TurdBurglar

In all honesty we're in no position to talk about players and thier cap hits. We have Kaberle, who is impressing me, Cammy, Gomez and Gionta. At least with Nash we know what we're getting. Too bad it's probably gonna cost something like AK46, probably our best offensive player this year. Wouldn't it be nice to see AK46/Eller/Nash and Patches/Plek/Cole? After the 4G performance, Eller should be getting more ice time in offernsive situations. I've said all year he has the best stick-work of anyone on the team. The situation some team are in this year can give us an oppertunity to move Eller up a line and get a Brendan Morrison for 3rd line until White gets back. Very impressed with Nokelainen, he should be staying on 4th even after White returns. AK46/Eller/Nash Patches/Plek/Cole Moen/White/Comeau Darche/Nokelainen/Stempniak Markov/Boumeester Gorges/Subban Emelin/Kaberle This would give us Cammy, Gomez, Gionta, Gill, Campoli, and Weber to deal along with a 1st which will probably go in the Nash deal. Could probably improve more if the deals are tweaked seeing as we have 6 players to give up and by my lines only 3 coming in. The most impressive out of this is our offense is setup for the grind it out and get to the net, which compliments a shot on each defensive pair. Also frees up about 4M in cap space.

I'd be talking to Calgary. AFter last night's loss rumors exploded around Calgary. Could be an easy ditch for Gomez/Cammy/Gionta could get Bouwmeester/Jokinen or Morrison/Hannan for cheap. If Calgary is going to rebuild their gonna need money to fill cap next year. If they want draft picks I wouldn't give up a 1st unless it's Bouwmeester, Iginla is too old to give up a 1st. P.S. Eklund reporting we're in the mix for Rick Nash, interesting.

This one will tell the tail if the much needed line mash-ups are going to be really effective. Anything over 2 goals will be an improvement.

My guess would be Cammy has 2 years left on his contract after this year while Edmonton has Gagner, Barker, Peckham, and Dubnyk as RFA's this year, Hall and Eberle next year. Cammy's contract is probably too long and too pricey to ensure they get their key kids signed, especially if they have been looking to part ways with Hemsky since last year. Just in this offseason your probably looking at Edmonton using Hemsky's contract to sign the 4 RFA's for this year, while Hall and Eberle will be commanding big pay raises next year.

The good news about Gorges is his name is thrown out there associated with a "big" deal. As PG doesn't like big deals I don't expect him to go anywhere. Gorges is a future #1 pair defenseman, he's good now but not there quite yet. Aside from his 1 knee surgery he's pretty dependable and hurt rarely so thats not something you give up for a Hemsky. Thats a piece you give up with an Eberle or Hall is going the other way, in respect to the trade being with the Oilers. I like Kostitsyn, but if he's gonna go now is the time. He's somewhat consistent and since the rest of the team is lackluster scoring he's looking good so it raises his value. I'd rather keep him but if he's not going to be re-signed this summer, trade him now.

Rumors of a deal being made between Montreal and Edmonton. Also Gorges name being thrown around as potential "big deal" but nothing linking these two deals together so they may be related and may not be related. My guess would be Hemsky coming our way as Oilers seems to be shopping him heavily. What exactly we would be sending their way I really don't know, but Oilers are in need of defence. IMHO Gorges for Hemsky isn't worth it but could see a package of players. If we're giving up Gorges we better get a Paajarvi at least in return, but knowing us, it'll be Horcoff.

Wanting out of a situation you helped to create and aren't helping to remedy is spineless.

The reason PK was sitting was because he admitted he can't be playing like that. It's a player taking responsibility for his own actions and accepting the coming consequences. Something every player in the lineup should be doing. Instead their all blaming it on the team as a whole. Cunneyworth might be starting to rotate everyone out of the lineup in the coming weeks, so they can see whats going on on the ice from a different angle. Tapes are good and all, but sitting in a box with a suit on while your team is losing and your powerless to help for that game, give you a different perspective from a different perspective. Might be what they need to light a fire under them. The reality is with this team is a little more effort every game and they would be in the top 4 of the conference, 7 OT losses, 3 blown leads(off the top of my head) that ended in 0 pts. there's 13 pts that would have them in a tie for 1st in the east.

I completely agree. We have young guys that could use experience, we're not in a playoff spot and doesn't look like we'll be in one by April. After the break warn the team start sitting players in the pressbox for poor performances. Whats the worse could happen? They stop playing for the coach? They've already stopped playing for the team. They demand a trade? I know a few on the team that I wouldn't care if they were gone as their playing now. If they demand a trade they should be told their going to sit in the pressbox or be sent down to the minors if an acceptable trade can't be found. Nobody will pick up Cammalleri's $6M a year the way he's playing, same for Gionta and Gomez. If they do, it saves a buyout and thats money to pickup players in the offseason. Maybe we can over pay for someone thats actually worth it.

