Taro T

When the bench has been shortened the past month or so, Cozens has become the C for Mittelstadt and Olofsson. Other than that, and maybe some PP work last year on the 2nd unit, they really haven't been an item.

Thinking it isn't that bad a thing that the Sabres didn't land him if that was the cost.

Don't know anything about Zetterlund other than he's 23, will be an RFA this off-season, and has been about a 0.5 ppg winger.

One of those players is a big Russian D man that was drafted 20th overall in '20. The rest of them - well maybe @lgr4gm can give some info on.

Pretty sure it is just the '24 that is conditional. That 1st tweet is the only thing so far indicating that the '23 is conditional. Besides, there's no way the Devils miss the playoffs this year.

Really? That seems to be sort of out of the blue. ;)

Plus Hinostroza's goal turned out to be the game winner. (In his 1st game back in a couple of months.) The way the game went, wouldn't have expected anything else. And yes, a strong case could be made for Quinn to have been 1 of the 3. And minus 1 HUGE brain fart even Mitts might've had a case. Because of the brain fart he was lucky he played for Granato because a lot of guys would've stapled him to the bench after that.

That goal absolutely was on Olofsson. And MAYBE if he was on his weak side like he normally is, that turn towards his right actually helps limit the D-man's space. But he HAS to be more aware there. And, he's lucky he plays for Granato because Don is probably one of only a handful at most of coaches in the league that wouldn't bench him for a least a couple of shifts for that brain fart.

It was on Mittelstadt. The Caps penalty had already ended and he didn't want to just turn the puck over by dumping it in. He saw Power out of the corner of his eye but didn't realize Power was about to go to the bench. Considering Samuelsson was already coming off the bench, there wasn't really anything for Owen to do there. Mitts needed to understand that giving the Caps the puck behind their own net was the correct play there.

And it seems the Bolts had travel issues yesterday. They got out of Detroit a couple of hours late because the plane they were supposed to fly on had gotten struck by Lightning at it's previous stop to Detroit. Bummer.

Were he playing the past 2 weeks, maybe. No way are they putting on a show for a guy they've kept in bubble wrap for 1/2 a month.

Whoa. Meeee-ooooow.

At least the Pens have to go back down to Tampa on Thursday. The Bolts have 2 OT losses at home their last 14(?). So, they should be able to help the Sabres out later this week. And they host the Swamp Cats on Tuesday too. Kind of wierd in that they'll have a 6 game stretch against the same 3 teams with hosting 1 game and visiting the other and none of them were home and home games

Mittelstadt is their 5th F. Unless they're getting something really good, he isn't going anywhere this year.

Malkin got a breakaway coming out of the penalty box and then with about 5 minutes to go the Bolts collectively lost their minds. The puck just stayed in their end and everytime it seemed to be close to the net it was in the net. Look up at the TV, goal. Look up at the TV, goal. Lather rinse repeat. Stinks because Pittsburgh held the better of the play early in the 1st but the Bolts weathered the Storm and started to outplay them. The Malkin goal hurt but in and of itself, the game wasn't flipped.

Others watched more, but the biggest difference from last year to this is it seemed Peterka generated space for himself a lot last year. He's not doing that nearly as often this year. When the Kid Line got hot, all 3 guys were creating and finding space. That hasn't really happened for him since the calendar flipped. But until today, he'd had 3 games in a row where he got himself a truly excellent scoring chance. Almost think he's at the point where sitting a game or 2 and just watching would help a lot again. Now that Hinostroza is back, he might get that chance when Tuch comes back.

He was. Kind of nice to have had a chance to see what he can do when not carrying around 2 raw rookies or a rookie and Olofsson. (That said, still want to see him get one of those rookies back when Tuch comes back as Quinn is no longer a "raw" rookie. Expect those 2 plus Mittelstadt could make a darn fine 2nd line.)

Yes, this one.

Would have to think long and hard to make that deal for Makar. And still likely say no. No way does AZ get that for Chychrun.

But was clarifying that it wasn't 5 teams in all divisions. (And yes, he was asking specifically about the North.)

PTR had posted that there were about 300 seats left around 11:30 AM. Close enough to a sellout for gubmint work.

Yes he did. But finishing out a game with an injury isn't typically referred to as "playing through" an ailment. Which is why was expecting it was something from the Bolts game rather than the Swamp Cats game.

Actually, it says in the 2 - 7 team divisions there will be 5 teams qualifying. In the 8 team division, 6 teams make it , and in the 10 team division only 7 teams make it.

All but the bottom 2 in each division make the playoffs. With a kind of best of 3 play in of the lowest seeds to get each division down to 4 teams left. (That's how it worked last year; pretty sure it'll be that way again.)

EVERYTHING pre-Covid is literally years ago. ;)