Canajun

Welcome aboard big Georges! no more of this 'little girl' crap... this season Plekanec plays like a BIG girl

I hear ya... I guess I'm just spoiled by how good our top-9 would be - I wouldn't want to lose any of that firepower. But you all are right - there are 29 other teams that would be envious of our position, I shouldn't complain!

"Dandy is versatile." yeah, he's useless at several positions! ;-)

Who's the odd man out on the 4th line now? Begin, Kosto, or Lapierre? Begin and Kosto are very very similar players - almost carbon copies... it's possible one of them might be leaving.

I am happy. Bringing Laraque in INSTANTLY makes our skill guys 25-50% braver and more effective.

I feel comfortable with our defense depth in a pinch - I think Valentenko could step in if needed, or even Cote (will he still be around?). But I'm still uncomfortable about our offense depth. To me, it feels like it drops off pretty substantially after our top-9, with none too ready in the wings to step into any of those positions.

If we do sign Sundin, I'll certainly be very, very happy with that. We'll have a top-9 forward group unsurpassed in the league. But what if one of those top-9 get hit with a medium to long term injury? That would be trouble. We really don't have anyone NHL-ready down in Hamilton to step in and fill that role. D'Agostini would be the closest thing we've got (I'm assuming Locke and Grabovski won't be around anymore). Would we be looking at a quick trade to find a band-aid? Our top-9 had better stay healthy, in my opinion.

This whole Sundin/Gainey thing is starting to get like a guy in a fight with his girlfriend : Gainey: Aw come on honey, don't be like that... talk to me Sundin: No Gainey: Awww come on... Sundin: No. I need time to think.... think about my FEELINGS Gainey: Awwww...

OK, here's my NON-Grabovski lineup ;-) Tanguay - Sundin - Kovalev S.Kost - Plex - A.Kost Higgins - Koivu - Latendresse S.Kost and Higgins could be flip-flopped. In my eyes, I feel we have 3 "snipers" - Kovalev, A.Kost, and Latendresse. I think it's best to have one on each line, even though it means breaking up the very good A.Kost-Plex-Kovalev line.

Well, he's tough... but I wouldn't say he's a great defenseman, I'm afraid.

I just hope the additions of Tanguay and Sundin (possibly) don't cause any chemistry problems. That's always something that needs to be considered when adding more than one free agent player to your top 9 group of forwards. We don't want to have a Rangers-like situation going on here with too many "mercenaries".

With Tanguay and (possibly) Sundin, we will be STACKED up front. So much for my Grabovski hypothesis! ;-)

Lots of people crap on Grabovski, but I wouldn't be averse at all to seeing him in next season's starting lineup. I think he's more NHL-ready than D'Agostini. D'Agostini didn't have a very good season in Hamilton, in fact he regressed. Very poor plus/minus. Grabovski had something like 17 or 18 points is a 5 or 6 game stretch with the Bulldogs - I don't ever recall seeing any of our prospects pulling off something like that. Yes he's small, but the kid has got something.... he could be on the verge of really exploding (... or maybe not). If we do happen to land Sundin, that makes for some very interesting line combos. We would have essentially, 3 "little guys" in our top 9 forward group - Koivu, Grabovski, and Plekanec. Best approach is to place one per line. Grabovski, Sundin, Kovalev A. Kost, Plekanec, S. Kost Higgins, Koivu, Latendresse I know, I know, "Grabovski on the first line???!!!!". But I say give him a try on the wing... sure he's small, but he'd be playing alongside two beasts. Those are 3 pretty good, balanced scoring lines.

Grabovski of course wasn't the one who "propelled" us to the top, but it was his inclusion in the lineup that allowed us to ice 3 offensive lines. This coincided with our ascent to the top of the East. Opposing teams couldn't match us. During this time, Higgins was moved to this 3rd scoring line which was a move I really liked. Let him find his scoring touch (or lack of) down there without the pressure of being a top-2 line guy. That is really the perfect spot for him and where he's most effective. In the future if he pulls a Brian Rolston and develops a more consistent scoring touch, then he becomes a legit top-6 guy. I don't know why Carbonneau chose to muck that all up.

