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IBatch

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Everything posted by IBatch

  1. Not only that, these things just don't happen for a reason. AHO ... when was the last one before that (aside from the revenge one - which kind of also proves that point). Only team i ever re-call going heavy on these sort of things was pre-cap St. Louis (early 90's) And they paid a big price for that too.
  2. Hey i think you did amazing. And agree with your comments on Myers 100%. OEL/Myers isn't that far off from Hamhuis and Bieksa. If they had better support they'd likely improve. I couldn't make a better lineup. The only thing that makes this really tough is a divisional trade scenario. I believe Steve Staois is the high bar with EDM. And Kesler of course is the highest bar of any trade to a divisional rival. They just don't happen often. Edit: Out of everyone on this site i enjoy yours the most so keep it up! And well we know all us middle aged to old farts, it's hockey and you can't ever discard anything from happening. EDM traded to LA the best player all-time, and it's still to this day used as example that absolutely anyone can be traded. I do worry about LA and ANA catching up to us. Personally i'm patient enough to wait and see how next season goes with some core ascension still. Know we need to trade one blue chipper and Miller is a good choice. But i sure love him too. What i hope the other guys on the team aspire to play like.
  3. Janis if this one works we'd be in great shape in a couple years ... I personally feel this team is good enough to make the playoffs next season even with trading Miller if we can get a decent 3rd C (young one who will get better) and with just a modest upgrade on defense.
  4. Did Otto kick it in? Yes he did. And we still complain about that lol...(Otto has finally admitted ... that that goal shouldn't have counted).
  5. Offer sheets are high risk and come with consequences. Nobody likes them ... look what happened in MTL. CAR revenge offer sheet was one of several things that ended up becoming a nail in Bergy's coffin. GMs ... it's open season on your own guys later ... and these guys need a level of civility and respect to keep doors and phones open. I bet it would have pissed us of to no end if QHs or EP got offer sheeted ... push up their wages in the end. And our team was about as ripe as any's the past decade for one really. Only team i remember ever really going to town with them was St. Louis and that chain of events cost them what they gained and pre-cap things are different now. Reality is most RFAs roster players are worthy of an offer sheet. Only 50% of second rounders play 100 games in the NHL. Edit: To me it's something that really should just be cut out of the CBA. All it does is drive salaries up and create discord in the end. Just so some kid can get more money then he deserves yet. NHLPA kind of wins and loses at the same time. Sure the actual vets aren't too happy about it .., it is completely self serving, both to the player that signs one - and the GM/team that managed to poach the player, but as far as ethics go it feels dirty. Don't have an analogy but maybe this works for all those folks who love eating out : Be like suing the restaurant for "making the coffee to hot", winning, but then getting banned from eating out not just at your favourite place, but half the joints in every town you go to.
  6. And yet somehow fans still think we'd become "contenders" again overnight. Nonis had one great draft then 3 duds ... MG 5 and would have been six without Corey and drafting Horvat. Anyone who follows hockey even in the pre-cap era where you could just buy your way out of trouble (not us but some teams) ... saw this coming ... ridiculous to think we weren't going to do much for a very very long time. Edit: For me at least competing against EDM/CAL and even LA ... the 80's were tough. The 90's our best era to date simply given we won series (and i'd include almost beating the best team in the league in 89 in that) ... 2000's were underwhelming. Couldn't win a series barely. And really the peak Sedin era only had one run. But it sure was nice to be the favourite instead of a dark horse for a change. I think people need to temper their expectations a little. Every team is our competition and there are 32 of them now. CAR missed 9 in a row..:.you can look around the league and find a lot of teams that lost a lot of time. Complaints should first be filed to the league for expanding as much and making a bad product for most of the 2000's as a result. And a lot of the 2010's as well.
  7. Coaching might have a short memory with fans - but not with hockey people and GMs (brass). If Yeo keeps finding work ... Green is going to get another shot at some point.
  8. It's funny because my brother and i were texting about how if only JB just re-signed Edler for a year (same deal) and let Hamonic walk they'd have made the playoffs. No way would our PK have suffered quite as much ... the only thing is maybe JB and Green would have lasted longer so let's just call it a wash. But i absolutely agree that JB was too eager and overplayed his hand. I certainly hope it came from a good place and not a desperate act to keep his job. JB was like a fat kid walking by the candy store every UFA season and knowing he should only get a bag of chips and a pop ... but then added the jaw breakers, the jolly ranchers, and then once at the till bought ancient rice krispee squares and old licorace just in case his Mom didn't feed him enough when he got home.
