kickazz

Shots fired

Not even close. Smith was an idiot. Cholowski is a smart player, not super highly skilled but uses his brains and works hard. We'll see, I'm not high on him yet but I'm content so far.

First of all, I'm not exaggerating anything. He's let in 4 goals once this season and 5 goals twice this season. I spoke truth. You tried using his GAA (which is an average not reality). Now as for Mrazek's performance. The more he plays the more his value has kept dropping. It's at the point now that maybe they don't want to make it worse. And if you thought outside the box a little bit instead of being so cynical with this org, maybe they're doing this on purpose since its his contract year. Re-sign him for cheap and then once he's locked in give him the starts. You have no idea what they're thinking. I have no idea what their thinking, but I'm trying to come up with different conclusions. You should try it. Howard bounced back. Mrazek hasn't. He's been trying to for 2 years now. You do realize that right? You're assuming it's this terrible think they're doing to Mrazek. Hell the guy has ltierally beed trying to keep a starting job since we have Jonas Gustavvson! My god has it been 2 years already?? He lost the job in Feb 2016. They gave him another chance all last season until he s*** the bed again. Now Howard has the job until he screws up. That's the nature of the beast. Now lastly, in order to give Mrazek 5 starts like you said. He would not need to be a backup. Sorry to burst your bubble but Petr Mrazek was officially declared the backup this season. Until the started fades or gets injured, a backup doesn't take the starting position. I thought this was common knowledge in hockey..? This isn't a tandem anymore. And clearly the org has hinted (with the expansion draft) that they were going with Howard in the future. That can still change by the way. But coming into this season it was pretty clear the organization sees Howard continuing in the future for now. By the way Howard is 33, going on 34. Just so you know, goalies don't retire at this age. Mathematically speaking if Howard stays a wing will he retires (say age 39 or 40) then he plays until Dylan Larkin is 28 years old, Mantha and AA are 29. Lundqvuist, Andersson, Luongo, Brodeur, Osgood, Ryan Miller at have or had great careers until the end of their 30s with minimal decline, in fact for some they actually did better as they aged (can't say the same about forwards or defenseman though). Vernon won his cup when he was 34, also won Conn Smyth, Hasek won it when he was old (I don't remember how old). I get that "young" is important in hockey and everyone was high on Mrazek but I'm not sure if age actually means much for successful goalies. If Mrazek didn't exist, no body would talk about Howard getting old. We'd probably be talking about how we still have a good 5-6 years with him and can't wait till Petruzzeli takes over as Howard gets to his twilight years. My point is, losing Mrazek is no big loss for us. We still have a starting goalie that should theoretically keep playing well for a while and until next prospect comes through.

As a rookie. The top 7 have been in the league longer. This is his first year.

I must be missing something. Do you mean this was a change made in the 2013 CBA?

First bold - As soon as Mrazek loses, he gets benched. String of starts not happening. Second bold - Nope. All I'm saying is having the goalie that gives them a better chance to stay in the game, be it Mrazek or Howard allows them to keep working hard. Nothing to do with how they feel about Mrazek or Howard. Everything to do with which goalie gives a better shot. Third bold - Congratulations 3-4 you make Mrazek look a tiny bit less s***tier than he has been. Still s*** GAA though. Get my point? Fourth bold - Not really, I've commended Mrazek when he's played well. I've even suggested (maybe 3 weeks ago?) they put Mrazek in when Howard lost 3 or whatever games in a row it was. Unlike some people who ***** at Howard even when he does well. Don't generalize me into a crowd just because you don't understand the meaning and contexts of my posts. Fifth bold - You think I'm talking Mrazek down because I "don't like him". Stop being so emotionally involved in your posts man. You have a knack for this. I'm saying no one is going to want him because nobody wanted him previously, Vegas didn't want him in the expansion draft and most likely, because of his performance now, most teams won't want him for the price we ask. I'm giving you circumstantial evidence. I'm not even giving you an opinion, Mr. Opinion. Your idea is to keep playing Mrazek right? Yeah they did that and what did it do? Bring down his trade value even more. Has it occurred to you that maybe they aren't playing him to prevent more damage to his value? I get it, you're superior to Holland in your management skills, but there's actually more to it than we obviously know. Sixth bold - If has nothing to do with the individual players and everything to do with the situations they're put under. If you don't understand the concept then I'm not going to sit here and explain it to you. I suggest looking up "complacency". It's a thing. The Detroit Pistons were suffering from it for maybe 3-4 years. Until this year when their Center finally started doing well. And the rest of the crew started heating up as well and now the pistons are 4th in the conference.

First bold - your #1 won't happen Second bold - I'm not saying the team feels anything. I'm saying that's EXACTLY what it is. The team statistically has a better chance with Howard because Howard has the better GAA. Oh my bad I should change 4-5 goals to 4 goals. 3.67 GAA rounded up. Third bold - Don't act like you know, you have lots of issues understanding people's context. If you think I dislike Mrazek than you've suck at abstract thinking. I actually have zero issues with Mrazek. What I do have issues with is people talking down on Jimmy Howard and talking up Mrazek. I also have issues with people overhyping players. I thought you caught on to that by now. I want the team to lose for higher draft chances sure, but I also want them to have a legit chance at these games so the young forwards can keep pushing. Having the goalie that somewhat keeps them in the game is the better chance. Who gives a f*** about Mrazek as long as all of Larkin, Mantha, AA, Bertuzzi keep playing to win. As long as Jimmy provides them hope, Larkin etc will keep playing their best rather than getting complacent.

