dudacek

Why doesn't the bolded bother you? Don't you think he should have more than 3 goals in his past 51 games, regardless of how he is deployed? I'll hang up and listen

I think having Adams step in to ride out the season and see the issues first-hand wouldn't be the worst path to take.

And how's that been working out? (I think @thorny might be right. It gobsmacks me how easily even good posters handwave the enormity of Jeff's lack of production. Krueger might not use him properly, but Krueger isn't the one missing all those golden opportunities game, after, game after game.)

Can’t wait to do this all again tomorrow!

Mom wasn’t much of a cook, eh?

LOL. That wasn’t hate, it was pure helpless laughter at how ridiculous it’s become. No matter who he’s playing with or against, no matter how bad or good he plays, he cannot score a goal.

You know what would be entertaining? Having the other team remove one player from the ice for each progressive Skinner shift until he finally scores. We could have a pool on how many minutes of the goalie-free 5-on-0 it would take before he finally stuffs one in on the empty net from inside the crease.

Bang on. He’s the poster child for a @PromoTheRobot post.

Yes but Jeff Skinner is getting chances so he’s playing well.

I am so tired of watching Eric Staal stop moving his feet, lean forward, reach, and watch the other team skate away with the puck.

I swear, it seems like Sam has been the only good player on the team this year.

I’d say Eichel or Dahlin gets better value. But if you include them in the “untouchable” category, you’re right. There is a part of me that wants to see Sam on a winning team where both his skill and the recognition he gets for it will fully blossom. He has been so wasted on this team.

I’m not sure what is more depressing: Thursday’s game when nobody tried and we got completely embarrassed? Or today’s when most of them are trying and we are still getting completely embarrassed?

Didn’t I see something about conditional picks got removed in the new CBA...?

The two bolds are not the same. The second is correct. What I heard is Adams saying is that you can’t blame this team’s record on the goalies. He also said Ullmark has played well. Both statements are true. He blamed our team’s record on not competing hard enough to score, or to defend.

“Thanks Mike, that’s a good question.” ”Yes, I want to fire Ralph, but Terry and Kim don’t want to spend the money. You’d think with them paying Leino, and Ehrhoff and Hodgson and Skinner and Okposo not to play they’d be used to it, by now (shrugs).” ”What’s that? Yes, I was surprised, but I’ve since discovered the Fired Executives Fund was reduced with COVID, and I kinda overdid things last June. We are still paying out the Lafontaine and Russ Brandon cover-up deals, but the Housley, Botterill, Bylsma and Murray contracts all come off the books over the next two years. I think that if we can get fans back in the building to start next year, we can probably let Ralph go in mid-November.” ”Ted Nolan? No, that ***** isn’t getting a penny. Never has, never will.”

How fast can we get a goalie with quarantine rules? Faster than Ullmark’s healing process? Are there goalies available that actually make sense beyond a stopgap? Or did we already miss our window?

Seven RFAs and 8 UFAs. Of the others, I can’t really seeing them doing anything with Skinner except cross their fingers with a new coach, but Okposo enters buyout territory this summer and Miller and Risto will be a year away from UFA. And of course there are the Jack fears. There is a ton of potential for movement, although I suspect most of it will come in the summer. As far as the deadline, would expect a sell-off of UFAs (Montour, Staal, maybe a few depth guys). We may also see an attempt to add Adams version of “grit.” What they do with Hall is the most interesting question.

Great point and something people saying "why not today?" need to consider. It speaks to the long game.

I don't know why I post so much when you people do such a fine job of saying what I'm trying to say. I now know what Adams thinks. Let's see what he does.

Good point made on WGR that ties to Adams remark about balancing long- and short-term value. Maybe he knows who he wants to be his next coach and maybe that guy isn't available right now, but might become that way. (And maybe I'm just really curious about Rod Brind'Amour.)

This to me is the money quote: "As for the players, once you’re in a losing situation — and I would never have admitted this publicly when I played — many of them think in the back of their heads “I just want to get out of here” because ***** is not changing. And once that mentality seeps into a team setting, then you have a losing team. Guys don’t even have to talk about it. Even if they just think it. When you have two or three guys thinking like that, then pretty soon you have seven, eight, nine, 10 guys thinking like that, and you cannot win. That’s what I see here." We've seen multiple seasons in a row that when times get tough, the players check out, even when they are different players. We lost a number of games even when we played pretty well, we got COVID, and we checked out. The number of players we have who are pending free agents hasn't helped.

I think a GM's relationship with his coach is like a cup. Once it fills up, the coach gets fired. Ralph's cup hasn't quite started overflowing yet — remember for Adams, it's 21 games, not our 10 years — but it's at the brim. Julien had been coaching the Canadiens for Bergevin for years.

I don't think this quote ^^^ is going to age well. Nobody wants to hear this, but Adams has employed Krueger as his coach for exactly 21 games, and part of that time Krueger had COVID.