Dabura

The "Youth Movement" is lol on many levels. For starters: there is no youth movement, just a couple younger guys in the top-6 (Brunner, Nyquist) and Smith on the third-pairing. I guess you could say that's a youth movement by our standards. And hey, who knows, maybe Tatar, Sheahan et al. will see NHL ice. But we added Sammy and Tootoo, and Holland was hard for Doan, etc. That, to me, doesn't scream "Youth Movement!" Then there's Kenny's comments about the importance of building from within. Drafting well, cultivating your young talent - that's how we've got to do it these days. To which I say: 1) that's always been the case (not with us, but generally for everyone else), and 2) you're saying this while nearly matching Minnesota's bid for Suter and chasing after Nash and Doan and a thousand other free-agents and giving up a first-round pick for Quincey? (Not that I object to his having pursued free agents. And, turns out we need Quincey now.) I could go on.

"Hacking "is hockey. Getting an enforcer just for that would make us even pussier. (Irony!) I do think we ought to have an enforcer in the system. (Note: I didn't say "...on the bench every game.") But not for chipping and whacking or even two-handers, unless they're especially, overtly aggressive.

Holmgren will land [insert the name of the d-man at the top of Holland' wish list]. Holland wil say he kicked the tires, but, ultimately, he didn't feel the price was right.

(On the other side of the fortune: the character for "Salt.") (I kid you not.)

Tootoo has more than heart. He's a tough customer, very hard hitter. "Yeah, but if only he were a jawbreaker." Really? Come on, yo.

I love the Tootoo signing. He'll crash, he'll bang, he's pester, he'll piss off. He'll stand up for his team mates. He'll fight. How many other guys like that do we have?

Crymson's stating the most likely scenario, Barnes is saying it might not have to come down to that. I like both arguments on this one.

I should also add: that lineup is what I'd like to see, not what I expect to see. Really, though - any way you slice it, our forward corps = Meh, with a capital M. Especially our top-6.

The second line would be my only concern. Brunner's never played a game in the big league; I'd sleep better at night with him flanking Datsyuk, and Zetterberg on the other wing. I think you're overstating the difference in style thing thing re: Franzen and Helm. We've seen much stranger combinations, and some of them have succeeded well beyond expectations. I don't really care about Bertuzzi's price tag. He should be in the bottom-6, and I like him on the fourth line. Call it depth. I said, "Of the four, X and Y have the highest trade value" - not "X and Y have high trade value."

Kronwall - White Quincey - Colaiacovo Ericsson - Smith Kindl It hurts my eyes and my head and my brain and my heart and my soul. And my spleen. If we go into the season with this, Holland has lost his sanity.

I've been mulling over possible packages that might pry Girardi from the Rangers. It's do-able, and that was my main point (i.e. "Nothing we could offer could fetch him" isn't true). We'd just have to give up a whole lot. Franzen, Smith and a 1st would probably be the foundation. Do I really, truly, seriously, realistically, objectively, sanely believe that that, + maybe 1-2 other pieces going NY's way (hence "foundation"), would be worth it? Well, Girardi is Damn Good, and exactly the kind of piece we need on the back end, IMHO. The question/sticking point, though, is (I think) Smith. If he lives up to expectations, he may be just as good as Girardi soon. And Franzen is our go-to guy in the goal-scoring department (wack though that is). We're almost certainly not getting Girardi. I've never said otherwise. But I don't think it's totally out of the realm of possibility. A man can dream. Right?

Of the four, Eaves and Miller have the highest trade value, IMO - though Eaves' health is a question mark at this point. Moreover, they deserve playing time, so you could say trading them would be the morally correct thing to do.

Or, if that second line is too wimpy, swap Franzen and Samuelsson. Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Brunner Nyquist - Filppula - Franzen Cleary - Helm - Samuelsson Bertuzzi - Abdelkader - Tootoo

Zetterberg - Datsyuk - Brunner Nyquist - Filppula - Samuelsson Franzen - Helm - Cleary Bertuzzi - Abdelkader - Tootoo

Any RFA talk like this is pretty moot, IMO. Even if Holland weren't totally opposed to offer-sheeting, it really is, like Buppy said, next-to-impossible to sign someone else's restricted star.

6.7 would almost certainly be matched, IMO. Wheeler FTW!

We have Samuelsson. We're fine.

I can't tell if this is sarcasm or not. If not.... We need a #1 or #2. Girardi is a high-end player, one of the better defensemen in the league; he'd be a #1 or #2 on our blue line. Quincey is, or should be, our #4. He's only a year younger than Girardi. He's the same height as Girardi, give or take an inch. Girardi has a few pounds on him. Do yr homework, slacker. (TBC...)

This goes for pretty much any potential trade in the history or forever. It's basically a truism. That said, I agree.

If we're going to talk about a poor ambassador, let's turn this into a Crosby thread.

- "Regehr's nothing special. Something something average Sabres fan will tell you something something." Fair enough, though I feel (perhaps mistakenly) like you use this reasoning a lot, and it generally means "I don't really know a lot about this guy and I can't say I've seen a lot of him, but I scoped out a Sabres board and man was the hate fierce." Going by that logic, we could say [insert Wings player you vehemently defend here on LGW] is nothing special. And there's always the change of scenery / reclamation project angle. Bottom line, though: he'd be playing on the second or third pairing, and I think he'd do just fine in that capacity. He'd be a steady, physical, veteran presence on our blue line. At worst, he'd be the odd man out @ #7. Would he be a downgrade from Kindl? I like Kindl, but I'm inclined to say no. - Arnott - there's an implicit assumption in my green light for Arnott, namely that we'll be moving some forwards this summer. ~2 from the bottom-6, maybe one or possibly even two from the top-6. Also, I don't like Abdelkader at center. (To Be Continued...)

Yes.

Call me a hockey n00b or whatever (I'm not), but Giroux on Crosby came to mind first. It's about more than just the hit itself - it's a beautiful example of how a hit can set the tone for a game, or change its complexion, etc.

Colaiacovo or Kubina on the first pairing?! You mad?! EDIT: Oh, wait, I think I misread. My bad!

He's hawt.