Dabura

They have good players tho.

I'd probably do it. I don't trust that Nyquist isn't going to revert to the 45-point player he's been for most of his career, so I'm not all that keen on bringing him back for 3+ years. There's no real need to move Mantha at this time, but I can think of a couple of scenarios where this deal might make good sense. Specifically: we get Hughes/Kakko and/or we sign Stone/Duchene/Panarin.

Everyone's waiting for Columbus to gift Chicago Panarin and Bobrovsky. Once that's out of the way, chaos shall reign.

Tempting.

Depends. Whose 1sts are we getting and which draft(s)?

#Goals

People in the 1950s: "The future is gonna be amazing. We're gonna have flying cars and Ericsson won't be on the team anymore." People in 2019: "The future is gonna be amazing. We're gonna have flying cars and Ericsson won't be on the team anymore."

Solution: move Jensen to forward.

I guess what I'm lamenting is that it probably doesn't matter who's on our blue line at the beginning of the 2019-20 season. From a fan's perspective, it would be deflating to see the exact same group return and to see one or both of Hronek and Cholowski start the season on the farm -- but, realistically, if we bring back the same D group, it'll simply mean that we didn't get Hughes or Kakko and we didn't get a marquee UFA and so the "We're hoping we can be better than we've been (but we're expecting another tough year)" plan is still on. Which is fine. Kinda depressing, but fine.

HYPE! LGRW!

Which sounds about right, tbh. Last season we finished fifth from the bottom, this season we're basically the same team, and next season we'll probably be the same team again. The "good" news is the basement race is incredibly close.

I feel ya. I had hoped "What if we just bring every single one of our veterans back and start Hronek and Cholowski in Grand Rapids next season? Would that be so bad?" would not be an actual conversation in mid-February, but here we are.

It's frustrating. On the one hand, I can see us gettng back into Cup contention within the next couple of years. On the other hand, a lot would have to go right for that to happen. We're sort of in the same boat that the Leafs were in when they tanked for Matthews. Hopefully we'll have the same sort of luck in the upcoming draft.

This is all your fault.

HYPE! LGRW!

I think at this point it's mostly a talent issue. There's probably some form of mental block as well (something like an inferiority complex), but I figure that goes hand-in-hand with the talent issue. It's gotta suck going into every game knowing you have essentially zero room for error unless your goalie stands on his head. I don't trust that if we ice pretty much this same roster next season with just a minor tweak here and there, we're going to close out a lot more of these one-goal games. So I'm hoping that if Holland is serious about getting back into the playoffs next season, we're going to see some meaningful changes made.

Points update: Mantha (2G) - 14 goals and 24 points thru 44 games Bertuzzi (1G, 1A) - 14 goals and 30 points thru 50 games Green (2A) - 4 goals and 22 points thru 37 games Vanek (1G) - 12 goals and 29 points thru 51 games Larkin (1A) - 24 goals and 55 points thru 58 games

Hopefully this is our last season of being that team that pushes you to your limit but ultimately lets you win. Feels like we've been playing the part of triumph fodder for a decade now.

In this market? You'd be lucky to get that much.

Welp, we gave it our best effort for 18 minutes.

So this game is a thing.

Mantha (14) from Green (18) and Kronwall (13) - DET 5, PHI 5

MMMAANNTTTTTTTHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAA

As long as we stay off the power play, we should be ok.

Mantha (13) from Kronwall (13) and DeKeyser (10) - DET 4, PHI 5 I dunno who's actually getting the assists on this goal.