krsmith17

Where did you read "plenty of ways" equals Bertuzzi? Want me to list players that should be in the lineup ahead of Glendening? Let make this a little easier... The players that should be behind Glendening include Miller and Ott (debatable). The players that should be ahead of Glendening include... everyone else, including several others in Grand Rapids... Of course I know you disagree so save your breath...

I'm well aware of Coffey's lack of defense, but he absolutely had value as a point per game defenseman at 34 years old... Erik Karlsson plays a similar game. Does he have value? Will he have value in 8 years if he's putting up similar numbers? Absolutely. When Holland picks a stud in the 3rd / 4th / 5th / 6th / 7th round, its luck, but if he picks a dud in the 1st or 2nd, he sucks... Got it!

Of course he was... At least we still have Glendening...

Coffey was toast? Zero Value? He was still over a point per game defenseman... Put all of our current defenseman together and we still wouldn't get a player as good as Coffey was, even at 34 years old...

I seriously can't believe people are arguing "what better options do we have over Glendening as a 2nd line winger?"... I mean our roster isn't great, especially with three key injuries, but c'mon. Glendening shouldn't be anywhere near the 2nd line. There are plenty of ways to "try something different" without putting Glendening / Ott / Miller in the top 6... With what we have available right now, I'd go with something along the lines of... Abdelkader - Zetterberg - Nyquist Larkin - Nielsen - Tatar Bertuzzi - Helm - Mantha Sheahan - Glendening - Ott With everyone healthy, I'd go with something like... Athanasiou - Zetterberg - Nyquist Mantha - Nielsen - Tatar Jurco - Larkin - Vanek Abdelkader - Helm - Sheahan Or any variation of those 12 forwards, maybe subbing Glendening in a scattered game if someone isn't playing well or needs a night off... Defense, I'd go with... Smith - Green DeKeyser - Sproul Kronwall - Ericsson Ouellet can rotate in if / when Kronwall needs a night off, Marchenko in for Ericsson if he needs a night off...

Given what we have available though... there are MUCH better options...

Yes, second Miller should be Bertuzzi. My bad. Regardless of whether you want to view it as a promotion for Glendening or demotion for Nielsen / Larkin, Glendening has no business playing on that line...

F***ing Blashill... Abdelkader - Zetterberg - Tatar Larkin - Nielsen - Glendening Nyquist - Helm - Mantha Miller - Sheahan - Miller / Ott In what world does Glendening get promoted to 2nd line to play with Larkin and Nielsen? Blashill's world apparently...

Given those two options, I think most (if not everyone) would pick option 2... the problem is, there's an option in between the two extremes...

3-0 Griffins! Woooooo!!!...........

Yeah, I've been saying for a while now that I see Marchenko as another Ericsson type defenseman, but with the way he's been struggling and Ericsson upping his game, I'd definitely take E over Marchy right now... Same reason I'd continue to roll with Howard, go with the hot hand. I also haven't been all that impressed with Glendening, and I'd like to see what Jurco can do when healthy. I hope he can crack the top 9 and get more than 3 games before being scratched... Still hate that Blashill was so quick to scratch Sproul and Ouellet, despite them playing better than others in the lineup...

Tatar - Nielsen - Mantha Nyquist - Zetterberg - Vanek Athanasiou - Larkin - Jurco Sheahan - Helm - Abdelkader DeKeyser - Green Smith - Kronwall Ericsson - Sproul

Yes, Bertuzzi, Mantha and Athanasiou are all waiver exempt, as well as Larkin... No one needs to be sent down right away wity AA on short term IR. My hope is that with everyone healthy, Miller gets waived but I don't see that happening. Bertuzzi / Mantha will likely be the odd man out...

Terrible news. Excited to see Mantha get another shot though. He's been great against the Habs too. 2 of his only NHL goals came in the 2 games against Montreal. Hopefully he impresses management and we can somehow keep both Mantha and Athanasiou in the lineup when AA gets back...

Too bad it took Athanasiou going down for him to get the call, but still great news.

Anyway, my point was, based on what they practiced with today, that's what we'll likely see to start tonight. I agree that they shouldn't and rarely don't change the lines after a win, especially when they play one of their most complete games all year. But if they weren't going to change them for tonight's game, they probably wouldn't have changed them for today's pracrice...

Why would you only quote the first part? Why would they practice with lines on game day only to revert back to the lines of the previous game? Makes no sense. Unless there are injuries / maintenence days (which in this case, there weren't)... Howard was in the starters net today too, do you think there's any chance Mrazek starts? Again unless Howard suffers an injury or becomes ill...

Why would they start with the lines from Tuesday? Generally when we practice with specific lines, they're the lines we use in the next game (assuming everyone is healthy). I'm thinking we will start with the lines from practice today, and depending on how things go, maybe he'll revert back to Tuesday's (or some other) line combos...

Nice looking GDT but your lines need to be updates... 14 - 40 - 71 21 - 51 - 8 72 - 43 - 59 15 - 41 - 29 I like that Blashill finally made the switch putting Nyquist with Zetterberg and Tatar with Nielsen. Now if we could just scratch Ott, call-up Mantha, put him in Bertuzzi's spot and move Bert down to the 4th line, it would be close to perfect...

I'd hate that trade... I'd personally rather trade Tatar.

I'd trade Howard now for sure, but only if it's part of a bigger deal including a defenseman to upgrade our defense. The Leafs defense is just as bad as ours so I don't really see a fit there. No way they trade Rielly. Calgary could be an option, but I doubt they're willing to trade Hamilton. I'd consider a Howard for Wideman swap, with him being on an expiring contract. Unless we can get Lindholm in a trade including Mantha (we can't), I don't have much interest there either. I personally wouldn't want to trade Mantha in a package for Fowler or Vatanen...

I've always hated the Criesby / Crosbaby nonsense, but now McAnnoying? Seriously? These are two of the best hockey players of their generation, and you don't like them just because of media hype? Give me a f***ing break. Both are phenomenal athletes, and by all accounts great people on and off the ice. These guys are great role models for kids. I swear there's more fan hate for Crosby than there ever was for Cooke / Avery and their on ice antics or either of the Kane's and their off ice antics... I hope Crosby continues to shred this league, McDavid eventually takes over and media talks about them every chance they get. They deserve every bit of praise, and it's great for the growth of the game.

I'm just speaking for myself here, but I've never said I hated Howard or that he sucks, but I am one of the one's that wanted him traded this past offseason... and since then, nothing has changed. I still want to move him first chance we get, and him playing as well as he has, is helping that. Howard is a very good, underrated goaltender, but when he's on he's among the best in the league. Mrazek is an up-and-coming star goaltender, if he can become more consistent. Bottom line, $9.3M is too much to spend on goaltending, and shedding half of that would give us some wiggle room to upgrade in other areas (defense)...

Key word right there, "when" Mrazek is on his game... Mrazek's high is better than Howard's high, and their lows are equally as bad in my opinion. Mrazek's issue has been consistency, and once he figures out how to stay at his high for longer stretches he will be a really good goaltender. Howard is currently playing the better hockey right now of the two (arguably better than anyone in the entire league), so we should continue to go with the hot hand...

I absolutely agree that skating ability is a huge factor, and size isn't as much of a factor it was maybe 10-20 years ago, but it's still a factor. And like I mentioned in my previous post, skating ability is also a major strength for Mantha and weakness for Pulkkinen. Point still remains, these two guys are apples and oranges when it comes to virtually every part of their individual games, so to bring up the fact that Pulkkinen's game hasn't and probably won't translate to the NHL is silly to me...