khay

Competition doesn't define the generation. If a player dominates a stretch of about 10 years, I'd call that player generational. Lidstrom qualifies based on that definition. Bourque is undoubtedly generational. Not sure about others. Lidstrom: born in 1970. Pronger: born in 1974. Niedermayer: born in 1973. Yes, ageing Pronger and Niedermayer were the competition for even older Lidstrom.

Generational should be ahead of superstars. McDavid and Matthews are the only generational players. Best scorer and best goal scorers of their generation. Makar could join the conversation as the best offensive defenceman of his generation. Prior to McDavid and Matthews, it was Crosby and Ovi. Since Lidstrom, no defenceman can be considered to be at a generational talent... Hedman and maybe Doughty and Keith are the closest? Makar has a good chance to be the next one.

This is a fresh take. You might be right. If we had kept Tanev (and Edler) and with LE, Roussel, and Beagle being excellent PKers, we could've made the playoffs. It's not like OEL and Garland's offence is unreplaceable. Could've even kept Toffoli with the money we were paying Holtby and get a cheaper back up. Pearson-Miller-Toffoli Podz-EP-Boeser Motte-Horvat-Hogs Rous-Beagle-LE Edler-Myers Hughes-Tanev LD-Stecher (I'd have rather kept Stecher over Poolman for 4 years). Demko BU.

Not me. I remember during the tail end of WCE era before transition into the Sedin era, thinking, man we are not never gonna have as dynamic a line as WCE anymore. Goaltending will forever be $hit and defence will always be mediocre... we are never reaching the cup final with these Sedins and Auld as our goalie. And then the Sedins took this huge leaps. Luongo arrived. And defence, well it was one of the best top 6D, probably most balanced top 6D in the league for a few years, although it lacked a true #1D that other cup winners have had in the past. I think we have good young pieces on the roster now. Those guys are going to have to take leaps like the Sedins, Kesler, Edler, Bieksa, Burrow, and etc. The outlook of the team could change with one big move (i.e., Bert for Lu) coupled with progresses from the young guys. I'm especially looking forward to our young guys taking steps forward like EP, Podz, Hogs, Rathbone, and even Hughes have lots of room to grow and be better.

Hughes is the best player we have. We don't trade him. Oddly enough, his main weakness is puck management. He sometimes rushes the play unnecessarily. So many times, we are up a goal and somehow he tries to thread a pass that gets turned over. He hates giving up the puck but sometimes, you gotta make the simple play and just chip the puck out instead of going for a pass that could either lead to a breakaway for us... or the other team if it gets turned over. When we are down a goal, his decision making with the puck also becomes much poorer. This is understandable since he is trying to help us get a goal but I feel like he needs to learn to be more patient with the puck and wait for the right play to open up instead of forcing a pass that the opponent is waiting for you to make.

Honestly, we are all but mathematically eliminated. We need to win minimum 10 games, probably 11 out of 13 to even have a chance. It's been fun and it's never over until it's over so I just hope they will keep on playing hard like every game is an elimination game.

Some bad bounces and the game was over in the first with the way Husso was playing. Halak played well and made some key saves to keep us in it until the end. Sometimes bounces go your way, sometimes they don't. Can't win them all. I like Lockwood's speed. It would've been nice if he buried that chance in the 1st period.

Love this decision. Sign of a desperate coach is never trusting your back up. Bruce is giving Halak a chance to redeem and usually the player responds.

Life is short indeed. Wise words.

But what will he get us if we trade him? Another 7th rounder? There are two possibilities here. 1. He puts up a Hobey Baker worthy season. 2. He puts up an OK season, a mild progression but nothing spectacular. In the latter case, he will sign with us and we send him to the AHL. In the former case, we will negotiate in good faith and hope he does too. If he doesn't, then we listen to other teams that are interested in gaining negotiation right. We flip him for whatever draft pick we can get, which should be at least a 7th rounder. Trading him now is like giving up on a girl that you've been chasing for months (or years) only because she asked you wait one more month and you jump the gun and take that as a sign that she has other intentions.

Podz, this kid never stops practicing. Would love to see Podz score a goal tomorrow.

