Dabura

No.

HYPE! LGRW!

Truth be told, I've always been irrationally bitter over that trade.

I guess what I'm saying is the Leafs are sort of a flawed team. They can score in bunches, but that only gets you so far. (Not unlike the Capitals under Boudreau.) Eastern teams know what they're all about; they've watched lots of tape, they have strategies for shutting them down. The Leafs' young leaders will have to find a way to grow their games. Some of that's Babcock's responsibility and some of it's simply "losing until you know how to win." It's possible a guy like Trotz would be getting more out of this team, but I wouldn't bet big money on it.

I'm pretty sure Holland abused the emergency recall system in order to get half the Griffins roster into our lineup (all at the same time). I'm also pretty sure all the "deadweight" players -- Abdelkader, Helm, Glendening, Kronwall, Ericsson, Daley, DeKeyser, Nyquist, Nielsen, Green -- have gotten lots of ice time. Holland knows the value of a Dahlin and a Hughes/Kakko, but he also knows the value of not becoming a Buffalo or an Edmonton. And EVEN THEN, even with all of his principles and all of his talk of "winning culture," he STILL magically swapped out half the Wings' roster for half the Griffins' roster. Point being, again, the dude fully understands. He's iced really bad teams for three straight seasons now. The teams just weren't quite bad enough. Mind you, we could've finished 31st last season and not won the lottery, so "The teams weren't quite bad enough" is barely even a thing.

I mean...I get it. On some level I even kind of agree. But let's be fair. Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi, Athanasiou, Hronek were all drafted during the final years of The Streak Time has revealed Jarnkrok to be a middling player The Streak was probably a shared baby, not Holland's own personal vanity project; it seems fair to say that Mr. I had no appetite for a rebuild and neither did any of the other shot callers within the organization Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Kronwall was a pretty competitive core right up until Datsyuk left. Holland had pulled off a rebuild-on-the-fly before and I'm not sure we can say he was definitely wrong in seeing if he couldn't do it again. It didn't work out, but, as a thought experiment, imagine a forward corps boasting Datsyuk and Zetterberg circa 2015 and Larkin, Mantha, Bertuzzi, Athanasiou, Hronek circa 2019

Yep, Holland flat-out stated -- before this season had even started -- that 2019-20 is where the expectations will really ramp up. And that sentiment has been echoed by pretty much everyone of importance. That includes Mickey, who's stated numerous times that the team will be expected to get back into the playoff picture next season. In that sense, I agree with you that the six-game winning streak was napalm facepalm. At the same time, it finally gave Holland what he's been openly asking for, which is proof that the young guns can drive the bus. I think Holland's the kind of person who will look at what the young talent did this season and say, "They gave me what I asked for. Now I'm going to reward them with a roster that's worthy of the playoffs."

Yup.

It's easy and fun to rag on Babcock, but, to be fair, I think the problem goes beyond just the coaching. I'd say a big part of it is the fact that the team's young leaders are mostly scoring wizards who never really had to learn the ins and outs of solid two-way hockey. Even Tavares has never been especially good on the defensive side of the puck. I know their blue line is lacking, but I think the lack of shutdown mettle in the top 6-9 forward group really exacerbates that problem. There's no Datsyuk, no Zetterberg, no Bergeron, no Kopitar. no Barkov. I might even throw Brayden Point into the conversation, as he's always been a solid two-way centerman. Basically, there's no Delta Force operator who Babcock can trust to get any and every job done. Their best shutdown guy is probably Kadri and he's behind Matthews and Tavares on the center depth chart. That's one of the potential drawbacks of building around high-scoring lottery kids: they've always had it easy, always been able to outscore any shortcomings...and now they're in a situation where that isn't the case and there isn't much else in their game or their life experiences that they can draw on. Adversity strengthens.

how many coupons we talking about here

They're definitely in a good place talent-wise. That's what's been so frustrating about them -- the talent has been there, they just haven't been able to put it all together and take the next step. So, yeah, bringing Quenneville aboard makes all the sense in the world and is a huge win for an organization that desperately needs to stop Mickey Mousing things up. I'm sure the pre-existing familiarity between Tallon and Quenneville didn't hurt. I'd thought Quenneville might land in Buffalo, but I guess he decided he doesn't want to become an utterly miserable alcoholic. I suppose it's telling that he didn't even wait to see if the Sabres add Hughes/Kakko to their existing core of Eichel and Dahlin. Not a good look for Buffalo. F*** Babcock and f*** the Leafs. I have no love for the Bruins, but you can bet your ass I'll be rooting for them in the first round.

Word on the street was that Mr. Mustache wanted a team that's ready to win a Cup. In other words, he had no interest in a project. I dunno if he compromised a bit or if he genuinely believes the pieces are mostly in place. In any case, good on Tallon, I guess. Dude came out and straight-up said, "S*** is broken and we are unhappy about it and we need to change things up." Makes me think there might in fact be something to all the rumors about them going HAM after Panarin and Bobrovsky.

Palat's cap hit is a bit higher, but he's four years younger and he's more talented and he put up a respectable 34 points in 64 games this season and he only has two years left on his deal (versus Abby's three). So, the only way the trade happens is if we add sweeteners.

no u

literally shaking rn

Yep, I've been hoping for this system or something very similar. Maybe instead of determining the actual pick order, it just sets the odds. Even that would be an improvement over the current system, imo. I guess the counterargument is that we're all about Parity™ now and so we should have a system that tends to reward the very worst teams. We want the worst teams to git gud as quickly as possible; we don't want any organizations spending years and years in the gutter. The counter-counterargument is, of course, that we have organizations spending years and years in the gutter anyway and at some point they need to fix their s*** on their own, without being handed yet another franchise player.

The Atlantic Division just got tougher.

The odds don't lie. http://www.tankathon.com/nhl/pick_odds

Lightning in 5 Bruins in 7 Capitals in 6 Penguins in 6 Predators in 5 Blues in 7 Flames in 7 Knights in 6

I want to stress that that top ten is a really good group of players.

Red Wings' draft lottery position to be decided on Tuesday [DetroitRedWings.com]

Vegas!

If I see AA try and fail to deke around a defender one more time, I think I'm gonna start legit hating him.

Only if he thinks this team is a piece or two away from being a real threat and he wants to go hunting for big game but doesn't have the requisite cap space. Though, even then, he'd probably look at Ericsson and/or Daley before Abdelkader/Helm/Nielsen.