kipwinger

You guys see all the internet uproar about how the league needs to “protect” McDavid? What a puss. The league didn’t need to protect MacKinnon or Barkov.

Bummer, sorry about that buddy. Woof They just showed Elmer delete some kid on the forecheck in the pregame. If he does that regularly he’s going to kill someone.

Well done with the GDT lefty! Supposedly Big Elmer is figuring out the heavy game in the AHL. I’ll be paying attention to see if he can make a statement physically on the forecheck.

I see people speculating that if Walman scores against Detroit he'll do the Griddy. If he does it likely means we've lost the game because he only seems to do it in game-winning situations. In any event, if he does it I hope Marco or Ras or Veleno or someone runs him completely through the end boards. I got a lot of love for Jake Walman...but not tonight.

Edvinsson manned up on that blocked shot. Looked like it stung pretty good.

We look like an obviously better team that’s totally half-assing it.

Hussless

Lazy passing led to that goal against. Trap game, we need to dial it in.

The Wings broadcasters haven’t even mentioned Walman and the Griddy during the pre-game. I think it’s a cover-up. If the “media” had any guts at all they’d ask Seider point blank “what are you gonna do if Walman does the Griddy”?

I won't deny I haven't thought about it. His last season with the Hawks was actually pretty decent. There would need to be A LOT of wiggle room to get out of the contract in case he sucks, but I wouldn't hate giving him a shot in Compher or Copp's spot in the event that we trade a center.

I don't think he's "untouchable" or anything, I just don't think he's a bad player. For sure I'd trade him for an upgrade, but not just for any assh*le castoff. Checking is a HUGE part of successful hockey and not everyone can do it well. Ras can.

You think he's supposed to be Chris Kreider and he isn't? I realize that at his draft position some people hoped he'd have more offense, and because he doesn't they would rather have drafted someone else. I agree with most of that. I'd rather have Necas too. But that doesn't mean the player we got is bad. He isn't. Ras's value is that he can check top opposition forwards without getting caved in. You throw him out against Florida and he has a reasonable chance of defending a tough team without getting scored on. On top of that he's a good penalty killer and provides mid-level "hard" offense around the crease. Sodorblom would get absolutely brutalized in a bottom six role in the NHL because his skating is bad and he's not a competent defensive player. As such he's either got to be in your top six or he's worthless. Ras doesn't have that same problem. If he isn't scoring he's still got value in other ways. One-dimensional players are fine if they're "doing" the thing they do well, but if that's not going well they don't provide any additional value (see: Zadina, Cholowski)

For years we all lamented that Helm couldn't finish on any of the scoring chances his speed created for himself. If Finnie is indeed "Helm with hands" I'll be overjoyed.

I haven't heard that but he was "day to day" so it's possible he's good to go.

You may regret that. He's been picking it up lately. But no, Finnie or Lombardi, that's the choice.

Whelp, the second mouse gets the cheese as they say lol

If you could keep only one player, would you rather move Amadeus Lombardi or Emmitt Finnie? Both had pretty much identical D+2 seasons in the Canadian Juniors offensively. Finnie is bigger and stronger, Lombardi is flashier and has dynamic skating (not that Finnie is a slouch in that regard). I'm asking because if we had to include one of them in a trade package I can't decide who I'd rather lose.

I agree. I think we're built a little bit like the Kings, and I'm excited to see what McClellan can do with a roster that's not past its prime like LA was by the time he got there. I watched them against Edmonton last night and you can't help but notice how hard it is for teams to play against guys like Kopitar, Byfield, Kempe. I see a little of Kopitar in Larkin, little bit of Doughty in Seider too. Todd was good in LA, but I think his best players were all just a little bit past it. He's getting a team entering it's prime right now. First time in his head coaching career he's going to have that.

Nope. He's underwhelmed as part of three different organizations already. He's the defenseman version of Zadina. I want guys who excel when given a chance, not guys who disappoint over and over despite all their opportunities. No more Zadinas, Puljujarvis, or Brannstroms. I want winners. Edit: I'd add that there's nothing more useless in hockey then a "scorer" who doesn't score. At least Albert Johansson plays defense reasonably well when he's not scoring. What's the upshot with Brannstrom? He's a bad defender, doesn't play hard, is undersized, AND he doesn't score.

100% agree. Matt Savoie is genuinely no better than Amadeus Lombardi. He’s just always going to be talked about more because he’s a 1st round pick, but I think the blush is off his rose after spending a zillion years in the Canadian Juniors without getting appreciably better. Hard pass.

Totally agree, but there were obvious holes in our lineup a year ago that needed patched down the stretch. Yes we blew an 8 point lead, but we'd been playing inconsistently all season. We had an awful December AND March, but were really really good in November and Jan/Feb. We needed center help when Larkin was out with injury and we needed goaltending help when everyone was hurt and Riemer was our "starter". Either of those things should have landed us the single extra point necessary to make the playoffs.

I do agree that the team seemed deflated after the deadline last year. Management neither committed to rebuilding nor gave the team any help chasing the playoffs. Yzerman's "trades are expensive" excuse fell flat when we tied with Washington. Were there any moves he could have made that would have helped us land ONE point? Seems likely. We have a glaring hole on the 2nd defensive pair that needs addressed. In addition to that I'd like to see ASP get a chance down the stretch on the 3rd pair. Outside of that I'm not going to turn my nose up at a 2C, but lately it seems like we don't need that as much as it seemed to me before now. Maybe run with what we have there so that we don't lose assets in a trade and then just promote Kasper or Danielson a year from now. So maybe a quality LHD? Provorov, Byram, someone like that? Chiarot-Seider Edvinsson-Johansson Provorov/Byram-ASP

Which HS is that?

Octopi have 9 brains. Squid have 1 brain. Idiots love to eat squid as appetizers during bachelorette parties. Squid are so lame.

They really did look like they had unreal chemistry today. Looked crisp. Love this lineup minus our 3rd pair.