TrueBlueGED

Most improved: me. I was miserable last season. This year? I was able to detach myself from the emotional aspect of hating the team. It's been liberating. Most disappointing: Okposo or McCabe. I thought we'd at least get another year of usefulness out of Okposo, but nope. McCabe went from making me think he could actually be a decent 4/5 to questioning whether he's even a 6/7. He was turrible, just turrible, before injury.

We could only be so lucky.

Thank you. I feel like the injuries have overshadowed the biggest problem with Bogo: he's not good. He could play all 82 games as our #3/4 and we'd still be screwed on the blue line because he's a bad defenseman.

I keep coming back to the obvious answer being O'Reilly on Eichel's wing. Many of us envisioned this happening when Reinhart was ready to move to C, but maybe it'll be Mittelstadt who enables it to happen. It's just hard for me to see any ROR trade where we come out of top unless we're getting a bonafide top pairing Dman coming back.

I dunno the actual pairs, I just took a quick glance at ice time. Hanifan isn't even getting 19 per game, the other two are around 23. If Risto could hang out at 19 per game I think his performance would blow Hanifin's doors off.

The worst part about this scenario isn't seeing Brady throw 25 TDs to Beckham, it's the inevitable nauseating narrative about how the Patriot way reformed Beckham. I'm already vomiting.

There's not an old boy's club, I just assume all new posters suck until proven otherwise :p Really though, I don't think anyone has time to read every post. I don't think it's unreasonable for people to use posters they know have a track record of quality conversation as a proxy for whom to read/reply to when you only have a few minutes to do things here or there.

I need someone to explain to me the interest in Hanifin. He has pretty so-so stats while occupying cushy minutes on the 2nd pair behind Faulk and Slavin, and the qualitative reviews from Canes fans aren't exactly stellar.

Do we upgrade on either of those positions? Even if you want to argue Hanifin is an upgrade on Risto (and I don't think it is), I don't think it's nearly the level of the downgrade from O'Reilly to Lindholm.

I'm not saying you're wrong, but boy oh boy would that be disappointing. Barring falling into Dahlin I don't expect us to add a top-pair capable player, but we should be able to find another Scandella-level guy.

Yes. Just not sure he has anything else a hockey player needs :lol: Is this a copy/paste from most GDTs this season?

He's 47th in the league in save percentage. He stinks.

Chad Johnson stinks. I eagerly await two new goalies next season.

Thank you for proving optimism is not dead around here. :beer: Yessir. The caution is understandable. But man, I can't imagine being a hardcore fan and being unable to believe in anything.

Not for those of us who weren't willing to forget his first 164 games based on 35 this year :nana: Sorry, I was so wrong about what the team would look like this season, I have to snark where I can :D

Lehner for Holtby (E3)

I think I'm generally more optimistic about what the team could do next season than most around here, but this is much ado about nothing. Top teams regularly play down to bad teams.

For sure. There's a reasons us stats nerds separate primary and secondary assists, for instance. I would argue that not all goals are created equal either, but there's no quick and easy way of distinguishing them like there is for assists.

I just don't agree with this at all. Look at it from this perspective: what percentage of goals are scored unassisted? 5%? Less? Assists create goals. This is even more true when JAGs are scoring off passes from elite players who draw defenders to them. On one of the PP goals (I don't know which, there were so many!) Jack drew 3 defenders to drift his way, opening up a lane he fed the puck through to create a goal. Is what Eichel did on that play truly less valuable than the guy who put in a layup?

So what he's saying is the team has a bad culture and a weak room? Incredible how that seems completely unrelated to their record. It's almost as if talent, not culture, dictates on-ice success.

Please, we all know Satan never put in that kind of effort :p

I don't think I've ever seen anyone who wants to score on empty nets as much as Eichel does :lol:

I don't play goalie, so I basically never know what a goalie is doing....but I really don't know what Saros was doing there.

Somewhere, there are nincompoops who aren't impressed by Eichel's 5 assists because they aren't goals.

Why not? They're earning last place honestly this time! :lol: