will be in the decline.

1. Howson is not their GM anymore. 2. Amidst, all the s*** talking about Howson, people conveniently forget how much better that team got over the last two years. They only acquired Wisniewski, Johnson, Aucoin, Dubinsky, Anisimov, Letestu, Foligno, Tyutin, Umberger, Prospal, Bobrovsky and two 1st round picks under Howson. We got Samuelsson, Tootoo, Quincey, White, Commodore, and Gustavsson during the same time frame. Hmmm... Not saying I want Howson to replace Holland, but that team got noticeably better under his tenure. So while it's fun to make jokes, he didn't do a bad job.

John Moore is no Brendan Smith. He's not even the best young defenseman on that team and he has essentially no upside.

If I'm not mistaken you're suggesting that losing in the second round of the playoffs is some sort of accomplishment. Well pin a rose on your nose.

Boo to all these teams for "trading away the future" in order to improve now. What a bunch of suckers these guys are. They all need to take a lesson from Holland and do the only reasonable thing, stand pat with an aging team that hasn't been competitive since 2009. Stand pat, it's the wave of the future.

So one way of thinking about this is that Columbus lost Nash, Brassard, Moore, and Dorsett (injured), and gained Gaborik, Dubinsky, Anisimov, and a 1st. Well played Columbus.

Maybe he did, but it clearly wasn't as good of an offer. Gabby had to waive his no trade clause, if the offer was as good or better don't you think he'd have prefered to waive it to go to Detroit?

Brassard, Dorsett, and John Moore for Gaborik.

Did the Flyers just swap Steve Mason for Sergei Bobrovsky in a round about way?

Vanek, Pominville, Yandle, and Gaborik are all available. But you're not going to get a sniff of any of them if you start by saying "I'm not going to trade any top prospects or my first round pick". You know what's crazy, when you add a "dynamic" player to your team it tends to change the team's...dynamic. Strange I know, but doesn't anyone else feel like even a lateral move might be worthwhile here considering our current core doesn't seem capable of getting anything done?

Nobody is suggesting "selling the farm". Nyquist and a 1st would get a pretty good return, and it wouldn't be detrimental to the long term viability of this team. It's not like we're talking about trading away 4 or 5 prospects here. Moving one or two guys does not equal destroying the future. Tomas Fleischmann was traded for Robert Lang. Lang didn't work out, and Fleischmann is a good player, yet our future wasn't destroyed because of it. Everybody around here acts like if we traded Nyquist or a 1st then all would be lost. It's silly.

Line 1: Thank you for calling Little Caesar's Pizza, how can I help you? Line 2: This is Ken Holland, how much for a large Pizza? Line 1: $10 Line 2: Too rich for my blood, goodbye. The following day in the Free Press, "Well I worked the phones but nothing made sense".

It's not a matter of not making a trade, at least in my opinion. It's a matter of not making a trade or a prominent free agent signing in about 4 years, in conjunction with the fact that this team (or at least it's core) has been woefully inadequate the entire time. The core group we have is not getting the job done, so either add too it, or rebuild it. All we seem to do is add bit parts, or do nothing at all. I just don't understand the strategy. For example: Holland doesn't want to trade his first rounder in case we don't make the playoffs. He doesn't want to trade White or Filppula in case we do. The whole point of hedging your bets is to stand still until something changes systemically that leaves you in a better position. I don't know what he thinks is going to change, but clearly it hasn't happened yet, and I don't see anything on the horizon that bodes well for us. Three years from now we might have Jarnkrok, Nyquist, and Jurco playing decent hockey. We'll also have Zetterberg, Kronwall, and Franzen playing declining hockey and likely no Datsyuk or Filppula either. So how does staying put work out in the long run?

Does anybody know who Jarnkrok's linemates are in Grand Rapids? I saw that he's a plus 2 in four games but he doesn't have any assists and was wondering who was doing the scoring.

Wow, seems like you're trying to make a point here but it's just too subtle. What on earth could you possibly be getting at? Everything is obscured by your insulting tone and blatant, uncreative, provocations.

Last year our powerplay ranked 22nd and this year it's 17th. Our PK was 25th last year and this year it's 18th. So you're right, special teams weren't better, they were about the same. I concede that point.

The only thing I was trying to refute was your claim that we didn't have a shoot first forward, we did. Secondly, the reason why Zetterberg's number have dipped is hard to pin down, but part of it is because back then he was playing the wing on Datsyuk's line. In our system wingers generally score more goals than centers because they don't have as much defensive responsibility. That's why Flip was moved to the wing last year...to get more offense out of him. Other than those two things I agree with pretty much everything you said. Especially the part about not having the supporting cast, and guys keying on Zetterberg. I've been saying this for a while. Without a legit top line, Zetterberg draws the tough defensive matchups, and gets stymied every night. Add Pominville or Gaborik to Pavel's wing and Zetterberg's offense will return, bet on it.

All of that happened last year and we were bounced in the first. Franzen was producing, Flip has having a career year, and Dats and Z were Dats and Z. Plus our special teams were miles ahead of where they are now. Still lost...badly. This team needs more talent, simple as that. We have two world class centers, one above average defenseman and winger, and that's it. Zetterberg is tops in the league every year in shots on goal. In 2008 he had 43 goals and was second in the league in shots on goal with 358. So yeah, we did have that.

Make the playoffs and anything can happen? Right. When was the last time that a team with terrible special teams, and middle of the road offense and defense won a cup? I'm so sick of this "LA did it last year" bulls***. LA was a stellar team in every area but one, they couldn't score. They made some improvements at the deadline, finally got some offensive stars to wake up, and bingo bango you've got a cup team. If Justin Abdelkader thinks any team can beat any other team in the playoffs I'd like to remind him of last Sunday's game. Psss...Justin...they didn't even have Hossa and Sharp. Anything can happen right? Except Justin Abdelkader outplaying a top six forward.

What irritates me the most is that standing pat is fine if you've got a good team, but when your team has been woefully inadequate for the last four years, how do you justify doing nothing? Holland says "we like our team". I respond...why? They've continuously gotten worse and proved nothing when it matters. What's to like? They aren't as bad as Calgary or Columbus? Aren't we supposed to aim a little higher than that in "Hockeytown"?

Yeah if he'd continued to have a bad season then maybe, but the guy's in beast mode right now so everyone in D.C. loves him again.

they won't accept that. Flip is a rental and the Sabres aren't going to make the playoffs. Why would they want a guy that's likely going to walk in two months if they can't even use him for a cup run?

I don't know anything about him so I'll keep quiet on that. I will say though, that Jimmy didn't debut until 26, and even when he came up nobody really had too high of hopes for him. So it's possible, but likely not probable that he'll make it. Side note, that goalie prospect is freaking huge though.

I was all for holding on to Flip until it looked like we weren't going to do anything at the deadline this year. But if that's the case then trade him for a first, because the same old thing just hasn't been cutting it for quite a while now. This is kinda hard for me to type because I freaking love Flip, but man, how many times does your team have to make an early exit before you conclude that the "core" you have isn't as good as you think?

Word was that the blues wanted a goalie prospect and Holland wasn't giving them Mrazek or Patterson. I think that's what did it.