Dabura

We are so back.

https://www.espn.com/nhl/story/_/id/39464235/nhl-power-rankings-2023-2024-best-teams-standings-questions A tougher schedule the rest of the month? What does that even mean? Tougher than last month? When we went 3-0 on a Western Conference road swing? I swear to Christ, the entire sports journo profession needs to be audited.

Imagine thinking we're not winning the Cup this year. Couldn't be me.

What do we think of Tanev?

Post-ASG: CAR: 1-1-0 FLA: 1-1-0 NJD: 1-1-0 NYI: 2-0-0 PHI: 2-0-0 PIT: 1-0-0 TBL: 0-2-0 TOR: 1-1-0 WSH: 0-2-0

Blues and Blackhawks in next year's Winter Classic. Not the Wings. Naturally.

So I've been thinking about this playoff race. https://www.nhl.com/standings/2024-02-06/wildcard We're not finishing above the Leafs. F*** the Leafs, they're stupid - but they're a proven regular season team and they'll finish 3rd in the Atlantic or take the first wildcard spot. Godless assholes. The Bolts probably finish above us. They're on the decline, and I'd like our chances against them in a best-of-seven - but Vasilevskiy's back and they've been on a tear of late. They probably finish 3rd in the Atlantic or take the first wildcard spot. (I don't like these words I'm saying, but I'm trying to be objective here.) So it's us against the rest of the bubble. The Pens could be a serious problem. But the Flyers have lost five straight and Hart's played his last game for them. So if the Pens take 3rd in the Metro and kick the Flyers down into the trenches with us, we're ok, provided the Flyers truly have hit the wall. I'm guessing they have. I'm counting on the Caps cratering; they're being held together by gravity and nose candy. The Isles kinda suck. But then, so do we. The early returns on their hoped-for New Coach Boost don't seem great, though they did beat the Leafs in regulation last night. I rate them as a threat. They don't scare me. But the math says they're a threat. The Devils, I dunno. They suck when Hughes is injured, and Hughes is always injured, and they've been dealing with other injuries too and also bad goaltending. Maybe they're gonna collapse. But I have a hard time convincing myself of that. There's a lot of talent on that team. Excluding the Pens (if they hold down 3rd in the Metro and the Flyers are done), I rate the Devils as our most serious competition. All of this is subject to change. And the assumpetion is we take care of our own business and keep winning. Which isn't a given.

Sadly, I highly doubt that'd get it done. I honestly don't think Berggren has much value at this point. Maybe to a competitive team that's in cap hell and needs to ruthlessly moneypuck its bottom six. But that's not the Flames. The thing about Hanifin is there really aren't any questions or concerns about him. He's not injury-prone. He's not a head case. He's not one-dimensional. 6'3. Just turned 27. Plays on their top pairing. Plays big minutes, all situations. 8 goals and 25 points thru 49 games this season. To put that stat line into perspective: Seider's put up 6 goals and 26 points thru 50 games this season. Now, granted, Seider's usage this season is beyond brutal and that's suppressed his scoring. But the point is Hanifin's roughly equivalent to Seider. So yeah - he won't come cheap. So I figure the ask - whether we want Hanifin as a rental or there's an extension in place - is Kasper. They're not getting Kasper, but they could probably get a comparable player from another team. For what it's worth, I read somewhere that he and Larkin are pretty close. I dunno that that helps us land him, but it's something.

Yuuuup. It's always been a scam. Constructing models to show that the kinds of players they like are Objective Good and that the kinds of players they don't like are Objectively Bad - and getting enough institutional support from their circle jerk crowd that they can just sit in their ivory cubicles (their work got them jobs and platforms) and point to their numbers whenever the rubes dare to question them. And endlessly stacking their models, one arbitrary value system on top of another, until it gets so silly and useless that people see it for the house of cards it is. Seider takes a sledgehammer to it, as you said. It's hilarious.

