travel_dude

So, Iginla to become the special advisor to the GM.

Former teammate of Coronato John Farinacci is a FA this summer. Any interest? RHS C.

Who was the starter that didn't play a single game this year? On LTIR perhaps? RL are his initials.

Have to wait for some sign of cowbell and not the tendency to replace the bell with a piece of crap.

So, you need to use players deemed too small then to make trades, right? But I will point out that small height is not a reason to exclude them Jonathon Marshmallow. 5'9" Discarded by FLA in the expansion draft. Playoff MVP.

So, looking at the season, who would you bet the farm on? Hill was the superior goalie during the playoffs and had a good run in regular season. Quick was broungt in for depth.Brossoit was the starter leading up to the playoffs and round 1 and 2. Thompson was their guy for most of the season. Had there been no injury, Hill wouldn't have got the start. Not saving that was right. My obvious point is that not many teams are lucky enough that their starter is on LTIR, they get a goalie on waivers, don't lose Brossoit on waivers and manage to run a team on multiple goalies up to and including the playoffs. Silent applause form not waiving Hill at the time, since he could have been claimed. Depth of good goalies is only possible if you have guys in the AHL, run 3, makes trades for extra depth or have a guy come out of nowhere.

Gudas? Too expensive signing or too old?

So the amount of golies that they invested in, only to have their 4th stringer be the best of them. That is in addition to the goalie that hadn't played since last year.

Well he started in Latvia with the national team. But what good is an ex-NHL coach that hasn't been involved in NHL hockey in years?

I'm not a fan of Vegas. They had the exact right team to win the cup this year. The dynamics of winning the cup changes every year. Prior to the seeding, you really don't know what will shake out. Vegas had the right pieces and the right moves at the right time. Where the Flames fail is that they don't make adjustments that work. Vegas right sizes and looks at players that can help. Flames seem to make knee jerk moves that don't work.

There was some interesting iso shots of the Vegas netfront. You could look from the net out and not see a FLA player within 20 feet in any direction. The slot was vacant. Any pucks from the high slot had to go through 3 layers. So, the inability of the Flames to clear the netfront was easily the reason we had a lot of goals against there. Oilers were using the guy on the far post to be ready for rebounds, but you take them out and there in the one-timer and that is it.

I think you are just putting in the thread for when you expect him to be fired in a year or two. Put your reservation in now, I get it.

And Tkachuk again misses the end of a playoff run. Injured against the Stars in a round 1 loss a few years back. Pushes in a heated series until someone levels him. It was never going to be Tkachuk fencing in front of the net and drawing a penalty, it was always going to be a hit over the edge and a team targeting him in return.

I didn't understand the offer for Eichel. It's like we offered a minibike for a high end car with a ding in the door. Buffalo colluded though, so it ruined the offer. The Stone deal was kinda strange. All the talk about not being able to sign Stone when it was really could we sign Stone.

He's the usual story of a coach that has success. Thinks he's the reason and goes Full Metal Jacket. Became toxic. Took the keys back from the sports car and tried to change what made them work. Once you go Russian I guess you never come back. Now is not exatctlt the time for a coach to switch from the KHL to NHL. Players are one thing, and they have to be careful what they say (both for their families and their career).

Coach goes with the struggling goalie. Check. Coach ignores the one goalie that had a winning record and go with the starter. Check. Previous season, the goalie starts seemed to match the records. Result, 11 shutouts for the season. That was long before the end of the season, so burnout ya know? Asking an AHL coach with no experience coaching NHL players at that level is a little bit like starting Wolf for 82 games. Chances are he does okay, but chances are he loses confidence. If you were strictly using AHL players from the last two years, he would have a good impact. Huska has experience with the guys like Mange, Dube, Ras and Kylington. Not just in the AHL but in the NHL. I would have preferred a brand name coach or one that has been an assistant on a contender. But there is no reason why an assistant coach that has been under several NHL coaches hasn't learned a few things. He would see the mistakes made.

Yeah, not sure what I was thinking.

Yeah, I think we overreacted on the Tkachuk deal by signing too long. I have no problem with the players and they likely are the leaders on the team. But, I'm not really happy with giving long term deals now. Backlund and Tanev are aging out and should get max 2 years. Hanifin could get a longer deal, but I'm not really thinking that's a good idea. He's been in the league so long that he will break down sooner.

