thewookie1

I really hope he goes far because he has all the makings of a great goalie who retires and become a media guy like Biron

All the teams I didn't want to win besides Ottawa have gone off a cliff as of late TBL for Girgs, down 3-1 to FLA MIN was toppling VGK but is now down 3-2 after a fluke OT winner in Game 4 and a BS offside tonight LAK over EDM, started great but LAK decided that a challenge was needed in Game 3 and they've spiraled ever since (Down 3-2) COL is losing to DAL but I really don't have strong feelings for either WPG is doing their usual implosion against STL this time I guess WSH is winning at least CAR just ran over the NJD So far the TOR vs OTT series has been perfect, Toronto showed up the Sens early on and then have done their perpetual downward spiral upon reaching a series clinching game.

As with any team some players will play harder and others will shrink. The playoffs are an entirely different game than regular season hockey but also has a tendency to change players. Danny Briere was never a physical player but he loved playoff hockey although the physicality increased. Now I highly doubt Power will suddenly get a backbone in the playoffs but a guy like Peterka could. Although rare, he does occasionally show a slightly more physical game.

Very weird that the first two are in Cleveland; could easily backfire on Laval

I'll just say this, I'd rather miss the playoffs than deal with Lou's team styling. What's the point of playoff hockey; if you can't even tolerate to watch the regular season? His teams are quite literally unwatchable and are both built and coached to do their best 1990's dead puck era hockey. I have negative interest in having a classical 4th line or an archaic view of fan interaction. Let's just let this old man go off into the sunset and let the league be better as a whole without his influence.

Dolan looking to do what he can to steal Pegula’s hated status.

Well I wouldn’t trade Power for a 30year old Dman coming off a bad year. It doesn’t fix anything besides general defensive player skill while subtracting offense. Seeing as Pulock would be useful for Power as a partner whereas without Power and Byram having to stay with Dahlin makes the acquisition far less valuable

Detroit’s issue is similar to ours but in a different manner of cause. We relied far too much on young players with talent naturally improving without giving them much of a veteran core to cover and teach them. We needed at least a couple more vets through the years to help steady the team through the ups and downs of each season. We needed more Zuckers. Detroit took an approach somewhat closer to how you are supposed to fix a team with vet insulation but instead suffocated their youth under a large contingent of redundant veteran players. Copp and Compher are very similar players with very similar age, size and abilities and contracts given to them. Both are middle six forwards that can play center or wing. Kane and Tarasenko are both veteran Cup winning players not known for their defensive prowess but for their past offensive exploits. Again similar contracts although Tarasenko got 2 years. This sort of redundancy created a situation whereas any young player would need to not only outplay 1 guy but 2 guys to gain the needed confidence of the coach. Part of vet insulation is that it’s meant to protect and teach a younger player waiting in the wings. Not create a nigh-impenetrable wall to scale. Additionally due to the similarities in the vets, only specific types of players are served by their presence while other players are effectively on their own. Effectively prospects filling in for vets getting hurt tends to be their opportunity to blossom and garner some confidence to continue to grow. Because Compher and Copp can be the 2C and the coach is going to have bias towards that; Marco Kasper is trapped in the Bottom 6 unless both get hurt. The Sabres overly gifted young players opportunities by baking them into the plans each year. Detroit made them seem insurmountable for some and easy for others.

I'm very unsure to be honest. Peterka reminds me too much of Jeff Skinner is his hot/cold streaks, lack of defensive posture and size. Offering him over 8mil a year all but guarantees Tuch is gone and places some degree of an albatross on our cap situation.

I'd rather keep Adams than hire that dinosaur. Lou's teams are boring to watch and root for The players have to obey archaic facial hair policies Lou wants a heavily vet squad, we have the youngest team in the NHL meaning he'd likely trade much of our young talent for grinders and overpaid bot 6 players in their 30's. Contract Details aren't handed out willingly I respect what he's done but he probably my least favorite GM ever.

