Thorny

2 “x”s on this lol i assure you that Mario stripping Ray freaking Bourque at the blue line and streaking in on a breakaway goal where he deaks the goalie out of his pads, on the first shot, first shift of his NHL career slightly eclipses Benson’s fancy play One of you guys hasn’t given out a reaction emoji in 2 weeks yet found my take that the goal widely regarded as the best first goal ever was still the best as a bridge too far lol

Mario’s

Can only imagine what RJ would have done with this

Steph Curry

It’s an indictment of the forwards because they feel they can carry 3 goalies without removing a key forward

So the official account calls him “Quinner” and uses tear faced emojis. Not cringe at all

Yeap It is somehow very annoying. Just an annoying un-fun yet also un-serious hockey team lol

Same. Im rooting for wins in spirit more lately than actually diving in to the action Realistically it’s this board that’s carrying a lot of water re: enjoyment I get with this franchise nowadays

Savoie is a RW if not at C, which would be fine as Benson is a LW even more so than a RW pet peeve of mine sure but like, the correct config is right there lol

Agree. Even a deadline deal is no guarantee

With respect that would paint Adams in a terrible light. If he was in full awareness of the fact that we’d be better with Kulich and with VO gone, yet choosing to let the team suffer knowingly purely to ensure he breaks out well on a VO deal? Come on now

Not sure I’d include Ullmark in that. I think that falls more towards my issues with Adams in the strategic sense, in that an overpay by the prism of the moment is something I’d have deemed very necessary. But he did want to keep him and tried negotiating with him, so I’d hazard to say his evaluation of him as a player was probably pretty on the mark. He just wasn’t willing to lose a battle to win a war, when his reasonably accurate evaluation and corresponding cash was shown to nonetheless not be enough to get it done

I give him a pass for missing this year. I’m against your theory in the other thread he gets a 6th year should next year also miss. he’s also quickly approaching the point where he’ll be past being able to get proclaimed “right”. If we miss this year and make next, I hazard to say taking 5 years to make the playoffs is more along the lines of “not actively, absurdly wrong.” It shouldn’t take 5 years to make it, fact is

Adams is a good evaluator of talent, too. I’d be happy for him to make some decisions on that front especially when he’d have the evaluation high-ground in swaps with other teams as he has a front row seat to our prospects and we’d be dealing for NHL guys who everyone knows the ins and outs of

Agree. What’s the worst that can happen? We…simply continue to not win? Seems like more of the same. We aren’t risking anything. On the other hand, we rule out winning to a near certainty if we refuse to do much of anything. Being afraid we might lose something in the vague future is actively preventing us from finding winning now

Thanks for clarifying (this part isn’t snark. I think that serves as illumination for what’s coming) Fair enough. So, missing the playoffs for his first half-decade straight in office represents mulligan number 1. If he can’t make it after a full decade, I think we’d have to think of canning him

Ya, I don’t think it really jives with KA’s evaluation. I see it on twitter a lot that “how can this team be committed to winning if Kulich is in the AHL?” and while I think there are aspects that point to winning now not being priority 1, I don’t think this is one. I don’t think KA willingly plays guys who he think would make us better in a lower league: he just legitimately likely doesn’t believe them to be our best option right now. He’s not artificially causing the parts we have to amount to less standings points, willingly. I think he fields the best roster based on what we have. His approach is just exceptionally patient, both in timeline to find success and desire to fortify the roster, and he doesn’t lose on value in a vacuum when making deals. But I do think he maximizes what he has, once we have it, he just doesn’t maximize what we get

So Adams gets a reprieve for a miss this year AND next? Or “2 fails” as in he can fail this year but a hypothetical fail number 2, next year, has him out?

Also for the record, the Mittelstadt and Thompson panned out, so pay no attention to the multitude of guys who did not, screw it, im holding on to every single young player I have (sorry Josh Bloom) is probably exactly how KA is thinking Those guys proved the exception, now every single player is going to get that chance, regardless of our record in the interim Failing to win now is a much more tolerable offence than a player leaving here and going on to do good things someone else. Losing, that we can stomach

Mittelstadt also had a significantly higher pedigree and Thompson has special god given physical gifts Like being 6’6

Not for failing on that expectation once. But you know how the old saying goes “fool me once, shame on..shame on..you..? Point is, we can’t get fooled again.” If we miss next year on that expectation again, we’d be fools to let him get a 6th season imo

Ok I guess he’s not very impressive then / thread

some food for thought for those who expect KA feels any pressure to act - - - Candidly, as I always try to be, personal disenfranchisement with the fanbase as well as…the franchise certainly makes it more difficult to follow along

Quinn Hughes has THIRTY points already

Eagles are overrated