  9. Glad you brought up Babych ... he was a key part in the Flyers making it to the final - but was forced to play hurt and it cut his career short a couple years. Wouldn't say he was "slow as molasses" yet either - that was Dana Murzyn lol. Sure he'd lost a step but could still play as a solid middle pairing D on a deep team. Was sad when i found out he was retiring...believe he actually successfully sued the Flyers as well. PHI was making mincemeat out of the league lol .... but Detroit was just that much better.
  10. The only thing that makes me think a deal like this would be tough to do is LA is in our own division.... and that LA is right there with us or soon will be given their re-tool around Doughty and Kopitar actually is going very well. Once those guys are done all the cap space is going to make it very easy to add via feee agency and or provide their stable of young players nice raises (and find a UFA goalie to replace Quick if needed)....this is the sort of return we should be happy with though.
  11. The Islanders lol. Why would they do that? I agree with EPs comments they'd only consider trading Dobson for QHs, EP or Demko ... i'd say not even Demko. Goalies don't get massive value in trades, the position is too easy to fill.
  12. Like "throwing macaroni on a board and seeing if it would stick when others were playing 4d chess" ...
  13. Unfortunately in the cap era we don't have a lot of math helping us. 32 teams ... two finals one win on average every ... 32 years. If we get a final run every 12 years we are doing a little above average now...then add in 34.6-53% tax brackets and things go even further down the road .... it is what it is and every team has equal "high standards" from their fanbases. At least quality is finally catching up to quantity.
  14. Yes he is. Will he do a Sakic or just go with the status quo. Hope he's willing to tear it down to build it up. Playoffs are always fun. Sure first round maybe we win. But second round up against maybe COL lol... or first round maybe even ... might as well bring your golf clubs on the plane, at least for the next year or two until cap issues come in. COL ... TB probably gives them some trouble .,: If NYR a wins a cup it will be the best goalie performance since 1993, which is up there with the best all-time. Maybe even the best.
  15. Watching the 2011 team that was our best chance ... but was for sure hoping for some sort of follow up in 2012. MG should have kept well enough alone ... our first unit PP was actually getting figured out the second half of 2011 and it was our second unit with Coho that kept us at the top. After Boston knee jerk reactions ... If we played TB instead of Boston (who barely made it past TB), we'd have won if 5. So bad luck playing a team like Boston with a goalie like Thomas. Quick did the same thing next season. LA missed entirely after winning the cup lol...in a weak division .. then of course won another one ugh. Since expansion, Vancouver not winning a cup is still considered the best team not to win by THN (the Hockey News)....another little dagger is the 94 final is also considered the best final of the modern era (since expansion)... being the bridesmaids i guess is better then nothing. 2011 didn't hurt nearly as much as 94, but i suppose that's just depending on the eye of the beholder and your age. Edit: Also will say aside from one game SJ was the better team then us ... Luongo and Bieksa won us that series. If we didn't win on the rather "lucky" point shot in game 5... who knows if we'd have even made it. Watch the series again. We were way behind the play and the results don't show at all what the series was actually like. If it wasn't for Eager losing his crap we wouldn't have won in 5 either. Thanks for KB for beating up Marleau early on.
  16. The seas also parted our first cup run and we all know how that worked out. In 94 we probably shouldn't have made it past the first round but we did. And after that were the best team the next two series.... final one we weren't the best team the first game but McLean won it for us ... but as the series went one were at least their match if not the better team. About as even a series as they come only 2 goals separated us .. Bure was on fire when he got ejected for a high stick (we likely would have won that game .... too bad) and NYR were just getting weaker and weaker ... we kept getting stronger and stronger. Game 7. Ugh ... if they didn't add extra rest days Linden might not of had the game he had - but we for sure had them on the ropes ... It's a what if that bugs me to this day. Edit: Messier. Why! Why! Why! Was the worst era this teams ever had. JB lol. We were always going to pay the piper for almost a decade with nothing to show for it ... Nonis first draft was great .. then 3 bad ones plus 5 eggs by Gillis until Horvat...
  17. -Alf no step back? Too many shots against Demko in the high danger range. Also stated - won't let UFAs go for nothing so either re-signed or traded. This team can't take a step forward without cap going way way up. And that we now have at very best - a middling group of 21 and unders and have a lower third actual pool. I'm expecting a re-set. It might not happen until at the very latest after next years playoffs but it's coming.
