Dabura

lolz

I like Babcock a lot, but he's no Dave Lewis.

Boooooooooo!!!

Ah, thanks for the insight. I don't know much about their cap situation and such. What you're saying being true, I guess I have to scratch my head a bit at this. I know they want to make a loud, sexy statement, but they could do that with a goalie or defenseman, both of which they need more than a goal scorer, IMHO. Defense wins championships.

Octocon? Bacopus?

To me...Buffalo is the winner. But they're an incredibly terrible team going into a full-on rebuild. So "winner" should sport an asterisk. I like the move for the Isles, but I'll like it a whole lot more if it's just the first of several big moves. If they snag an upgrade in net and a top-four defenseman, they're serious contenders. A thought: maybe Snow is secretly hoping Vanek has a great time and tells his old buddy Ryan Miller all about it.

http://www.sbnation.com/nhl/2013/10/28/5037684/buffalo-sabres-new-york-islanders-thomas-vanek-trade-matt-moulson That made me kinda happy.

wait wait wait wait wait A ziplock bag full of bacon in his coat pocket?

Sammy's not going anywhere. Well, to your first point - they may be overrated and overpriced, but, honestly, we need a high-end piece on the blue line, and I don't see us snagging anyone's #1 or #2. (No Girardi. *cries*) And isn't everyone sort of overrated or at least overpriced these days? I've always liked Robyn Regehr, but he's old and slow. Michal Rozsíval was beastly against us a few months ago, but he's old and slow. I'm not saying all steady veterans are old and slow, I just can't think of any that'd do for us the kind of wonders we really need done.

Nail Yakupov. A late pick.

To be fair, if Holland could sign a Hull and a Shanahan and a Fedorov and an Yzerman and a Lidstrom and a Rafalski and a Larionov and a Robitaille and a Hasek and a Chelios, he would. (He's done it before, hasn't he?) But, like Son of a Wing said, this is the salary cap era. We're lucky just to have a Datsyuk and a Zetterberg and a Kronwall and a Howard. And I'll add to that the '02-esque signing of a quality vet named Daniel Alfredsson, who, forgetting the first four games, has been nothing but solid for us so far. Does that mean I wouldn't like to see better veterans than the likes of Cleary and Samuelsson? No. I think a guy like Vinny Prospal, who's always found a way to score, might've been - and might still be! - a nice add. But I don't know what his demands would be in the way of coin and term. And we can't even get Nyquist into the lineup, so...yeah. No Prospal, or anyone. Does it mean I wouldn't love a lineup like the Pens and Blackhawks have? No. But they got to where they are by sucking mercilessly for a long time. We can barely stomach four straight games of suck. I can only imagine what multiple consecutive seasons of it would do to us. At the end of the day, I want our team to get younger. So, to me, this is all sorta moot.

Moulson is kinda like Vanek; he's a one-zone player, but he's very good in that one zone. I think the big question with him is, How will he fare without Tavares? All things considered, I'd rather see us pick up a veteran top-4 defenseman. Like I've said before, I think the holes on the blue line left by Lidstrom and Rafalski = our biggest source of suck. Bogosian Edler Enstrom Girardi Et al.

Pretty sure he was just listing the whole top nine, because his point sort of calls for it. And he's right - they're very deep up front. And their blue line is pretty solid. They're a team that's built to win the Cup. No significant holes. Our top nine could potentially be among the best in the league, if things come together the right way and a few planets align and the Hockey Gods shine upon us.

They're already in the top three, IMHO. Give them Miller and you might as well just give them the Cup along with him.

It seems like the Isles just made a move for the sake of making a move, and maybe saying to their fans and season ticket holders, "Hey, we're serious." Except, they're not. Not until they get an upgrade in net and a top defenseman. I'm not saying adding Vanek is a bad thing, but Moulson (who can put the puck in the net) and a first and a second...and you still have Nabokov in net and a paper-thin blue line? To me, that's kind of a head-scratcher. I know they have Hamonic and they'll be getting Visnovsky back, but, actually, that's sort of my point. Add a great defenseman or goalie to that and you've got a very respectable back-end. From Buffalo's perspective...I dunno, if I'm a Sabres fan I think I'm pretty meh about this. It's nice having picks, and Moulson should help a little, but I get the sense fans were expecting a much bigger return for the "here and now" (i.e. better than Moulson). Vanek is far, far, far and away, away, away their best forward. Kinda puts a damper on any further trade speculation not centering on Ryan Miller.

