Neech

We still have his rights should he decide to come back. He was disappointing last season, but I don't know if he's gotten a fair shot yet. I don't think we need him now, with all the young players we have.

It would be nice to get them for that price, but I'm not too confident. I hope we don't end up paying them 5 million each.

You never know, people put a lot of value in veteran players. Hell, a fourth rounder is better than nothing, if he's not playing at all.

Great game, most of the goals were fluky but we deserved them seeing as we were in their end like two thirds of the time. Every line played strongly, and for once... WE HAD TWO OFFENSIVE LINES!!! Two lines that were consistently creating chances, and Koivu was the player that we gave a big contract and the C to. Hell, even Ryder was good, he was doing lots of things right. He should have had a goal on that chance early in the first, he just managed to hit the goalie instead of the wide open net. The only player that I noticed was a little weak was Chipchura, but he was still pretty steady. I wonder if they'll be able to fit Latendresse into the line up on Tuesday, who would sit out? And Gorges is DEFINITELY playing better than Brisebois.

Before the season started I thought it would be his breakout year. At the end of last season he was lighting it up, making brilliant plays. I thought a line of Plex, Kost, and Higgins might be a possibility, and that it could be very dangerous. But he was pretty weak out of the gate, it looks like he's coming back to form now. It helps that his linemates have been solid the whole start of the season.

Maybe if someone's taken his spot for good once he recovers he'll waive his no-trade clause and we can get something, anything for him.

Get out the kneepads and line up, it's fellate Bob Gainey day! Seriously now, Bob Gainey's been good, better than average, but not run away great. I'd give him around 7 out of 10. We do have a solid core of youth, but there's not a real star among them. They're good, better than most teams probably, but they won't make the difference that will make us a contender. Bob hasn't done anything to really make us a contender. Then there are the bad moves. He recovered from Theodore very well, but we are still paying some of the money we gave Samsonov (indirectly). We lost Ribeiro, now the leading scorer on the Stars, for nothing. Beauchemin got snapped up on waivers. We seem to give players as much money as they could get. For some reason Smolinski is on our team. And cut it with the veterans 'nurturing' the youth, their presence is helpful but they're not lactating sows with rookies on their teat. But if you look at Bob's draft picks, they have been very solid. All the first rounders look like good moves, with the small exception courtesy of hindsight that Mike Richards, Ryan Getzlaf and Jeff Carter were picked after Kostitsyn (who is still a good player). Hamrlik is a good addition. All in all, I'm very glad that we have Bob at the helm, cause we're headed in the right direction. I would contest the claim that we've been rebuilding, we were supposed to be in the playoffs last year. Bob's just not made any rash moves that would be negative in the long term.

I disagree that Ryder is worth more than Bernier, especially at this point in their careers. Ryder is a UFA next season, and will probably want at least what he's earning this year (though if his current trend continues, he won't get it). Also, he's 27, so you can't expect quite as much future improvement from him, he's already supposedly in his prime. Bernier is 22, an RFA who'll likely make less than 2 mil next year, and he's bigger. He's got more potential for less money. I doubt San Jose would want to part with him for the likes of Michael Ryder, who may not even resign.

Yeah, if I were a Flyers fan then that would have been one of those games that causes hair to turn grey and be pulled out. They were turning it over left and right, and the defensive zone coverage was terrible. I liked the game from the Plex line as usual, but I'm concerned as to how A. Kostitsyn would respond if that hit he took at the end of game came in the first. He seems like that sort of thing rattles him a bit. As for lil Kostitsyn, he was solid out there, and he actually took some shots that made it to the net! He's already contributing more than Ryder. I wonder if they'll put him in for Saturday. Streit, with two goals, was pretty shaky otherwise. I get nervous when the puck comes back to the blueline.

Kind of ducking the topic here, but if we had Koivu AND Sundin, we'd be a legitimate contending team. He's exactly the kind of player we need. Imagine our team with the addition of Sundin over the past three seasons. I think we'd have been in or challenging for the conference finals each year.

Isn't that a little premature for someone who's playing in his first AHL season? He hasn't even played a game for us and you're writing him off.

