triumph_communes

There were no contradictions. Our only long-term defender before Botterill was Guhle. Ignoring Dahlin, now we have Joki, Montour, Pilut, Laaksonen, Samuelsson, Johnson... Our only top-6 forwards on term before Botterill were Eichel, Reinhart, ROR, Okposo lol, and Nylander??. Now we've swapped ROR with Skinner, and added Mittelstadt (who is at least a top-6 LW, if you think less you are crazy biased), Cozens (future ROR replacement) and Tage (huge framed forwards ALWAYS TAKE LONGER TO DEVELOP). Oh, don't forget Ristolainen has been made completely redundant as has been shopped for over a year now to fix the forward position. Yes, we need forwards. One Top-6 quality guy long-term would be nice, especially since half of what we have is too young to help today. But we need depth guys more than anything. And Murray left him with little to none. Funny to argue against a guy working with cap hell, turning over the roster 10+ players each season so far, and a bad aura players love to talk to the press about.

Ugh, I hope he somehow makes it through. Botterill can't get hung out to dry on a trade just to save a guy like Gilmour though.

Don't understand what this crazy strong 'need' for top-6 players is when we already will have: Eichel, Skinner, Reinhart, Mittelstadt, and Cozens locked up for the next decade. That's room for one top-6 player. And that's assuming guys like Tage can't fill that role in a year or two. We need solid 3rd liners, and that's what Asplund and Pekar are. We need a solid goalie, and we have 6K in the ranks. We need defenders even sooner since only Dahlin+Joki are long-term locks, and we have a handful of them. I don't get how anyone can look at our pipeline and be stressed. I think its just impatience. Rome wasn't built in a day, and Murray did Botterill almost no favors building up a propsect pool. Ok cool, he got us 3rd liner Asplund and 3rd liner PP specialist Olofsson with a 7th round gamble. Otherwise he traded all his lottery tickets away and picked a lot of the wrong guys, especially with all the 2nd round picks that amounted to nothing in the end.

The right Sam!

That's where you're wrong, kiddo!

Reinhart+Ristolainen for Gaudreau+Jankowski

Johnny hockey is the kind of player you’d trade him for.

Gaudreau-Eichel-Skinner Vesey-Johansson-Sheary Mittelstadt-Jankowski-Oloffson Girgensons-Larsson-Asplund/Lazar

Reinhart+Risto for Gaudreau+Jankowski please

Demotion of Oloffson is a positive thing. Still prefer Skinner with Eichel than Vesey though. Surprised Mittelstadt takes center over Asplund.

So much overreaction. They weren’t hemmed for nearly any part of this game, nor any of the games on the loss streak. Special teams took a dump. Spending half the 2nd period on the PK doesn’t help scoring. If anyone should be ragged last night it’s Mittelstadt. I really think they are just one or two solid forwards away from making a difference. Oloffson isn’t good enough to play 1st line with Reinhart as the opposing wing. Two guys who are just too weak on the forecheck. Johansson injury is holding them back, but otherwise Sheary and Skinner were causing havoc last night you can’t complain about that. Need better finishers on the bottom lines. Mittelstadt needs a vet pairing badly. He coughs things up too much to be successful himself and gets lost alone playing with low talent 4th liners. Though I really think he is better off on the wing. these trades need to come yesterday, but I do believe one or two decent forwards can make all the difference. Oh, and a shake up on the PP strategy it’s too stagnant. But to trash Botterill for not making any changes? Lol, Jokiharju has been a complete steal. It takes two to tango, too many people forget that.

There’s hope for Eichel. Glad to see that. Teammates will notice

It all comes down to size and puberty. Let the kid grow. You don't have a chance to bulk-up during 82-game seasons, and that's what Cozens needs to do.

They shouldn't be teaching you anything you don't already know in an MBA program. It's glorified networking. And because it's networking, make sure whatever school you go to is in the area you want to end up, or commonly sends people out to industries you are actually interested in. Unfortunately, there's no shortage of completely self-unaware idiots with MBAs out there, so it looks bad if you don't have one. I am sorry your current deal isn't working out in your favor.

Was there even confirmation that his latest injury was concussion?

Wait, the tank whiners are also the guys defending Reinhart as our second-best player despite performing like a middle-6 player? Oh, the irony I hope they've been working on special teams. They really haven't played that bad on the skid outside of special teams. Hutton deserves the bench. I'm surprised Scandella is sitting-- he has been a calming presence for an otherwise out physically matched defensive corp. I like Gilmour's speed though, so I'll get over it.

wooosh

bahaha 3-5 weeks on Tage. Kid didn't want the smaller paycheck.

Special Teams has been the difference in November. Record flips if the PP and PK played about average. Funny, the zone entries haven't been a problem at all (unlike last year where they embarrassingly were so). It's just their predictable movements not making any goalie stretch. And the PK? It's just not working when certain groupings are out there. Too many weak defenders. Who is the special teams coach this year?

You know, the idea would be we'd just be getting a younger guy of equivalent talent in return. Maybe one that isn't mentally always taking a backseat to his buddy.

They haven't been getting run over. They just aren't scoring. I know the record is bad, but I think people need to take a step back and realize how much better it has been looking lately. Last year the wins if we had them were mostly by luck. Now, the losses are mostly coming from bad luck. The play itself is in our favor. We just don't have the talent to finish consistently. Or the right line combos imho.

The defense hasn't been exposed. The goals against were at fault of the centers, or from the terrible PK. Particularly from Jack. Hutton has been suspect as well. The defense has been generally good. Thing is, I wouldn't want to trade Scandella the way he has been playing lately. Ristolainen is the one who needs to go. Miller started strong, but has found his way rightfully to the bench. Either way, Ristolainen needs to go. And this team needs forwards.

Trade him!

Vesey doing something positive finally

He got tripped up right before it. Can’t blame the dude for the refs not calling obvious trips