Sutter has two cups, no? Both with LA? One minor weakness of the Flames, which may now have been addressed is the secondary scoring. Gaudreau-Lindholm-Tkachuk line is elite with all 3 guys being 30 goal scorers. In a tight checking playoff series, teams will find a way to shut down that line. And when that happens, will the Flames be able to score enough goals? Obviously, they knew that was their weakness and acquired Toffoli, who is playing very well. Manginapne is a 30 goal scorer so there's that their secondary scoring. Will it be enough against the Avs? Panthers? Canes? Bolts? I like their chance of reaching the WCF and possibly coming out of the West, but I don't think they will win the cup this year. Cup winner will be from the East. Likely a Florida team, if not the Canes.

Crush Vegas combined with Oilers slip, then we can get in as #3 in the Pacific. The last game of the season against the Oilers... That game could decide the playoff fate of the two teams.

Yeah that shot reminded me of Nazzy. When Petey's on his game, along with Miller, this team is hard to stop. Btw, I think it was a forward, Pavelski, who had no idea how to defend that shot properly. When Petey gets those shots off against elite defenceman, he will score 40+.

Good comments. Never noticed Dermott much in any of the games he played in, which is a good thing for a bottom pairing defeceman. He makes the safe plays and can skate out of trouble if in a pinch. Hunt seems more settled in playing with Dermott as well. Overall, it was a great pick up and addressed an area of need (bottom pairing left shot D). Chiasson made an error on that play but I think everyone makes those sorts of mistakes from time to time. Remember Boeser feeding Matthews in the slot? We won that game and we won this game. I think as a replacement player on a cheap contract, Chiasson has been doing his job. I like the fact that he lays the body from time to time. Very sharp comment regarding Podz. You are right that he creates a lot of opportunities. Maybe if he played with better linemates, those chances would turn into goals? I think he and Petey were pretty good and Garland looked ever more dangerous with Podz and Petey as well. Like that chance he set up Chiasson, maybe if that's Petey, it gets buried and so on. If you compare game 1 for Podz and game 67, he is miles improved and that's all we want to see from a young player, that he is improving every game. He will be a top 6 player no doubt.

That's not good news... We only have 5 games left on the road after the game against the Blues. Gotta figure out a way to win at home.

Great win. Great work by Demko. But what's with refereeing the last 3 games? The entire referee association made bets against the Canucks on this road trip?

Yep, he absolutely could benefit from gain of 10-15 pounds. He is already not doing too bad at protecting the puck using his body now compared to before. But Petey at around 190-195 pounds would be hard guy to contend with. Boudreau putting him on the PK was a brilliant idea.

Petey played 22 minutes last night. That's more than any other forward, yes including Miller and Horvat. Miller may be the best offensive player, but Petey is the best two way player on this team. It's shame that his injury is preventing him from playing center right now. Henrik wasn't getting prime icetime in 2001-04. The Sedins were still establishing themselves in the league. Petey's already got pretty good offensive game and near elite defensive game. He just needs to elevate his offensive game and we are looking at a special player.

Love this trade for LA. Petey will excel against a team like the Canucks. Looking forward to watching him scorch us every single game.

Great effort to get the point. OT wasn't great. Miller let up at the end.

Dallas. If any of those teams slide, it's most likely to be Dallas. My reasoning: 1. They have games in hands but they need to play 20 games in 35 games. Less than one day rest between games. I hope it will catch up to them. 2. The modern game requires a lot of offence to flow through defence. They still have Klingberg but I hope that missing Heiskanen will hurt them. 3. As good as their first line has been, I think it will catch up to them as they have less time to rest. At the end of the day, we can't worry about other teams too much. Just have to go out there and find a way to win like we did against the Avs.

I'm a man, but man, (some) men are idiots. Lame. Avs lost because they were Ha-lack of goals last night. OK, it's kind of fun.

Highmore has the best attitude out of almost any player I've seen on this team in the past and now. He just quietly goes about doing his job. When he gets hit, he just gets up like nothing happened. This team has a lot of good character players.

I hope so... but let's not get ahead of ourselves. Tomorrow's game is going to be a tough one. Only one guy will be well rested and he has to get us a 1-0 win tomorrow.