DHawerchuk10

That’s hilarious!

Perhaps in a perfect world, but I find that questionable with the acquisition of Sheary and Hunwick whom you most likely neglected to account for, whom were acquired prior to Skinner. You can say we shouldn't have acquired them, but that's just not how it shook out in real time. With all do respect, many of your scenarios are great in hindsight, but Botterill doesn't have that luxury. With the exception of the O'Reilly deal, the majority of his moves were lauded at the time. Overall I think the team is heading in the right direction, and I like what he is trying to build. Sure, things can be improved on, but lets see what he does at the deadline.

I didn't do the math, but I don't think the bolded could be on the same team. In other words, if ROR was kept, it is very likely that Skinner would not have been acquired due to cap reasons.

The only thing that concerns me about this is that there was so much made about how quickly he processes the game at the draft. Like you and others, I'm willing to excuse an 18 year old defenseman and give him a few years to iron things out, but I'd be lying if I said the thought "maybe this guy was a little overhyped" wasn't starting to creep in.

You are totally right of course. But I don’t think it is wrong to analyze his weaknesses.

I wouldn’t say Dahlin is really soft, but lacks urgency in his game. I think where some folks see calmness, I see someone who is having issues with the speed of the game. I might be articulating it wrong, but always he seems to wait too long with the puck, and gets stripped a lot.

I was reading the comments to the Finland/Canada game on hfboards. The majority of the posting Canadian fans were pretty pathetic. I couldn't believe the vitriol directed at Comtois. They are just kids trying their best for their country.

Correct, we have “centers”, just none that fulfill the #2 right now.

Yep....folks got way too ahead of themselves during the streak as their play just wasn’t that great. It was good to enjoy of course, but to compare the team to 05-06, was bound to yield disappointment.

Nope, I remember that. But give the guy some credit here...he played a decent game overall. He’s been one of our better penalty killers all year too. There were a boatload of players I would criticize more than sobotka. Outside of bogosian, our defense was a total mess. Risto seemed like he just woke up from a nap, and dahlin was a spectator all night. Very concerned about mittelstadt and dahlin lately. Both slumping big time.

Because he was probably one of the few guys skating tonight.

Risto wasn’t good, but dahlin was deplorable

It appears from early reading on the 2020 draft, having multiple picks in that draft may be more desirable than this year. Elite top end picks, with depth.

Yeah, but Kane is from buffalo (eyeroll)

Concur. As an aside..... One thing they should consider to enhance atmosphere is to vertically stack the seats ala the Aud. It appears architects who design the new buildings like pushing things back. This probably results in better sight lines, but you are further away from the action. It has been often repeated that the old buildings are missed so much because the fans were right on top of everything. It would make sense to make this a priority, along with attempting to amplify the noise in some way via the design.