lordstanley

I’m not dogging on Yzerman. I don’t think he has made any real missteps and on an individual basis his moves have worked out more often than not. But building a winner takes good luck and catching lightning in a bottle and so far that hasn’t happened yet. In other words,I’m slightly disappointed with where we are at 4 years into Yzerman’s leadership but don’t blame him.

Continuing on from the above post. Except for the Seider scoop, Yzerman's first two drafts were underwhelming.

I like his trades and signings, overall. Drafting has been fine, with Seider the big get and Raymond the right pick too. Jury's out beyond that. Will his 2nds so far turn out to be as good as a Bertuzzi (2nd round, 58th overall) or Hronek (2nd round, 53rd overall) or AA (4th round, 110 overall)? Let's hope. How much less bare is the cupboard than it was four years ago? https://www.nhl.com/news/steve-yzerman-named-detroit-general-manager/c-306889276 "I think there's a good foundation in place in players like [center] Dylan Larkin, [forward] Anthony Mantha, [center] Andreas Athanasiou, [forward] Tyler Bertuzzi and [defenseman] Filip Hronek. You need players like that to build the core you need to reach the higher levels. Kenny has also accumulated a lot of draft picks, and it will be imperative that we draft well, but we already have some promising prospects in players like [forward Filip] Zadina, [center Michael] Rasmussen, [defenseman Jared] McIsaac and [center Joseph] Veleno. We also have an excellent young coach in Jeff Blashill."

3 guys we figured in October as being in the top half of the roster - Hronek, Bertuzzi, Vrana- are gone without any NHL players back for them. Fine, but I definitely want picks to be swapped to acquire NH talent this summer. Seven years without playoffs four under Yzerman’s watch, are enough.

Vrana scored twice togihht versus Canucks including OT winner. Now has 9 goals in 12 games for Blues

A bit off topic, but here's Michigan snipe into the Frozen Four yesterday:

Wings playing out the string in boring, listless fashion.

Ned in net.

Your president showed an amazingly sharp mind today for a man of his advanced age.

I’m not sure I feel much better about our young talent in 2023 than I did in 2013 with Nyquist, Tatar, Jurco, B. Smith, DeKeyser, Oullett, Sproul, Jurco and Mrazek all on the team or in the system and all ages 23 and under.

Except to Mets and Astros fans, the WBC has to be considered a resounding success.

My middle-aged sister in law in Taiwan, a casual baseball fan at most, knew everything about Ohtani. He is not only a megastar In Japan but also a household name in Taiwan and Korea.

Holy crap, what a semi, what a finish. Walk off win for the Samurai! First Ohtani … And then, take it away Japanese announcers…

If the Wings can come back and win tonight …they will have the same number of wins this season as the Vancouver Canucks. 😞

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I want the Whitrcaps’ Ulrich Bojarski to make an appearance for the Aussies tonight.

USA 12, Canada 1 Mercy!

So the 5-way tie at 2-2 did happen. This was the tiebreaker mechanism. If only the tiebreaker had been decided by putting each team captain into one room and whoever solved that math formula quickest would be the winner. Accuse me of bias or of (positive) stereotyping, but I would have liked the Taiwan guy’s chances. Instead it ended Cuba, Italy, Netherlands, Panama and Taiwan in that order.

I’ve been to Taiwanese weddings that were kind of like this. Some Taiwanese funerals are similar - except with strippers!

It was all Boston after the first 10 minutes of the game. Still, the Wings hung onto the tie until 5 minutes to go. See Bertuzzi trip up Seider in the final minute? Good thing he didn’t injure him!

Seems to be mostly on power plays. So out of nowhere the Wings produce one of their best periods of the season, although Boston was clawing its way back into it the second half. 2-0 after 1.

I think it’s a really good idea. Would prefer it just flash there for a couple of seconds and on face offs, rather than stay there the entire shift.