jimmyemeryhunter

Everybody. Find a comfortable seat. Sit down. Close your eyes. Now take a deep breath. We lost. Horribly. But well be okay.

Damn was that a read, ha.I cant respond to all of it because it'd take years, seeing as I'm on my phone. But. We did get lucky with pav and z learning the wings way from the best, which is why I pray they keep jurco and sheahan up to learn from them, and why i hope like hell that theyll bring up mantha to let him get as much time in under pav z and kronwall as they can. Pulk and jarnkrok are too far away from the big club to worry about, but they don't seem to be the replacements for d and z, but I think were changing philosophies. It's like Holland gets that we need to be bigger, so instead of taking risks on the small skilled players he started taking risks on big bodies with upside. In the nhl now, Jurco and sheahan show that. Both big, jurco will be a dominant second line winger, possibly 1st. And it may be jumping the gun but Sheahans ceiling looks high, I wouldn't say first line, but it doesn't look out of the question. Especially if they keep jurco sheahan and Tatar together forever, the chemistry is already there, now imagine them all in their prime after 3-4yrs playing together. And mantha is just a freak, huge, with an amazing shot, good skill, and he can skate. The rest of our prospects coming up aren't HUGE, but with the exception of one, maybe two, they're all 6'+ with bodies that can support 200-215 lbs and still be effective. So we may not have any bona fide super stars coming through, so think of the team were working into as more of a St. Louis type team with more skill thrown into the top six. Another good thing about this is we shouldn't be too dependant on a few players, wed be more balanced and deep from top to bottom. I may be seeing more than there is in all this, but it seems to be the direction they've headed in the draft the past few years. It makes a lot of sense if you think about it, but once again, I could have my standards set too high. It also explains the teams lack of identity at the start of the season, they're caught in a retooling year where at the beginning of the year the team represented old principles, small skilled guys, and veteran dept. Then when it wasnt working, and we started losing most the team to injuries they called up the plans we had in the works for the changes in the future. Which would also explain the order of call ups. And why other guys like callahan and ferraro haven't been brought up. Glendenning replaced one, or both in the contingency plan for the fourth line for now.

Agreed.But hes not resigning with the islanders for a reason, I wonder if he'd withhold resigning with us for the same thing. There's A lot of talk that he'd end up in Minnesota, but I think he wants to test free agency once, just to have everyone come after him. If that's the case he won't be a wing... I don't see us trading for him as a rental unless its for a bunch of spare parts, and some hit or miss type guys like frk or Ferraro, AND the isles are just doing it to get something before he leaves for nothing. Edit: I can't see us giving up our #1pick this year if he doesn't resign. Maybe a conditional 1st that changes to a 2nd, or even a 3rd if he doesn't resign with us long term.

Well. The source is eklund. So take that how you will. But apparently the wings are going hard after vanek. http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=57550 If its true, the first round pick will be gone for sure in the package, as well as a kid, or two... I'm just curious to see what they're offering, and if the fact that hell be a rental will bring the value down enough.

The thing is that wasnt all we were offering, noone really knew what all else was involved in the deal, just that those three things were the base of it.But it is funny, their excuse was to get him out of their division, yet ended up trading him into it after the realignment.

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=57550 I wonder what they're offering.

Right?!I can't find the link, but he competed in the fastest skater competition so not only does he have a solid frame, he's also a good skater.

Beautiful example man. And I'm not entirely sure that silf is equal to Nyquist, but i guess agree to (maybe?) disagree. Ha. Another blue jackets example. But supposedly our package we offered for Nash was insane, and included flip, Franzen And a first or second round pick, yet they sent him to ny for much less. I do really like Artem Anisimov though, he reminds me of king from the kings, big fast, and pretty skilled. Both used on the 3rd line, but artem on dats wing would be pretty damn cool.

,Good. ha. I thought it was funny, but. Yeah. I read that it was an Islam extremist group and a Russian terrorist group with no affiliations to al quaida, and that they were "more determined" than them http://freebeacon.com/u-s-identifies-terror-group-threatening-attacks-on-the-olympics/

I'm not saying we couldn't have packaged half the farm up to get one of those, but we don't have anyone comparable to Seguin in that age, Ericsson and Franzen are comparable this season in that neither have been healthy, but we couldn't have swapped given Louis age.Had the kids we have up now been put on display last year, we could've put our hat on the edge of the ring, not entirely in it. And once again. Im slightly convinced that teams don't want to trade with us, because they wanna see if well fail. Call it luck, but the teams we've built, they way we've drafted, and the amount of succes we've sustained over he last 2 decades honestly makes the rest of the league, (for the most part)look like they're amateurs.

I dont wanna be that guy to turn down your Toby Keith music, but not every terrorist attack is al quaida man. I agree with you on multiple points. I'm Just saying man.

I agree with you on Cleary on the fourth, but w the push by the kids, we gotta see what we can get out of Andy...So sticking him with fourth line duties, and tying the anchor of Cleary on his leg is counter productive. Gotta give him a legitimate shot at keeping his spot. But as the game goes on, if its not effective then I agree, Cleary and Andy should be relegated to less than 8 mins.. HA! My biggest concern right now is Jurco has had some questionable defensive series, and going against the top line with only sheahan as a true 200 foot player makes me a bit nervous, yet excited because weve all seen how amazingly this line has stepped up. And lets face it. The chemistry on this line is the best we've seen from a 3 man unit in quite some time. I slightly expect helms line to be slated in against the Giroux line, but id like to see what the kids could do against em. Tatars defensive game isnt perfect, but hes improved drastically over the course of the season. Jurco just makes rookie mistakes, but he's learning so fast and he makes up for his gaffes almost immediately. And I literally cant say enough good things about sheahan. If we could've had him in last year playing like this, wed have got past chicago, hes what this team has needed for awhile. 200ft game, solid positionally with Grit, speed, size, strength, good faceoff guy, responsible, and he does have a damn good shot and has shown a pretty underrated set of hands. Jurco's still my favorite kid of the future, but he could be sent down when people come back and I'd understand why. But if Sheahan goes down ill be baffled. Edit: somehow it posted twice, so I had to fix that.

Agreed.Tonight's gonna be the eye test for them. They're going to be thinking of what to do long term here and if andy can show he can play stronger and step up with everyone out... He's an amazing penalty killer, And great on face offs. Plus I dont really get the sheahan vs andersson thing. Andy's supposed to be our fourth line center. So unless its already a forgone conclusion that he's moving to wing, i think its more glendenning or Andy. Sheahans proven himself as an effective 3rd line c, quite possibly 2nd line worthy already. So I'd say its more helm vs sheahan. Which in the future I'd kind of like to see helm move over to wing to take some of the load off him, plus wings do less banging, especially when you've got a big fast guy like sheahan centering the line. And a combo of helm Tatar and sheahan would be so fast amd hard to play against. Nothing against jurco, cuz he kind of completes that line IMO, the skill to dazzle with tats, AND the size/speed/grit to compliment sheahan, who's also shown some good skill. If they continue to look this good. You can't break them up, but I'm unsure whether or not they can keep this up with any prolonged consistency. And if we do ever get healthy, which is a big if, then jurco will be a casualty of the cap/roster situation.

They kind of need to. Every week I'm reading something about players not allowing their families to come fearing for their safety.

Howard's backing up gus tonight, I read that jimmy expects to start Friday. I kinda think we should throw Franzen on ltir, then call up Callahan.... But i dunno the severity of z, or Franzen, or when dats will be back, so it may be pointless. But with the success our kids have had, is rather try another one that we need to figure out the future of playing than cleary.

I was impressed by his work ethic at c all year, and am proud of his toughness to try to get back.But he's a home grown guy, so I care more about his health at this point... Kinda like helm. I want them in the lineup cuz were better with them in, but not if it means cutting years off their career or affects their quality of life after the game.

This is tough. We need to just throw him on ltir and let him get healthy, then do what someone else suggested with Cleary. Bring him back with five or six games left in the season, let him get back into shape and see if he can keep himself onthe ice/get himself hot. Assuming were not still struggling to stay in the playoff picture. And does anyone know if him being on ir restricts anything for him in the Olympics, or if its different on ltir? Cuz he needs to get healthy for the team.

I kind of expect that to be our first line in five+ years anyway.Wonder how they'll do.

Anderssons centering our first line? Were doomed.

Mrazek has been reassigned to gr.

I don't recall which game it was but mickey was saying how good the kids have been and that once everyone gets healthy glendenning and sheahan are both effective singers as well. He talked about how they both have played wing extensively before. So... Who knows. We won't lose Andy for nothing. He's an awesome penalty killer. But he is slow and doesn't give much grit or scoring.

Yeah. Z IS OUT. e Cleary back in. That sucks.

The game was ugly and shouldn't have been in that weather....But winniks gf, is gorgeous. And its kinda cool to see them with all their families, gives me a more relatable feel to the players on other teams.

Its kind of amazing to see such a balanced forward corps. It took entirely too long. But better late than never.

It looks like almost no ones there.