Dabura

I hate our team.

Speaking of Kronwall, and blowing leads...

I hate being up by one. I want to want a two-goal cushion, but I know if we get it we'll lose in a shootout.

Shea Weber scored tonight. That's his 14th. Kronwall - our big gun on the blue line - has 6. If you say you wouldn't like to have Shea Weber on our team (at a pretty reasonable price, all things considered), you are wrong.

Riley Shanahan.

It would be really good if we could win this game.

One big concern I have, Dickie, is that big, gaping, Alfredsson-shaped hole. We don't even try to make up for that lost production?

You stole my ideas. I will sue you for all you're worth. (I voted Yes.)

That's my fear, and a big reason why I think he's going to get serious consideration.

Well, I think if Blashill were to be brought in, it would ostensibly be for what I think we should call "The John Cooper Effect." The Lightning are doing as well as they are largely because Cooper is familiar with the youth and knows how to, um, best use them. (They being a young, farm-fed team.) That's the example you point to to sell the idea. That's the template you follow, or at least reference here and there. It seems like a natural progression from all of Holland's talk about How You Have to Do Things in the Salary Cap Era (draft well, develop well, build from within). The irony, of course, is that Babcock came in as a hip, young, prodigious go-getter. Now we consider him a borderline senile windbag. That's professional sports for ya, I guess. On a related note - I've mentioned this before in a different thread, but I think it's interesting enough to justify bringing it up again (and again and again): The Craig MacTavish Interview, Part 2 [Edmonton Journal]

I imagine it comes down to utility. If you're going to play in Mike Babcock's bottom six, you need to be able to do stuff. You have to play solid defense. You have to be a solid PKer. You have to be good in any and all key situations. You have to be good in a demanding shutdown role, going head-to-head with the opposition's big guns. You have to chip in offensively every now and then. You can't be a liability (unless you're Cleary).

Fair enough. For some reason my impression is that when he gets hurt, he gets hurt bad. That may just be his poor luck this season tainting my opinion.

Maybe we're going about this all wrong. Maybe we should make a list of the worst GMs in the leage and go from there. Here, I'll get the ball rolling:

Gaborik strikes me as high-risk; he seems to be made of glass, and he has a bit of a reputation for being somewhat "difficult." 7-8M is a lot of money for someone who's probably going to be injured half the time and clash with Babs.

I guess my memory of Hudler is warped. I remember him being a beast in the shootout, spending time as a center, and having a knack for scoring clutch goals that we all wished someone else on our team had scored.

I love Hitchcock, but I feel like he'd be a spectacularly bad fit for this team.

No, I'm with you, trading for Vanek would be impossible and make no sense. When I say he'd be a good add, I mean as a UFA. Faulk is unobtainable. But I can dream.

If I have to choose someone, Jeff Blashill. He's like Mike Babcock's hipper, younger brother. Same sensibilities, exact same voice, teaches the same basic systems in Grand Rapids, is obviously familiar with the youth.

No need for the reality check. I think we all understand it isn't Vanek-or-bust. I don't think he's a power forward. I don't think he plays a two-way game. I don't think he isn't mostly past his prime. I'd want him because he'd fill a hole. That hole is a big-bodied, right-handed, first-line scoring winger good for around 30 goals. Jurco's gonna be that guy for us. (I'm the one who wants him on our first line this season.) But he's not quite there yet. In the meantime, Alfredsson will be gone, Franzen will be well on his way to 40, and Datsyuk and Zetterberg won't be getting any younger, healthier, faster, better. On top of that, Weiss is currently a question mark, and neither Nyquist nor Tatar is necessarily going to be a 30-goal scorer in the NHL. Beyond Jurco, we have Jarnkrok and Pulkkinen on the farm. Jarnkrok has a long way to go before he's an elite two-way center in the NHL, and Pulkkinen is a tiny sniper who may or may not pan out. Mantha is a long, long way off, no matter how promising he is. Frk has struggled mightily. All of which is to say: Signing Thomas Vanek? We could do worse. I get that he's looking to get paid. That's no secret. I get that it'll be an overpayment, because that's how these things work. That's also no secret. But we should have a lot of money coming off the books this summer. That might also include Alfredsson. And maybe Gustavsson. And maybe Kindl. And maybe a bottom-six forward. So it's not like one big signing is going to wreck us. And it's not like we'd have to give up Jurco. Vanek and Jurco aren't mutually exclusive. We could have both.

I dunno that it shows they're trembling with fear, just, well..."Honey? You and the kids might die. So you should probably stay home." From a you-don't-want-your-family-to-die perspective, it's a no-brainer. And, less nobly, you'd rather not have concerns about your family's safety in the back (or front) of your mind while competing for Olympic Gold. And, honestly, families can be kind of annoying.

That's what she said. (I agree.)

lolz:

Analysis: On Justin Faulk's Value [sunbelt Hockey Journal] Kronwall for Faulk?

Andersson on the wing? Bert must really be in the doghouse.

The Seattle Coyotes would be the most awesome thing ever. It says, "We realize this whole thing is a farce, and we're just going to embrace that."