Neech

Bouillon's contract doesn't look too bad this year for a solid bottom pairing D-man. It didn't look good last year though, and Dandenault's never looked all that great. But Streit is something that those guys aren't: a key piece in our league-leading powerplay (I recognize that he's not nearly as important as Kovalev and Markov, but he's still very important to it). That's how I feel. I wouldn't be too happy with having to shell out 9 million over three years (at most), but I think it would be the right move. But on the other hand, S. Kosty could be ready to take over duties at the point, and maybe some other young D we have in the system as well. But that would be a little hasty in our expectations for players' development, so keeping Streit seems like the best option.

What, the alarming mood swings expressed by his sequence of smilies? There are probably pills you can take for that sort of thing.

I agree that Sundin is the type of player that could put us ahead of the pack in the East, moreso than Hossa. But the reason why this is an unreasonable rumour is that we're giving up three high draft picks and Higgins for a rental. We probably wouldn't have been able to resign him, and we'll watch Higgins score goals on us in the blue and white jersey for years, as well as the players picked (not that I have much faith in the Leafs' ability to draft well). And having too many NHL ready prospects is never, ever a problem. We can always trade them down the road, preferably to someone who isn't our biggest rival in our division. Besides, we're not as overstocked as you seem to think. We have pretty many good young players coming up, but few of them, if any (besides Chips) could be called NHL ready this year or maybe even next year. We shouldn't count our chickens before they hatch. We'll likely be looking for a significant aquisition by trade or FA signing in the offseason, and our surplus of prospects should come in handy at that point. I don't want to be sending good players to Toronto for a few months of Sundin.

Yay a proper game thread! Good job Cataclaw. I hope we'll come out with a better effort than we did on Saturday. My prediction: 4-2 win. Goals by Grabovski, A. Kostitsyn, Koivu, Latendresse. Yup a big day for Koivu-Latendresse.

Well yeah, the media loves you when you're the best player on a first place team. They don't have it available in both languages on the same disc?

Haha, that's pretty much it. This is a ridiculous deal that Gainey would never do. They probably also wanted permission to bang Carbo's wife.

This looks awesome and hilarious. Plus they have a second disc that's all about Kovalev the man, which only increases said awesomeness and hilariousness.

Carbo said that Price will start Thursday even if Halak gets a shutout.

Yeah, we're all on relatively the same level. But the Pens might be the best team in the conference, and it's easy to write off their team. Just like it's easy for other fans to write off our team. We don't watch them each game and know the strengths of each of their lines, just like a Pens fan wouldn't give two shits about Sergei Kostitsyn while we know what he can do, even when he's not producing on the score sheet. Both teams have flaws, and I'd say we're about an equally formidable opponent. The Bruins or Flyers, on the other hand, are not. There's no team like Anaheim in the East who I feel we'd have to pull off a miracle to beat, but all of the top six we'd have to play very good playoff hockey to knock off, and that makes them scary. Of course we can't underestimate the bottom two either. I agree that it'll come down to goal-tending, unless both teams get terrible performances in nets. And that works to our advantage, because Price has a better track record of being clutch than Fleury or Conklin.

Yeah, I hope he sticks around for that much. 3 years about 7-8 million would seem reasonable for him. There would probably be a team willing to give him 4 years 12-14 million though, look at what Rivet got. It sure would have looked good for Bob to have resigned Streit before the season, or during it. Ah well, he's only human.

I don't understand how you could not be scared of the Pens. Yeah, they don't have the best defense. And their goalies aren't too great on paper. But this is the same Conklin who leads the league in save percentage somehow, and either him or Fleury could pull a good performance out the hat. Even with being weak on the back end, this team has Crosby, Malkin, and Hossa! They will have two lines to put on the ice at any time that are legitimate first lines on most teams in the league. Plus they have very good offensive defenseman. They could simply overpower an opponent. It is defense that wins championships, but in the East there aren't too many stellar D units; ours is among the better ones, but it's not elite. The Penguins aren't first in the conference - in the toughest division, with the league MVP watching from the stands - for nothing.

I'm really, really surprised. But, there's still no controversy. Price is still our number one, I'm sure Carbo has made that very clear to him. He wants to reward Halak after two great performances, and ride a hot hand.

Is the decimal point necessary?

According to that, we need 11 points in 9 games to get a two-thirds chance to win the division. With 10 points it's a coin flip. Of course, I don't think this takes into account the added importance of our head-to-head games against Ottawa.

Well if we had our balanced attack with all lines going each night we'd average six goals per game. The inconsistency is a problem, but that's a hallmark of a young team. I don't think secondary scoring is the first priority to address because we have young guys that will be able to fill that role more and more. S. Kost, Higgins (I still believe that this was a down year for him and he'll rebound next year), Latendresse, and to a slightly lesser extent Grabovski could all be good top 6 forwards within a few seasons. I think we're at least an even +/- five on five. It really doesn't matter if the goals are coming from a different person each night or the same two people as long as you're scoring them. If it's a different line each night getting the same results as would one line each night, then fine. It probably makes the opposing coaches' job harder.

