DarthEbriate

Here we go: Maxi-big the Too Many Men. Well, that smells stinky off.

egads. I'll have to search my memory banks for an appropriate expression for that dreck.

Thanks, Joker! We needed that one.

Not so much power on that play. It appeared Chara had a lot of room short-side for that attempt.

Mitts' line has had a bit of a spark to it. But it's obvious when we play teams like the Caps how slowly we play. We think we have time to play the puck, they eliminate the time and space immediately. We started to do that defensively as well in Granato's second week (the first game against the Devils we started to lose it, and then completely lost it yesterday), but now we need to get it back and kick it up a notch when facing an elite squad.

Irwin playing forward goes as expected.

Hmm. After playing the Devils... When play the Capitals you do, look as good, you will not -- hmm?

Good. Gooood. Join me.

Arttu! Where are you? You be more careful. Arttu, third line? All too easy.

No, not yet. But the AHL hasn't released any statement that there absolutely will not be any playoff. I can see them not awarding the Calder and there'd be questions about what to do with the Canadian division. However, vaccines are now starting to distribute more widely across all ages, and AHL teams have multi-day breaks between games to administer shots and recover. By end of May we could see the possibility of a cross-division tourney of some sort.

Bottoms up! Bottoms... lower!

Important questions that need answers: We have a Joker in Henri and a Toker in Dustin. Who's our Smoker? The Caps also played and lost last night, so neither team is rested or pleased.

Or we could waive him and hope the hockey minds in Arizona exact the old "The Waivers Strike Back" revenge move... and claim him and his 2.5M salary to improve their PK and get "more veterans" for their team. That'd be nice.

And if Weissbach gets an end of season look with the big squad (before heading back to Rochester for presumably the AHL playoffs), we'd have Linus + Linus.

I was disappointed when we didn't sign him to an ELC coming out of that dev camp, especially since he immediately went to Edmonton and started skating with McDavid. He's got a good motor, he seems perfectly capable of a bottom six role at a rock bottom price. And as many above has stated, it portends of moving one of the veterans on an expiring contract off the roster in the very near future. Sheevyn says: "Execute Order... Thirty-two!"

People forget that while the Devils popularized the trap, they also did it with some very, very good rosters. The 1999 roster could be argued to be on par with the Western powerhouses of Detroit, Colorado, and Dallas. (And yes, it helped them that Lindros was injured for the playoffs). 1998-99 are probably not analytics darlings, true. But that was fun and entertaining, edge-of-your seat hockey. The winning helped.

Ugly all around there.

Wooooooo! Done and done.

Power Tage! We needed that. Now wake up!

Which is good because they were so atrocious at it. But maybe a session on the power play could be useful in the next few days. Poor skating, NJ skating hard and engaging in the forecheck. Gotta respond. Can Granato do what HCRK never could -- get the team to take it up a gear?

Skinner didn't just miss the net there...

Have we stopped practicing the power play?

Good start. But wow, Zacha is just on fire against Ullmark.

It's like when you're personalizing your character. Hmm... should I make my hair taller? Yes. Yes, I should.

This is terrible -- I'm sorry for you and your family's loss.