kickazz

Yeah, it was me. Players regressed last year and Blash is to blame for sure. But looking at this year so far, it's becoming painfully obvious that we're lacking star power. Nyquist is scoring at a similar rate he did under Babcock again. Green , Helm, Glendening, Vanek (before injury) doing better that last year.But Larkin Tatar, Abby not doing so well. AA around the same. Small sample size so far so take it with a grain of salt. Howard also doing much better So overall a good amount of players are doing better this year it seems although a couple have regressed.

I mean it's basically the same isn't it? 2014 we lost Dats and Hank to injury and we barely scratch into playoffs as 8th seed. Last year we end up in 8th seed with older and non superstar version of Dats and Z. This team rode on Dats, Zet and Lidstrom. We don't have those guys anymore. That's what it mostly comes down to. We don't have a superstar on this team. No coach is going to turn us into a top seeded team. Not even Babcock could. Of course by no means am I saying Blash = Babcock. All I'm saying is, a superstar would probably make a huge difference for us regardless of the coach. Babcock could probably win us a few more games than Blash does. He might get us to game 7 against Tampa Bay instead of game 5 elimination. Maybe he gets us to round 2. But ultimately, we still wouldn't make it far.

I agree. But Babcock also had Datsyuk and Zetterberg still playing like top players. And having 2 superstars could trump having an entire roster of above average players imo. Not a fan of Blash either but unfortunately for him he doesn't have a superstar player to bail him out. Some of these games are so close that having that one guy on offense or even defense could make all the difference.

Classy. Damn that sucks. Tampa's going to probably do well without him as usual tho.

Outstanding. Just when I praise the guy in the other thread, goes out for 6 weeks.

I bet Dominic Hasek out of retirement would play better.

The laughter reminds me of an old member

Right I'm speaking purely in context of poll question.

I disagree. Here's why. Just look at our attendance rate every season in the link below. We're one of the best selling franchises in the continent. In fact we sell more tickets now than we did in 07-08. Last season (2015-16) we sold almost as many tickets as we did in the 2001-2002 season. This is my whole point. This is exactly why Mike Illitch and family would never go for tank job. They honestly have no reason to because regardless of whether we're number 1 in the conference or number 8 and squeezing into the playoffs, the franchise is still a top selling team as far as attendance is concerned. Check out the link and the different years. You'll be surprised. http://www.espn.com/nhl/attendance/_/sort/homeTotal And with the new arena opening and ticket prices likely going up, they'll continue to have the sell out crowds and just end up making more $$ per ticket sold. Making playoffs is a win-win for them as far as dollars are concerned. Missing the playoffs and tanking for 8 years straight doesn't guarantee we make the finals. But it probably will cause them to lose faithful fans. 8 years of playoffs and 82 sold out/ nearly sold out games and maintain high ticket prices? 8 years of tanking and by year 4 drop in attendance rate and ticket prices?

I believe mathematically speaking the organization would have more guaranteed profit/revenue $$$ on making the playoffs every year than tanking for the next 8 years. If my hypothesis is correct... we already know what Mike Illitch's answer to this poll would be.

I would have agreed with this in October but frankly Z has been the most consistent producer in November. 6 points in 6 games tied for team lead now. And his line is matching up much better than everyone else is. He's also been one of our better defensive forwards on the top 6. Him and Darren Helm deserve some credit here, they have both been matching opponent lines pretty well. Our 2nd line is concerning. Ultimately everyone needs to chip in and win battles. Tatar has to be better. Vanek needs to be back and Larkin needs to dish out more assists and Nielsen needs to not be a minus player... He's -7! Even worse is Riley Sheahan with -8 and 3 points in 16 games.. Sheesh...

Pure speculation dude. If we miss the playoffs the excuse will be "The parity is too high but we were right there in the mix of making the playoffs" and Holland doesn't end up getting fired. Sucking for one or two years we could become competitive again assuming we actually get a really high pick. Even with Holland fired, I doubt the Illitches would be okay with tanking. This organization would never accept defeat or sinking rock bottom because the owners don't seem to have that mentality.

Lol. Hahahahahahahaah. Glendog will get his hattrick.

No I'm not telling you anything about being satisfied or unsatisfied about our wins because my post made no mention of wins or losses. My post only mentioned about our scoring leaders. Larkin has 5 goals in 16 games thats a pace for 25 goals in 82 games for a 2nd year playmaking center/winger. That's very good. 10 goals? That would be pacing for 50 goals by the end of the season.. You expect him to be a 50 goal scorer by the end of the season? You want him to score as much or possibly more than Ovechkin??

I would check stats again. Z, Nyquist and Green at tied for point lead, Z is leading in assists and Larkin is leading the team in goals. Premature panic. Mike Green was signed to be a scoring defenseman by the way. So him being high in points is actually a good thing.

dam voted for wrong one, can i not change my vote in new forums?

Lol!

Lol this guy.

Yep, it's low to claim he "played better" as well.

30 goals is an arbitrary number. Tatar scored 29 before last season. Same thing. League scoring has gone down a lot. Pittsburgh penguins won the Stanley Cup last year but had only one 30 goal scorer. The year before that Chicago had zero 30 goal scorerd and won the Stanley cup.

Produced nothing on Datsyuk's line last year

I get what you're saying. But what I'm saying is he no longer is the starter by the looks of it.

Have they actually said Mrazek is the starter lately? I know Blashill said it in the summer but have they said anything the since the season started? Lol exactly.

I agree with kliq and Berzeench

It amazes me that right now we have the best goalie in the league statistically and people still hate on the guy. We've got some realgud loyal fans.