Yeah, S. Kostitsyn will probably be replacing Streit in the future, but I haven't seen enough of him at the point yet to say that he's better than Streit. We do seem to have D-men in the system who can play the point, but we don't know how long it'll be till they're ready to do it in the NHL. If the choice was between keeping Streit and getting a very good shut-down third-liner, I'd go with the third-liner, but there's no reason to believe that we'd have to choose between the two. And anyways, trying to get a good shut-down player who ALSO plays the point on the powerplay is a stretch, and not a priority for this team.

I don't really understand what you're saying here, but I do think that Philips - Volchenkov is a great shutdown pairing.

If we win the division we'll finish 1st or 2nd, there's no way the winner of the Northeast will finish below the winner of the Southeast. Boston, Philly, Buffalo, Washington and the Rangers are the teams that will be fighting for the final three playoff spots. Out of those, the Rangers are the only one that actually scare me as much as one of the teams we'd face if we finished 5th. Washington is the next most feared, but they're the least likely to even make it in. Boston and Philly, on the other hand, are the two ideal matchups for us, judging by the regular season at least.

Hopefully the Sens will drop points against the Canes tomorrow.

Yeah, it's ridiculous how people think there's a controversy now. There isn't, Carbo already said that Price will get the next game. They dealt Huet because of Halak as much as Price. Sure they thought Price was ready to take over the number one job (or at least more ready than Huet), but they wouldn't have gotten rid of their veteran back-up if they didn't know that Halak was ready to fill that role at least as well. Halak was the main reason I wasn't pissed about the Huet deal; the tandem before the deadline wasn't working too well and Halak deserved to get some starts with us. As for this game, neither side played very well but our talent vs their talent is no contest. DiPietro was great, but Halak was ready to stand on his head as well when he was called upon. It was weird, after so many games with playoff atmospheres this one felt like it could have taken place in October. Our guys didn't look too sure of themselves for most of the game, maybe it was the completely new lines so late in the season. We definitely have to play better than that to beat good teams, but against the Islanders our superior skill was enough to earn us a victory. As usual, I liked what I saw out of Grabovski. He has great vision, and his speed takes opponents by surprise. Ryder was good as well; he's looked like a different player recently, and he definitely caused problems in the offensive zone. Latendresse looked a little lost out there a lot of the time, but it was nice to see him score. And of course our top line was dominant.

So you have chicken and potatoes 82 nights each fall/winter? This sucks indeed. Cataclaw here is selflessly trying to contribute to our board.

Markov and Komisarek may be the best shutdown pairing in the east, I'm not sure about that though. But two guys isn't enough to take on a top line, you need good defensive forwards. New Jersey might not have an elite shutdown pairing, but they have great defensive forwards (and Brodeur of course). In last year's final, the stifling of Ottawa's top line can be attributed to Pahlsson's line as much as the defensive corps. As for secondary scoring, it's an issue for us, but not the major one in my opinion. I actually think we have one of the most balanced attacks in the league, and we have young forward who can fill that sort of role in the future. 149 of our 227 goals came from players not on our top line (roughly two thirds).

You're focusing on the negative. He didn't get 50 points by being the weak link on the powerplay. He is the number five threat out there in my opinion, I'd agree about that, and this makes me annoyed when he tees off indiscriminately. But he's a good passer, and fits in very well with our other versatile guys on the PP. Our PP is tops in the league because everyone can pass well, move well and be comfortable in any position. Modano would look like the old man he is in our unit. The point on the PP is not our problem area. We do need a smart and gritty high-calibre third liner, but he doesn't have to be a guy who plays on the powerplay at all.

Here are the remaining games for both teams: Montreal plays: NY Islanders H St. Louis H Boston A Boston H Ottawa H Buffalo A Toronto A (following night) Ottawa A Buffalo H Toronto H Ottawa plays: Carolina A St. Louis H Toronto H Montreal A Buffalo A (following night) Buffalo H Boston A Montreal H Toronto A Boston H (following night) So they are pretty even, but if there is a slight advantage it is ours. We have 6 home games out of last ten while they have 5 (although we have been good on the road, I still think home ice is an advantage for us). Plus they have two back to back situations, while we have one. Both of us play Boston, Toronto, and Buffalo twice. These are tough games for both the Habs and the Sens. The major difference is that we have the Islanders tonight, while they have the Hurricanes tomorrow. Hopefully this can work in our favour. The key is obviously the two remaining games we have head to head with them, and if one team takes both of them they have the clear advantage. But I think we could still pull this out with a split in those games, making our head to head record 2 and 6 against them. So it'll be an interesting final stretch to say the least, and right now the odds look pretty even.

Guys like Streit aren't a dime a dozen. Most teams would be happy with him playing the point on their PP. 'A really smart 2-way forward who could play point on PP' is exactly what Streit is, and he's not as terrible in our zone as you seem to believe. He's a bad defenseman, but he's a good defensive forward. There are probably a handful of guys in the league who fit the description you gave, and they would be more expensive.