conundrumed

Well, I'm glad that I've stopped watching. Now make some callups, sit the old guys, tell everyone to just go have fun and maybe I'll watch again. Loss after loss of changing nothing just isn't worth watching. I can't bare watching that 4th line privilege any longer. Even my apathy has limits.lol Total tractor-tire fire.

Damn am I happy to see Chychrun for Ottawa. He's a great player and not a problem child. Talk about getting railroaded into being the bad guy by a pathetic franchise. I'd hoped ARI would turn into a great young team with him and Keller, but they're a total nightmare of not caring about actually having an NHL product. Why not move them to KC or Houston? Bettman will assure that they get Bedard and it'll become an even bigger farce. I feel bad for players there. The biggest part of contracts is likely confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements. They should realistically be called the Arizona Cap Dumps.

Love the updates. I wanna watch them but it's later here and the streams are pretty inadequate.

My interest is Reinbacher and Dragicevic. Then Bonk and Ritchie whom I've watched more of. I'm going to start watching more Euro now. Maybe some WHL. I'm also going to look at rankings very generally because the majority of 17yos aren't getting primo icetime vs their older counterparts. I watch Michigan U teams a lot. They're all good. Hughes is already my vote for 2nd for the Calder next year, NJ has something special coming at D. With Detroit and Calgary drafting right beside each other, St. Loo even maybe(will they keep their pick?), I'm going to focus on the draft now for excitement. Hope Boston goes to the Finals and is tired next year because Detroit has their 1st pick. I really don't care this year. LA maybe because of Korpisalo. Didn't he have like 80+ saves vs TBag in the playoffs one year? I feel like he's always gotten the shaft for how good he actually is. Maybe the Flames still have time to add some picks on the floor which I wish they would. Have to make up for the strain we put on our prospect pool, at some point. EDIT left out Colby Barlow, LW, Owen Sound's Captain already. Currently my 1st choice. I do have a bright side for the season. The CHL gave Sarnia Sting the 10th rank in the country. So they followed that up by beating Conference leaders London(9th ranked) 6-1 and Windsor 9-6 in back-to-backs. So that's fun. The TDL acquisitions are starting to click, scoring isn't a problem. Packed barn every night. Superfun for a small market team.

Assumed Sunny would go and a 4th is the right value. Didn't have a 2023 4th, why not.lol Minny quietly made their depth a bit better and adding Klingberg is a risk worth trying.

St. Loo has given us 1/4 of our team, so that has to be considered. But that's definitely a "go away" trade. Hopefully turns into a "fresh start" for the player. Detroit has the 1st they packaged to move up for Cossa, and Buchelnikov as a 2022 2nd rd pick remaining from that trade.

Oof. Vrana to St. Louis for pretty much nothing. That speaks volumes.

It's not on purpose. It is exciting to walk away from the draft with good pieces though, and we're pretty desperate to get our drafting back on track. Imagine the fun forward-look of having 5-6 Coronato's in the pipe. I prefer the Flames get into that mindset. The whole, "he knows what it takes to win a Cup" is a misnomer. I've never heard a young player win a Cup and say, "I didn't know how hard it would be". Every player plays their whole life vying for championships, they know how hard it is. I'm excited to see the Flames pull their philosophies out of the '90's. I missed the game last night...too tired.lol Sounds like Markstrom flipped the script so I'm happy about that for him.

Foligno's hurt too, compliments of Zadorov, so a pretty stealthy move for Boston. Detroit retains 50%. Likely could have gotten a bit more for Bertuzzi, but it's fair value and retaining helps the Bruins so it's good faith too. It's a nice move for both teams. Pretty sure GMs abide by past moves of good faith. Some folks are brow-beating the, "thought Detroit was done rebuilding" drum. Nope. Still at it like most Wings fans want to be doing. A lot of potential in the chamber with Edvinsson, Johansson, Wallinder at D are almost surefire. Kasper, Mazur, Soderblom solid F prospects. Then a pile of others that are decent. Cossa/Gylander good G prospects. It's fun to watch.

