tas

jonathan huberdeau is only 170lbs now, 3 years after being drafted 3rd. ditto nugent-hopkins, only he was taken 1st.

today i root for luongo, and i would even if the canucks were legitimately in the race.

nah, that other guy is just lying for no reason. there's still a month to go.

... aside from the current 6 game losing streak.

in the wise words of one of the best bands of the 2000s...

if anything, kesler hung HIS leg to make sure there was contact to attempt to draw a penalty.

no he wasn't.

this teams success was always dependant on their "swagger" and it's been missing since the finals. at his best, vigneault facilitated the teams extreme confidence, making them believe they were better, smarter, and more talented than anybody else. frankly, they were an arrogant team, and they could back it up. but the bigger the ego, the more fragile, and when the bruins shattered it vigneault couldn't put it back together. sports psychologists were brought in. other coaches, from the nhl and even other sports, such as wally buono, were consulted. but humpty dumpty couldn't be put back together. they needed a new coach, but they needed a mike babcock, a dan bylsma -- someone who was going to put them back together, build them back up, and make them believe in themselves again. instead, they hired tortorella, a guy who rips his teams to shreds and rides them like dogs. he was the exact polar opposite of the right hire and anyone with a brain could see it at the time. honestly, the most disastrous and ill-advised hire of all time.

last i heard, the waiting list was about 7 years long. calculated based on a 95-98% renewal rate (and i believe the canucks have historically been around 98%) that's only about 2500-6000 people on the waiting list. and i suspect that number will drop off sharply this summer.

i'm betting its actually option 3.

he may not be stupid enough to say it openly like kevin lowe, but the reality is there are two tiers of fans. season ticket holders make up 90% (literally -- 17000 sth ÷ 18910 total seats = 90%) of the teams ticket and concession sales, and likely the majority of merch sales too. season ticket holders pay gillis's salary. view them as shareholders. he owes them an explanation; he owes nothing to unpaying fans.

it was filler material for the list of prospects to make the future look brighter than it is.

that letter said absolutely nothing, as usual.

4-1 isles.

tortorella is not fit to be an nhl coach in 2014. this (short) stint in vancouver is comparable to mike keenan's stint in calgary -- a futile, last ditch effort to squeeze the last remaining drops of life out of a dried up, dead core, but also a final nhl coaching chance for a dinosaur of a coach before being forced to either retire or coach in russia by their own outdated coaching methods.

i have no doubt it played a role, along with the luongo nightmare and trading schneider.

anybody remember what cost nonis his job?

if gillis doesn't have authorization to move his best trade chip on deadline day, he should tell aquilini to f himself and resign immediately.

the team has given up. the 2011 finals punctured their confidence, the two seasons prior to this one gradually deflated them, and they needed a new coach that would come in and patch them up and pump some air back into them. instead, gillis hired a coach that came in and threw their sagging, deflated carcass into a wood chipper. it's not tortorella's fault that they're bad, but he was an absolutely brutal hire.

take back meszaros as a cap dump.

kesler schroeder/hansen/dalpe for sutter bennett pouliot 1st 2014 1st 2015 edler for schenn hagg/morin/laughton 1st 2014 2014/15: sedin-sedin-burrows (or ufa if burrows is moved) bennett-schenn-kassian horvat-sutter-higgins sestito-richardson-archibald hamhuis-tanev garrison-bieksa pouliot-corrado stanton

since when are you playing this game? i thought you were firmly in the "kesler isn't going anywhere, the media is lying" camp?

sutter, bennett, pouliot, 1st 2014, 1st 2015. that would be optimal in my mind. perhaps unrealistic.

when umberger was refusing to sign his entry level deal because he wanted rookie max and burke was lowballing him, kesler took the lower deal and at burke's request went on the radio and said that umberger should just accept the deal instead of holding out.

people need to accept that in order to get max value for kesler, which wont be as high as people are hoping, you're going to have to accept the downgrade at center. if you want futures for kesler, you flip him now. if you want a hockey trade, you wait til the draft. personally, i want futures. so, you make a deal with the pens, but pouliot has to be included. to pitt: ryan kesler to van: brandon sutter derrick pouliot 1st round pick 3rd round pick (maybe) if you're trading kesler, you're giving up on the season, so the huge downgrade at center actually helps because you'll end up with a better pick. let's say, for the sake of argument, vancouver ends up with the 8th pick and 26th pick (from pitt). they can then package either of those picks or both with a top 4 defenceman to either land a second line center or to move up in the draft to grab someone like sam reinhart who might be nhl ready. there will be lots of options.