Jeff Price (no relation)

Damn it.

I'm really liking Benn, btw.

Why would Vancouver have a goal?

Powerplay doesn't look any better.

They aren't letting up, either. They've played a quarter of their ice time playing pinball with the puck in the Vancouver slot, with 5 pairs of skates as bumpers.

This Vancouver team is very aggressive and seems fast. They look tougher to play against than their record would indicate.

Radulov is out again, I see.

Lundqvist is rattled now.

Patches is the most underrated player in the NHL. Never gets mentioned among the elite forwards, but he really does everything, and is consistently in the top 5 for goals every single year. Imagine if he actually had an elite center with him.

I think it's a stretch to call Danault, Byron and Plekanec "4th liners." They don't feel like top 6 material, though. For legitimate top 6, we've only got Patches, Radulov, Gallagher and Galchenyuk.

Only four of our forwards are legitimate top-6 forwards. Our D is pretty solid. Weber, Petry, Markov are as good a top 4 as any in the league. We might be weak at 4, but our 6th and 7th are probably 5th on most teams depth charts.

I don't get it. Bergevin never has been afraid to pull the trigger...but the things he added don't add anything we need.

Well. What are the odds there's another completed trade in the pipeline? because it looks to me like all MB did was load us up with more 4th liners than we can use.

Not to complain about how we're outplaying Columbus so far, but it would be nice if we'd win a faceoff once in a while.

Damn. I'm in the tropics on a Caribbean vacation. Not that I miss the weather, but it sounds like I sure missed a fun game...

That's the opposite of what I said. I said MT gives him far too much responsibility and ice-time. But that's not DDs fault. The simple fact is, that as a guy who has played most of his time shifting between all four lines, he's averaging 0.58 points per game for his career. That's 48 points per 82 game season. He's as high as 60, but that's getting first line duty. 45-50 is where he'll sit, if he gets a solid 82 games on a good 2nd or 3rd line. The average regular NHL forward gets 0.4-ish points per game and makes 3.2 million, including entry level contracts. When you remove ELCs from the mix, David Desharnais regularly puts up better than average production, with a lower than average salary. You can complain about that, but then you're simply not being realistic. Guys that put up more points than DD on a regular basis make 5+ million a year. Guys that make his salary tend to get less points. Guys that make less money than him tend to put up less points. Combined with the fact that he's a dependable player that you can trust on either end of the ice, in any situation (even if he's not ideal for any situation, he's also far from a bad choice), and 3.5 million is cheap for him. For any other player of his talent and work ethic, you'll pay more.

The Salary Cap for an NHL team is $73 million. With an 22-23 players on the roster at any given time, that means the average, run of the mill player makes $3.2+ million dollars. However, when entry level contracts (which run between $600-$900,000) are removed from the mix, that means average players make a little more than $3.2 million, probably a bit closer to $4 million. David Desharnais, a 45-60 point guy most seasons, no matter which line he plays on, is a little bit better than the average, and makes $3.5 million.

DD's a good player, and a steal at 3.5 million. He's a solid 2nd line center, and a great 3rd line center. What he's not is a cornerstone of our offense or a guy who should see a lot of powerplay time. This is a problem hockey fans have all over the place. Like the Leaf fans I'm surrounded with complaining about Phil Kessel for years -- when Kessel did exactly what the team hired him to do and he did it very very well: Score goals. You don't expect a guy like that to be Sid. That's not who he is. They had a similar problem with Dion Phaneuf (except in Phaneuf's case, the Leaf's brass also had the same problem.) Phaneuf is a solid #4 defenseman on any team in the NHL. What he's not is a cornerstone of your defense who should be paid $7 million a year and made captain, expected to carry the team. He's just a good defenseman, who was expected to be savior. We've got this problem with David Desharnais. David Desharnais is a good hockey player. He's also underpaid, which makes him a steal. It's not his fault that Le Genius keeps treating him as if he's Gretzky or something. Don't hold that against DD. DD has done an admirable job of trying to fill the roles MT thrusts him into, but he's not cut out for them. Fortunately this year he hasn't had to be. We've got 2-3 centers who are better.

Funny how dead this forum is after Montreal dominates two games in a row like that.

Evidently you increase team scoring to 7.5 goals per game without doing anything other than calling up underperforming AHL players.

So, 5-2 vs. NJ. 10-1 vs. Col. How about 15-0 vs. Boston? Just to keep the pattern going? That's where it would have to end, though. While 20 goals scored would be amazing, the real problem is that can't figure out how we can get San José to score negative 1 goals next Friday.

You mean 9-1.

His goal was much prettier.

Shea Weber has 7 goals on 42 shots this year after 17 games played. If he reverts to 6.3% shooting percentage for the remainder of the season, he'll get another 161 shots and 10 goals, and put him at 17 for the year. If he hits his usual 10-12%-ish for the remainder of the season, he's going to score 23 - 26 on the season.

I was happy with the call, even if it went against my team. You can't push the puck into the net by pushing all or part of the opposing goalie into the net. Byron did not knock the puck into the net. He moved Howard, and that caused Howard to knock the puck into the net. I'm glad it is that way. I don't want to see opposing teams doing that to Carey after he's made the stop.