dm_ranger

Great question. Do we want the top 1-2 teams (assuming we are not one of them) to run away with it and suppress the competition allowing us to grab 3rd? Hard to hope for Habs or Leafs to actually win games, but as a strategy it makes sense. I think we are rounding back into form, but I am not yet convinced we can be the top of the North. Yep, great question because saying yes actually helps us, but the cost, oh the cost of cheering for those two.

lol. I missed the name of who you were quoting and was trying to judge the reason for your reaction based on their comments.

I expect McDavid and Dri to get their points tonight. But if we shut down the rest and stop the secondary scoring I can see another win for us. I expect Ham and Meyer's to play better and probably more from Petey. He's on a 1 game goalless streak and I could see him taking that personally.

Complete guess, but we waived players to put them on the Taxi squad. I assume it counts more as and extension of the AHL then and extension of the NHL. As a result I don't think we could just put them on the taxi squad. But once again, I'm not confident in this answer.

nice move, getting someone like that as your 3rd string goalie on your taxi squad. I'm worried Mikey will be our taxi squad goalie and never play.

Improving the team is certainly something they did that I am excited about. I listed to that interview and he did talk about the improvement of the D. I think his point is to focus on celebrating improvements not simply achieving expectations that every other team did as well.

If you listen to him, he's pretty positive in some areas. His point is every team MUST by cap compliant today. The fact the Canucks are isn't a reason to celebrate, its manditory.

I wonder if Green is going to move to a strength vs strength matchup this year. Lotto line straight up against Edmonton, Toronto, Calgary at least. That makes Bo's job easier to match up against every teams second line. Net result -- 3rd line defensive abilities (or lack of) won't show up as much as they will play against bottom 6 players.

That is my understanding too, but until the contract is signed I don't dare count him ours. I seem to remember multiple FA 'priorities' that ended up not signing. Another team could still sign him from under us.

Have we actually signed Hamonic? I thought it was only a PTO with the intent of more.

I haven't looked closely, but I think the Quarantine thing is more for players coming north than those going south.

I think Calgary is going to be trouble. Tanev and Marky are great adds for them. I don't think the contracts will age well, so I'm glad we didn't sign them but next year both those players could be huge for the Flames.

We don't have any cap space to get another D. I think Benn will be the 6/7 D as he is willing to play either side. They might switch back and forth as listed below depending on which rookie is playing well or struggling. Juolevi -- Benn Benn -- Rafferty Rathbone - Benn

I like this idea. Would be great development for the young squad and would give our top coaches lots of access.

In an effort to adjust our D and clear up cap space I'm wondering how far down this list we would have to go to get: Kikita Zitsev from Ottawa: RD signed for next 4 years. 4.5 cap hit and owed 4.5 M per year the entire time We send: Jordie Benn : 2 million cap hit for one year LD Loui Erikson: signed two years. 6 million cap, owed 5 million if we pay this years signing bonus. We do this to lower our cap hit by 3.5 million. Zitsev plays RD, which gives us a top 5 of Hughes, Schmidt, Edler, Myers, Zitsev. This allows our 6-8 D to be our rookies and get playing time. With Schmidt comfortable on either side we could either: Hughes -- Meyer Schmidt -- Zitsev Edler -- Rafferty Or: Hughes -- Schmidt Edler -- Zitsev Joulevi - Meyers Why does Ottawa do this? Benn is a capable D. Saves 2 million in year two, and 4.5 million in each of the next two years. ($11 million in savings) Since this isn't much I expect to add a few sweeteners. Which sweeteners do we need to add? retain 1 million on Loui? (additional $2 million savings) 4th-7th round pick? Chatfield?

But under 2 AAV? That should have been fine for us. I thought we were walking away from 2.5-3 per year.

the past several years have had a 1-2 week courting period before FA date. You were allowed to negotiate and inquire during that time. That's when the Myers news really picked up last year.

What about Roussel and Baertschi for MAF with retention to match cap hits? frees up Marky's $ for TT. Let Tanev, stecher walk, trade Jake for picks and spend $ on Pietrangelo?

Crazy thought that doesn't deserve it's own thread. -- Let marky walk (Sad, would like to keep him) -- Trade: Sutter and Rousell to Vegas for Marc-A-F or: Sutter and Jake to Vegas for Marc-A-F. Reasons: -- Fleury has 7 million left for the next two years, but he doesn't have to be expansion draft protected, gives Demko another year of development. -- Marky is going to get 5.5+/year, -- Sutter is 4.3 for one more year --Roussel is 3x2 -- Jake will get 2+ Reasons for us: That is 7 million coming in for a goalie that is good and could split starts with Demko and be exposed during expansion -- We have 11-13 million leaving including the Marky savings (Sutter - Jake - Marky = 11-12 while Sutter-roussel- Marky = 13 out) -- Resign Toffoli, resign Levo Reasons for Vegas: -- they fix their back-stabbed goalie issue, replacing a 2 year bad contract (MAF) with a 1 year bad contract (Sutter) -- Its a wash cap wise for them.

We're still standing.

I suspect with the win they will give TT more time to heal. Bringing him back at 80% for game 6 or waiting and getting him at 85-90% for game 7 (if needed) sounds better to me.

I think these playoffs will help JB make some choices. Some things I'm leaning towards: 1) Don't re-sign TT. -- we are doing fine without him, I think it just complicates things cap wise if you try. 2) Ferland -- LTIR so cap hit is min. 3) Marky should be re-signed -- which makes Demko tradable -- don't want to lose him, but I think he has a lot of value and if we have Mark for the next 4-5 years we should use that asset. 4) I think I would pick Levo over Jake -- Jake has more upside, but I see Levo as a more consistent and versatile player who can play 'playoff' hockey. Good bottom six who can play up. Think Levo would be cheaper too. 5) I think we can move Benn and Fantenberg -- allowing us to bring up OJ and Rafferty. 6) I would not sign Tanev to more than two years -- like an Edler deal. -- more and we have to let him walk. So: resign: Marky, Stetcher, Levo, maybe Tanev. Trade: Jake, Benn, Demoko Let walk: TT, Fantenberg JT Miller -- EP - BB TP - BJH - JL AR - AG - BS TM - JB - ZM Extras -- LE, Ferland, __________ AE - TS QH - CT OJ - TM Rafferty JM in Goal

I think Benn will be in if Myer is out. Want his grit based on this game.

Calling Bo's next breakaway -- fake the inside outside - defense bites but he cuts inside and scores blocker side.

I didn't watch the video, and I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist, but I can see the league desperate for the Oils not to lose this series and then win the draft lottery. If the league is simply calling it as it is, then great -- just hope they protect our players too.