Richdg

The easy part of our schedule is over. Now we begin the tough part. Hell the tough half+. We still have 5 west coast trips to do. Yuck. if we split these 2 on the road, I am happy.

right now we have all of our picks, plus an extra 7th. If the draft was held today, we would be picking 17th.

Not needed. can you understand that? we have others on the team that need to play more, not less. Also, as I mentioned-only if he is cheap. tatar for Ryder? nah nyquist for Ryder? nah Sheahan for Ryder? nah. Lashoff for Ryder? nah 1st round pick for Ryder? nah. Keep our youth and play them. Let them sink or swim and then adjust over the summer.

Dekeyser will be signed. he was going to come out this year, had all 30 teams interested, the RW's said go back to college for one more year, and he followed their advise. Funny thing, didn't schutz play 30-40 games in the AHL this year? LOl on that sure thing in the NHL..... When we do sign him, he needs some time in GR. Going pro is a big step. That being said, that is all i would do ref D in FA. We have a bunch of good young big Dmen. It is the forward group that needs to be rebuilt.

Good move. He has played well. TBH so has Kindl the past couple of games. In fact he played great over the weekend while paired with Huskins. yes pairings do matter and maybe playing with a true stay at home type helped. The idea of dropping a 25 year old 6-3/215 pound Dman, who is still 2-3 years away from his prime would be a mistake, unless it is part of a big time trade. Not a rental either.

LOL... people that talk about failed posts then post themselves... BTW Franzen had 3 goals in 12 or 13 games. That is a 20 goal pace over 82, which of course he doesn't play that many. he plays about 30 and dresses for another 40ish every year. Yes i watch 25 year old Ryan play all the time. Even when he isn't scoring, he crashes the net, works in the corners, plays defense, hits people etc..... franzen does nothing! Just wait untill he retires in a couple more years. Then we can continue to take a 4 million per year cap hit while he sits home in sweden!

We don't need to get older. We need to get younger. yes Ryder has a nice rebound last year and is playing well to date. but for 2-3 years before that he was in the 18-22 goal per year range IIRC. he is also 32, not that big 6-0/195, and not overly tough. Why trade for him now? Is he the type of guy that is going to win us a cup? nope. Can he produce? yes. if you really want a aging sniper, just sign him this summer.

I don't think we will be picking that low. I keep thinking we will be 15th. Smack dab in the middle. But Nichushkin could be there with a little luck. Get him in the 1st and Zhakorov in the 2nd, put them with datsyuk and we have our new 2 kids and a goat line......

I know I am in the minority, but I am just not that worried about our D. We have several good young BIG Dmen that are here or about to be here. All they need is minutes. Ericsson, Kindl, Smith Lashoff, Sproul, Oullett, De Haas, Dekeyser (yes I firmly believe he signs), etc... are all here or will be over the next 1.5 seasons. Plus Kronwall is signed long term. Yes i understand that the youth will bring about some WTF moments. But that is what you have to do to develop young talent. Keep in mind the money we have to spend. After resigning Howard-a must and Brunner, we will have around 10 million to spend. Do we keep Filppula or let him walk? If we do we have about the full 10, if not we have 5 or 6 to spend. 10 gets us 2 players, 5 or 6 gets us 1 player.

Resign Brunnerat 2 million per season? WTF????? He will get at least 3 million per, maybe 4. To date Brunner has been great, but now his challenge begins. he ahs made a splash, word is out. The league will now game plane for him and adjust to him. Can he continue to have success? Stay tuned.....

as a last resort, ok. But he is 32 and a UFA after the year. So maybe a bag of pucks and some sticks for him.....

You never know with russian players. they do tend to drop. As for the draft strength, it again depends on which source you use. ISS, CS, TSN and many others talk about ti being great. Of course you never truely know untill 3+ years after the draft.

