travel_dude

This century. Against a pinball wizard. Deaf dumb and blind boy that sure plays a mean pin ball.

Reffing has been really bad that I saw so far. Missed calls. Etc.

A PP goal after a weird closing your hand on the puck - hup hup hup. We passed around too much on our PP. Coronato really looks like a NHL player, just need a C that finishes. So much for the close game. High shoulder. Glove side. Tradesies times for Marky.

Kings need this to clinch. We don't need it at all. What could go wrong? \_(^^)_/

Thrown together for you posting pleasure.

I am hoping for that as well. Marshmallow is needing more money, but they cast away players like candy wrappers. Don't see how they move ahead without him. With the Lehner deal, they will get relief. But Mantha was just traded for and is scoring pretty well. Stephenson will need a new deal. For the money Pietrangelo is the worst cost per point. Easy trade to a good team with cash. Vegas always looks dead and somehow makes it work. For years we look good and ended up DOA.

OOT scoreboard played for us a bit. Ottawa won in SO NJ won in regulation. BUFF won in regulation Flyers win in regulation. MTL loses in OT (booo), but NYI wins. East is so tight with 5 teams still in play.

Injury year it seems. When they don't have Stone they falter. They were bad the year before the won the cup. This year just a bit better than that. Their GM won't stand for 2 poor years in a row. A high second is better than a low 3rd, but not by all that much. Just whether next years draft is deeper or not than this year.

I guess the plus side is the Wrangler will have Wolf for the playoffs. And Coronato I think. I'm not sure that tilts the ice at all.

I'm less concerned about the Vegas pick, but a win does put the pick in 2025 where everything is possible. If they lose in round 1 as the 2nd WC holder, then they are possibly picking 17th in this year's draft. That means a relatively early 3rd rounder, so there is some upside. In fact, STL could win out and bump Vegas to outside the playoffs. Vegas doesn't look like the same cup threat this year. VAN, assuming it wins in R1, faces the next up Pacific team. It's a crazy year. Dallas is one win one loss and one tie from clinching 1st in the West. Only Vegas and LA have not clinched in the West.

How many Pasta's are available every draft year at 25+? Who did he play with in his D+1 year? 25 year old Marchand and 30 year old Bergeron. On another team he may have been more of an afterthought. I never thought Holloway was a good pick. Name some others that I may be more interested in. Holtz for a 1st? Bad example.

Coleman out day to day. Not sure of who is coming in, but likely Hunt and Duehr in. Mangiapane was able to play last game, so one less. Kylington skating, but as an extra D. I don't think there is a need to bring him back unless he is 100%. Even then, these are meaningless games and you can evaluate others.

The flip side to that is that a team may decide they have too many prospects they have to deal with and a blockage at the AHL and NHL level. They might not be that impressed with a prospect's development and feel he needs a change. This kind of deal might just happen on the draft floor when player X is available to the Flames 2nd pick and a team desperately wants it. Think about it this way. We have a team with little prospects in the 18-20 range that seem to be definite game changers. Adding a nice 1st round pick gives us a potential middle 6 player eventually. Unless we are adding some top players in this and the next few drafts, we are not building that new generation.

Perhaps I misspoke. I was referring to French language rules enacted in Quebec that are different than the other provinces that have NHL teams. I won't pretend to understand how they would or may impact a NHL team. Are there rules about advertizing in Quebec that would preempt NHL plans with gambling sites and new promotions on player jerseys? Is Montreal grandfathered to older rules that existed that would not be available to a new team? By comparison, the USA is the wild west. Some states have things that may prevent a NHL team from thriving, but mostly they seems to be falling over themselves to welcome a new team. I don't see Bettman falling over himself to even talk about Quebec as a real player. When pressed, he talked about Kansas City, Utah and Houston in more concrete terms.

If they add more teams, there will be more likely a play in round. Maybe like the Covid Cup. Gotta make the 82 games even less important, right? Add an extra week into the schedule and you are close to July. Seattle made sense because of the under-represented Pacific NW. Houston is cool, but only happens if Utah gets a team. Quebec City gets nothing because it is all French and the league is scared of the rules. MTL is one thing, but that's original six. Utah may end up with Arizona's team, but expansion takes a long time. Teams need enough lead time to plan for it. NHLPA would love it because the mid players get more money and keep talent in NA. Owners love it because the revenue for a new franchise coming to them is nice. I prefer to keep to 32.

Phoenix really messed up the team. Perfectly fine stadium to play in and they whined about it being too far to drive. Then they want to go to Tempe, nope too close to the airport lands? Next they want to enter the land draw in Phoenix, but nope too close to Scottsdale and water concerns? Give me a break. Bettman forced the issue with the current stadium being too small, so they got backed into a corner. Should have just let the Blackbery guy put it in Hamilton and it never would have gotten to this stage. But anyway, the league is just the right size. 16 in, 16 out. Revenue only got messed up due to Covid. But Bett-man wants more money, or so he is being told. Utah needs a team like I need an extra hole in my head. Nice that they played the Olympics there one time. They also played in Sarajevo. Rant rant. By the time the next winter games comes around, the NHL will pull out because of terrorist threats. Paris will be the start of it. Olympics is not political. Tell that to Munich.

Well I think we should only concern ourselves with 1st overall and something between 5 and 9th. 2nd-4th impossible. Why I say that is whatever the best available after the other teams pick leaves us whatever is left. How they rate the picks is as important as how we do. Anyway, I am hopeful for #1, but ready to get 5-9th.

So, why not offer the VAN pick + something instead of one of the few D we have. And I don't necessarily mean to DET. Ras is going to be at least top 4 for the next 6 years, within the cycle of developing a new D. We have a couple of 2nds this year and possibly another 3rd if VGK loses round one. If NJ doesn't make the playoffs, they will be pretty close to 17th. 1st + Holtz for Markstrom with no money retained. Why is that better than the TDL (supposed) offer? Because NJ may have gone on to a higher placement in the draft. But if they don't make the playoffs now, then we know what the pick is.

There were lots of players that could have been picked. I had no specific choice at the time.

There's little difference between 8th and 7th unless 7th gets you a lotto win. We are currently closer to 6th than 9th. Same distance to 5th. Who would even figure ARI would win another game this season. MTL is always good for an unexpected win, as is OTT. Game 82 is whatever. Players will have checked out and it's at home, where we suck.

Well, we aren't getting any closer to Seattle tonight, even with a win. Zona losing finally, but they have a really tough end to the season so they ain't catching us.

Montreal won today and Ottawa lost. Yotes losing to the Kraken, early yet.

Two game starts, one a shutout, the other 7 goals against. Hard to make much of that.

Jose can you see....

Lines Pospisil-Kadri-Kuzmenko Huberdeau-Zary-Mangiapane Sharky-Backlund-Coleman Greer-Rooney-Coronato Weegar-Miromanov Okhotiuk-Anderssone Solo-Pachal Wolf