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Does anyone seriously think Sergachev would be doing anywhere near as well as he is surrounded by this D? Operating on this PP instead of the one in Tampa? Put things in perspective for crying outloud, its a trade, a swap of players, a swap of environment, team players and surroundings. Over here Sergachev would have been playing somewhere in this D core for 18 min a night, played on our PP making plays to our forwards. Just from that standpoint, his point totals would be significantly different. And who knows what Drouin's point totals would look like playing with Stamkos and Kucherov this season. Sergachev literally got traded to a very ideal situation for himself, and Drouin did not. Failing to see that, or account for it, is not a fair way to look at this thing.

How scary is it that, the GM of our team has to prove his competence, or further cement his incompetence with something as massively important as the Pacioretty situation. Literally shitting my pants about this the more I think about it.

At this point I Think he has shifted his focus on how to save his job to showing Molson how the cap he never spent will just turn into profits to make up for the lost profits of not making the playoffs. Who knows, and besides, I would be lying if I said afrer all this, I am not worried about the deals he would make to get his back off the wall.

Holy christ really? You think every GM in this league doesn't think Pacioretty isn't a change of scenery away from being his 35 goal scoring self? Just because a guy who has scored 30 goals 4 years in a row has a rough couple months doesn't mean he is suddenly worth a Connor Sheary..

Price once again, the only one doing anything at a high level.

Price must be asking himself if this shit is really going to happen again tonight right about now.

Cant be awesome all night right? Lol

Plekanec turned into Lars Eller DON, isnt that enough!!

Cbc panel sayin Pacioretty and Hoffman actively being shopped.

Im still going with gallagher but galchenyuk has been playing well for sure.

Good lord does every D on this team have a no taking the body policy when Florida puts it in our corners? They regain possesion everytime without so much as a back scratch for there troubles. Weber oh Weber where art thou...

The only blunders I saw were from Morrow, multiple times. Aside from whiffing on a pass early in the game, Jerabek has been playin head up, smart, quick play hockey the whole period.

Early impressions so far.. - Top 3 lines are involved, creating some chances out there, it looks promising atleast. - Price looks sharp again tonight, hopefully his team can lend some support for once. - Morrow looks like an anxiety riddled bafoon as usual as soon as the puck is near him in our zone. Jerabek looks like an All-Star next to him. With that said though, Jerabek does look damn good lately and in my books is making a strong claim for most suitable partner for Weber upon his return.

I think the time might be coming, to stop seeing Gallagher on the 3rd line and bring his energy and production up to the top line where it seems in desperate need. We all know Plekanec isn't the reason he is producing the way he is, but maybe Gallagher can help Drouin and Galchenyuk. RELEASE THE GALLAGHER!

Serge would be an ovbious candidate, however due to his age I don't know how much interest there would be from his end. There are your obvious guys who would be interviewed, Patrick Roy, Vincent Damphousse, Bobby Smith, Stephane Quintal, and even Serge, to determine if he would indeed take on such a role. Honestly I don't think anyone of those guys would be a bad choice, some may be better than others. But overall, I'd say for those who lack the experience of others, make up for it in the bleed bleu blanc rouge department, which can't be overstated. If you are passionate and devoted to the team and its success, you will always be invested to that end. When you combine a deep understanding of the game, its behind the scenes world, and passionate fandom for the team, results can be interesting. Thats what I believe the candidate should bring to the table.

Saku Koivu is the only Center this team has had during this century to hit the 70 point plateau multiple times. He played with Heart and Tenacity, the same things we love about Gallagher, he was always under some kind of pressure here yet continued to persevere and be a very good player for this Organization. He wasn't Big enough, not a #1 center, Didn't speak french, just a few of the wrenches thrown at him on a yearly basis, and of course, he Isn't a winner, because he was so well surrounded during most of his time here right?

While I agree that Markov was the biggest loss and was ultimately going to be the biggest problem. I have also noticed the skeptism that I tried desperately to drown out with optimism going into the season about signing Alzner, and Radulov not being needed to the point of overpaying to retain him, was foolish. Alzner is exactly what washington fans were saying, Radulov was a big loss because we never used the cap we could have spent on him, on any other top 6 forward. Mash those 3 poor decisions together, tagged along with some underperforming top players for us, and you have this perfect storm of disapointment we have to endure the rest of the season. Unless of course by some miracle, Bergevin gets off his ass, smacks a couple homerun deals in an attempt to show he still has some competence left, and bring optimism back for next year while saving his skin. I wouldn't bet my sons bike on that scenario playing out though.

Love it, didn't even think of that one.

Molson needs to hire himself a real President, a hockey guy with the success of this club dear to his heart, and won't stand for incompetence. Shanahan is a perfect example of that, I don't know if Damphousse or Roy is that version for us, but the owner shouldn't be the president too and allow his personal feelings to get in the way of results.

