Dabura

Only twice-ish? That's pretty good. (I generally hate it when teams say it, which is why I'm asking.)

thx galz I've been mostly away-ish for the past few days, so I'm just curious: How many times have we said, "We have/have got/need to be better," since our previous encounter with these Winnipeg Jets?

It's my bithday. (I'm Grace Kelly.) Win it for me. HOLY EFFING ESS, NO CLEARY?!

We're currently averaging 2.3 goals per game. That's good for 23rd in the league. And that's not good. But this is nothing new. So what's the deal? Is it all on our defense not being what it once was? (No Lidstrom and Rafalski means uglier movement and first passes, etc.) Is it our forecheck, or lack thereof? (We seem to be playing that one-and-done perimeter game again.) Do we just simply need a pure goal-scorer, e.g. Vanek? Or maybe a power-forward? A puck-moving defenseman with a great first pass? Is Babs just messing with the lines too much? It's probably a number of things, not just one single issue. What do you think? And, since we're all Ken Holland, how do you fix the problem(s)?

We like our team. We kicked the tires, but ultimately we just didn't feel the price was right. We feel that getting Nyquist back will be like a big deadline acquisition.

I hate Quincey.

They just announced Team Canada's lineup. Cleary is on the first line.

I was referring more to fans worrying about "running into A Good Goalie." And now the "joke" (in both senses of the term, I guess) is that every goalie we face is A Good Goalie. But, YOU GOT ME! I'm a terrible fan. Lock me up and throw away the key!

I fell asleep! Our suckitude literally put me to sleep! Very happy (relatively speaking) that we managed to salvage another point out of what should've been a loss. What are we, 9-5-4? If we get to 9-5-6, are we officially trolling the league? But really now. We need the full two points. This whole "We're near the top of the conference! We're doing fine!" thing is nice, except it's really not, because the Atlantic Division is, well, ridiculous. And because, honestly, we suck right now. We really, really suck right now.

This has been a thing since at least 2003.

I think I'm going to politely take over the "What would you do?" thread and do a capgeek thing every week. Or every day.

This team is in great shape. I wouldn't change a thing about it. As soon as we get Franzen and Ericsson back, we'll be rolling. I can't say enough good things about the way we've been playing. It's this kind of hockey that wins Cups. We've been scoring a ton and winning. Anyone who's worried or complaining is out of touch with reality.

Our best guys didn't start the PP because...they were tired?

Kyle Quincey kills me.

It may not have seemed like it, but that was an absolutely godawful period. We didn't do a single thing right, except score a goal off a gift-wrapped turnover. We're not playing our possession game. We have no structure. We're not making tape-to-tape passes. We're not establishing a heavy forecheck, or, really, any kind of sustained pressure at all. We are an ungodly mess in the neutral zone, and our own zone, turning the puck over at very nearly every single opportunity. There is arguably not a single team in the league playing as poorly as we've been playing.

Let's turn the puck over more.

Also, I've always liked the idea of Helm centering the second line. So I'm excited about that, among other things (e.g. Cleary being where he belongs). Obviously Babs is trying to "speed things up." I think Stamkos is literally faster than a speeding train.

This game scares me.

I guess this makes sense, from MacTavish's perspective. Do you deal from a position of weakness and get taken to the cleaners (e.g. Ryan Miller), or do you go for the upgrade who doesn't cost anything in the way of assets? It's pretty much a win-win: either Bryzgalov establishes himself as The Answer, or "MacT" decides they need someone better. Either way, no assets lost. (Just money.) And hey, maybe having a high-profile starter in Bryzgalov makes dealing for a different high-profile starter easier, e.g. maybe Regier feels good about shipping Miller to Edmonton if Bryzgalov is part of the package coming his way.

My understanding is that it would simply hurt him too much to participate in a hockey game. And I mean physically, not emotionally. I read somewhere that he hasn't laced 'em up since his last game.

THE PLAN (Subject to change) x Trade for Claude Giroux (PHI) x Franzen + Nyquist + Tatar + 1st-round pick x Trade for Tomas Fleischmann (FLA) x Quincey + Andersson x Trade for Elias Lindholm (CAR) x Mrazek x Trade for Michal Rozsíval (CHI) x Eaves + 2nd-round pick x Make Samuelsson miserable x Bad vibes + veiled threats x Trade a miserable Samuelsson to EDM for a draft pick Send Tootoo down to the farm Convert Smith into a forward If over the cap...get under it. I dunno New and Improved Lineup x Todd Bertuzzi Henrik Zetterberg Claude Giroux Brendan Smith Pavel Datsyuk Daniel Alfredsson Tomas Fleischmann Stephen Weiss Justin Abdelkader Elias Lindholm Darren Helm Daniel Cleary (Miller, Glendening) x Niklas Kronwall Danny DeKeyser Jonathan Ericsson Jakub Kindl Brian Lashoff Adam Almqvist Michal Rozsíval x Jimmy Howard Jonas Gustavsson

It's coming....

Friends, I have a delicious plan. I am calling it...THE PLAN. I shall be unleashing it upon you soon.

The thing that probably bugs me the most about this loss is that two points would have placed us in a three-way tie for first in the conference. But, as it stands, we're in third place (second in our division), which is nothing to be upset about (though there is the whole games-in-hand issue, but even then....) I think we'll be fine. We haven't come anywhere close to finding our groove, yet we're in third in the conference. And that's with the Bolts (right ahead of us) and Leafs (right behind us) playing out of their minds. The big thing is we can't outright lose games - we need to get at least a point. The Pens are the only team in the league that can feel genuinely comfortable and afford to drop a bunch of games.

A piece from Sean McIndoe When does this realignment test-run dealy expire? After next season? If the Metro doesn't turn things around, do you think The Powers That Be go for a different alignment scheme? Maybe the Metro and Atlantic can swap a team or two? Or is everyone perfectly ok with the Penguins securing the top spot in their division every November?