buddha

that says more about prospect rating than yzerman, dont you think? or do you long for a return to late stage kenny holland? dennis cholowski, anyone?

yeah, but you said they should have been a playoff team in 2-3 years... and yzerman has been here for really 4 years. they were a tiebreaker away last year.

its cute that people think we might pick first or second.

they were one of the worst teams in nhl history with the worst farm system and you want them to be a playoff team in 2 years???? dude...

debrincat, kane, larkin, raymond, tarasenko...all of them have been nom-existant.

well, lalonde finally faced reality and started playing edvinsson and seider together.

rasmussen played well two years ago at the end of the year. he was being physical and mean. going to the net and corners. then he got hurt and signed his extension. since then he's returned to being big, slow, and soft. he's another very replaceable player. in fact, watson would probably be just as good if he could stay out of the box.

going from where they were: the worst team in the league and one of the worst teams in nhl history PLUS one of the worst farm systems in the league: to now takes time. i havent had a huge problem with what theyve done up until this offseason. kasper was CLEARLY better than all of those guys on the 3rd and 4th lines. mazur was just as good as half of them. even cossa was probably ready to be at least a backup. and instead they paid for old, bad, and slow and re-signed average to play alongside bad. you brought seider and raymond up early and theyve been fine! they even won a calder! rookies can play in the nhl, steve! try it! you might like it! seider has looked really good. everyone else has looked decidedly poor or off their game. last year's puck luck has abandoned them.

there wont be any real heat this year because its still yzerman, but there will DEFINITELY be heat next year. especially if he signs another load of veteran trash and keeps all the rookies down in GR. i mean, theyre not blind. they can see how old, slow, and bad they look so far. the real problem is they have no defense propsects to bring up. theyre all forwards and what they really need are defensemen.

yzerman must look at michael bunting with envy "man, if only i could bring up all our players when theyre 25... thats the perfect age for a rookie!"

theyre getting embarassed at home for the 2nd time in 3 tries.

5-1 and they pull talbot. gustaffson looks horrible. talbot looks every bit of a 38 year old goalie who can no longer move from side to side. motte looks....like a 4th line nothing player. veleno is still a bottom 4th line center at best. berggren is invisible. tarasenko has done nothing. every acquisition theyve made in the last year looks like a waste of time, while they let mazur, kasper, danielson, et al sit in grand rapids. just like they let edvinsson sit last year while they died on defense with petry. when i thought logically about this year i thought this was a step back until next year when they can get some of this dead weight off the books, give the kids room to grow, and then use the cap space to get a top player. my heart said "no way! playoffs or bust!" i should have listened to my head. its still early and they have a rough opening schedule, but they are FAR off the pace. and their goalies look very, very bad. again.

soft goal #2. cossa will be here before you know it. actually, this is detroit, cossa will be here in 3 years in a part time role to prove he belongs...

can we move seider to PP1?

debrincat misses a wide open net, the wings flub their way through a 5 on 3 and get nothing, gufstaffson looks terrible and gives the rangers a scoring chance when the WINGS are on a 5 on 3, and then talbot gives up a soft goal and theyre down 1-0.

he's already in playoff form...

I really want to go to grand rapids. said no one. ever.

truth. the raiders are bad for a reason. and that reason owns the team.

if the raiders thought hendon hooker was a franchise qb they would have drafted him. i like HH, and i'd give him time to develop some more, but he hasnt shown anyone anything that would indicate he is a franchise qb.

betrayer the optimist, always giving the new regime a chance. 🙂

shesterkin has been the difference so far. wings are playing well, just cant get it by igor.

rangers getting a lot of home cooking in this one.

i guess so, but they've been playing really beat up offensive lines so far. better than last year, and you hope arnold/rakestraw get better as the season goes on.

comparable trades to crosby-ish defensive ends: bears trade a high second for montez sweat bears trade two firsts, a third and a sixth for for khalil mack, a second, and a fifth raiders trade a future first for richard seymour vikings trade a first, two thirds, and a swap of 6th round picks for jared allen **** mack and allen trades seem the most similar. i would argue the bears overpaid for mack (and sweat), but unfortunately they mucked up the market for everyone else. crosby is in his prime but he's also REALLY expensive. a first and a fourth, plus a future third (or two) with the raiders throwing in a future fifth or something should be enough. if the lions want to go that route.

hollinger had his bottom of the east preview today. bad news: pistons at 28 wins. even worse news: there were four teams in the east that were worse. were going to end up picking 8th.