Well two is the ordinary number so it shouldn't be too much of a surprise. Kyle wasn't born yesterday. I've never been to a game in Philly and I know that the crowd has a reputation that could be described as 'boisterous.' Bitch about something worthwhile.

In my opinion Higgins has consistently played better than Koivu this season. You say how many times did he feed a nice pass in front of the net? Not as many times as he fell down or made a weak play along the boards.

This thread was started November 18th.

I'd agree with Smolinski, because he just reminds me how much I miss Bonk (who is making less money than him this year, dammit). Brisebois is not really much better than Gorges, but he's playing all the games anyway. But Begin, I really love how he plays. Full effort, blocking shots, I rarely see costly mistakes out of him. He always wins me over. I don't really expect too much out of S. Kostitsyn, or maybe he'll have a breakout two goal game to extend his stay with us a bit and then disappear.

Yep, these are my thoughts. Honestly the whole leadership and heart of the team thing is overused as a defense for Koivu. Every team has a captain. I'm not sure that the locker room vibe would take that much of a hit if he were gone. But like you said, it would be preferable to have some success with him around, I like the little fella.

Yeah, we're around where we thought we would be. The thing that really bugs me is how we gave away points in a few games, we need all points that are available to us. We're a similar team to last year's, at some parts of the season we look completely useless, and other parts we play really tight and can compete with anyone. An upswing is coming, soon I hope.

He's made questionable decisions, every coach does. (Why was Kovalev not in the shootout!!) We should keep him for the rest of the season at least.

Well, it's been said before, but where the hell was Kovy on the shootout? I was surprised to see Plex, but I was sure he was going to be the last shooter. And Chris Higgins has officially inherited Ryder's knack for the shot directly into the logo.

Last year our PK was among the league's best. I thought there was no reason why that shouldn't continue this season, but we are around 26th or something. Are we missing Bonk THAT much? It was supposed to be our powerplay that would take a hit this year. I think (and hope) the stats will get better as the year goes on and we'll finish considerably higher than we are now, and our powerplay won't be tops in the league.

Pretty bad game, but if Price stood on his head and we got some bounces it could have been close. We were outplayed, but not completely run over (only on the scoreboard, where it counts). I couldn't understand Pierre and Yvon's incredulity at the first goal being overturned. As soon as I saw the top angle I knew it would be overturned, the puck hadn't crossed the line and it was clearly a forward movement of Streit's skate that pushed it in. Which is a shame because if he didn't touch it it probably would have gone in off the inside of the net half a second later. Komisarek needs to stop fighting. Invariably he fights someone less valuable to the team, and in this case he took himself out of the game for a period and cancelled a powerplay. Fighting a few times a season is OK, but he's doing it too much. I'm starting to think that we need some kind of an enforcer to take the fighting majors. And seriously, how many times this season has Higgins tried to stickhandle in front of a defenseman and gotten it pokechecked away? Every game? He needs to make better decisions out there, don't try to take the team on your back all by yourself. I don't know if he's ready for the A on his sweater yet, granted he obviously cares a lot. And as usual, Koivu is weak.

That would be a dream come true. One of the very best players in the world, and French Canadian to boot. Fulfill your birthright, Vinny! Unfortunately with the free agent and cap situation, we'd have to lay off adding any big names until then, or get rid of them to make room for him.

The Ducks are never giving up Beauchemin, he leads the team in ice-time.

Huet and Gerber are pretty similar in my books. Goalies from the alps who are generally solid but can be known to crack at key moments. Huet is a good, but not great goalie IMO. His movement is not great, his puck handling is subpar, his positioning is generally good but he's not that big. Since Huet will most likely not be back next season, and we may as well try out Price in the playoffs because he's made a reputation of being a big game player, then I would agree on trying to deal Huet if anything worthwhile is available (which probably won't happen).

Would Mike Keanan be stupid enough to trade him for Ryder? They're both UFAs at season's end. And during an intermission on RDS they said that Tampa is trying to get rid of one of their big salaries. It would likely be Richards, cause he's the worst of them. But if they were to trade Lecavalier, here is a package that they might consider: Koivu or Kovalev Komisarek Halak or Huet 1st round pick That's a hell of a lot to give up, but that's what premium players are worth.