Well that also makes sense; damn Johnson & Johnson confusion lol

It wasn’t that they felt Johnson didn’t want to win but rather Adams didn’t because Johnson was no where near enough to fix their defensive woes.

Part of it is that Dahlin isn’t a defensive specialist; he’s just good defensively + great at a lot of other things. However Muel is supposed to be the defensive guy so technically it should be his job to play the more defensive stance

Always loved him since his first playoff with Calgary. Thrives off playoff hockey

For me trading Power would just be a disaster waiting to happen and I’m not fond of giving 7+ mil to a guy who has to play with Dahlin to do well.

So the players would likely fit right in on the forums lol. And out of the players’ gripes I’d say the only one that lessened over time was Benson. After all, Benson isn’t a typical type of rookie that plays lost defensively and only plays to get on offense. But I’d certainly expect them to be leery of him last season. Problem was while one issue was more or less unfounded, the rest were dead on. Plus I agree that the palm tree thing was a catastrophe.

There’s always a couple teams that challenge us for most inept

ROR wasn’t traded due to Pegula, he was traded prior to July 1st however due to Pegula.

Botts, while a tad more NHL seasoned per se, is possibly even worse than Adams which is bonkers considering what we have now. His disjointed approach to team building while trying to play moneyball with a magic 8 ball was a mind screw every year he was here. Murray saw players as cogs in a machine and never even thought about what would happen if some cogs were made of softer materials or were manufactured differently. His vision was a his target and nothing would stop him from going to it for better or for worse. Adams is almost the complete opposite of Murray. He too has a vision but it is less clearly defined however it does exist in some way. Where he falls apart is his inability to make the moves needed to reach his goal and his reliance on young players to plug most holes. Botts was a chameleon in front of a technicolor lava lamp, in which the vision he had for the team varied year to year and even month to month. He desired to make Eichel like Crosby the captain even though ROR was the heir apparent after Gionta retired. He traded ROR for “depth” and thrust Mitts into the 2C role after 1 10 game stint. He traded for Colin Miller but then gaffed at a 4th rounder to move Risto for Ehlers. Thus having 4 NHL RHDs who expected to play but on 3 could. So he then trades half their best defensive pair for a 4th and trades it for a 4th liner in Frolik. All the while Pominville returns, and in a stroke of luck plays pretty well for us only to be unceremoniously dumped for a random jag in Jimmy Vesey for a second time. At first he had a Pittsburgh model in mind and then seemed to abandon it somewhat when Sheary was ineffective and Pegula wanted Skinner signed.

Somewhat realistic hope: Adams is promoted into another position to represent Terry’s interests Jarmo or perhaps even a Ken Holland are brought in as GM. Additionally a couple new pro scouts are added. All besides Ruff and Appert are let go from their coaching positions. Matt Ellis is transferred back to his Player Development position. Appert goes upstairs. New GM moves Byram and Quinn and possibly even Peterka to season the team better. Likely Scenario: Adams is moved to PoHO Karmanos is made GM Coaching staff swaps out a few members 1 RFA gets traded for a player over the age of 27. We all pray the subtle changes and new staff are enough to spur the team to a playoff berth.

Why would you even listen to a Dman that young; he needs to learn to play defense and stop pretending he's a sugar plum fairy when not in the offensive zone.

I can never get there because we have no proof that they wouldn't step up like most teams in the playoffs. It's Schroder's Cat

Frankly I can't watch it, just so tired of Adams beating around bushes

Low spending isn’t exactly correct to be honest; he does sign big contracts. That being said he isn’t exactly breaking out the bank either so I’m not entirely sure how to interpret it. Like a cheap owner is more akin to the Pirates in baseball who will trade away anyone looking for money and only signs cheap players and brings up youth. Pegula sort of falls in an odd category of being willing to spend on players but not always willing to go that extra step to make sure there’s success

3 Questions: Is Robertson worth 10 to 12mil per, after next season? What were his contracts for the two UFAs Why was he dumb enough to have UPL and Levi as our goalies again when we’ve already seen that doesn’t work