Dabura

https://streamable.com/45pfi Credit to Kalamazoo-to-Cali over at Winging It In Motown. tl;dl Pierre was confident Stamkos would re-sign with the Bolts. He doesn't feel that confidence re: Tavares and the Isles. He feels that the Wings and Sabres could, hypothetically, be the biggest players. Not sure I agree with him. And, I mean, it's Pierre, so...yeah. But it's something. I guess. Dahlin/Svechnikov + Tavares? A fan can dream.

Mitch Marner farted in a crowded elevator.

Hockey > Family Get your heckin' priorities straight!

If memory serves, he goofed badly on a late goal against. I think that goal tied the game and made OT necessary.

Counterpoint: you can't spell Veleno without "no."

I don't wanna jinx our guy, so I'ma say..."Yes."

In ARI's defense, they've badly needed an infusion of high-end talent at the center position since time immemorial. I don't know that Hayton is quite what the doctor ordered on that front, but Keller, Strome, Hayton (and maybe Galchenyuk) is a promising collection of young centermen. Pretty similar to our set, actually. Keller~Larkin, Strome~Rasmussen, Hayton~Veleno (and Galchenyuk~Athanasiou).

Help us, Disco Dan, you're our only hope.

welp

AA HYPE! vids to assuage the warring LGRW masses. Because fighting over a good young player like AA is ultimately stupid and makes us look like Habs/Leafs/Oilers fans.

"Training camp's good, y'know. Mostly it's a lot of people with whistles and whiteboards repeatedly telling you, 'Don't be like DeKeyser, our greatest disappointment.' I don't know who DeKeyser is, but I'm determined to not be like him." Wow. Big if true.

Even so, I think AA could learn a thing or two from some of the more underrated facets of Helm's game. Checking game. Forechecking ability. Physicality. Tenacity. Willingness and ability to battle in the corner and along the half-wall in the o-zone. Protecting the puck under duress in the o-zone. "Subtle interference," leaning on opposing players (maybe more of a Zetterberg thing than a Helm thing, but yeah). I want to see AA put some meat on the bones of his skill game. Give me some teeth, sandpaper, muscle.

Oh gawd. Nothing would give me greater pleasure.

I've been thinking hard on this for the past ten minutes and I don't know how you'd even begin to go about implementing it. Unholy logistics nightmare. And antithetical to Bettman's grow-the-game mandate. And it would surely throw the NHL's finely-tuned parity ecosystem totally out of whack.

I don't necessarily NOT believe him...but "110%" is exactly what I'd expect him to say, regardless of how good/bad the ankle actually is. Dude wants dat $. If I'm the team that ultimately gets him, I'm thrilled to have him on board but also expecting his body to start breaking down just a few years from now. He plays an assload of hard minutes and he's already suffered through several major injuries. Buyer beware, I s'pose. (I still want him in the Winged Wheel.)

"The Wings are in cap hell!" Zetterberg is headed for LTIRement. Kronwall has one season left. Nyquist is on an expiring contract. Howard is on an expiring contract. Vanek's on a one-year deal, and the most we'd probably get for him at the trade deadline is a 3rd-round pick, so I really don't care that Holland gave him trade protection. The Leafs have kicked the tires on Glendening. The Bruins have kicked the tires on Helm. The Wings are poised to have a s***-ton of cap space next summer. If you're going to knock the Wings for being in "cap hell" and not even acknowledge this, you are bad and you should feel bad. "The Wings are too old!" See above. "The Wings don't have any truly special young players!" So, the Wings are too old and this is problematic, and also their young talent is unremarkable and this is problematic. It's almost like they're only a season and a half into their rebuild effort. It's almost like they're in that "We lack elite young talent, so we need to have a few really good drafts over the next few years, so we're gonna flip veterans for picks and finish in the bottom eight for a few years, and when we free up a ton of cap space (a fast-approaching inevitability) we're gonna go HAM after marquee free agents and probably land one" phase.

yeh. It's just the way that line is worded, it made me chuckle. "Despite the team’s desperate need for a rebuild" The team is rebuilding. It's not a teardown, but it is indeed a rebuild. "Zadina is their lone prospect in the top 50." The team committed to a rebuild in the second half of the 2016-17 season; they've had two drafts in their new rebuild era. One of those drafts got them Zadina. Rasmussen could fit comfortably in this list. Could make a case for Hronek. Pundits are sophists. Hack frauds, the whole lot of them.

Despite the team’s desperate need for a rebuild, Zadina is their lone prospect in the top 50. Only because you stupidly omitted Rasmussen. But ok.

Real talk: the Wings' official slogan for the 2018-19 season should be "WE GO HAM!" With a picture of Helm crashing into that Isles goalie or whatever. I'd buy that t-shirt.

It could be (and probably is) posturing in anticipation of LTIRement, but is that even necessary? The League never formally challenges these things and the most recent case is "Bro, I'm allergic to my equipment. Gotta call it quits, sorry." Never heard of him.

Psh. Details. Two games into the season, Helm lands on the IR. Because Ham. Glendening finally gets pushed out of regular rotation because now we have some actual scoring depth. (He'll be back in regular rotation next year due to Z's LTIRement.) (meh.) Frk is Schrödinger's cat. Zadina slots in on the top line because you have to give Wings fans an actual reason to be excited about Red Wings hockey and get them to actually show up for home games. HYPE! is a powerful thing. --- I refuse to join the "A trade has to be coming, right?" chorus. We say it every summer and it's always waivers and/or injury to the rescue. Time is a flat circle. Everything we have done or will do we will do over and over and over again, forever.

Sledgate. #NeverForget

YUGE difference between a casual round of golf with friends and a full NHL season. But, yeah, I'm expecting him to play this season. Assuming he does play, I think he should be one of our two middle-six centermen, with Larkin officially taking over the 1C spot. Mantha Larkin Zadina Rasmussen Zetterberg Nyquist Athanasiou Nielsen Vanek Assuming Zadina and Rasmussen are worthy of scoring-line roles, I think the above is, on paper, pretty much the best top-nine configuration that we can realistically hope for. Second and third lines are roughly interchangeable. No one cares about the fourth line.