  18. This is true but i'm not as horny as trying to get the magical unicorn RHD as some are. Schenn. Massive value and he's back next season. Myers gets kicked around on the CDC like Edler used too, until he got older and people stopped picking on him at least most did. If the team really wants too, they can do what they did with EP which was put him in the center role (to a degree) and move QHs to the right side. And bring Rathbone up. There are 50% more natural LHD's in the league then RHDs ... a lot of guys like Benn who play both sides. Every team has the same challenges, it's also why i wanted Bouchard then last draft Clarke. Its really late in the game to draft a RHD and expect that to work out during Millers prime ... but not EPs/QHs so expect some of that. Even KB was kicked around a lot until he wasn't anymore on this site. Reality is our window right now is just playoffs. And the other reality that i'm sure a lot don't want to hear, we've got massive challenges been a top taxed team (we were 7th LEAST taxed during peak Sedin era) in this market. We got spoiled from 2000-2014 .:. we've only had a couple teams that ever made contender status and really just one real contender (although having a Linden basically was an automatic by to the second round)..... Teams got to work on a lot of things to make us a contender - and that's going to start and end with who comes up behind EP for now at least. I'd be happy to see what happens this season making the playoffs with the same team ... but don't expect it to be the same or consider it automatic either. Truly think the league needs to consider bringing back the play-ins - and reducing the 82 game schedule down to 80. Fans win. Players win. Owners win.
  19. Get Miller but why Garland? We'd be lucky to get ---- a Garland back. Sure there are some scenarios that make sense for that ... but of the 3 Brock, Podz, Garland ... i'd say Brock is the one that costs us more then he adds to the team unfortunately, and it's likely going to be worse next season with his cap hit going up. At that pay scale he should be 30-35 goal scorer 70plus point range and not a liability defensively. Garland led our team 5 x 5 with Miller, plus minus - and also drew a ton of penalties. He's got value added for his cap hit ... produces more for his pay and we have cost certainty. Miller and Brock are the guys they will be looking to trade. Miller for the return, Brock for the cap space.
  20. I wonder if Edler would come back now that JB is gone. Not signing him and instead Hamonic proved to be very costly. Edler on a one year deal or even two, would solidify our bottom pairing AND help our net presence plus PK. I don't see a spot for Rathbone ... unless QHs moves to the right side. Seems redundant, won't get PP time on the left side anyways... not behind QHs and OEL...should be a little concern that he could pull a Fox though ... small PMD are all the rage right now. 2 million for Edler tops....
  21. Miller and Horvat are just fine too - most teams including actually contenders, would love to have them the last couple years. Problem is their age only gives us one more crack at it before they get their UFA deals that will almost certainly wipe out the value added to our cap. Personally feel that Allvin needs to weigh what one year in the playoffs, that is next season - vs a mini-tank. With Bruce back i'm pretty sure they aren't going to do anything too drastic yet. Unless we are wiping the floor next season in our own division, and have a nice lead and are not fighting for our playoff lives to keep it or claw our way in, it's almost a certainty that there will be moves coming. They want more cap space, and to lower the high quality shots Demko faces. That's not going to happen without roster change. Yes we will still see core ascension. We almost did the impossible down the stretch .... that sample size isn't big enough to say "we have the number one PP in the league now" or "are a top ten defensive team" which did start happening. EP on the entire season would do wonders ... but we aren't deep enough to lose 2-3 key guys and still make the show. That's a contender. Even Vegas who went into last year as a contender and a favourite in the West .... couldn't survive just that (2-3 key guys out, one at any given time).... Edit; If there ever was a time to tank next season might be it. 2023 is supposed to be a boffo draft... I'd be fine with either or really, but we won't be signing and keeping all 3 of Brock, Miller and Horvat - one is going for sure.
  22. Pretty simple. The teams best chance of being a contender is a re-set. That means rebuilding around QHs, EP aged guys ... and includes drafting a goalie that can take the reigns from Demko. Sad but true. We need Allvin to pull a Butcher like trade around Miller. If we could get a Ronning, Courtnall and Momesso out of that we'd be in great shape. Two good top six players, and a great 3rd line gritty tough mofo. And we also need to do a Nedved like trade to fix our defense ... Hedican/Brown Lafayette ... Add in a second for a Lumme and we'd be ready to rock as soon as this season lol. One could wish anyways. I'd be perfectly ok with the team only getting tweaks along the edges just to see how things go until the TDL. But won't be surprised if Miller doesn't make it past the draft either. We need to plug the holes from the last two drafts and he's the easiest way to do it. For example - Leafs media said that Miller was worth their two best prospects (a former 15th overall from Kapanen, and a second rounder that's got promise plus Kerfoot who is under contract next season at 3.5ish) ... having guys coming up that can take a spot on their ELCs is important to our cap structure. Reality is - as the league expands our final appearances grow further apart. Starting with only Horvat in the stables and nobody willing to waive other then Kesler ... was a lot like an expansion team under the old rules. Hutton and Horvat and Markstrom lol. Most expansion teams got a lot more then that in their pool first year .... under the old rules. So we are looking at maybe at the end of this decade ... there is always a chance something special can happen once in the playoffs - feel that's their best bet for now. But doing what Sakic did might be the wisest choice. 2023 draft - Kennedy from THN said will be the best since McDavids. A tank this year might be a good idea.
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