conundrumed

Do it with another later round pick. We definitely don't need another prospect goalie rn, unless he's overseas, in the USHL, CHL or NCAA as an undrafted prospect. They'll need quality starter time. 2 years ago I'd agree that our G pipeline was hot garbage. You have to hand it to the staff, that was a quick turnaround. Now I have to give BT a pass. I despised how he treated G. Getting Markstrom was huge. Vladar wouldn't be what he is right now being Elliot/Smith's understudy. BT's getting much better advice at G now, because he sucked at it. It was a big weakness for us. So glad Markstrom isn't in Edmonton, as was rumoured. At his very worst, he's worth the $6 to support Vladar. I doubt this will be that scenario, but Markstrom is a substantial asset even just to help Vladar and Wolf progress. Not many young goalies have taken the NHL by storm without that seasoned vet being cool with giving advice. I'm not in the camp that thinks a Markstrom trade would be little return. Not really interested in trading him either. He gives us stability. Most of all, he really isn't to blame. Amazingly, minus Kylington, Gudbranson and suddenly the D can't read him very well.

He's risen pretty quickly. We still have MacLean and Huska, so Love must be next in line for promotion. We do a pretty good job identifying coaches and keeping a competitive AHL team. Now who can fix a PP?

It's a pretty anti-climactic trade. The only real drama is what the pick will be. 25% retained so Horvat = Beauvillier money. A rental for a non-playoff team makes no sense, so I wonder if Lou was done with the players he packaged. It's a nice get for NYI if Horvat signs with them at maybe $8-8.5. The pick is an outlier. Definitely a wait and see trade for now. I think everyone's confused by it. Aka the 2 oldest guys in the league made a trade.lol I'm sure Rutherford saw where other offers started. I think the most interesting thing for me right now is where does Horvat's market value go from here. If I'm his agent I'm talking him to FA or NYI's have 8 x $9. Horvat's a great player outside of the contract year escapades. *Conspiracy theory: In contract years teammates do their damnedest to inflate your stats. A back-rubbing consortium.

NHL Markstrom: 13-13-5; 2.86gaa; .893sv% Vladar: 11-4-4; 2.77gaa; .906sv% AHL Wolf: 25-5-1; 2.16gaa; .928sv% 4SO ECHL Daniil Chechelev 16-11-1; 3.41gaa; .898sv% NCAA Sergeev: 9-4-1; 2.57gaa; .917sv%

Well that would mean that it's an emotionally fragile team that can't handle adversity. Not a good look, at all, for a team with playoff aspirations. Can we stop pretending that it's because Markstrom's no good and giving the player's that are responsible for scoring and defending decently free passes. Blaming G is, and has always been, waaay too easy of an out. Queue the "yeah but's", which amounts to 20 free passes... I don't get the Markstrom hate. Watch the team in front of him if outrage is your goal.

Quoted for truth. Can't go overboard after a poor performance, although some seem to relish in it or just pour their frustration everywhere. We're about a month out from buy/sell. Hopefully we move away from the borderline.

I liked Markstrom's celly with Vladar. He looked genuinely happy. It's like the Kipper era in reverse when the team always played like hot garbage for the backup. So strange.

Good challenge.

For 3 games in a row. I think he looks great. I hear the Phillips lovers but Pelletier's been our best prospect for a while now. Camp Shmamp, whatever. This is how Pelletier plays and always has been. His history is all about graduating early in every league. And not because he has the biggest rifle in the chest. He's always been a very safe pick and nobody doubted that he"d be an NHL player. The main thing for me is, "Do you add an element to our game in any way"? Pretty resounding YES. Making our 4th line look fast and dangerous. Earned more, looked good last night. Although Athanasiou crept by him for a tap-in chance(Markstrom saved). Learns fast. Excellent work tracking pucks, finding a spot in front of their goalie to have his stick on the ice and covering for attacking Dmen really quickly. I'm impressed. He's still learning the spaces in the o-zone. Timing is everything. Can see that he's working on that. I kind of expected him to be our best 3rd line player next year and hopefully get him to 2nd line. He looks reeaaally good to me for a kid just getting introduced. I'll be a bit surprised (Didn't see him this good this fast) if he starts pointing pdq as the pros teach and get used to him. He's a new element. He's a 20-40 guy before he's a 30-8 guy like Mangiapane. I can see how that line should work. But Mange, I wanna strangle him (figuratively, of course🤪). He's playing wound up so tight that I want him benched. He's trying to force his play, to a fault. Too panicky. Pelletier has looked really good to me. I'm happy Sutter agrees. This is what a great young prospect looks like folks, and a coach that knows where his young players' games are at and nudge them along, rather than (c)rush them when he feels they aren't ready.

