Richdg

I am not for "tanking" per sea. I am for playing our youth. Yes that will most likely lead to some bad seasons. But to win you have to have top talent. To get top talent there are 3 ways: draft and develop (the second half is the part teams fail at), trade-something that we refuse to do, and UFA-which is drying up and teams over pay for second tier players like we did with Weiss and Neilsson. If you want to win championships in any North American sport, you have to have some high picks on your team. No one wins without them. The Oilers and islanders of the 80's had them, the RW's and Devils in the 90's had them, the Hawks/Kings/Pens have them today. The Habs have the most SC wins because they got the top 2 players out of Quebec every year before the draft. Right now we don't and we look like a team that lacks top end talent. Yes Larkin, MANtha, and Svechnikov could become stars some day, but as of now they are not. Until they actually have 30 goal and 75 point seasons we can't call them that. Now those that say there are no sure things, you are correct. There are none. Players get hurt-Lindros, others fail to develop, etc... About 2/3's of all 1st round picks become regular NHL players. But the same is true with trades and UFA's. Sport is filled with guys that get the big payday and stop performing. Injuries also happen, players are upset about being moved, etc... The fact remains and no one can argue this point, the RW's need a major upgrade in talent. The best place to get that upgrade under any conditions is via the draft. We need 3-4 drafts were we are picking top 5-10 to find those guys. Or a GM willing to trade secondary players for stars. Better yet, we need both!

All of the recent SC winners and losers have top 5 picks on their teams. Other teams on the rise have top 5 picks-Panthers are a good example. Of course there is still the Oilers.... But most teams do get it right and head back up after being really bad. That happens in every sport and is the stated purpose of the reverse draft and salary caps.

The whole team was bad. Kronwall's knee prevents him from any mobility whatsoever. The team looked slow, like we had concrete skates on slow. Even on our PP it was the Habs that had the puck.

And the hot roll comes to an end. Howard wasn't to blame but of course he will get heat for it. Fact is this team stinks. GK is the one deep and talented position we have.

Over the last 10 seasons, 1 team has scored over 300 goals. Over the last 10 seasons the majority (6-4) SC winners had at least 1 30 goal scorer. Yes scoring is down overall-the league is crap now and going to get worse with more teams. That of course just makes us look worse. In a bad league are are at best a .500 team. I miss the 80's. We had goals and fights and a ton more fun in the NHL! This crap is boring........

We need MANtha to score. I don't care about his 200ft game if he is putting the puck in the net. The last time we had a 30 goal scorer was the 2008/2009 season when we had 4 guys do it. Yes it has been 7 full seasons since the RW's had a 30 goal scorer. Think about that for a while. Let it sink in.

Its really hard to argue against those numbers.

About time. of course how long is he here? Just until the first injured guy comes back? Rest of the season? If he scores I think he stays full time. He isn't a 2 way guy, he is a goal scorer and we need that.

Is it possible..... Blashill MIGHT have figured out that you play the hot hand? Maybe..........

LOL at some on here. Bert better than MANtha? LOL Please. Lil Bert is nothing more than another Helm/Ott/Glendening. That is it. He is a checker. Good at it yes, but a checker and nothing more. This 2 way crap don't work. We need wingers that can score, defensemen that can play defense, and C's that can do both. We have none of this. But hey we continue to get worse and Holland knows all.

This is pure 100% BS. This might be one of Hollands dumbest moves ever. We can't score. So we are going to bring up a checker and not the guy leading (haven't checked this weekend) the AHL in goals scored? Nothing against Lil Bert. But he is not what we need. He is a 3/4 line grinder like Ott, Glendening, Helm, Miller, etc... all of which are healthy. Why did we wait until Monday for a move? HSJ reported and I posted on this forum on Friday that vanek is going to be out 2-3 more weeks and should be put on LTIR. We have played and lost 2 games since then. Now if MANtha isn't 100% healthy then this makes sense, but that is the only way.

LOL I just used one name. There are many to choose from....

Fact is Howard is playing better than Mrasek. As long as that is the case, play him more. It is very simple. If/when Howard starts to struggle, then play Mrasek.

Nope. It doesn't fit Holland's plan. We need to see Nyquist knocked down some more and zero trafic in front of the net for another 50 games.......

No they were not. Neither has ever scored 30 or more goals in a season at any professional level. Nyquist scored 28 in his best season but had a 18%+ shooting % to do it which is not sustainable. Tatar had 29 in his best season and a 13.7% shooting %. 12% is typical of the top goal scorers. In other words, both way over performed for 1 year and everyone thought that would be the new norm. This includes Holland. The fact is both guys are 20ish goal scorers per year and 3rd line guys.

