norrisnick

Cover up and score on the PP. Teams will learn in a hurry that that is a bad strategy.

Could you point to a single battle that Downey or Mac fought specifically for Kronwall after he lit up an opposing player? I'm drawing a blank...

I'll be waiting around for your posts as well next spring.

So you agree we're a better team. At least we're getting somewhere. Downey didn't play in the playoffs and if Maltby and Franzen weren't alternating injuries Mac wouldn't have either. Drake secured his spot because Kopecky blew out his knee. If Downey is so important, why wasn't he out there when the games are important? He's a warm body. Over the course of an 82 game season you're going to need a few extra warm bodies.

And people questioned me for asking whether people believed adding Hossa and losing Drake/McCarty would weaken our chances...

How are we worse? We've got Stuart full time. Hossa. Kopecky should be healthy. We're now aware of what Helm can do. Fil, Franzen, and Hudler should be a year better with the confidence of the playoff run. Ericsson will probably see part of the season. Etc... Mac played what? 20 games total regular season and playoffs? Drake was bad during the regular season. Downey didn't even average 5 minutes a game. Just what are we losing? And that team of softies won the cup this spring.

Catch ya around.

We're a better team without those three, yes.

The relevant part of winning is offensive and defensive ability. Anything else is just for style points. Slap a pornstache on Hudler and it would have the same level of impact as if he had a great haymaker. There is a reason fighting disappears during the playoffs. That reason being the games are far too important to f*** around with silly fighting. That should tell you a little bit about the relevancy of fighting and fighters. When the games get important, they sit and/or get firm yank on the chokecollar to keep them in line. We finish first overall whether we have a fighter or not. It's what we do in the playoffs that matter. And in the playoffs guys like Downey and the current Mac don't matter. I'll say this for Drake. He stepped up and was a pleasant surprise, but he should count himself lucky that we had some injuries down the stretch and at the start of the playoffs or he never would have gotten a chance to show what he was capable of.

Because Bowman knew a player like that was worthless. And yet he didn't get a second of playoff icetime and a rookie with half a dozen games to his name played instead. If by type you mean bad at the game of hockey (which Dallas was throughout the regular season), yes. Find a tough guy that can play, sure why not. I don't care whether a guys fights or is good at fighting. I find it largely irrelevant. But the guy better be able to play hockey.

Ok. Walk me through this proof we witnessed last season. 1. Downey plays 50 games or so in the regular season. 2. We finish 1st like we have the three seasons before that. 3. He doesn't play a second of playoff ice time. 4. We win the cup. There is no connection between #1 and #4 as is evident by points #2 and #3.

Better than bitching that re-signing Mac isn't enough. IMO that's too much because not only is Mac not the best of fighters but he's also abyssmally bad out on the ice. It doesn't matter how well you fight if you can't be put out on the ice because you're a liability. Remember all those games when Parker would glare out on the ice from the Avs' bench, but never take more than a shift or two? He was beyond useless.

You want more, you need to scout some fighters for Kenny that are better players than the guys we have patrolling our 4th line.

You're imagining things. Teams didn't play us any differently those two years than they did last season.

Good luck. I predict a lot of fighters being scratched in favor of mobility and pucking moving ability when we roll into town.

Mac is going to have knock 10 years off to be relevant. I'm not holding my breath. It would be awesome if he could, but he was never mobile to begin with. I really hope people aren't getting their hopes up.

You dodged the question. I want no part of Chelios.

We've added Hossa and for the sake of the argument Downey, Mac, or someone of their ilk is not signed and/or doesn't play more than 10 games. Are we better or worse off than last year?

Heater has my back on the first part. For the second, you'd think that isn't what the discussion is about but if you look closely that's exactly it. We've added Hossa. Drake retired. And Mac and Downey aren't jumping on a two-way offer. More than a few people have bemoaned the notion that we're going all skill and no punch and that we'll be worse off for it. They're scared about our chances to repeat if we don't have a guy like Mac or Downey around. If you boil it down my question is exactly their thought process. We add Hossa and their concern is losing a part-time 4th line fighter. They think we're a worse team adding Hossa and losing Downey. That's insane.

Clearly you weren't thinking hard enough. How's this one though? Who gives us a better shot at repeating? Hossa or Downey? If you even have to think about that....

You can watch hockey? Answering for a clean hit bugs the hell out of me. Sack up and take it like a man. Quit throwing tantrums left and right like a 5 year old. May as well start picking fights with guys that score.

*shrug* If you can't play a big boy game without freaking out if you get touched, maybe you shouldn't play a big boy game.

Duck and cover. No one has to fight that doesn't want to. Downey played nearly 9 minutes that game.

Joey's hands were wrecked so he wasn't nearly the fighter he was before he was reacquired. And Joey was brought in specifically in a checking line role for the first incarnation of the Grind Line. And Mac was a 15-20G 40pt scoring line winger before he fell off the face off the earth between the 2nd and 3rd Cups. A guy like Downey never would have sniffed a minute of ice time under Scotty. You have to be able to play. That's my stand.

Downey was playing that game. Nik doesn't have to fight if he doesn't want to.