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IBatch

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Everything posted by IBatch

  1. How many guys have TB "drafted" the last little while? Or COL for that matter outside of their tank job. Only 6 guys and that includes Byram (4th overall) and Newhook (who didn't play many games really) were on that championship team. There are more ways to skin a cat. Don't think anyone would disagree that MG couldn't draft anyone ... we'll eventually he drafted Horvat ... and Coho was decent enough with us anyways. But it's not a total failure either. We got six division titles and one cup run.
  2. What lipstick on a pig or a 5'2" sort of A list actor? I don't get it. Edit: Cruise is an A list actor. Bad joke (above). Anyone who's got a cult following automatically puts butt's in seats. Not sure he can actually get a crowd of people to watch a bad movie just based on his acting alone, but man does this guy ooze ability (he's smart enough not to do bad movies). And takes his craft about as serous as anyone in the business. Except maybe James Woods. If he was going to play a gas station employee he'd got out and work for one for a year first lol. Cruise would buy some gas stations, get his slaves to take care of it, and then strut in and learn the role in probably 5 minutes. Sad but true. Tom Cruise ... does the guy age? Kilmer looks like a sack of potatoes sitting out in the field for three months after some hard rain. Cruise? Whatever Scientology has done to him, it's working for him so power to him. As an aside. Even Cruise was in awe of Jack Nick in a Few Good Men. Everyone on the entire set was. He did his 9 minute monologue perfect, every single word, first take.
  3. Sure is nice to be that team. We were that team soon after MG took over too. Yes Sakic has done an incredible job. Toews was a major coupe, from a cash/cap strapped team at the time - Manson of course he'd want to stay. Wanted Manson for years. Expecting us to do the same thing ... well in that case we need to start where he did - which means trading two majors players, and doing an tank job. For us with Demko, that's not going to happen. Hoglander yes, this is his year to prove he belongs.
  4. Well said. I'm also leaning towards letting this season just play itself out with whom we've got. Our PK should be better next season with the forward additions alone. I'm also not in favour of a massive roster change. We saw first hand how that worked out last season for us, and even the mighty Bruce isn't going to make lemonade out of 5/7 new lemons lol. The team was playing well down the stretch - and don't see any reasons why they can't start the season that way, and keep it up. They aren't kids anymore either - the core that is. I'd also like to give them the chance to make the playoffs. The bubble was great and all, but that was also a very different team then the one we have now. The core is older and all in or entering their primes (guys like EP/QHs primes start earlier)... That's the sample size that actually matters and it's awfully tough to assess without actual games. Not saying we will win a cup this year. But will also say ... why not? COL fans didn't want us to squeak into the playoffs, and rightly so. We had a top PP down the stretch, and posed a threat to their fans (they were actually scared ... imagine that - the mighty AVs!!, think we beat them 3-1 and were the better team that night). Have suggested trade Miller too. But have also said i'd rather we just let him walk, then make a dumb trade. It happens. Cap coming back, the "key" tweener flops, after getting a deal etc, and the pick(s) go nowhere. Also not as horny as some about getting the coveted RHD - because that most certainly means - we lose a coveted first line C. If it's Brock or Garland then sure that might be ok. Enough has been said about that - i personally don't want Garland traded. Does his job even strength well enough, and draws as many penalties as EP does. He's a crucial cog in the team machine - we win more games because he's in the lineup. As for the D. OEL- Myers was decent enough. QHs-Schenn provides two parings .,. i'd be concerned about loading one line up - but not opposed to trying it out. That second pairing looks pretty lame, but you never know maybe it could work. QHs for sure needs his Methot, that is a stable long standing partner, Schenn ... well a patch job. We will see what happens next soon. Horvat and Miller can be re-signed ... one thing i will say, if and when this stuff happens it will be a relief. I'm sure for the team too. Trade rumours can be a distraction. And for the fan base as well.
  5. Hogs and Rathbone are sweeteners for a bigger deal and that's about it. I'm not a fan of moving Rathbone - but Hoglander has had enough NHL time that it's sink or swim now. He doesn't really work as a bottom six guy (yet) and definitely hasn't moved the needle in the top six much either. Rathbone ... well not to suggest this is going to happen, but look what happened with Adam Fox. Sure CAL regrets that a ton. Too bad he doesn't play the right side. Has proven himself at every level now, and deserves a shot in the NHL. Maybe we get a second rounder for him too....but if i had to bet, that second rounder won't become another Rathbone. Hogs has already surpassed his draft spot as well. Agree we need cheap depth. Lammy, Highmore...a bunch of other guys - Leivo - they've shown it's not that hard to acquire them either. Tweeners get passed around all the time. Rarely, but it does happen, they break out. Mostly it's all about cheap cap to balance things out though. Which i do agree we need. Also agree these guys aren't getting what we want for a one on one trade unless we pull some sort of Quin magic ... Stajonov for Naslund, a second rounder for Lumme etc.
