buddha

i suspect you'll need to see some progress by the end of this year. he looks awful. in his defense, he is going against a grear DE. they compared him to jordan maitava, but he was starting by the end of year one and hasnt missed a start since. with decker probaby retiring after this season, they'll need to know if they need a new left tackle. cause right now, it aint manu.

how long can you wait for manu to develop?

bernard-docker. forgot about him. buium injured.

finnie larkin raymond debrincat kasper kane copp compher mbn soderblom rasmussen appleton jvr berggren danielson injured chairot seider edvinsson aljo hamonic asp gibson/talbot

the only real disappointment of the preseason rookie-wise was cossa. i guess wallinder and mazur failed to step up too.

i get thinking long term with the rookies, but they've all done enough to make the team. as usual, thry signed a bunch of depth veterans rather than assuming the rookies would make it. so now theyre kind of stuck. but they shouldnt be stuck on defense. asp deserves to be on the team. pick one (or two) of holl, hamonic, or gustafsson and waive them.

franklin isnt going anywhere. they cant reasonably buy him out for two years. even then they wont. be careful what you wish for, penn state. you could end up being nebraska.

ummm....yeah. let me know when james franklin takes stanford to the orange bowl and san francisco to the super bowl. sheesh g2.

gibson was not good tonight. everyone else looked decent against toronto's reserve squad.

i think michigan's running back's performance against nebraska says more about nebraska's dline than michigan's actual running game. or maybe the team sucks now that sherrone is back in charge?

maybe. a little too early to tell yet. but he's not barging down the door, that's for sure.

i'd be surprised if the top tier of the big ten: michigan, ohio state, and to a lesser degree penn state and maybe u$c agreed to such a plan. unless their vision of the future is a tiered plan like the acc implemented or they figure the future "super league" entails big ten v sec. michigan and ohio state outdraw everyone else by a pretty large margin. especially osu. if youre maryland, purdue, or northwestern, you better hope the big 2 dont leave. they may just give them what they want to make them stay.

the upswing corresponded with kasper on line 1. the collapse happened after copp got hurt and kasper went down to line 2.

berggren has actually looked pretty decent in the preseason, but he's getting passed by the kids. mbn and finnie have been better. i bet they could get SOMETHING for berggren on the trade market. maybe a mid or late round pick or a defense prospect someone else doesnt care for (maybe even an andrew gibson, lol). the less time gustafsson is on the team the better. he's only making $2m. holl should be waived. elmer has limitations but he's been ok in preseason. good depth piece. in hindsight, not a ton of reasons to sign jvr. i guess they didnt expect mbn to be ready, and surely didnt expect finnie to come on so strong. but its only pre-season so we might be getting too excited. the big problem is still defense. i didnt see anything special from bernard-docker. wallinder was invisible most of the time. tuomisto looks like a career ahl'er. cossa being bad wasnt a good thing considering talbot and gibson's injury histories. hopefully he matures in GR and can be ready when they need him.

mazur, wallinder, and postava sent down. buium and danielson injured. roster is at 25. 2 more need to be sent down, not including danielson or buium, neither of whom i see making the opening night roster.

the wings have a good problem in that their rookies seem ready to go. their only real question is who plays lw on line one. finnie, copp, kasper, elmer, and jvr appear to be the candidates. on defense....bigger questions as the third pair presents some issues, and who plays with seider. if not chairot then who? do you go with simon-seider at home and then matchup chairot-aljo with lesser offensive players? seider-chairot on the road? they have a lot of enticing options at forward, but not too many in defense after seider and simon.

asp should still because he's better than anyone in their bottom pair. if he did stick, they could work him they way montreal sheltered hutson last year. only offensive zone faceoffs, keep him in advantageous positions and nothing hard on defense.

penn state and usc too.

carter mazur is the real loser here. how do keep him over a guy like finnie? i mean, they WILL, but finnie has been outplaying all of them. can we deal some forward prospect depth for a defenseman?

finnie and mbn should both make the team but wont. asp isnt ready yet but probably has a better chance to make it (he wont) because their bottom defenders are so weak. wallinder has been unimpressive. buium looked good until he got hurt. they looked real good against toronto tonight. especially the forwards forechecking. elmer, finnie, copp, larkin, mbn, everybody. even rasmussen.

asp and gustafsson? good lord, who will play defense?

some team is going to hire her or dawn witherspoon in the next few years.

they outplayed the hawks for the most part. hawks spent a ton of time on the power play and couldnt score becuase they're the hawks. i know its a preseason game, but bedard does not look like a generational player. however, its way too early. it took kane a while to turn into a great player too. johannson had a bad game. got walked for the hawks' only goal, took a bad penalty too. larkin and raymond were sleepwalking in that game, which is fine, just dont get hurt. talbot looked good. caveat: its the hawks. mbn looks like an nhl player. very physical. finnie too. elmer? looks like a 4th liner. cant skate. but he did have a nice defensive play tracking back to break up a 1 on 1. asp is going to get targeted and smashed. hope he eats his wheaties.

ask kilian hayes.