Richdg

Or maybe this team and the players that make up this team are not as good as many thought? I mean it has to be the coach right? he is the one on the ice not blocking out in front of the net, checking in the corners working for lose pucks, failing to go tape to tape on the passes, not holding ground in front of the other teams net....... It is all the coach, players have nothing to do with it.......... But wait, if the players are the problem..........

So during the GDT vs the Sharks, we had various threads about Howard sucks, shouldn't play anymore, nothing but a back up, to inconsistant, etc... So are we all saying the same about Mrazek? I mean come on, if Howard was in there we would've taken this game to OT at least........ Once agian, the D plays like crap. Why are we trying to see if Kindl can play? We all know he can't. Time for Holland to make a move for aRHed shutdown Dman to pair with Kronwall.

How many times has Kindl tripped/fallen down tonight?

Nice of Kindl to let Marleau skate right in on Jimmy like that. On the plus side, Mantha gets the game tying goal for the griffs. Heading to OT.

Carefull now. Kronwall is our #1! Never mind his D sucks big time.

No they have even numbers. Mrazek had a shutout his last game to bring thme even. Prior to that Jimmy was better. They are both playing great! Rotating every game is working so don't mess with it. It is our O that has been the issue.

Finally won last night 5-2 over the wild. Listened to the 1st period on the radio. The most common names you hear are: Mantha, Noske, and Cally. mantha had a breakaway-got stoned, and then was the shooter that Cally tipped in for the first goal. Might be turning things around, we hope. Far to much talent to have this bad of a record.

No grandson. Fathers side, not mom's as I posted earlier. Pronovost also played for the Muskegon Mohawks! Now there is a trip down memory lane!

How many years were Maltby, Draper, and McCarty here? All made good money and all had long term contracts. His grandfather-mothers side played for the RW's.

Good deal. Locks up one of our leaders and glue guys. Something we need more of! I read over the summer-but I don't remember which site maybe WIM? That a few years ago Holland and the RW's made a decision to focus on bringing in more Michigan kids/kids with ties to the state, into the organization. Abby, DD, Miller, Larkin, Coreau, Mantha, Glendening etc... does support that idea. If that was the case then keeping them around for their careers makes sense. As for the deal itself, the timing is very good. Years 28-35 is the term of the deal. Yes the last year could be an issue, but we are not talking about trying to get production from a 38, 39, 40 year old like we are hoping with some of our other deals. We have a ton of money coming off the books the next 1.5 seasons: KFQ 4.25, Kindl 2, Richards 3, datsyuk 7, Franzen 4-while on LTIR, Smith 2, maybe Helm 2, etc......

Good to hear. Smart move by Blashill-a former goalie. Muscles cool off and Jimmy did have a major groin injury last year. G was not the reason we lost yesterday.

Not something to worry about for another couple of years. As of today Jimmy is out playing mrazek. The GAA is 2.01 for Jimmy and 2.42 for Mrazek. The Save % is .934 for Jimmy and .928 for Mrazek. Both are playing great. No need to mess this up. The team has plenty of cap space so no need to make a move.

I would go for max years-8 and try to keep the cap hit at 6 mill or less. DD's agent will of course have a say in this.......

LW Dekeyser is going to get more than 4 million per. My best guess is somewhere in the 6 million range. He is much better than KFQ and Ericsson and they are close to 5 as you said. DD will be our next big money long term deal, as he should be.

Salary cap will always keep good defensive players employed. Teams can't afford 4 lines of scoring forwards. Even in the days of no caps every team had a checking line, including us who had the best one in the late 90's.

That is the market-maybe below for a guy like him. In the end it will be 4-5 per year for 5 years with a option on it. If we go back to the summer when talking about moves, I mentioned at that point in time I would move Helm+ to great either a true power forward or top 4 Dman. Point was while Helm is a good player that we all like, not sure we can resign him and Abby with both coming up on UFA and Abby going to get 4+ million per year. Can we afford to keep helm at 3.5 million +/-, which is his market rate? 8 million for the 2 of them and only 1 scores goals.

Most likely advanced scouting. But if we are looking for players..... Maroon please! Big, physical, cheap, and scores goals. Which are also the reasons why the Ducks will not move him......

A good coach never picks the players. he lets the players pick. The guy that is producing plays. it really is that simple.if both are producing, both play. I said before the season if I was making the call I will take the next 3 years to transition from Jimmy to Mrazek. This year Jimmy 50 Mrazek 32. Next year 41 each, and then in year 3 Mrazek 50 and Jimmy 32. Both stay fresh, Mrazek gets time to devleop, and jimmy plays out his deal.

JIMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Should be the first star.

Ummm..... no. We have Always had a top checking line take out the other team top lines when we used to win cups. Gring Line ring any bells? maltby-Draper-Kocur then Mccarty. That was their job. Think back a couple of years. We played the Hawks in the PO's and had Z cover Toews. Yes he shut him down. But at the same time Z didn't score. We lost the series. When you take your best players that cost the most money and have them play D first, you hurt your own O. It takes more energy to play D than O. Federov used to talk about that. Yes your top players have to play some D. But have them cover the other teams 2nd/3rd lines when they don't have to spend so much energy and can still score us points.

Not that anyone cares about actual facts, but Howard is out playing Mrazek. To date Jimmy has a 2.21 GAA and a .928 save %. Mrazek has a 2.67 GAA and a .921 save %. The GAA is nearly 1/2 a goal per game less which is a fairly large difference. Yes it is early but Jimmy is back in AS form. You have to go back to Jimmy's 09/10 season, 11/12 season and 12/13 season to find similiar numbers for Jimmy.

So our issue is our 4th line doesn't score? Really? Its not the stars that are failing to produce that is causing the problem or the D that is playing like crap, it is our 4th line?

Plays liek this happen in every single hockey game from PeeWee through the NHL. Nothing to get worked up about at all. I would rather have guys doing this type of thing that say getting DUI's and endangering the public or running gambling rings from their houses, or having drug issues, or sexual assaults.......

We were also 1 game from not making the playoffs. Richards is not a star anymore. Nor is he healthy. Same for Green. Since they are not on the ice, we have not upgraded anything.

They will finish between 6th and 10th, just like the last few years. earlier this summer when leftwinger asked for bold predictions, I did say the streak would end. But that doesn't mean we are going to become the worst team in the NHL and get the first pick. if we miss it will be by a point or 2, giving us the 14th pick in the draft.