Fact remains however, he is thriving at center, practically being more productive than our entire top line combined. And the price paid for him was not very high at all. There was simply no excuse why a team who didn't need a top 6 forward as badly as we did was willing and able to pay reasonably for his services, and we, as desperate as we are for top 6 players, were not.

Someone needs to be tasked with playing "Blink 182 - Man Overboard" obnoxiously loud outside Bergevin's office for the rest of the season.

Brayden Schenn is a top 6 center, who's position would not be questioned, a big body, and a player who was traded at a reasonable price. And we were no where to be found in the situation, we desperately need top 6 centers, get fed the chicken soup about how good players are not available. And now Schenn is a ppg player in St.Louis and we are still looking for big bodied top 6 centers. Do you not see the god damn problem there DON or are we going to continue to see more lame excuses like "no one wanted Schenn" P.s Emelin and Beaulieu were more than expendable assests, Jerabek is doing no worse than Beaulieu and arguably already better. And for the caphit difference, id rather a puck mover like Schlemko over Emelin. The main problem is Markov is gone, we had and clearly still have no one capable of doing what he did, 38 or not, instead we have Alzner, who as most washington fans predicted, is a shell of his former self. He is barely cutting it as a decent defensive dman, Benn has arguably been better lately. Nevermind putting in the type of quality minutes Markov was logging and contributing to this team.

DON you are out to lunch on this one, Markov would have still been useful, Radulov would have re-signed here if we were willing to overpay a little in June, and given how ridiculous this offense looks right now, we very likely should have, from the simple fact we clearly couldn't afford not to. Also I am not complaining about Emelin and Beaulieu, I am simply saying cutting them loose would have still been fine, while signing Jerabek and getting Schelmko. This offseason was a mess, we started strong and ended in catastrophic fashion, with almost 9 mill in cap, no players to use it on, hobbling into the season on what was likely plan C or D. You trying to say my point of keeping what we had and adding to it instead of trying to do whatever the heck you wanna call this was, is bordering on Blind and Foolish defending of a terrible plan that Started July 1st, and is currently failing miserably. By my calculations, if we re-signed Radulov at 7, Markov at 7, got rid of Emelin and Beaulieu, Signed Jerabek and got Schlemko, not signed Alzner, Hemsky, and Streit, we would have been sitting around 73.8 mill on the cap. And I look at a top 6 center like Schenn getting moved in June, it took a young talented forward and a pick to get him, we couldn't have offered Galchenyuk, who we can't figure out if he is a top 6 Center or not, and a pick not got in on that? After a swap like that we would have been sitting at 74.2 in cap, our line up for opening night could have been. Pacioretty - Schenn - Radulov Byron - Danault - Drouin Lehkonen - Plekanec - Gallagher Hudon - De La Rose - Shaw Markov - Weber Schemko - Petry Jerabek - Benn But of course you are right, my point is weak, making 4 extra moves that bring nothing, plus not bringing back important pieces that could not easily be replaced during that particular summer was by far the better plan to enter the offseason with. Oh and lets not forget, not addressing our monumental need of a true top 6 Centermen, for theeee, 5th? year in a row is also right up there on the best plan ever list right?

The saddest part in all this is, this team can't even figure it out when Price is playing awesome, this is 2 games, based on his standout performance, that Price did not deserve losses for, yet here we are. Yes, it looks like this is a non-playoff season, No it is not time to Burn it all to the ground as some are already suggesting. It needs a shake up, a big shake up, but it does not need a can of gas and a lighter yet, with Price and Weber the pillars are still there to make something worthwhile. This team needs a top 6 shake up, it needs a top 6 re-tool, What I am seeing up there is not adequate, and quite frankly leading to lost years of Price and Weber's Prime years of very good hockey left. Defensively this team can actually get by on the backs of Price and Weber alone, but offensively, it is going to be challenged unless something ground shaking happens up there. It was our main point of weakness for years, compounded once more last spring even more evidently. Yet here we are with an unimproved forward group, hindered further by unforseen anomalies like Pacioretty and Drouin not producing as expected leading to an actual offensive regression from last season. There is a re-build coming, in 3 to 4 years, there is a re-build coming. But right now, this team, this management group needs to get on its horse and re-tool this offense before it squanders the years leading up to this re-build swimming around 10th place. Can someone tell me again why after we got Drouin, we didn't re-sign Radulov, and Markov, why we didn't look right past Alzner on the UFA sheet. Why did we not just take what we had, added Drouin to it, got rid of Emelin and Beaulieu, sign Jerabek, and maybe still got Schlemko, and then focused all our efforts on looking for a Center via any means to acquire it?

How do these guys feel ok about themselves leaving a guy like price hung out to dry like that time after time. Even after he plays his heart out and is the only reason some of these games arent complete blow outs. Boggles the mind..