e_prime

no pressure then blunder blunder blunder blunder. woe is me.

Datsyuk is goalless in eight games. I think it's time to break up the band.

I don't think everyone is defeated. The title of this thread is a little misleading. Even FutureNyquist isn't the pessimist he might want us to think he is... I just wish that people wouldn't be *so* wrapped up in our need to winwinwinwinwincupcupcupcupnownownow... when we have such a storied and incredible franchise to watch year in and year out. kip... I gotta PM you about Nino.

Oh, you just take that reason and even-keeled thought processes... um, well... no, nevermind. Don't go anywhere, you just keep going with that. ...and you... you probably expect capital letters when appropriate too, huh? Oh, right. It would be nice.

Who are you guys? Nostradamus?

Pair this type of move with a top-six rental that would alleviate the logjam of middling forwards we currently have (Cleary, Abdelkader, Emmerton, Miller, and Eaves) Get Bert, Sammy, and Helm healthy, get into the playoffs, see what we've got, and I would be happy with this year. (I'm easy to please.)

Move White out and bring in Regher or Smid as a rental. Depending on price, either would be a fine acquisition to shore up our defensive need that was supposed to be supplied by Colaiacovo. Once Cola is healthy, Lashoff can be sent back down to GR and brought back up for the playoffs once rosters expand. Assess the D in the off-season and make further moves if needed.

Shiny, new toy is shiny. ...and streaky. ...and expensive. ...and breaks easily. If this year was next year and we are headed into the playoffs I'd say go for it. This year, not so much.

If the point doesn't need any reinforcement? Why create a new thread on a topic that you've already created and has some decent discussion around? I'm not trying to be a d!(k, but creating multiple threads on the same topic won't make your complaint/discussion viewed as any more reasonable or valid than the first time you brought it up. It just makes you "The Axe" of the Trade Rumors & Free Agent Talk forum.

Touching on some of the names you mentioned earlier, '93. ...and I'm going to skip the ones that are on pretty much everyone's list of UFA rental types (Clowe, Iggy, etc.) and go for some of the more interesting names. Note: I'm not trying to call you out and say, "these are ridiculous options and would never happen because of x.y,z. Go back to your video games and try again" because I like to have conversations about making our team better. I will say that I think some of your assessments are through the "grass is always greener" and/or "if only we had moved on x" perspective... which I think is easy to fall into and the thought of many a fan of teams around the league. So... Mueller: Coming into the season Mueller was a "huuumungous beeeg" question mark. He wasn't qualified by his former team, Colorado, after spending almost two years on the shelf due to concussion issues. I'm sure that a lot of teams thought about signing him and taking a chance but being the physical game it is and the nature of concussions in this physical sport of hockey, many passed. Granted teams take chances on oft injured guys all the time (ahem, Sammy *coughcough*Colo*coughcough*) ...but concussion is a different beast. So, he was picked up as a UFA by Florida, a team desperate to build off of their previous year's showing. A team willing to take that high risk/high reward chance. So far, it's working out nicely. He's on pace to match his rookie season output. He'll be an RFA again this year due to number of games played, so even though Tallon will be a seller, I'm guessing he'll be re-uped at a relatively low cost and kept rather than moved, especially because he's gelling nicely with some of their younger talent. Heatley/Gaborik: Both of these guys are huge talents and certainly the sniper that we need to bolster our top line, but both have huge cap hits for the remainder of the season and the following year. To the tune of $7.5 million. I think that number handcuffs the team in a way that Holland isn't willing to manage. I think he was willing to take on that number with Suter or Parise because he saw them as key pieces for the future of the team. Gaborik and/or Heatley, not so much. Maybe next year as a rental, but not this year with that imposing cap hit. Berglund/Perron/D'Agostini: All St. Louis players. I know that we're probably headed to the Eastern Conference, and that inter-divisional trades DO happen, but until we are safely away, I don't see St. Louis making any trades with us. Additionally, Berglund and D'Agostini are RFAs. Maybe you've noticed, but Ken Holland is not an offer-sheet kind of guy. Perron is signed for a few years and again, is a player with previous concussion issues. Ruutu: I do like his style of play, but he's on the shelf -- currently injured. He's also signed for four years for a pretty penny - a team that he wanted to re-sign with and did. To others, he might be viewed as a movable piece from that roster, but I think in the same way that Holland views some of our injured players coming back for the playoffs, so does Rutherford with Ruutu. Stafford: Although known to be streaky, he's a typically a consistent point production guy, young and big-bodied. $4mil cap hit. On a team that's currently a huge mess, I'm not sure why this would be the piece that they'd be looking to move. Even if Reiger is fired, an incoming GM is going to look at someone like Stafford and say, this guy's probably a keeper. With the exception of Ribeiro and Heatley, you've mentioned a lot of players who tend to miss some time. One of your main arguments with players like Sammy, Bert, and Cola is that they are oft injured. I know they're different injured players, but they're still of the same ilk and many of them have had SERIOUS concussion issues. Also, a lot of them are signed to longer and more expensive deals than that of Sammy, Bert, and Cola. Many view these deals as bad, but they're not handcuffing like some other contacts out there. It's certainly frustrating to have these players on the shelf and sometimes painful to watch other teams make moves to seemingly improve their team, but currently we're sitting anywhere from 6th to 12th depending on the day... Bert, Sammy, Flip and Helm coming back undoubtedly would be an improvement to our forward corps. Whether you see it as an improvement or not, is moot. It adds depth and flexibility and knowledge of the system to the lineup without having to give up a single roster player, prospect, or pick. I'm not saying a little shakeup wouldn't be nice or that it wouldn't add a spark to the offense, but Holland isn't going to make a move for the sake of making a move... we've known this for a loooong time. We also know that he's not one to show his hand, he's willing to see what's out there, but he's not going to overpay. Much to your dismay '93, I think he's going to stand pat until he sees what he's really got.