So, Tanguay has left the Remparts. Along with Roy. I might be interested in Love, Tanguay, Savard as the A/coaches. Maybe too much excluding the goalie coach, which I think we need to upgrade. Pehaps we would or should substitute one of the inexperienced ones with a longer running A. Are we still interested in the CBJ coach as an A/coach?

Who does that leave? The guy from CBJ and Greene? Muller is currently an A/coach, so that wouldn't inlcude him. Really, should the GM not allow the new coach to replace anyone he desires?

I guess the difference is that one player is at his peak and hasn't really improved in the last couple years and the other potentially has some improvement yet. I don't think that either is untradeable. If you were to trade Hanifin or Tanev or Ras, then you have to replace a top 4 D. We currently have 5, top 4 D, based on most recent performance. Top 4 on this team that is. I think the problem we have is too many of the same type of D. Weegar is a bit more of a hybrid. Tanev is the give it up for the team player. Ras does block a lot of shots, but doesn;t have the same accumen as Tanev for D-zone. Hanifin is just a high value asset that you can use, whether you disparage his play or love him. The contract situation makes it more important to deal with before the season. A return to top scoring D could set his contract way over value. Whatever the best choice for D pairs, best D-men to keep for their play value and what C's we should run this year, the bottom line is the cap won't let us run back the same team. 10F with 1.2M left. Doesn't include Duehr or Pelletier to have 4 full lines. Sure, we can possibly deal Mange or Coleman or Backlund to gain some space. Might have to do that anyway. D is the only place where we have the full complement of player. Weegar is the only one paid like a top 2.

The only trade that really works using Lindy is a trade for a younger C that hasn't hit his stride yet. That's how we got Lindy in the first place. IF we are trading him now, it's to a team that has a younger C and wants the experience or 2-way type of player. So, if CAR is looking to trade Necas, then they are doing so to take advantage of his value or tired of not getting anywhere due to having less responsible C's. Going for it. Window closing.

SN picks their heroes during the playoffs and cuts them slack for the rest of the series. Tkachuk was the poster boy for scoring big goals, even if he wasn't the only reason FLA won. So, they look at a sequence and think that technically Pietrangelo was going onto the ice serface to join the scrum. Same concept as a guy on the bench going onto the ice after the game and getting in a scrum. No reason for him to stay in the box so it's different. Even up mentality since there were only 4 VGK skaters to 6 FLA ones. I don't have a problem with what he did, since the potential for two guys punching one guy was there. But SN is exactly at fault because they do the same thing in any series. Pick the White Knight. AP was a villian against Draisaitl, who SN proclaimed to be the Byng player he isn't. He's a douchebag like McD is in games. AP got carried away and regretted it, but SN branded him. Because he did something bad to their hero. SN barnded Tkachuk a unicorn becuase of his blend of skill and grit. He has those things plus he is a selfish baby. Bennett has to answer the call for Tkachuk. Some things never change. ANyway, this is almost over. With any luck Vegas wins and we get past this crap. I hate Vegas, but Tkachuk being in FLA kinda ruined it for me. His MO is drag people down to his game so that they don't use skill to win. I put up with it as a Flame but also regretted his play in the playoffs. Had we made it past the 2nd or 3rd round last year, we would be seeing him drag the team down the rabbit hole.

Well they both have been top 4 D. Kylington for a season and Zaddy for a bot longer elsewhere. The bigger question is whether they both can improve their play away from the puck. Kylington is great ay puck moving and hustling back and close pursuit. Zaddy is good at puck moving and getting shots on net. Both of them get beat in front of the net, no different than Hanifin. Hanifin has a better first pass. The advantage Hanifin has is that he can play 22+ minutes. But, I think that Weegar is far better overall on the top pair. Can't say I have seen Hanifin-Weegar, but I think too much overlap. Hanifin-Tanev wasn;t as good last year as Kylington-Tanev. Perhaps that's a bit on Tanev. If you could swap Tanev for a bigger version, younger, then we would be fine. I wouldn't concern myself with Hanifin at all. If Zaddy could be that guy, I would care if never scored another goal. He has the size to clear out the bigger F in front of the net. He just doesn't do it enough or at the right time.