And he's probably been on of our better players of late. Point being, shot counts don't tell the whole tale. Another example: Franzen had, what, seven? But was he especially visible? Was he seven times the contributor Tatar was? Y'see what I'm saying? (Not trying to be condescending or anything, it's just that it's extremely early in the morning here and I'm not sure anything I'm saying makes a lick of sense.) ("A lick of sense"? Is that even a thing?) As for the topic - IMHO, it's just who they are. But that's kind of a truism cop-out. So: - They're sorta old-fashioned, probably a bit more conservative than progressive in the way they think about and do things. They believe in The Red Wing Way, and all it entails and encompasses (have to earn your place, work yourself up the totem pole; have to conduct yourself in an ultra-mature way - on and off the ice; defensive ability is a must for forwards, etc.) They like familiarity. They generally prefer the devil they know over the one they don't. They believe in loyalty. And so on and so forth. - The Detroit Red Wings = arguably the most successful sports franchise of the past twenty years. The veteran love has been a big part of our success since the mid-90s, so why - they ask - overhaul the overwhelmingly winning formula, even if times have changed (and, for the record, times have changed)? Over-ripening FTW, they say. - They can afford to play lots of old guys. Some of that's to do with our puck-possession system, wherein age isn't as big as it is in a more aggressive dump-and-chase system. Some of it's to do with the Red Wings Way, and the fact that everyone buys in. Some of it's probably to do with stuff I can't think of right now because, again, it's early. This is all in contrast to teams which very seriously rely on youth to carry them. We're getting there (see: our blue line). But I think as long as Holland and Babcock are in charge, we'll have a largely veteran lineup. Because it's who they are.

Aren't Smith and Kindl both offensive minded defensemen?

What this team needs is a leader. A leader like Valtteri Filppula. We'd have the 2013-14 Cup by now if Flip were still with us. But now we'll never win anything because Weiss is with us. *runs his fingers through his hair, pretending it's Flip's hair*

There's not a lotta pride in this for me, so whatever. Actually, it's kinda funny, when I get really bored, I do line combinations. Depending on my mood, I might like esteef's idea or I might like yours (for the past week or so I've been favoring yours) or I might like something completely out of left field. But, look, the bottom line is this: everyone has to step up. That's the only sure-fire global fix here. There's two, maybe three people driving the bus right now, and that's not the way it's supposed to work. It's not even a bus, more of a ship - like a boat, y'see? Whole big crew, every man does his part or nothing works. And what we're getting now is nothing is working, because people aren't doing their parts. I guess you could argue it's sorta circular, because, well, how do you get them doing their parts? You change up the lines! But I think at some point - like, now - you have to look at it a different way. Like, maybe these guys just need to be yelled at or have their video game privileges revoked. Or maybe Nyquist and Helm would be enough. Maybe this is all just cosmic and karmic and any and all change on Babs' part is futile. Like I've said, if it were up to me, I'd try very, very, very, very hard to swing a big deal for a defenseman, preferably a puck-mover. The guys we're missing most right now are named Lidstrom and Rafalski.

What I'm saying is Andersson only got a shot because we didn't really have any better alternatives, due to injury. Again, last season's "youth movement" wasn't "part of The Plan." It only happened because it had to, i.e. we had no other choice. And Andersson sort of encapsulates that. (Not that he hasn't been very good for us, mind you.)

My thoughts exactly.

Totally agree - especially with the rise of HD TV. I'm 6'4, with a bad back (thank you, hockey). Sounds like the seats alone would ruin it for me.

So true. I went to one of the '97 SCF games. Some drunk-ass piece of s*** dumped his beer all over a guy in the bathroom, while the guy was taking a leak - all because he was wearing an Yzerman jersey. I was a kid. It didn't scar me, but it definitely made me hate the city of Philadelphia that much more.

I guess what I'm saying is, maybe that's it. Maybe there's really nothing else to it.