  6. This is true. Klingberg is still on the market and wonder if they are going to make a push to get him. Dallas did make him offers ... i'd be surprised if he gets what he's asking, but his position and stats kind of make him as valuable as a top 15 C becoming available. No i don't want him and prefer we stick with Myers, that said every team has holes, ours happens to be RHD. My pipe dream to sign Manson to a 5 x 5 deal floated away lol ... COL ... well they got a good deal but that deal here would have cost us over 5 so i was close, and figured the extra year would be enough. OEL - Klingberg is an intriguing option. But wow that's expensive for what you get. The flip side is at least we have a top four RHD for five years. Possibly 7, but doubt that the same way OEL likely doesn't keep it up forever too. Going to the free agency well to fill a massive void is ok though - it's something we'd have to do with Miller and or Horvat. I'm leaning towards re-signing those guys right now. At least we'd have excellent center depth, and our forward group as a whole is very decent anyways. Demko. Well man i sure hope that this TO addition can make his life easier on the PK. If somehow we can move one of these guys to the right side and they can do it (Dermott?), maybe things will be ok.
  7. Let's be patient folks! We got some excitement yesterday. JB is gone. And our core is ascending, we don't need to worry about plugs anymore. The teams construction is moving away from bottom/middle six plugs. Our forward group right now looks very very decent. And our PK got a good boost. So ... lots of time left before the season starts. Maybe, just maybe, JR/Allvin are trying to put the cherry on top with the decent not great but decent group JB assembled. I'm 100% ok with just using this season and Millers great current contract as a way to see what we can do come playoff time. You just never do know in this sport. Not many chances. Every other team in the league looks at other teams and salivates at their group to a certain degree (ARI not so much - but that's going to change / same with Seattle eventually). We have a Demko. And an EP. And A Brockstar. And a Miller-Time. An angry elf and a Chaos Giraffe. And a Housley who doesn't have to play in a Housley era. And a bull Captain Horvat. So ... maybe just maybe we aren't that bad. Lots of decent support too.
  8. We lose Miller and very soon after it's going to be about our lack of center depth, and this will soon follow around Horvat:
  9. GMs...say things all the time but we should never hang on their every word (i've noticed one poster - not you- who loves to post anything that in his/her mind caboshes stuff because of what a GM or senior member does say). Sure it's important to get the flavour of the times. But it's like reading Friedman's 31 thoughts as gospel. Think of it as Poker. IF JR is publicly announcing we are looking to move Miller what purpose what that do? For his team. His fan base and especially - for the return? I'm sure every GM in the league has their own button on his office phone. It's a game, think of it as poker instead. Even amateur players wouldn't just put their hands on the table! Miller is like an Ace in the hole. Other GMs also know this but especially ours does. Does his value go up - or down depending on announcing a player wants out or is to be traded! We saw this with Kesler - way way down. And BTW, CLB went out and did the exact opposite of what they said - and wow - Malkin was signed despite the media saying he wasn't offered a 4 year deal lol. The only thing i'm going to hold JR/Allvin somewhat accountable on is their commentary that "this team can't afford to let UFAs walk for nothing" ... that could be a slap to JBs face too lol, and suppose it was. However - worst possible case is we trade Miller and it's a bad trade. We re-sign whomever and end up with a vet as well who does an LE on us. There are much worse things then just letting Miller play out his contract with us and walking at the end. And i'm totally fine with trading him, re-signing him and letting him walk. Each one has their own variables, it of course only matters what happens as a result.
