Dabura

So. Trade Smith? (Too soon?)

I think it's our youth. This is a great example.

Game. Over. Boo. Yeah. I think we really miss the Western Conference.

Tatar has had a nightmarish third period.

We run the breakout through the hash marks way too often.

Crowd is buzzing.

Get some ******* hands, Helm.

Lashoff deserves a goal.

Pulkkinen getting some love. I like. Ken and Mick are bored.

Stop talking about the alumni game.

Oh man, DBZ was so great. And by great I mean terrible. And by terrible I mean great. (See: my board name.)

Troo.

+1. Never gets old.

I love Z's sticking-his-tongue-out goal-celebration face.

Keating with an Office Space reference. Ozzie has really improved, much less robotic. Well, it doesn't necessarily have to be that we only score one goal. Like, we could lose 9-8. nawmean??

It's so cute when Quincey shoots from the point.

I don't want to be That Guy, but...I really hope the 5-on-3 doesn't come back to haunt us.

I dunno, I seem to recall about 17 score-here-or-lose-the-game 5-on-3 situations that we've choked on. There was that one time we did score, but I think that was against the Habs, and no one cares about the Habs.

The Detroit Red Wings: making no-name non-Red Wing goalies look like Vezina candidates since 2003.

He seems to miss on at least one golden chance every game. Which is kinda scary, if you think about it (in a good sense).

You too?

Like I said, I have some concerns about our centermen. Datsyuk hasn't quite been himself this season, and that's when he hasn't been sidelined with an injury. Z's got serious back problems and shouldn't even be playing right now - and, ideally, he's a winger. Sheahan is a call-up kid who will be sent down as soon as Holland and Babcock get the chance. Same with Glendening. Helm will suffer a season-ending injury. Weiss is a huge question mark, and he's supposed to be our dependable point-producing second-line center. I'm not crazy about Andersson. Franzen is, like I said, a vegetable (who doesn't like playing center). Jarnkrok isn't a realistic option right now, and he's our only high-end center on the farm. We've been gutted down the middle by injuries this season. (At one point we had, what, all of our standard centers out with injuries?) And we're still missing our first-liner and second-liner. And we've got the Olympics to worry about. And we'd like to go deep in the playoffs. And we've been crap in the faceoff circle. All of which is to say, it might be worth getting another center. Maybe one who can play all three forward positions well, just to give us some flexibility. And, given how godawful our PK has become, it'd be cool if the guy's a good PKer. Ott would give us all that. We wouldn't have to give up much to acquire him, there's a reasonable chance he'd like to re-sign in the summer, and, should he re-sign, he wouldn't cost a whole lot in coin or term. He'd give us some more depth, just in case. I'm pretty sure Babs doesn't really know how to coach kids, and I'm pretty sure a kid with a skyscraping ego would be the death of him. Then again, Tatar has an ego. Then again, Tatar doesn't see as much ice as he probably should. I'm not big on Kadri, but it's an intriguing possibility because 1) he's a future first or second line center who's starting to deliver, and 2) it's the Leafs, so all you have to do is scream OMG LOOK BEHIND YOU!!! and take Kadri and run. I also think the Leafs are probably not the best fit for him, on several levels. Like, the very fact that he's basically been labeled TROUBLE is, I feel, likely a lot of bulls***, reflecting more on Carlyle being an obstinate dinosaur than Kadri being an intolerable, narcissistic prickwagon. How so? Kadri should've been on the Leafs' roster two seasons before he was ultimately slotted in. If he was puffing his chest and pissing and moaning about mistreatment, it's probably because he realized he was getting shafted. Granted, if you're a young up-and-comer, you know your place and shut your mouth. That's an unwritten rule. But Grabovski and MacArthur have both said, essentially, that the Leafs are fools who don't understand how to develop, manage, utilize high-end talent unless it's a guy like Phil Kessel who's talent is literally impossible to misread. I mean, sure, Grabovski and MacArthur are both bitter so of course they're gonna say that. And yet, we all know it's true.

I still think Ott is worth a shot. With no one really knowing what's up with Datsyuk, and the jury being out on Weiss, and Helm's health a constant concern, and Andersson being very vanilla, and Sheahan being a call-up kid, and Glendening being a call-up kid, and Z's back a major issue, and Franzen being a vegetable, it might be worth investing in some more center depth. Which reminds me: as long as Randy Carlyle is the coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, Nazem Kadri is on the block.

I second the first part. Re: Tootoo - Babs is putting him on the blue line. Can't be any worse than what we had to work with yesterday. Plus, he's right-handed! So true. And yet, we always have "a Florida." There's one every season. Last season it was the Blue Jackets. Though I will say: this season we have lost to a lot of s***ty Eastern teams that we absolutely should not be losing to, even with a depleted lineup. My mistake! I misread an article!

And their godforsaken injury woes. On a related note: I heard Z's out tonight...? You know what'd be cool? If we didn't have to go the rest of the season without our best players because they're old and injured. Then maybe we could win some games. Call me crazy, but that might just be a recipe for success. EDIT: I misread an article. Z should be in tonight. My bad!