LeftWinger

Z for the 3! Great heads up by Mantha.

Sproulin on the river!

Well that may be it...our offense is inept tonight.

A bit late to comment, but that's why we have Ott. Btw, Mantha is up next..score!

So Glenny gets a nice assist and he gets rewarded by being put back on the 4th line...

The Postman delivers! Nielsen The Real Dielsen....

That was off side, glad they didn't score.

Well good news is its early....

Ugh, thankfully I have FSD...no pee pee peeair. Ugh.....call a t.o. blashill...

Well that was very Hasek-like...

Exactly, it'll take strategic trades and cutting ties with players. You have to make a deal for 1 or 2 top defenders. DD seems to be struggling in the top 2. You have to keep your young assets here permanently. Larkin, AA, Mantha, Bert, Svech. and I'm liking what I hear about Givani Smith (although he may be still a tad young.) You have to choose a goalie and go with him, thick and thin. Mrazek is supposed to be the future, so roll with him. Some how, some way, if possible, cut ties with Kronwall, Ericsson, Glenny, Miller, (one of) Tatar/Nyquist, possibly B. Smith (in acquiring your top D) Howard, and possibly Sheahan. That's a ton to get rid of and I'm not saying do it all now. Plus, I know, acquiring top end D with cost some young prospects(s.) If this is the case, so be it. I'd be ok with trading some if it gets us some players like the D we've mentioned all season long. Of course if you could just dump those guy for picks, to waivers or to retirement, then it opens up cap and spots to bring up the kids. IMO, if all we can get is Fowler this year, that is fine. Maybe if we clean some house, we might be able to attract Shatty to the mix via UFA. We are probably stuck with E (unless he goes via expansion) and IMO, we can let Smith walk come July. Kronner will be LTIR sooner or later, we won't have to worry about him. You can let Miller walk, trade Glenny and one of Tats/Nyq. and most definitely Howard. That'll open up room for Fowler's salary and I believe enough to try to entice Shatty here. If we're opening up LCA with a D Corps like this: Fowler - Shatty DD - Sproul Ericsson - Green Marchy ....I think we're looking pretty good. If you have to include Marchy in deal and keep XO, that's cool too. I'd keep XO. Now if you're replacing Glenny, Miller, Tatar with AA, Bert, Svech you have the makings of a nice kid core, with some vets to help pave the way. And yes, I am re-signing Vanek and Ott. So here would be my lineup in order to move forward starting in 17. Z - Larkin - Vanek Svech - Nielsen - Nyquist Bert - AA - Abby Jurco - Helm - Ott Tangradi (or who ever earns the 13th and 14th spots) Fowler - Shatty DD - Sproul Ericsson - Green XO Mrazek Coreau Too much to ask for I know, but this could start the rebuild on the fly, and I think we'd still make the playoffs. The most important thing(s) to do, Trade for Fowler this season, clear enough cap space to re-sign Vanek and offer Shatty a bunch. Those, along with allowing Miller and Smith to move on, we'd be much better. For the record, over the course of this season and before next I trade Mantha, Marchy, Tatar, Howard, Sheahan and Glenny. I betting on Kronwall being LTIR before too long. But.....Holland. Nuff said. I didn't like the contracts, but I do have both on my team moving forward with the rebuild...

Just to defend Coffey some, in 1995 he won the Norris and was 4th in Hart voting. In 1996 he had 74 points in 76 games. He was hardly toast, nor did he have zero value. Just to compare points, lidstrom only cracked 70 points like 3 or 4 times. Coffey wasn't brought here for D. Although his +/- was really not that bad here. He was basically our best D for offense. Scotty traded him to upgrade our forward position with Shanny. Plus to allow Lidstrom to take over and developer into the leader back there. For comparison if it was today and Holland had the same choice, he'd keep Coffey and suppress the youngster. That's the difference.

Well Ott is used in every important situation on the ice, don't think we'll see him scratched. Besides Bertuzzi was sent down to GR today...so there goes that idea.

Must mean Vanek is nearing his comeback. Or they're putting Miller back in.

