Grateful Gadsby

I disagree on Filppula. He is coming into his own and on a career year. He has been easiest the second best forward on this team behind Datsyuk. If we are talking trade one of our top 6 forwards I would rather  it be Franzen and Hudler going. Franzen, Hudler, Kindl then some prospects and draft picks including our 1st rounder. Those are the assets I would be shopping...

Not sure if there would be as many takers for Franzen as we would like.  That contract could be difficult to move given his injury history and streakiness.

Take Heatley or Marleau off or team and we'll still beat you.

LOL.  Heatley should stop by his church of choice every effing day of the week and thank a higher power that he even plays in the NHL.  If a certain judge owned a pair of testicles, he would be rotting in a Georgia jail cell following the vehicular manslaughter of his good friend.

If shooting every single puck into shinpads was the objective Franzen would have the Ovechtrick.

If Mule was going to be this useless he should have scratched himself from the lineup.  Modano couldn't be any worse; at least he can skate.

No need to hate the Ducks, just laugh as they head towards the lottery pick. Another loss today. 8 goals against 1 goal for, 0-2 on the season.

After today's game against the Blues, it's now 0-3 for the Ducks, outscored 13-2 so far this season.  Love it.

Another "minus" play by Ericsson.  What a shocker ...

Much of the criticism of Bettman is BS.  He's a very smart guy who has done a pretty good job for his primary constituency (the owners).  Fans -- especially north of the border -- will hate him no matter what he does.  Too effing bad.  Take it up with the owners.

Totally agree that his big mistake was the aggressive push into the US Sun Belt.  A toe-in-the-water, slow/incremental approach (i.e., one team instead of six) would have made a lot more sense if he wanted to pursue such a strategy.    On the other hand, he's also shrewdly thrown the NHLPA a bone with the expansion by creating more player jobs.  Even if just 2 or 3 of the Sun Belt teams survive (with the rest folding and/or moving to Canada), his strategy still will probably have been a success overall.

Hmm.  I blame Holland for signing Williams in the first place.

^^This.  Holland is the best GM in the league, but signing Williams was a major blunder, and would have been so even if he had signed him for $1 last summer.  By any objective measure, he should have played himself off the team permanently after his clueless, mistake-filled performance in the 2006 playoffs against Edmonton.  Hell, Williams couldn't even nail down a roster spot in Atlanta.  He had no business ever wearing the Winged Wheel again.

Welcome to Philadelphia.

Exactly.  Turco is a first-rate A-hole, so he'll fit right in with Pronger, Carcillo, et al.

There's hope left but Smith looks like he'll be the better defenseman given time. I think Smith looks more like he'll be the stud on D with Kindl being the number 2 or 3 defenseman.

Having seen Kindl play a few times, I'd be ecstatic if he ended up as a No. 2 or No. 3 defenseman.  My impression of him so far is that he's on track to be a No. 4 or No. 5 -- if that.