In Holland we trust. #8 in scoring among league defensemen.

For #1 that won’t happen. Plus I’d rather just lose games while keeping that winning chance so the youngsters are still motivated to work hard. Putting in a goalie that lets in 4-5 goals a game is simply going to bring down the team morale.

Not sure anyone even wants Mrazek. But I’ll take any salary dump.

Mr. Neo It all

Fedorov was a #2 behind Yzerman. Someone is going to have to be #2 on this team after Larkin (who will likely be our #1 in a year or two). Just because Ras could fill that spot, doesn't mean it's a bad thing as long as we have a legit 1-2 punch down the middle.

This is exactly what it comes down to. The NHL didn't "deem" it as legit. It's more like "well we don't want to deal with the NHLPA". Most likely because the physicians gave their expert medical opinion which is as simple as "well the best thing for Hossa is to avoid the allergen". Which is true. The doctor's aren't lying. That really is the best thing. Just like avoiding the sun altogether is the best cure for skin cancer; yet impractical and impossible. My point in my post is the entire LTIR is easily exploitable because as long as a higher legit authority gives circumstantial evidence, then the NHL really has no case to decline it. If you don't want to die in a plane crash, just don't fly. Of course Dickie has his rose-colored glasses on and thinks Hossa quit because it just became oh so unbearable. Even though he probably would have finished his contract if the LTIR system/ loophole didn't exist, just like hundreds of hockey players have done it before. I was of the opinion that Kronwall wouldn't be eligible for LTIR but given this Hossa situation, anything is possible. Even the case of "well hockey causes booboos so I want to quit, I have a doctor's note".

I knew my subconscious had it stored somewhere.

RIP. My 7000 posts are still here and you gone bro. You lost the game.

No one says he's lying. But a lot of players are allergic to the material in those equipment and it's not a condition that would make him unable to play hockey. Besides, he can be treated for it. They're using a loop-hole of "It's best to avoid the allergen". No difference than a doctor saying "it's best to avoid the sun so you never get skin cancer". And no different than saying "it's best to not ever drive if you don't want to get killed in a car crash". Well no s hit. Bottom line is it's not a life threaning or career ending injury. It actually isn't an injury at all. No part of his body is injured. Hence he shouldn't be on an "Injured reserve" list. It's simply him quitting because of inconvenience and also to avoid recapture penalty for the Hawks. In this case the LTIR being used more for early retirement and inconveniences. They should just change the name to Long-term retirement plan. LTRP. That way, even though Zetterberg's back is fine medically speaking, he can just get on that ASAP and say "well it's best for me to stop palying hockey because even though my back is technically 100% healed, hockey is such a dangerous sport that I can injure it again". And then every 38 year old player can do the same thing. "Well you know, my wife is telling me I'm getting older, and I need to spend my time with my kids, she wants me to be around and be a father. Hockey being such a dangerous sport could take my life away and my kids wouldn't have a father anymore, this is why I feel as though I can no longer play, it would be an inconvenience to me and my family". And the doctor could give the report saying "Hockey is a high-contact sport that can cause injuries and be life-threatening, in my expert medical opinion he has a good reason to be placed on the injured reserve". Pronger was a start to the LTIR exploitation, Hossa's situation just made it dumber. More will come. Trust me. And I'd say in 10-15 years LTIR will have new rules so teams can't use it as a cap circumvention. Something along the lines of teams still having to have it partly count towards their cap.

I sincerely hope they win.

But when Holland says "close to NHL ready" that could mean 2-3 years, no? Anyways if he does come in sooner, it would make sense seeing as how AA, Larkin, Mantha are all NHL ready. Bertuzzi is now in the mix too, although we'll see how long that lasts. Ras and Svech coming in together would be nice. Maybe even Cholowski (who by the way is doing very well in WHL).

Woah chill...

Got worse at age 38. Not 35 or 36, or 37. 38 was the magic number. After a 20 year hockey career. The year to call it was age 38. Not 37. 38. When he looked considerably slower on ice than the year before. Clearly looked like he was showing signs of age in the 16/17 season. That was the same year where the allergy got so terrible he could no longer handle it.

Gives other countries a chance too.

Rasmussen if he lives up to his ceiling.

I give him 2-3 years to be honest. Unless he REALLY impress them at the training camp next year and steals someone's job.

You just named 5 off the top of your head. Not too bad. Good is also Blashill being on his last year, good is we've rid some s*** players (Jurco, Sproul, Smith). Holland on his last year too. Good is in 2 years we will no longer have Kronwall's contract. Good is we're bad enough to get a top 10 pick. I see lots of things to be positive about. We're finally in that phase where we no longer have star players able to carry us into playoffs and will continue to get decent picks. As for Jimmy Howard. I wouldn't call 33 years old "old". I've gone back and forth on this as well but realizing that goalies aren't really old until they're 36 or so and even then a lot of them continue to perform well. It's usually their tail end of the career where they completely fall off around age 38 maybe 39 (see Brodeur, Osgood, Luongo) I'd say Howard still has a good 4 years in him at good performance. Long as he stays healthy. And he's been fine this year health wise.

If I’m not mistaken during the preseason he was our best faceoff guy. And that’s with a bad wrist. That’s already a good start. Could have been luck, could be that he’s a natural faceoff winner. The rest we won’t know until he’s up here. Not making any predictions on his offense or defense because I’m against overhyping these guys. But I will say that these mature/hard working players that no one assumes have as much talent, are usually the ones that surprise everyone. Will power and s***