There are many issues with this team. Only some of these issues are Blashill. He is still just the coach and has to play the players provided for him by Holland. Now where Blashill does deserve some heat is the always changing lines. Ok maybe he is trying to milk production out of a group that doesn't have the talent. That is true to some extent. But it also takes time-game time for a line to develop chemistry. The younger the players the more this is true. Here are jsut some of the things I see: 1. To many C's being used as wingers. Z, Larkin, AA, Helm, Sheahan, Neilsson, are all netural C's. Not every C can be a winger. For years we heard Holland and Bab's take about "Helm being the best #3 C in the NHL". Since those days Helm has rarely played as the #3 C. he has been used as a winger and top 6 forward. Z moving to winger is a good idea at his age and long history of injury, but Larkin and AA need to play C now to develop as stars at the position. They are our future. 2. 75%+ of all goals in the NHL are scored from within 15ft of the goal. We have no one that can work that area effectively. Abby is the only one that can do it and he is only average. To work in that area you need the will, size, strength, and skill. Watch our PP. Last night we had a F group of Z, Nyquist and Tatar on the ice together. The biggest of the 3 is Z. Think about that. So we spend our entire PP skating around with the puck 40ft+ from the net. Anyone wonder why we can't score on a regular basis? 3. Blashill is a young NHL coach. As with any job it takes time to learn what that involves. If he is our future, then we should be playing the players that are our future. Larkin, Mantha, AA, DD, Sproul, Oullett, and Marchenko should be in every lineup that they are healthy. Fill in the rest with the vets. Later this year I expect Svechnikov to join that group. 4. What are we/who are we as a team? We have the highest payroll/smallest amount of cap space available in the NHL. That says we should be a team in SC contention. We all know that isn't the case. So what are we as a team? If we are rebuilding, why did we spend all of our cap? This adds to the confusion of the coaches, players, and fans.

Interesting phrase that HSJ used when talking about Kornwall: "has a perm. bad knee". Maybe we can get out from under his contract soon as well? As for the pairs, it doesn't really matter. Until we have better talent and better coaching we will be sub par defensively. Pretty simple.

HSJ is saying that Vanek is going to be out 2-3 more weeks. LTIR him and bring up MANtha. This should be done this morning so he can be in the lineup tonight. Failure of Holland/Blashill to do so is 100% completely stupid on their part.

For 20 years we have been building a puck possession team with great defensive forwards and great puck handling defensemen. Oh wait, it hasn't worked? Nevermind.

So? Why isn't Kornwall there? He has already missed 10 games and still not ready. Vanek has missed 3 or 4 already and in another week we are looking at 7 or 8 games missed. Both should have been LTIR'd when they got hurt. Opens up roster spots and creates cap space for the younger players that deserve it. Then both need some conditioning time in GR to get game ready. Use the tools available to create opportunites for your team.

Numbers don't lie. Our G position is not our problem in any way so let's not freak out. But right now Howard is playing better than Mrasek. That is the trueth. By playing Howard more we do 2 things: 1 have a chance to win more and 2-this might be even more important, create some type of trade value for Howard. Right now there are at least 3 teams that have G issues, 2 of which are PO teams: Kings and Islanders. That means there is potential to move him, free up the cap, and improve our team. The only way that happens is if Howard is playing at a high level as a starter. As for Mrasek we don't know if he is a true #1 G yet. Yes he makes some great saves but he also has games were he couldn't hit water falling out of a boat. Last year he was not the #1 all year. He split time and it help both guys and the team.

MANtha is still better than 1 g per game with the Grifins. Now we learn that Vanek may be out another week or more. Put Vanek on the LTIR and call up MANtha like should have happened already. Sometimes the teams refusal to use the IR/LTIR/conditioning time is mind blowing. Why isn't Kornwall on the LTIR? Once healthy why don't players go to GR for conditioning? It would help us over the course of the year.

You play the hot hand. Right now Howard is playing better than Mrasek. A month from now that may reverse. But you always play the better guy.

Kronwall isn't a very good defensive player anymore. he will help out offensively. If he is healthy he will play. Right or wrong that will happen. TBH I would play the 3 young guys, DD and then rotate Kronwall, Green and E. But that is just me....... Kornwall, Green, and E are niot part of our future. They are only ties to our distant and decaying past.

Great to see him play well in his first game. We need him to do this early and often. At the minimum it gives us 2 very good G's and at the best it creates a valuable asset for trade. With teams like LA and the Yotes already losing their starting G's for a while the chance increases that he could be moved.