kipwinger

Another observation from the Jets v. Wild game I'm currently watching: Nino Niederreiter is a badass and he plays hard as hell. Any team (Hurricanes) that would rather have wimps like Teuvo Teravainen on the wing than him deserve to lose.

I'd be looking to retain on Copp as well. I'd really like to see SY target Shane Pinto from Ottawa for our 3rd line spot. He doesn't want to be there, he's been a bad boy, he'll be cheap, and I like his play. Get him on a 2x2 deal and separately eat 50% of Copp's contract when you ship him to a contender and we could easily be paying the same amount next year for a huge upgrade down the middle.

In addition to his many other accolades, shout out to Marc Andre Fleury for always having the nicest looking goalie kit in the league. If you're a young goalie and you don't bite his style (the way forwards did with Ovechkin's visor and laces) then you're a goddamn fool. Fleury stays looking sharp.

Overall I'm a little concerned about Nate Danielson's lack of production this year BUT I'm not too bothered with his play at the World Juniors so far. His line has pretty much exclusively been used for matchups/defensive zone starts and he's finding the scoreboard when it matters. 3 pts. in four games getting the Glendening deployment isn't too bad. I'd really like to see him come out of this tourney with just under a point per game and then use that as a springboard for the rest of the WHL season.

It just feels like the Leafs are primed for fleecing in a trade doesn't it? They have no defense or goaltending. They also don't have any cap space. And they have to win now. Seems like a team with lots of defenders, lots of goalies, and plenty of cap space should be able to fleece them but I don't know what they have worth acquiring.

If we pressure them early and they're out of gas from last night we might see a couple early powerplay opportunities. That would be huge for us. We draw more penalties than any other team in the league and they may be chasing the play for a bit there in the first.

I don't think he's very good, but I agree that there's a play to be made here. Maybe we claim him, waive Reimer, and keep Samsonov, Husso, and Lyon until the deadline. At that point we can either keep the best two for a playoff run or sell off whichever is performing best for whatever we can get. Brings us pretty close to our cap limit tho.

If I were a betting man I'd obviously put my money on the Bruins. But we've beaten them twice this year and both times were legit wins. Nothing flukey. Further, the Bruins aren't playing their best hockey right now. They're 3-4-1 in their last 8 games. If we can play tight defensively and get a little Kane/Debrincat magic on the powerplay we might be in this one.

It's encouraging to see GR heading in the right direction. You'll all recall earlier in the season I mentioned that Watson (the new GR coach) was relying heavily on his veterans and they weren't really getting the job done. It seems like he's recognized this, or at least his evaluation period is over, and he's decided to mix and match line combos to get younger players in bigger roles. As a result you're starting to see GR winning a little bit more, and you're starting to see guys like Johansson, Wallinder, Kasper, Hanas, and Mazur hitting the score sheet with more regularity. It's been good to see some changes after a slow start and to see the team back in the playoff picture. Excellent news for the organization overall.

I'm almost afraid to say anything but that was a really solid period by our guys. Carried the play for most of the period. I'm pretty happy with the effort.

And there's the bad side of Patrick Kane. Bails on the play to go for a change and his guy scores. Yuck. Thank god he's scoring enough to overlook that stuff.

Nice goal by Larkin there. Good to see him staying hot.

I hope the boys are wired tight tonight because we need a win badly. Our offense absolutely HAS to perform tonight because our defense is bad and our goaltending is worse (somehow). If we don't score 4+ goals we probably don't win this game. I'm here for it.

What an absolute b*tch. Max Domi cheapshots Jeff Skinner and tries to start a fight down 9-3 with 1:05 left in the game. That's Toronto Maples Leafs hockey in a nutshell.

Is nobody else watching this Toronto game? This is unreal. Yowza. 9-3 Buffalo with 5 minutes to play in the 3rd.

Anybody who thinks we were overreacting last night should hear the Leafs broadcast team having a MELTDOWN right now. Buffalo scored 6 goals through two periods and these guys are losing their minds.

Buffalo and Toronto are scoring like crazy on each other tonight. Apparently nobody in the Atlantic Division plays defense very well.

I'm still on the ledge. Talk me off of it. What's the upshot?

It's true though. It's like everyone in the NHL sphere is mesmerized by guys that are flashy. They can be absolutely terrible, but if they can stickhandle then everyone thinks they're good. It drives me absolutely crazy.

This is what I'd do when Perron and Kostin are back. Copp gets back in the lineup when someone gets hurt or f*cks up so bad he's even further in the doghouse. Dcat-Larkin-Ras Veleno-Compher-Raymond Kane-Fabbri-Perron Kostin-Fischer-Sprong Copp

I cannot believe Lalonde just said he "liked our 3rd period". He also answered "consistent play" when Trevor asked him what would spark the team. I hate everything about this guy right now. I swear to god I'd walk into the locker room before the next game and tell Justin Holl he's getting in a fight after the opening faceoff or he's scratched the game after. "Daniel Sprong, if you don't have 4 shots on goal by the 3rd period you aren't playing one single second. Go get em son".

That was humiliating. They were literally skating circles around us at the end of the game. They showed a closeup of Seider's face and he was completely disengaged. Like he wasn't even really paying attention to what was going on around him. Just looked overwhelmed. Get these dorks from behind the bench and get someone in there that will let these horses run man. There's no reason that this team shouldn't be playing big and fast.

Same, I was so pumped before the season and through the first 20 games and now they're 180 degrees different.

Our entire powerplay strategy is now "let Kane dick around with the puck". That's the plan. Hire Joel Quenneville for f*ck's sake. I guarantee he won't let dudes like Daniel Sprong not finish their checks.

Like, how much do you have to pay Ben Chiarot to hit someone? He's huge, fast, and mediocre to bad at everything else? Why isn't he throwing his body around? What does HE think he's getting paid for?