Pimlach

Buffalo power play, win the draw cleanly and 3 players fail to get possession. The Blues were coming out and pressuring the points and we still can’t get a guy inside. The power play is so bad. No feel, they do one thing and EVERYONE knows it.

There were two forwards there to watch. Looked like a kooky bounce and Power misplayed it but I get it, blame the closest defenseman.

Ugh.

KO scores from TNT

Ok. Home game matinee. Decent crowd for Buffalo. They fall behind to a team with only 1 loss when they start the game with the lead. My biggest, no, one of my biggest problems with DG is his team is NOT READY TO PLAY in the first period. I just don’t get it.

What feed do you have? I have ESPN with Wyshunski and Ms. Mlezko ? Something like that?

Cozens ready to scrap again. The hit on Benson was not much.

Very proactive leadership in St Louis. They know they’re sliding and are taking steps to turn it around. They will be seriously interviewing coaches, even though the interim is doing ok. Ok is not good enough.

WTF Tuch.

Lucky goal but they had 3 guys at the net. “Notoriously bad” in the first period she says. Does Granato ever get these guys ready? Home games are no fun

Peggy has been burned by free agents and paying players and coaches that are gone. Adam’s is on a budget.

Tage is due for a big game. Might as well be against the Blooze.

He refuses to reference the lines, dots, circles, and creases. I sentence him to 1000 hours of Ted Darling PBP review, the master of painting the picture. RJ was no slouch either of course.

Good Afternoon Teammates, Punch checking in, a bit late this afternoon. Let’s beat this team. No reason not too. Muscle Weight! (PK Subban is a doofus)

I do not think Adams is allowed to spend to the cap. Pretty sad if true because Jack/Sam/Mitts timeline is now. They are young vets and excellent players. I hope this rumor is false because right now we have Tage, Mitts, Cozens - which SHOULD be a good center spline no matter how you stack them as 1,2,3. Just get a better 4th center that wins draws and plays better 2 way hockey than Krebs. Then, if and when one of the young kids develops as a center, any of the three can play wing.

Draft. Develop. Trade - and watch them blossom.

Ham salad again? When I was in the army they used to put Saltpeter in the ham salad.

He said he was out yesterday and he posted today.

Sure. They can sign Mitts for $5.5M if he will take that. Buying out Skinner after next year is plausible but a good GM would be working it now.

Way, way, way too early to say that. New contracts are going up, and salary cap is going up. I am betting these contracts look great in the next few years because I think we have not seen the best of Cozens, and not even close to the best of Power.

I get your point. My view as of today is, Tage is the 1C and he is locked up. Cozens got paid, so I call him the 2C, there is no plan to move him that we know of today. In fact, Adams was trumpeting Cozens in his recent interview. That leaves Casey as 3C. Now, the reality is Casey has proven he can plug into 1C and be effective. He has improved his all around game tremendously. He can slide to LW and be effective. He could be a 2C on many teams, including this one. Physically, he has a stout build and he works hard at both ends of the ice. Skills wise he has very good hands and passing skills. I think that today he is better than Cozens - but Cozens plays with Peterka and Quinn and they were our best line until the injury to Quinn. So in summary, I called him 3C because Adams already locked up 2 centers. Yup. Maybe he might entertain Toronto, Detroit, Ottawa or Montreal to stay close to home? Then he will haunt us the rest of his career.

Trading Skinner will be hard to do, but not impossible if they retain some of it. I think we have a better chance of success backfilling Skinner with one of our kids - Kulich/Rosen/Savoie - then we do using them to backfill Mitts. KO Z, VO and the others can go and will be replaced for little money. Mitts will actually bring us a good player back, which is the goal of the trade - to fix Goalie and/or add a top 4 RHD. To really talk to this correctly we have to know what the big picture plan is - is he planning 3 trades, 2 trades, 1 trade? Is he targeting UFAs? etc.

Interesting. I do not think Cozens struggled because he is lazy with the big contract. Just the opposite, I think he struggled because of age, maturity, and his own high expectations due to the contract. Add in injuries, his own and his line mate (Quinn). Hw was a head case for awhile but he seems to be playing a lot better and I think he will be a very good 2 way 2C. Mitts is the 3C right now and one of the better 2 way forwards that we have. In fact, he can play the 1C role and be effective and he is also pretty damm good at LW. So trading Mitts to get a goalie or a top 4 RHD is going to create a big hole at 3C. My fear is that Adams opens that position to either Savioe/Kulich/Rosen, none of them will be as good of an all around player next year as Mitts is right now. All three need time., as Mitts did. That leads me to Krebs. He is not doing the things right that show me he can move up to being a 2 way 3C, he is just ok as a 4C. So for all the depth in the center pipeline there will be a big whole to fill if they trade Mitts. Someone has to step up - Krebs/Savioe/Kulich/Rosen/Östlund - or Adams has to shop around for a veteran to bring in. Adams has a whole bunch of work to do.

Trading Mitts for Gibson is not what I would do. "Petey" seems to think this is legit.