We only need Markstrom to be a difference maker for the right reasons instead of the wrong reasons and we'll be flourishing. I still believe he can do it. Aaaaaaand go!

Love it. Hopefully the Bruins are too tired to repeat this year's shenanigans. Extension talks with Bert got nowhere, he's headed for UFA, so I'll take it over nothing. Injuries brought down his value. But he was either getting overpaid or leaving for nothing. I like this.

It's hard for the Flames as they really traded a lot of their collateral away. Not enough prospects due to trading away picks for everything they are now. Hopefully they can get on a heater because they pretty much have gone all in in the past. So not much in the cupboards. Wanna make trades? It's gotta be roster players to get out of the hole that was dug trading away picks or it's just chasing your tail relentlessly.

Up to 5 picks now likely top 50 for this year's draft. Love it. Ready for graduates in the next year or 2 and reloading.

Yup. Overbearing doesn't even begin to describe it.

Even the completely homer Boston commentators said after the first that it should be 0-0 if not for goaltending. There really is no point now if there's no change in net. It went from a problem to a complete reality. Every. Single. Game. Doesn't matter who the opponent is.

Can't blame him for Satoshi Nakamoto goals

Did I hear Korpisalo is out pending a trade?

Should we just play with 6 skaters?

I suppose he accounted for 25% of that trade. So Bennett for 25% of Toffoli

Was just thinking of this trade: FLA has: Bennett CGY has: Zero

Great start, then we let them get a shot on goal.

woof already

Was thinking split with the Sens with b2b in Ottawa. Looks like we're on the ropes for a split. Ned kinda screwed us for a solid backup so we got Hellberg's start outta the way. Hopefully a better result tonight. These are the 2 teams that I want for the EC wildcards. Split, then go beat the crap out of everyone else. If it doesn't work out, oh well. Still significant potential in prospects coming up.

I have turned this over in my pea-brain since you posted. First step - Arena. Spoken as a Detroit fan. We're the worst team in the league, but we are jacked that we have the best arena in the league in an awesome area for entertainment. Going to a game here, instead of the 'ol Joe is a whole other level. We're going to lose, but what a fun, interactive experience. Flames - I've been to 100+ games at the Saddledome. It's musty and depressing. I can stay at a reasonably-priced nearby hotel just S on MacLeod. The area is musty and depressing. Alternatively, I can drop another $300 and stay downtown. Just stay away from the LRT downtown after 11pm. It is an entirely different dynamic to view live games. I went to an afternoon game at LCA, got out at 5pm, went to eat and drink, went to the Fox Theatre to see Lenny Kravitz for $45 on last-minute resale tix, 8th row. The whole thing totaled about 5 minutes of walking. It's more than just an arena, it creates a really positive experience that people will want to do again. Dark and dank and funneling into the Saddledome like cattle doesn't set a great mood. It's supposed to be entertaining. The PoHo idea is a good one. If you own 16 businesses, you aren't running them. All you need to focus on is your lawyers and accountants. Hockey is no different. Hire someone capable of running it and stay away. In this environment, you can't just buy whatever your wealthy heart desires so leave it to someone that understands it far better. Next rows I don't see much issue until we get to farm system. Be far more conservative tossing picks around. Good draft/bad draft prospects isn't really a thing. In this day and age, every draft has a wave of 18yos that are future NHLers. Don't trade them for a perceived need. If you were wrong in that perceived need, that becomes a huge mistake. Develop everything from within, from coaches to players. A small market team will overpay for everything pretending that they're something that they're not. Put all of your faith in the "process" that there will always be great minds and young players that will be the future. Use that to be consistently good. You can't just buy/trade your way out of issues and suspend the future. At some point, you'll have to fix your future because suddenly it will be now.

Now that was a WTF trade...eff TBay, start a white hot Vasy vs Detroit, sieve Elliot vs the Pens. Oh well, that's the only way they can beat the Wings these days, in all seriousness. A win and Detroit woulda swept the series this year. The tides are turning.