Now there's the hands of a $5million/year player. Nice way to keep it in the zone there O'Reilly.

Nice save Jimmy!

Man, our Powerplay sucks!

Hey would you look at that Tatar up with Cleary and Dats

Anybody watching this game? Montreal climbed back in and now they're trading goals back and forth with just over 8 minutes left in the third.

You didn't see Ryan pull that machete out and chop off Smith's leg?

I know I was probably supposed to not watch so many games with the lockout and everything, but I can't help myself. Watched: Boston/Tampa , Jets/Caps as well. Time to watch the 3rd period of ANA/PHX... and then flip between the two late games.

Pitkanen left tonight's game with an upper body injury after just being re-activated.

I'll say it again: Somebody has to be on the ice when a goal is scored! Kronwall as our number one defenseman (LIke Lidstrom before him) is going to be playing more minutes against other teams top lines and therefore more goals are likely to be scored. It's that simple. I'm not trying to apologize for Kronwall's play by any stretch of the measure. Of recent, you must admit, it has been better, but +/- is such a fuzzy stat.

http://video.tsn.ca/?dl=main/latest/1/0/876045/clip/402#main/latest Nice analysis. Tend to agree that it could have been an even bigger mess with appeals and whatnot. Mike Johnson at 1:37-2:33 sums up the blunder very nicely. Would be surprised if Feaster keeps his job. I'm very much interested in seeing who else made an offer sheet to O'Reilly. Not that that info. will ever be made public.

Additionally, there were four other teams that made an offer sheet to O'Reilly that he didn't sign. Stated by Geno Reda on That's Hockey. Wondering who those teams are...

A retalitory shot, but it's pretty cheap. Don't see the correlation between a cheap crosscheck away from the orignal play and what Homer did on a nightly basis.

Somebody has to be on the ice when goals are scored, right? More interesting would be how those +/- numbers translate into goals and assists. Quincy: 1 point Kindl: 5. oh! right... intangibles.

Good man. In my case, my friend is 54, so I will have no problem ribbing him about a Blackhawks loss to us.

tsn with confirmation: http://www.tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=417114 It appears as though Alex Kovalev's time with the Florida Panthers is over. According to reports out of Florida, the 40-year-old winger did not make the trip with the team to Carolina to play the Hurricanes on Saturday. Reports state the Panthers are looking at other options and that an announcement is pending. Kovalev has two goals and five points in 14 games with Florida this year. He has been a healthy scratch for the team's other six games this season. Prior to his time with the Panthers, Kovalev hadn't played in the NHL since the 2010-11 season when he had 16 goals and 34 points splitting the season between Ottawa and Pittsburgh.