TrueBlueGED

Gardiner is the perfect example. Good call. I'd happily roll the dice on Koekkoek. If nothing else, he's got a great name. My hope is we can acquire a guy like this (and have it work, of course) and one "name" guy. Sprinkle in Guhle, lock Gorges in the press box, and dump Bogo and bring back Franson cheap to play 3rd pair, or staple Bogo there if we can't dump him. That's my ideal "could happen in reality" offseason for the blue line.

I didn't give you crap because I never imagined anyone would be crazy enough to vote for him :p

Never, ever, use NHL dot com for the "advanced" stats. It is not accurate.

These are all passive reasons. Do you have any active reasons for supporting him? What has he done this year and last year that make you think he's good?

Not sure I know enough about teams' bottom pairs or pipelines these days to toss names out there. I was going to say Dumba, but apparently he's getting solid top-4 minutes this year for the first time. Past examples could be someone like Stralman--traded a couple times for mid-late round picks, cheap free agent pickup with the Rangers before blossoming there and eventually being a stud in Tampa. Not to re-litigate Pysyk's value, but that's the type of move we need (in addition to another one)...we target a guy who is underused/appreciated by his current team and can play well in an expanded role. The Ducks are an obvious team to talk about, but rather than prospects, I'm thinking more along the lines of someone who has been in the league for a couple years but has yet to emerge for one reason or another.

Yup. Which is why I keep doubling back to the idea that at least one of his acquisitions has to be somebody who is undervalued by the league, but capable of blossoming in a different situation/opportunity. Which, unfortunately, is not yet something Murray has demonstrated the ability to do. Something something getting old/slow joke.... :p

Well, it's not a great reason. But I think most of the time the young stars get the C with reasoning such as "Well, he's our most talented player, and we know he's going to get it eventually...so let's just do it now." Is using the C as a mechanism to try to get the player and coach to get along better really much worse?

You should watch it. If nothing else, it'll make you reconsider how bad you think the GoT writers are :p Seriously, I'm far from a critical viewer of TV shows and movies...I like to just kinda relax and enjoy the ride without over-thinking things. But holy hell, Iron Fist has hilariously bad storytelling and character development. We're talking Revolution-level bad. I'm trying to slog through it because I still have high hopes for The Defenders and want to be current with the universe, but man, it's not easy.

I actually think part of any attempted Jack-Bylsma reconciliation is going to involve him getting the captaincy.

We all are, but we shouldn't have to. After all, it's entirely possible we end up with another crappy coach. Coach #2 being garbage doesn't mean Coach #1 was good.

Maybe it's because I haven't been paying as much attention to prospects this year (I kinda sorta didn't think I'd have to...), but I'll be surprised if it ends up notably worse than the Yakupov draft as far as actual NHL results go. Just saying trades for highly thought of young players probably get talked about all the time, but never actually happen because GMs never agree on value. GM with the player sets the price higher than he thinks other GMs are willing to pay because he doesn't actually want to make the trade, and other GMs are, in fact, unwilling to pay said price.

And in the wheel of NHL trade talks that never turn into trades, you can't get Seabrook 10 years ago from the #9 pick in a so-so draft.

Man, I'm so happy someone else did this, because I was totally thinking it but showed (in my view) tremendous self-restraint :lol: More seriously, yea, unknown stuff is the worst. One of my friends just went through it--he was dropping weight, had zero energy, and so on. First they thought it was mono, then they thought maybe cancer, and they finally diagnosed an autoimmune disease. Whole process took like 3 months.

Absofreakinglutely. Separately, Letang out 4-6 months for surgery on a herniated disc in his neck. Brutal for Pittsburgh; aside from Crosby and Malkin, he's the one guy they really couldn't afford to lose.

What Murray should be looking for is a guy who is not yet a top-4 Dman (whether due to age or simply stuck behind a bunch of other guys), but who he believes can be as soon as next season. Sort of like what Florida did with Pysyk. He has to find an undervalued commodity because, quite frankly, we're not getting a top-valued commodity without giving up assets we aren't likely to be willing to give up. For sure. As it should be.

Probability of success is essentially equal in that draft range, but I'm of the mind that teams always have guys they like in that range more than others. Same level of talent, but different skill sets, or something along those lines.

Scary stuff. Hopefully it's identified quickly and is nothing serious.

If Ovechkin won a Cup over Toews, I think the Canadian media would implode. To be clear, I'm in favor of this.

Absolutely. Even when he's terrible, he still gives a moment or two that are great. Who wasn't excited when he got the meaningless breakaway goal Monday?

I can only assume Dean Lombardi already has Dustin Brown's hotel booked.

That number has completely and totally tanked down the stretch. I don't have exact dates off the top of my head, but as recently as late January-ish we were in the mid teens. Edit: Actually, I might have this wrong. I think I'm thinking of GA/60, not CA/60. Disregard. Keep fighting the good fight.

I was going to suggest one of his goal celebrations last year. It was a game winner and he went to his knees screaming and slid down the ice. It was awesome.

And yse! But I think that might be it :lol:

I agree wholeheartedly with the second half of your post.

I've readily acknowledged in the past that Bylsma's system has legitimate shot suppression value. But it cannot do that while also creating. He neuters the offense for the sake of low event hockey. I don't think that wins in 2017, and I'm certain it's the wrong approach for this group of players. Speaking of which, to those in the pro-Bylsma camp...would it be any more effective for me to argue Bylsma is the wrong coach, rather than a bad coach? Or is any criticism of Bylsma going to be rejected in full?