chaps80

HELM?? That’s unusual.

It happens. Too bad we’re not taking advantage of Vaz’s poor start to the season. Plus he’s played 6 in a row with tonight’s game.

Don’t forget the Coreau experiment either though. Mrazek was bad, but he was horrible. Played games he never should have. Howard dropped off towards the end of the season too when he and Mrazek alternated starts.

Team better rest up this weekend. Got three games in five days against Tampa, Toronto, and Washington. Gonna be a test. Man, it’s weird mentioning Toronto as a good team. Although the Wings have always seemed to struggle or make things hard on themselves against them, even when they sucked.

He should have been traded at the deadline last year. Shame the Pens trade never happened. Was excited when I read of it being a done deal mostly. Didn’t know AA was the trigger puller, had he agreed to sign. Buzz kill.

What’s his cap hit? If it can work cap wise, Holland should see he can ship AA over in trade. Make him one more clear final offer, and if he balks at it, tell him to enjoy Montreal! Would fit the “ top four D man or other young scoring forward” criteria. Kenny wants.

Holland did say he wouldn’t trade him for anyone but a top 4 D or similar type of young forward. Possible.

No one called for his head, but there was “Mrazek sucks, I want Howard!!” Howard will not play every game. Mrazek will play as well. It is what it is. Won the game anyways, and Fleury looked bad. That’s a positive.

I’m really not trying to be. If your gonna bring up stats, maybe look a bit deeper is all. All I had to say was I was shocked it wasn’t all Mrazek’s fault they were down and on the criticism pours,,.

I’ve admitted it quite a few times. I’ve also said that this should be his last season if he doesn’t improve. Just seems like the guy can’t allow a goal around here without everyone calling for his head. Our D sucks, s*** happens when you give away pucks and let all five opposing players in your zone at once. And look at that, 5-3. Crisis averted.

The same D, but if you want to get technical we can run over stats that show the D was even weaker in front of Mrazek. Found a nice write up about it a little while back. But I’m done with the whole goalie debate. Things are what they are. Just pointing out when your D gives away pucks like that, you can’t blame the goalie. But Howard would have stopped it I’m sure. He stops everything.

Whoops spoke too soon...

Wow, surprised this isn’t all Mrazek’s fault yet! Getting rational around here lately.

Yay defense!!!

Least he can stick to a working game plan...

Being outshot 9-6 by Vegas after one. Wake up!! Least they have a 1-0 lead, but damn this team sucks in their own zone. On a bright note, Daley seems to be working out great so far. Good thing with DeKeyser already injured. Guess all the Caps had to do was question his leadership after failed playoff runs and admit to thinking of trading him.

Yep!! But, no too much. A bit, but keep it in check. His every move is being scrutinized by the team and fans right now. Just play calm and stop the shots. Has to concentrate on proper positioning foremost. Stop trying to make saves look hard for the cameras by pulling last second acrobatics. Gonna burn him again. He was taught new techniques in camp to improve, put em to use.

Mrazek is starting according to all projected lineups I’ve seen. Which makes sense. Howard needs rest. No need to take a chance on a back to back. Please, no stinker goals tonight though. Had one last game, learn from it, smarten up. If it wasn’t for that bad goal it was otherwise a very solid outing. Keep it up.

Yeah it’s a bit far fetched. It wasn’t as if he called them in and told them his intentions though. They heard about it and spoke to him on E’s behalf apparantly.

Two D men who shouldn’t be in the NHL are continually in the lineup though. If Kronwall and Errorsson were benched, the team would be better for it. Both are huge liabilities. Only one can really be benched per game unfortunately, but neither are if “healthy”. Errorsson has his spot locked up every game for some reason only Blash has, and the minute Kronwall thinks he’s ready to play, back in the lineup he goes without question. Even though he’s utterly useless. Both would be long gone on other teams, but Holland has this team so screwed with the cap that they’re stuck. I read something somewhere about how Holland was close to buying out Errorsson in the early offseason, but Z and Kronwall went to him and asked him not to do it, and he didn’t (obv). Not sure if that’s true or not, but I can see it happening.

I don’t think he had any future there anyways. Late first rounder who was great in the OHL, good in the AHL, but couldn’t crack the lineup with the big team. Kinda like McCollum. But Subban was actually given chances to start games, not just a few periods. Rask is stinking it up so far though, so maybe they wish they still had him around? I just want to see Fleury get lit up. Ruh roh...

Hmm, well that was kind of a dumb move. Bad camp or not, he had NHL experience at least. Then again, COL protected Varly instead, so they probably didn’t see much in him either, unless it was a compromise pick to save other players. Talk about putting your faith completely in Fleury though.

He’ll come around. Unless he truly wants to lose (more) money and not play NHL hockey for a season all to try and make the Olympic team, consisting of who knows who at this point. Hard to buy that. He’s running out of excuses. His agent has worked out other deals for young RFAs with the same amount of experience and production for roughly the same amount, so I’m sure he’s told AA to take the money already, and that he has zero leverage. It’s all him at this point.

Just noticed M. Subban is Vegas’ backup? LOL Did he get his s*** together when no one noticed?

They needed to a long time ago, but Uncle Gary refuses to see that, even putting the team on the league’s dime. He loves hockey in stupid places.