  10. They moved the net out in 91 to 11 feet to "increase scoring" ... so again after the Oilers we're done. Sure they just won a cup ... but not one they were supposed too, and without Gretzky and Coffey plus a lot of those key secondary players during the the 80's...They moved it out to 13 feet Gretzky's final year ... in the deepest part of the dead puck era until the early 2000's and then back to 11 feet again lol. As a side note Brian Burke is a huge advocate of making the rink wider ... and has made sure all new arenas ice is built in a way that the first row of seats has the ice capability already under it for the future. The idea around this of course is to increase scoring too. Read his stuff on why it's pretty logical - players were getting bigger and bigger and scoring sucked. Funny thing though, scoring is way up now and the players are the same size as they were in the mid-late 80's. Skill is back! Sure the quality PMDs has a lot to do with that ... and know PIT back to back cups had something to do with how speed speed speed counterattack changed how GMs approached the draft as well. The amount of young D's that have come in and made an impact recently - it's possible you might have to go back to the early 80's to find the same thing. Hope so! Makar ... so nice to see that back. Josi... nice to see a Borque like season again too.
  11. Well said. Believe long term, this is probably what will happen. The league can't expand and expect interest to remain high forever without making changes. Agree winning the conference final now, in many ways was like winning the cup pre-expansion. I'm actually a fan of retraction. Without the cap, the league would have been headed that way and they knew this. Worth a year without revenue not just to fix salary disclosure - but also save 6-8 teams asses. Wonder how many people on this site are aware of even though Hartford/CAR franchise won a cup, not too many years after attendance slid like crazy, even though they still were a good team, and once the Staal/Ward era crashed their attendance became dismal. Florida still suffers with bad attendance lol. ARI/CAR/FLD definitely are teams the league could have lost. ARI still should be moved.
  12. Crazy how teams can be so good, they change the rules just to give the rest of the league a chance lol. Richard and crew in the 50's scored too many PP goals so they changed the penalty rules to how they are today... Gretzky and co were so good 4 x 4 they got rid of the coincidental minors and let someone sub in and just played 5 x 5 .... then scoring dropped and once the Oilers were disbanded, they changed it back lol. A lot of Oilers were pissed about this at the time and rightly so! Imagine quite a few of them would have 20-100 more points lol, same with quite a few others that played during those years... 4 x 4 was almost an automatic goal for the Oilers back then, and sure many they even tactically took advantage of this (Tik and other "pesty" players, just to get them the chance). To me the league shouldn't penalize good teams. Also imagine that a lot of history would be a lot different if teams still could score like it was a Major every time ... doubt the refs would be so whistle happy.
  13. I thought Wyatt was Earp and Mikey D was Doc ...
  14. Patches is a very good player and has been his entire career ... cheaper yes. Canes just treated Vegas like their very own free agent store.
  15. 9.8 is 10.2 ish in CAL. Thing is they had the extra year ...
  16. Other then WNP and maybe MTL for me. But i'd have a tough time not cheering for any Canadian at this point in the final. And it hurts to say that.
  17. The last thing i see them doing, is shoring up their D. Basically they are going where we did the last two years with JB, difference is they don't have a goalie locked down, but have way more drafted players to work with. Hogs ... doubt he'd even crack their lineup. Adding key players in important roles. Hope this starts a rivalry with TO up again.
  18. Maybe - but they have been saying now for two years they'd be soon spending to the cap again so doesn't come as much of a surprise over here. Looks like they are following the same plan they've been telling the public all along.
  19. Miller does have a lot of value as a free agent for us as well that can't be ignored. Other guys have taken team friendly deals to stay with their clubs ... worst case to me has always been a bad trade that sucks up our cap. I'd rather just see him walk after a nice little playoff sample size for JR and co, get his cap space and use it wisely somewhere else. Why i'm ok for futures only. A roster player? Seen it way too many times where that doesn't work out well. That said a fair trade works in our favour too. A good trade really works in our favour. Risks involved ... any which way Allvin goes.
  20. That's how it should be lol. That said, i'd cheer any Canadian team on at this point once we are out of the picture. The cup belongs back in Canada...I'm almost ready to ignore the idea of TO winning one if that's what it takes but not quite there yet, but that's only because the media would get pretty unbearable afterwards. Doubt it happens with Murray anyways. There is a perception (and rightly so!) that in 2011 Canada turned on us - but that was Cherry and a few others pumping Bostons tires and Cherry did have a massive affiliation to their club. Here near OTT, seemed like every second vehicle had a Canucks flag in their window ... and for years after, there was a ton of Blue and Green and Skate uni's each time the Canucks came to town. Know MTL was behind us too. Even EDM and CAL cheered each other on a little during the 2000's when they went to the final - which never ever happened in the 80's and early 90's lol. Bring home the cup! Edit; Never been a fan of "everyone hates us we don't care " crowd. Seems like little victim culture...instead prefer the viewpoint we had a lot of support, it just didn't work out.
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