Thorny

Early signs are we may have needed them just to make it

This is what will happen and exactly what happens when we generally lose and win, that’s why it gets so extreme. The anger after the losses is off the wall and the celebration after a win is equally so. At least it seems that way reading

We will win this game. The ups and downs have been the story so far

Twitter alternates between “burn it all” and “we are so back” on a literal game by game basis. Schedule today is for the “We Back” memes to be flowing. I wonder if people ever get tired of the yo-yo-ing

Absolutely. Becoming a bit of a theme, isn’t it, the ‘hindsight need not apply’ aspect: Mentioned this all summer when someone would say the forwards were “set”. My bolded there is pretty much exactly what happened with the lineup yesterday, names included ^

This has the ring of truth. It almost feels as if KA drank his own kool-aid a tad and retreated too heavily into his “improvement through only internal development” m.o. Why we’d, by design, be the “youngest team in hockey” in his FOURTH year, the one we are supposedly supposed to have playoffs hard line expectations, is beyond me. It’s imo just more attempt at building a Cup team in the vague, unknowable future than focus on building a playoff team, RIGHT NOW, which is the path where my bias lies and where I’d have led if given the choice

UPL deserves another shot before I say it’s the old him again.

No. People want to shave his full first year off and I get that. But cutting down his second to a .5 (and thus functionally eliminating that year, in your mind (be honest)), is a bridge too far. He went into that season *executing his plan*. It’s wasn’t on hold until Eichel was physically gone, the process of moving Jack which was implicit in the plan was already well underway. He wasn’t around the team. KA’s plan was underway and he managed that team through the offseason before and into it putting the wheels of exactly what he wanted to do in motion. I count this as his 4th year (reasoning: It is), but it’s assuredly at least his 3rd, no matter what hemisphere you live in The McDavid thing is just a straw man, you know that

See what @Weave said. Assumption need not apply

Nah, this isn’t a good argument. This is the same thing as “oh, you think Olofsson sucks? I’d like to see YOU do better.” It’s weak sauce. You don’t need to be an nhl player to judge Olofsson *relative to his peers*. Same with KA. It doesn’t matter one iota if Johnny Internet can tell him how to Generally Manage better than he did. Why the heck would that matter? It’s a prestigious job! He gets measured relative to his peers. If you want to measure that, check out the standings Much more salient than me

That’s insane, on Boston’s part

That we allowed it to get to the point where we probably had to deal him is what bites, and as of this moment, continually seems to bite more painfully. It’s systematic, until proven otherwise. Eichel is a paradox because he’s at once incredibly significant, and also incredibly irrelevant. Eichel was always a guy who was going to develop into the type of player capable of being the best player in the Stanley cup playoffs, en route to a Cup. He just proved that. But unlocking that functionality was always a pipe dream, in hindsight, because of the issue that led to the trade in the first place: we couldn’t harness his talent by building a team capable of winning in the now. That story is written. No point dwelling on that aspect of it imo. Sunk cost. I just hope that the systematic issues that led to the deal being necessary are structurally improved. We learn that by seeing how the team performs. onward

totally forgot about that fight until now

The funny thing is, that 5 year leash would hypothetically be over in 17 months It’s big uncle Rico energy I agree. Not punch just the idea of it

Awful game. Team wide. Oh well. 5-6. Look, we’re on to Toronto

Was almost afraid to test that in full

Absolutely was holding my breath for Krebs at the end. You could practically HEAR the inner workings of his brains saying “HOLD ME BACK HOLD ME BACK, No…seriously, hold me back.’

This was luckily well-timed Dahlin was awful today

Wow I’m so glad Cozens got his ass handed to him in a meaningless fight Downvote all you want

I do think he has a mile-long leash due to method of acquisition

I think the smoke is getting blown out of somewhere else

Krebs isn’t a concept he’s a non-entity

Honestly, it’s on you at this point (us)

The Supreme Leader is dead

Needs a haircut almost certainly