I blame Carbonneau... that's what happened. I didn't like him last season and I didn't like him this season. It boggles my mind how he could be nominated for Coach of the Year. He screwed up in the playoffs in 3 big ways: (1) He didn't ice our optimal lineup - the one that we were using down the stretch when we were busy running up to the top of the Eastern Conference and becoming the top scoring team in the league - remember those days? Just look back on some boxscores from March: http://www2.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/scores/20080320/Mon@Bos We were icing 3 offensive lines and opposing teams couldn't cover us. So why the hell did Carbo abandon that during the playoffs?? Oh I know, half of you are going to say "that lineup was too soft/small for the playoffs". OK, so how much better did we fare with the revamped BIG MUSCULAR lineup that we used instead? What did that get us? I don't want to hear that excuse ... the Red Wings aren't much bigger nor tougher than we are... how come they're thriving? Who's more soft and small than Jiri Hudler? But he's in there playing and producing. Besides their one grind line of Draper, Maltby and McCarty... who are all the gritty/tough muckers on the Red Wings? (2) We didn't play to our strengths - skating, puck possession, skill and speed. Carbonneau got caught up in the Don Cherry mentality of the playoffs being nothing but hitting and banging and crashing - that's not us. Carbonneau let us get dragged into a Roller Derby match against the Bruins - and that's not our style. It wasn't quite so Roller Derby against the Flyers, but he still stuck with 2 offensive lines and 2 lines of grinders, and as such, we couldn't maintain any constant offensive flow to our game. (3) Carbonneau chose to go with old grizzled veterans like Smolinski, Dandenault and Brisebois in the playoffs ...instead of the players who helped propel us to the top of the East- like Grabovski. Yes, Brisebois did play okay during the playoffs, but Dandenault was useless, and Smolinski ran out of gas after the Bruins series. Blame Carbonneau.

Price may not be physically tired - like all of you that are hollering "he's only 20, he's only 20, he's not tired!" - but I would say he's mentally tired. Being 20 years old and in top physical shape is not the issue here. There's such a thing as mental fatigue. Go with Halak next game. Like Jackp so accurately said, we need to concentrate on winning this series... not on being the Carey Price Cheerleading Brigade.

Well, I guess we'll agree to disagree Kozed. I'd rather Ryder on all counts - at least he has the *potential* to do something useful out there.

Dandenault is a zero-trick pony. I don't care how many cups he's won with Detroit... he's just not effective anymore - as a forward or a defenseman. Ryder has shown he's even better defensively than Dandenault (as a forward). So I'd rather have him out there with his one-trick (in hopes that *something* happens) and his fairly even plus/minus, than Dandenault with his zero tricks and consistently below zero plus/minus.

Ryder is not worse than Dandenault....

yeah I realize it will awaken intensity on our side too, but I dunno... I got a feeling it will do more harm than good. I'd rather play a passive Flyers team than an aggressive Flyers team any day.

They don't care for the the hard, dirty, physical going... the series with the Bruins showed that.

I like Kosto's work so far, but I wish he hadn't poked Timmonen in the face last night. Why rile the Flyers up, they were playing like kittens. Now they'll just go after our skill guys in revenge. Wasn't a smart move.

that is funny

We can't seem to get consistent offensive flow going. 2 offensive lines, the Begin line, and a useless line. We have one shift of decent offensive pressure, then a shift of nothing, then back again. We need 3 offensive lines... and the Flyers are a perfect candidate to do that against - they don't trap like Boston. Carbo should've done something about the Lapierre line for tonights game. He better do something about it for next game, I don't want to see Dandenault out there for the next game. We can't seem to get consistent offensive flow going. 2 offensive lines, the Begin line, and a useless line. We have one shift of decent offensive pressure, then a shift of nothing, then back again. We need 3 offensive lines... and the Flyers are a perfect candidate to do that against - they don't trap like Boston. Carbo should've done something about the Lapierre line for tonights game. He better do something about it for next game, I don't want to see Dandenault out there for the next game.

I'm not as down on Grabovski as you guys are. He's young and he pouted once, but I don't think that calls for a 1-way ticket to Siberia. Dandenault sooked once this year too, and nobody called for his exile. I wouldn't mind seeing Grabovski play this series... I think we need some more creativity in the lineup. I think we played some of our best and most dominating hockey of the season down the stretch when we went with 3 offensive lines and I'd like to see that again. I was thinking the same thing as MMPL and DriveFor25 - I'm not impressed with the Lapierre line at all... I think both he and Dandenault could sit and bring in Grabovski and one of Latendresse/Ryder. You could leave Streit with them. Philly doesn't seem to play as tight and physical a game as the Bruins so I think that move could work. Higgins -Koivu -Kovalev A. Kost- Plex- S. Kost Lats/Ryder- Grab- Streit Begin - Smol - Kosto Flyers would have some difficulty covering those 3 offensive lines.