Dabura

What a surprise.

Good lord, tighten it up, boys.

Our power play is really bad.

I would like to introduce a concept. I call it "(t)rolling four lines." Say you have four lines which all kick ass, on paper and on the ice. If any two of your bottom-sixers together = $10M or more in cap space, it's likely you be trollin'. Basically, a top twelve with an illegal bottom six. Example: Henrik Zetterberg Pavel Datsyuk Tomas Jurco Johan Franzen Stephen Weiss Gustav Nyquist Matt Moulson Riley Sheahan Tomas Tatar Justin Abdelkader Darren Helm Daniel Alfredsson (Miller Andersson) It sounded much more awesome in my head.

What about centaurs with three arms who bear a striking resemblance to Kyle Quincey?

Kinda generic and meh, isn't it? I mean, the artist is clearly extremely talented. I guess it's the concept. "Yo. I'm American. Gimme a bald eagle and some stars and stripes. Boom."

On the other hand, if I'm Detroit, the last team I want to face in the 1st round is a healthy Pittsburgh. I fear Crosby and Malkin alone would make short work of our blue line and Fleury would stand on his head because of course he would.

I guess Weiss is a pretty big x-factor. If he can be the guy we thought we were getting when we signed him, that's incredibly big for us.

This is about a week old, but things haven't really changed (for the Canucks) in that span of time: Poor play, poor timing hinder Canucks' options [The Province]

If I have to ink two big UFAs this summer, I probably go for two defensemen, one of them being Girardi, the other being a one-year stopgap/bridge situation, e.g. Timonen, Salo. We don't want Heatley. Vanek's probably going to be a lifetime commitment. Gaborik might be willing to sign for three seasons @ around $7M, which might be worth it, but might not. Callahan isn't worth the $7M he's rumored to be looking for, and I wouldn't want him for more than two or three or maybe four seasons, given the question of his long-term durability. The more I think about it, the less convinced I am that we need to bring in a scorer now or in the summer or else our offense is doomed. If we're gonna load up, make it on the blue line. IMHO.

Yes, I know, I've made that very same point at least twice in the past 24 hours. I'm not expecting to have 20 stellar options by the time July 2015 rolls around. But I'm assuming the choices will be at least as good as this summer's. And if not? Then oh well. I won't be upset that we didn't shackle ourselves to two enormous, long-term contracts this summer just because we had the money.

Look, I actually agree with you in spirit. I tend to be really pro-spending in these kinds of discussions. But, objectively, Kenny does have to be really careful. This summer's UFA class is going to be exceedingly thin, so the prices for the few really good options are going to be driven way the f*** up, probably to the point of outright absurdity (see: David Clarkson). On the other hand, the 2015 class looks like it could be pretty damn good. (Dat class.) So I'd be ok with mostly saving (i.e. not spending) this summer for the sake of improving our chances with next year's UFA class. More space also gives us more flexibility with potential trades. And I do think it's worth seeing if our young guns - mostly Nyquist and Tatar - can't become big-time players before bringing in two huge contracts. I'd still love to sign Girardi this summer, though.

All part of his secret plot to take over the Detroit Red Wings. It shall be a bloodless coup.

I'm all for spending big if it's right, and I'm all against saving for the sake of saving. But, top UFAs - you can only have so many. And by "so many" I mean, like, one. So, if we sign Vanek, that's probably it for us for a good long while.

The thing with top UFAs (the ones who dont re-sign) is that they're almost always going to want more than they're worth. Overpayment is the new normal. And if there's a top UFA whose price is absolutely right...you can be pretty sure that 20+ general managers will be all over him. I get what you're saying, though. If we're going to overpay for a top UFA, it should be someone who's really, really worth it. Someone who's too good to not fight for.

The Stewart-for-Callahan rumor has me thinking they'd want a pretty even trade. I don't know how we'd pull that off.

Sucks that you had to take a shot at me, because I actually agree with everything you said here. Except the shot at me. If I'm reading you right, your issue is...that I'd like to see us add an elite defenseman? I'm not sure what's wrong with that. Maybe I've given the impression that I think an elite defenseman would magically solve all our problems on the back end and everyone would play like champions every shift of every game. I certainly don't think that. Nor do I think Ken Holland is going to magically pull an elite defenseman out of his ass and clear up the requisite cap space with a wave of his magical wand.

Glitch in the Matrix. Glitch in the Matrix.

Zetterberg-Datsyuk-Byfuglien

It just occurred to me that Nyquist-Zetterberg being even half as dangerous as Datsyuk-Zetterberg could mean wonderful things for our evil match-up schemes.

I had to give up hockey at a young age because of heart-related health issues. I'd always known there was something wrong with me health-wise, but it wasn't until I'd started really pushing my body to its limits that the true problem reared its very ugly head. Now that I'm older, I appreciate that it was probably a major blessing. By bringing out this issue I didn't even know I had, hockey might have saved my life in the long run. And this was before the Fischer incident and everything that's followed, all of which makes me really worry about high-level athletes. You could be in "top shape" and yet you might also be a ticking time bomb, and without even knowing. It's scary. It puts things in perspective. Sorry, that all probably seems narcisstic. Just felt like sharing.

Not that I'm necessarily against this, but what exactly would we be saving the space for? Top UFAs are almost always going to be outrageously pricey, and that's if they don't re-sign. The rest of the UFAs are always going to make us say, "Eh, he's ok, but I'd rather we just give our leage minimum Griffins a shot." Holland isn't looking to make any big trades in the near future. Our young guns will need to get paid down the road, but that shouldn't be a huge, penny-pinching concern. (Alfie alone will free up $5M, if not this summer then the one after.) I guess I worry that we'll save up all this space and then overspend on a couple free agents just because we can (see: Tootoo, Samuelsson). I'm not saying we should spend all our space on Vanek or whatever. I'm just somewhat wary of saving and saving and saving when we're already looking at a good amount of space this summer, with the cap expected to rise.

Datsyuk looked pretty great, all things considered. He was basically robbed of a goal and two assists. There were definitely moments where you could tell he'd been out for a month, but then, his rhythm and decision-making have been somewhat off for most of the season.

Well, at least we know we have a big mean crease-clearer.

Scary stuff! Best wishes, of course. Hope he's able to come back at 100%, though his long-term health should be the singular, overriding priority.