Wamsley01

Biggest joke in the book. If it is a dive, it is not a crosscheck!! You can't have it both ways. Bloody easy way out!

I thought that after the 4-2 Pens comeback. Meant nothing in the end.

Yes isn't it wonderful. Thanks Mr. Bettman

Moral victories don't get you in the playoffs.

Talk about no luck! When are we going to start to get these bounces??

###### sakes! 2 Goals on our own net!

SAKUU!!!! I mean PEREZ!!!!!

2-2 Isles/Leafs Heading for another wonderful 3 point game. Looks like the 4th one of the night!

Right now, yes. Ryder has his flaws but Lats just does not get the NHL just yet. But like Shanahan, Neely, Leclair, Bertuzzi...it takes them a while to get going. and I am not saying that he will be as good as those guys. Just pointing out that power forwards take time to develop.

Lats has been invisible for at least half the season. But 19 year old power forwards tend to do that.

7 penalties to 3. Not used to that

Yeah, I am just saying we have a ton of 2+ PPG against games in the last 15.

Good to see the PK has stepped up. Another 2 PPG against game.

77/80

Oh they are a great team, but so is Buffalo. It seems that the more speed that the other team has the more we use. When we play Buffalo both teams are flying up and down the ice. I think they are a good matchup for us. Whereas Toronto is tailor made to beat us because their strengths are our weaknesses. Is it a tough game? Yep. Do we have a shot? I believe we do I am just pointing out that people look at the point differential and assume that we are toast before the puck drop. THe Habs can skate with anybody. We do not have many plodders, even our grinders can skate. Time to shock the world. Let's see if Halak is up for it

To add to this the Preds have played 20 games vs their Division (minus Detroit) Chicago 4-2-1 Columbus 6-0 St. Louis 6-0-1 and went 16-2-2 for 34 points Now compare that to our Division schedule (minus Buffalo) Ottawa 3-3-1 Toronto 2-2-1 Boston 2-2 we went 7-7-2 for 16 points. That is a net gain of 18 points in their division. Nashville is 15 points ahead of us in the Standings. If you say the west is better, it can be countered that we have gone 5-2 vs the West this season. Also the West has 4 of the worst 5 point totals in the NHL. Nothing is what it seems. The reason Edmonton beat up Detroit last year and everybody was shocked was because Detroit beat up those 3 teams all year and inflated their record. Bettman's nonsense of an unbalanced schedule has created competitive imbalance. If Nashville was in our division they would not have 83 points. Is tonights game winnable, damn right it is. They are still adjusting to Forsberg and they have gone 4-5 in February.

Look at the New NHL. How many elite teams are there? If Montreal was in the Southeast they would be 2 points from 8th and 3 pts from 3rd. Take away New Jersey/Buffalo/Nashville/Anaheim/Detroit and what do you have? Montreal is 7 PTS away from being 6th overall in the WHOLE ENTIRE LEAGUE!!! Toronto is playing .650 Hockey with a lineup of: Antropov/Ponikoravsky/Battaglia/Belak/Bell/Devereux/Green/Gill/Kilger/Newbury/O'Neil/Stajan/Pohl/White Are Sundin/McCabe/Kaberle/Raycroft so good that they raise the level of those bums? Why can't the Canadiens lineup of Kids work hard and play at the same level? Parity rules the NHL right now. Once the train gets rolling you never know. Boston is playing great hockey right now without Bergeron and Murray and journeyman Tim Thomas standing on his head. If you work hard you have a chance. And the kids are working hard. Anything can happen. The old lineup was not working, so why not give these young impressionable kids that will do anything to stay iin the NHL a chance? Are they a couple of years away? Maybe. But I have enjoyed watching the fire they bring to the ice. At least I know they are trying every single shift.

I agree. If we play extended minutes with Downey/Murray/Ninimaa and just miss the playoffs we have learned absolutley nothing. But if we turn it over to the kids and they battle all the way to the stretch and go 13-8-1 and we just miss out at least we have the beacon of hope for next year and it creates salary cap flexibility if we go with our youth. I want to know if Kosty can hang in the NHL, I want to know if Milroy is just another AHL journeyman or if he can produce in the show, I want to know if telling Abby to hit the road will leave us with a kid backing up Huet that is capable...etc etc etc. The youth movement that we have been waiting for for 6 years is finally here. Let's see if it was worth the wait.

YESSSSSSSSS!!!!

BIG BIRD! Red Light was awesome. Roadrunner St. Patrick

Personally I don't believe he has let in any bad goals. The 2 against Columbus were point blank in the slot that he had little chance on, and last night 2 were deflected and 1 was a laser beam to the top shelf. He has shown great puck handling ability (helping the Keystone Cops on the backline), great poise and I have yet to see him flop around like a fish like Abby. He has made all the stops he has needed to. But with all the injuries he will need to do more than that. The start against Nashville will show us if he has the ability to hang with the big boys and lead us on the unrealistic run that we expect. Good start for sure, I am just not 100% sold yet.

Oh I believe you have to have faith. No doubt. And I have faith the season is not over. And I will take it one game at a time. I am just busting yours and the boards balls because a post like this would have been ripped apart a mere 4 days ago. I might start getting these delusions the second Halak steals a game that I feel we have no business winning. Before the last 2 games I only saw him stand on his head in the AHL All-Star game. I am glad you have faith, it is just the nature of this board to go to such extremes is all.

LOL, so true

I agree, people have been getting on Halak saying he was too deep in his net...come on. Semin threaded the needle and if he did not people would have said how great Halak was in staring him down. And his confidence is filtering through the dressing room based on him refusing to give in to Semin. It was a perfect shot, Roy used to say if he makes that shot, you give it to him and shake your head and say great shot. I think we will know more about this Kid after the Nashville game.

Come on guys...lol This board has been full of fans wanting to blow this thing up for 2 weeks, everybody claiming the season would need a miracle to get to the playoffs, let alone win the cup. Now we are talking about the Stanley Cup after 2 wins over 2 non playoff teams? We are not Leaf fans!! If they go in and bitchslap Nashville tomorrow night or Halak stands on his head and steals a game, then we can begin to get excited. Halak has made some good saves, and I love his puck handling abilitly but he has not really been tested under a barrage. That will come on Thursday. We have a massive road trip coming up and we do not know the status of Higgins. Let's breath and reassess after Thursday night. 1 game at a time boys...1 game at a time.