Chychrun is really good. I wanna hate on him because everyone's always talking him up and it annoys me. But he's legit. Oft-injured. But legit. But what you're saying about Hanifin is why I've always really liked him and why I think I'd be more excited about getting him than I would Chychrun. Seider's playing the hardest minutes in the league. It's cool that he can take it, but it's a ridiculous situation. You can hard-match him against the other team's top talent, but the other team's gonna have other good players and we don't really have other good matchup defensemen. That's not a recipe for success. We're playing with fire. Add Hanifin and Edvinsson and all of a sudden we're loaded with workhorses. (Though, Edvinsson's probably in GR for the rest of the season.) Seider's life gets easier. Chiarot's life gets easier. Everyone's life gets easier. Except our opponents'. A future top four of Edvinsson-Seider / Hanifin-ASP could be filthy.

No, I was the prom queen.

Seider is the guy who pushed the stats nerds into lockers in high school. Absolute jock. 10/10. Would draft.

Fancy stats are pretty bulls***, if we're being honest. One day we decided we were going to accept a set of values pushed by nerds who got pushed into lockers in high school and it's since grown into a masturbatory mystery cult. I've found value in the stats in the past, sure - but at this point I'm way past done with it. That may not be a popular stance, but idc. Moneypuck is a great example of how stupid it's all become. I say that having watched it very closely over the past month. It's a crock.

We are the only team in the league that loses this game. We are the only team that gets our asses kicked by the Sens multiple times and comes into this game and puts 3 shots on goal in the first period. If we played the Bruins ten times in February, we might go 6-4. If we played the Sharks ten times in February, we'd go 1-5-4. I like our team against good teams. I hate our team against bad teams.

I'm always nervous with this team lol But nah, I'm not too concerned. Lyon could probably use the rest.

Can we take a moment to laugh at the Sens? I mean, yeah, they're probably gonna kick our asses on Wednesday. But holy s*** what a tire fire.

I've always really liked Lindholm, but I guess I just wonder if he really is That Guy. 29, not having a particularly great season...I fear he's on the decline. And we have a bad track record with guys we sign to be That Guy.

Yeah, this is pretty much where I'm at. And I feel like the trade target pool is incredibly underwhelming. I look at our forward group. When Kane draws back in and Kostin sits, who is it we're supposed to upgrade? Where's the weak link? I like Elias Lindholm and Sean Monahan, but I'm not sure either of them is better than Fabbri. How much do we want to pay (in the way of assets) for "Could be better than Fabbri, I guess...?" Our defense is...suboptimal. But we have an internal upgrade option in Edvinsson. (SPOILERS: The ask for Hanifin and Chychrun is gonna be too steep.) So I dunno. We've got a good thing going. If Lyon stays stellar, we make the playoffs.

At least we didn't trade for Dubois lol

No - definitely not what we envisioned. Or at least not what we were hoping for. In that sense, we're eating an L on this. Personally, I'm ok with it. I'm big on the matchup game-within-a-game - so I'm happy to have three solid two-way guys down the middle in Larkin, Compher, Copp. But yeah, I really don't know why this organization can't find a legit point-producing 2C. Weiss. Nielsen. Stopgap Filapoola. And then Copp was gonna be that guy. And then Compher was gonna be that guy. It's really kind of hilarious what a low-key curse this has become. Hopefully Kasper or Danielson is That Guy.

I suppose. But if he's giving more breathing room to your top-six scorers and shutting down other teams' scorers and putting up some points himself, and all of this is helping the team win close games...then I'm perfectly ok with it. Who's that? Does he play defense?

And they can be hard-matched against top talent (as they were tonight, I believe) - so they're a legit a shutdown line. Having a legit shutdown line *in addition to* two dedicated scoring lines is massive.

"Back off, that's OUR job!" - The Hockey Hall of Fame Selection Committee

Yeah, it's almost certainly gonna come down to term. And you're right about the RFA situation. We shall see.