The rivalerys here are just dorment. Trust me, RW/habs and RW/ML is pure hatred. RW/TB could be great as well with the captian there, and don't forget that the Sens and RW have both used GR as their farm team. As for things being unbalanced, I would rather see 2 teams contracted. The Yotes since they are broke anyway and the isles because they are a different type of broke. Expand the rosters to 25 players-increases the total rostered players and have a draft for each tems remaining talent.

The points are great, and he looks like he is finally cutting down on his mistakes with the puck-also very good. Now tighten up on the D side and he will be fine.

There are 3 RW and 3 LW that I would be interested in. Perry, Horton, and Clarkson at RW and Torres, Clowe and Stalberg at LW. Not sure the brain trust would be interested in most of them, if they make it to FA. I would love to see Torres on a line with Datsyuk and Brunner, and Clarkson on a line with Nyquist and Z. Both have enough speed to keep up with the skilled guys and bring what the other on their lines don't. Clarkson is a tough guy that scores a lot and Torres is a major pain in the a$$ to create space for datsyuk and Brunner.

When Gus first got hurt, Ken and Micky were talking on air that Gus admits this is something he deals with all the time. Why would you sign a G of all positions with groin issues? Add in a NTC........ Yikes......

Heck of a job today. This was a laugher in our favor for a change. Offsets the 1st game of the year. is it just me, or does Loungo seem to have a histroy of these types of games. yes he is a good G, but he does seem to have more than his far share of these types of games. Butt hen again he has been around forever, so maybe it is all blending together......

Now that is just silly. The east from top to bottom is a physical conference. Always has been. That doesn't mean they are better just a different style of play. Out west only the Ducks, kings, and blues play a similier style to the eastern teams. You think we have injury issues now, wait untill we have to play physical hockey every night. baring changes of course.....

All 3 D pairs played well. Very few turnovers and no dumb pen's. Good job by all 6 guys tonight.

If this is to happen-who the hell knows, get it done quick so we have time to adjust. For better or worse the east is far more physical than the west is.

Short answer, we need to do both. Just sitting still as we are is not going to win in the PO's. Look at the top 4/5 teams in the WC, we will be lucky to play 5 games if we make it. Just to many holes on the team. There are many things we can and in fact should do. Not sure why we are not, but it is what it is. Some guys should be called up Nyquist and Sheahan, others should be traded: Cleary, Franzen, White, Quincey, Miller, eaves, and maybe Filppula. Get as many draft picks as possible for the 2013 draft. It is the deepest draft in 10 years, and much much better than the next 2 projected drafts. if we can finsih the season with the following while clearing out all the dead weight, I would be happy: bert-dat-brunner Nyquist-Z-sammy Abby-Andersson-tatar Sheahan-Helm-TooToo Kronwall-lashoff Ericsson-White Smith-Kindl howard with Gus, Emmerton and Huskins as backups. After the season, but out Cola and sammy and do everything possible to get Burt to retire. Leaves us with 2 holes 1st line LW and 2nd line RW and a bunch of money to spend. after moving out our dead weight, work to turn the extra picks and every pick after the 3rd round into 2 more picks in the top 90. One signing-Dekeyser as soon as WMU's season is over. same with Sproul. get him a taste of the NHL at the end of this season.

On one hand....YES! More games vs Tor, Mon, Bos, etc..... On the other hand....Yikes! we have to play those teams!

Correct we have no idea on what goes on. But we also see what is happening on the ice and what is not happening_moves to make us better. be those moves internal or external.

Great win tonight! Every win is big, but ending a 5 game losing streak is huge! Getting a 4-0 shutout is even better! BTW average Howard out played renni big time. The Preds out shot us 33 to 27 or something like that. A much needed 2 points.

We are about 1/3 through the season, and on a 4 game losing streak. as short as this season is, we can't afford to get into a 6 or 7 game losing streak. Already down to tied for 8th place in the west, and the second half of the season is a b!tch. So yes, the enxt 2 games vs the blue jackets and the preds are already must wins. Ok, let me rephrase that. We have to get no fewer than 3 points in the next 2 games, but 4 would be a lot better. may not be enough to save the season, but getting 0 points may put us into a place we can't recover from.