TrueBlueGED

Would you define "due time" as after Murray sees a Gorges-Risto pairing even after Kulikov is ready?

Oh, sure. But not sure Murray agrees with it.

McDavid is clearly on another level than Eichel. He's a mind blowing talent to watch. Honestly, I have trouble processing the things he can do at full speed. He's the most dynamic talent I've ever seen and I'm tempted to get game center just go watch him. No shame in Eichel being a step down from that, as a step down from that is still a top-10 talent in the league. We should all think back to the post co-caps years and ask if there was a single player on those teams we wouldn't have traded for Tyler Seguin. And I think Seguin is Eichel's floor once fully developed.

Eh, not sure Murray is waiting for the perfect team to evaluate his coach. I just don't think he's pulling the plug on his first real coaching hire especially quickly. He'd have to think there's something catastrophically wrong with what Bylsma's doing.

He's talked about playing with speed in interviews, hasn't he? Plus, I'd like to think he and Bylsma talked about this sort of thing before the hire was made.

We're definitely skilled enough (up front anyway) to let that be our identity. True we don't have the speed to play like Pittsburgh, but we can definitely play like Detroit did when it was good. Unfortunately, we have a coach who would rather play fast north-south and grind it out on the boards...and we don't have the right players for this.

I just can't see Murray bailing on Bylsma less than two years into a five year contract. My expectation is Bylsma is perfectly safe until into next season.

Somebody needs to go back and re-watch some Eichel from last season. Kid is a stud. If there's a Bobby Ryan from that draft, it's Dylan Strome.

He's already signed long term at a price they're comfortable with. Hey, I did say it was my fantasy world...emphasis on fantasy.

Practice lines today had Kulikov-Franson. I honestly wasn't joking with my comment.

Besides, even if we get Fowler, Bylsma will still run Gorges with Risto.

In the real world, there's not much to be done right now other than wait. Hope that Okposo and Kulikov help stabilize things, O'Reilly's back gets better fast, and we grind out some close wins. The other shoe to drop is Lindolm's extension, at which point hope we can out-bid the other teams without an exorbitant price (which I don't have think Murray will pay, or Fowler would already be here). In the TrueBlue fantasy world? 1) Fire Bylsma 2) Trade Bogosian for Trouba; sign Trouba to a Risto extension. 3) Trade Foligno + 2nd for Fowler. 4) Enjoy the ride to the playoffs. Edit: I wanted to include a Lindolm offer sheet in my fantasy, but even in my fantasy world I couldn't find a taker for two of Gorges/Moulson/Franson to free up the necessary cap space.

True, but there is also still debate over just how good Fowler is.

I agreed with this in the offseason. It might still be right. However, they're at the cap after signing Rakell, to say nothing of any potential ownership pressure on the internal cap. This is exactly the type of situation that netted the Isles Leddy and Boychuck for just mid-round draft picks.

I legitimately don't know how I managed that :lol:

I want to strap Bylsma to a rocket aimed at the Sun. Today's practice lines: Okposo-O'Reilly-Reinhart Foligno-Larsson-Gionta Deslauriers-Grant-Ennis Moulson-Girgensons-Fasching Gorges-Risto McCabe-Bogosian Kulikov-Franson

Well, I may not be where I want to be, but I'm glad I'm not in that unfortunate statistic.

I continue to feel the sting of losing Babcock more than losing the lottery :( Edit: BTW, take a look at today's practice lines. Looks like Bylsma has accepted your challenge of needing to assemble sensible lines.

Ha, fair enough. I should go look back at the 20-goal prediction thread to see who truly deserves some snark :p

Before the season started I was willing to include our 2017 1st. Given that we may be out of realistic playoff chances due to injuries, I'm not sure I'm still willing.

Pace only matters if there's reason to believe it can be sustained under normal circumstances. Well, normal circumstances for Kane is he's going to miss 15 games. His track record at this point cannot be ignored, it's not like he had an unlucky one season of injuries. Kris Baker had a tweet yesterday about Kane's best season being on Winnipeg's 3rd line. A lot of us here see it, yet for some reason, our coach doesn't.

Yes, and I've explained in the past why raw Corsi in isolation doesn't accurately assess Kane's game, how he's a drag on more talented players, etc. Just admit your enjoyment of his play style is causing you to overlook his pedestrian numbers. Admit it! *pounds hand on desk* Kane is a guy who scored 30 goals once, inked a big contract, and hasn't replicated the season. Sorta like what happened to Stafford, and everyone crucified him for it. Kane is a 20-goal mid-40 point player. Just like Stafford was in his prime.

I just want to say, I'm not going chicken little, I'm just pointing out that a lot of the problems we saw manifest last night were entirely predictable during the offseason. Granted, I didn't expect every issue to come to fruition at the same time in the first game :lol: And yea, I'm currently day-to-day with a bum shoulder from excessive back patting :p You're a results-oriented person. Well, the results are quite similar. That's how.

...until he gets hurt :w00t:

What if Tim Murray is our Paul Holmgren? Giant cajones, aggressive, not afraid...but ultimately, a poor team builder. This is my fear right now.