But in those 12 years we never tanked it to get a higher pick. We don't need 8 years of top 5 picks to win. How has that worked out for Edmonton? It worked for Chicago, but they have the Bowman's. They have traded, signed and drafted throughout their run. Traded high end talent, draft picks and signed vets because they made it an attractive place to play.

I hear what you're saying, but Holland won't do what it takes to make this team better. We don't need to tank, we just need better management. Btw, Holmstrom was drafted in 94.

That's the point though, you have to make trades as well. Eriksson got us Chelios, Golubovsky got us Larionov back, Kuznetsov got us Stuart. For some reason Holland just won't make the deals that need to be made. No I don't want to deal Larkin, but all of your kids aren't going to make it to Detroit, it'll be ok to deal a couple or some picks to make the team better.

When we first acquired Coffey, John Brophey was a pro scout for us. I was a Sky cap at the old Delta Airlines back then. I carried his luggage for him and we actually talked about Coffey. He asked if I was excited about him, i said of course. He told me to watch him without the puck. He is a great offensive talent, but his D us suspect. They knew what they were getting when they got him. Also, when Bowman came in, the talk was what's going to happen to Coffey, because bowman hated him in Pittsburgh and traded him out of there. His days were numbered when Bowman became GM.

Which is why I said we built on the fly. Of all those players mention, we only missed the playoffs twice and that was before 1990. We never tanked it for higher picks, we never tanked it for eight years to only win once in 10. We drafted better, made trades when players weren't working out, we made moves that made UFA'S want to come play here AND for less money than on the open market. That is what Jimmy D, Bryan Murray and Scotty brought us...Holland is nowhere near their talent, he hands out too many loyalty contracts to mediocre players, wastes our cap on mediocre players and that makes it hard to trade plus makes it unattractive for higher end UFA'S. Who wants to play with broken players with multiple years left in their deals? Who wants to play with mediocrity for the next 5+ years? Nobody. Holland has handcuffed himself with these contracts and now he can't move a 1st for a D-Man we need, there's no cap. He cannot trade anyone because they are albatross contracts. If he'd even trade someone from his precious "core." You can have Mantha, but don't ask about Nyquist? Give me a break. Holland is the problem and Blashill is handcuffed into playing this crap Holland gives him. Don't get me wrong, I praised the Vanek signing, but he was a gamble that no other team wanted. So it's not like Holland landed to best ufa on the market at the time of the signing.

Which is to my point. Make this place more attractive to play. Not by giving mediocre players long, over paid contracts.

We've made the playoffs for 25 years, won 4 Cups. Never tanking to get a higher pick. We need someone who doesn't waste draft picks on 5'9 110lb. D-men from Albania. We need to groom two handfuls of kids by letting them play, trade the players who can't keep up, make our team a hell of a lot more attractive to UFA'S than it is now. We built on the fly in the 90's, we can rebuild on the fly now. But we have to have a gm who isn't afraid to cut loses when he needs too and doesn't hand out contracts that don't reward production. Holland has to put up or get the f*** out!

It's unfair to judge Vanek, he was on a pace for 93 points before his injury. He may not have kept that pace, but it really hurt when he went down.

I don't like tanking for any reason. If we continue to rely ok on broken and mediocre players the playoff thing will take care of itself. If Holland doesn't make a deal for at least 1 higher end D man, even when Vanek and AA are back, it's not going to matter. We are more competitive with Vanek I'm the lineup, but that won't be enough because the D is horrible andthe goalie cannot sustain their level of play all year. You have to clear cap space, acquire a top 2 D man, Sproul must play. Hope and pray when Vanek and AA return, they keep their pace. The only reason I wouldn't mind missing the playoffs for a couple of seasons, we'd more than likely rid ourselves of Holland and his stale philosophy. I do not want to miss for 8 years for any reason. I honestly do not trust Holland with a lottery pick.

Team is going nowhere until a trade or two is made...plus the broken players need to sit...or go.

He played a bad game...maybe it's going to be only one. But, Holland better get on the horn to trade him before Top Fuel Jimmy becomes Unleaded Jimmy again.