We lost 5 straight when Martin started to coach as well. Cunneyworth needs to get the black cloud out of the room. Too many high priced players with the impression that if it's OK for Gomez to not score it's OK for them to not score. Cunneyworth needs to start sitting EVERYBODY to get it in their head if their not playing to their worth then their not playing. Tell Cammy he's not playing because he's not producing. Sit him in the pressbox for a game or 2 and see if he doesn't come back like a cannonball on fire. The team made the change to get the slow, boring, brain-dead hockey style gone. Now we need the player's mindsets to change as well. I see lots of positives with Cunneyworth's coaching. Higher pressure in both ends of the ice. I see 2 forecheckers to attempt to turn over the puck. Now the players need to get the will to play this way.

One game for a hit that has gotten everyone else 2 games. The only reason Shanny handed out this 1-game suspension is to make people believe he;s not favoring the Bruins. This, if anything, shows more-so how much the Bruins are favored.

This. If Cunneyworth does a good job, it might change the outlook that the coach needs to be bilingual. I hope he does, it'll open doors for us in the long run if we don't need a bilingual coach. As far as performance, I don't expect our GAA to stay the same and go down, no doubt Martin's style kept it lower than Cunneyworth will be able to. The one thing I am looking for is the determination and creativity to improve on offense. If it stays the same, Martin wasn't the problem, if our offense gets more creative, Martin was the problem. Player need to be having fun to perform well, if they were too constricted, they weren't having fun and bad play results. On a side note, in the player interviews it sounded like Cammy is happy with the change, or could of been how I interpreted it. I know for a fact Kostitsyn is happy about it.

We're talking to LA still, this time about Stoll.

Cole was only averaging 2.32 minutes a game on the PP the last 3 years, while he's averaging 3.15 minutes a game this year.

This league is turning into a joke.

The no-goal was.... Epic.

Bruin's McQuaid fined $2,500 for kneeing. What a joke.

Cole-Plek-Cammy Subban-Kaberle and Patches-Eller-Ak46 Weber-Campoli Got great one-timers on each side of the ice for Kaberle/Campoli to setup in Subban/Weber and Cammy/Ak46, big body in front of the net Cole/Patches, good down low passer in Plek and good down low stick work from Eller. Also with this setup Kaberle/Campoli has 2 options for one-timers or the puck can be fed to the other d-man so Subban/Weber will have 2 options for one-timers, you can put the center down low on the left side. This creates another option for the weaker passing d-men ins Subban/Weber, if they feel too pressured. This would have to be setup as umbrella, except the center isn't playing in from of the net as a traditional umbrella is setup. Think of it as a diamond with the center in the corner. If the puck comes to the center and he is pressures, he can send it back to the defenseman or dump it around the boards to the winger near the opposite circle. Ah to dream, in reality Martin will throw the center in the middle fo the ice to stand there looking stupid and being useless. Which might work if the defense would pinch on the PP, but can't run a good PP thinking defense first.

I don't like the decision, but I can see why he's doing it. The PP stinks, he even realized the PP goal we got against New Jersey wasn't a sign of a solved PP issue. It was a rush that ended in a goal, could of happened 5-on-5, not a setup on the PP with a goal as a result. So tonight he's dressing 4 defensemen for the PP. Kaberle/Subban and Diaz/Campoli, at least that would be my guess as the PP defensive pairings. Also like someone pointed out at HIO, gotta showcase Campoli. I don't see a future for Campoli once Markov is healthy.

Dealing Weber seems to be a bit counter-productive to me. We have a bad PP and Weber has proven so far this year to be our best trigger man on the point. There were reports of Montreal talking to Brian McCabe, but that was before we got Kaberle. McCabe would be a great addition for the PP as he does have a bomb from the point. Question is will he sign for cheap enough.

It was reported today.

Eklund reporting Montreal is one for 4 teams expecting to have a deal done by the end of this week coming. Edmonton, Carolina and NYI are the other 3 teams. My guess is Edmonton and Montreal would be making a deal, and knowing how our management works, probably bringing in Horcoff, overpaid and underachieving. This is pure speculation, but Edmonton does have 3 center, 2 are good the other is Horcoff.

You also need to take in account the 2+ goals leads we've been blowing, can think of 4 off the top of my head, couple of the 1 goal losses were blown leads. While I will agree a timely PP goal may turn it around, the PP isn't the only problem with the team, so I wouldn't expect this to make that much of a difference in our standings. Kaberle has no form of NTC or NMC currently.

I don't see how Kaberle will help us on the PP at this stage of his career. He was pair with the hardest shot in the NHL the end of last year and he couldn't get anything going and hasn't since. I will admit he's an improvement over Spacek, so that in consideration, he's not taking anything away from the team. His contract bothers me also. We got rid of an overpaid defenseman on his last year, money we could use for Price and Subban, only to get an overpriced defenseman to replace him with 2 additional years on his contract. This overpaid, underachieving team we're continuing to build seems a bit too counter productive.

I'd say we dump age and contracts and rebuild, but looking at our previous draft I'm not so confident in the drafting of our team. Just in 2 years we could of feasibly had Getzlaf(or Carter or Perry or Parise), Shea Weber, Lucic, and Keith. Wouldn't we look pretty good now if we drafted those guys. Oh it's fun to dream. I think at this point, after the last 20 years of lackluster teams, we need to take a fresh approach and start at the top now, slowly making our way to the bottom and do a complete team/management overhaul. It worked for Toronto. Granted they signed Burke, but it's paying off now and showing a good team really does start at the top.