TDL always proves zero teams are ever 1 or 2 trades away. Address the problems. No capable D depth. Little to no size on the wings/net front presence/driving the net/cycling. Get better by addressing problems, not for name recognition/star power. Trade for Eichel/P. Kane yesterday. Solves nothing, depletes picks/prospects. Same problems not being addressed. You can't outscore the problems. Fix the problems first.

Send him to the ECHL?

While I love your sense of humour....ummm.🤣 Imagine all of this emotion if we won 5-1. Speaking of bi-polar, the Wings won in OT and fanfave JBurger had a goal. As did Sundqvist. Maatta continues to balance the D out regardless of which Stone-bad partner they put him with. As my suggestion continues to be ignored.lol That was just a horrible effort game. The centers were floating hard and no winger can make up for that. Kadri's lousy all-around game is over-shadowed by points and hype. They keep hyping his 25% good and never focus on his 75% suck. "He's all over the ice", like that's a good thing. He's all over the map is more concise. Lindholm and Backlund were both skating in mud. I think somehow the message to slow down fast teams is getting lost in translation. Don't be slow, dummies.

I put the buds in and went with the Miles Davis Davis album Ascenseur Pour L'échafaud after the 2nd.... Which, not by chance, translates to Elevator to the Gallows. Generique chills me right out.

Zero urgency wow. God I can't stand Kadri's game. Everybody's just floating...

Zadorov with the great screen...

And Hubey. Let's get going now.

Another zero urgency first period. Looks like everyone is late for work AGAIN.

It's a good question and definitely the covid thing makes it the right time to pay attention to undrafted 20yo. The Sting's Nolan Burke signed an ELC with the preds, for example. It's hard to know though unless you're really ingrained in it. Betting there are lots of MHL players but they're not currently accessible due to the Russia thing. Hard to know witout actual viewings over a large sample.

Who new Johnny's upper body strength is 10x Lucic's?

Close. We're 2nd in shots to Florida. Unfortunately, tied for 29th in shot percentage. The real highlight is the 9 OT losses. Only SJ has more. Turn 4 of those into Ws and we're 2 pts out of first. And again, there is no 3-3/SO circuses in the playoffs. But we need to keep this machine rolling. Reffing has been pretty bad for every team this year, so no excuses there. We're 23rd in Drawn/Taken penalties this year at -6 overall (6 more taken than drawn). So that is definitely an area for improvement and it isn't the fault of reffing. Keep the sticks down, for one. Those hurt the most. We're 6th in the league on the PK which is great. The bigger issue is how penalties interrupt the flow of the game and utilizing lines. The PP is 23rd in the league so the eye test is correct. Playoff teams need a reliable PP so that needs work. But we're coming around. There's always adjustments to make. There are a lot of positives happening. The amount of complaining is way overboard compared to the reality of the situation. It's okay to get angry. It just really sucks to stay angry. Go visit the Wings board. There's a difference between critiquing and axe-grinding. We're starting to come around with consistent efforts. Enjoy the ride. Pelletier was over-shadowed by JG's return, but looks great easing in. Keeping pucks alive, solid passing, jumping back to cover Andersson's pinches/drives. Very smart player, robbed by Korpisalo. He'll get on the board tonight. 4th line looks great with him.

He is on a terrible team, but is a dominant player. His stats are consistent. He's not having a "contract year" like Horvat. Easy bet to be a 30-40g guy for awhile along with great play, well-rounded. We can't do it, so I'm not fascinated. Love the player though.

Toronto's G is sketchy imo. Minny, LA, SJ, St Loo, Buffalo, NJ, Seattle, Detroit. I'd think there's definitely a market. But the NMC...