Commandant

Markov was probably partying at Galchenyuk's house too. Seriously though, i hate those rumor mongering sites. Leave the players personal lives alone.

Gary Bettman promised us to fix the lottery if we fixed the all-star game situation. Auston Matthews here we come.

Tampa doesn't play top 6/bottom 6. They look for offence out of their third line.

IF what we were told is true, the lightning told him he was only going to the minors to get in game shape and would be recalled immediately thereafter. When he was sent down, yzerman and drouin both told the media it was essentially a conditioning stint. Then the trade request went public. Now they are refusing to call him up again. Lets be honest here... this being sent to the AHL IS NOT about Drouin's development of his defensive game, its a punishment for a kid who had the gall to request a trade.

Holloway is apparently hurt. Day to day.

Hes a guy who outperformed everyone on the team as a 19 year old, scoring more p/60 than any player. His reward... fourth line minutes in the regular season and press box in the playoffs. He came in.. had some points early this year. Soon found himself again playing fourth line minutes with scrubs. He got hurt and was told he was going to the ahl so he could get in shape and would be called back up. Played 7 games. No call up in sight. He makes $396 a day in the ahl, over $5000 a day in the nhl, plus bonuses. He says this. Ive earned my spot. I am clearly better than guys like massechault, paquette, and the rest of these guys. Put me in the nhl or trade me. The lightning still refuse. He says fine. Screw you, i want a deal.

He's only been outshone by those guys cause they get more minutes In terms of pts/60... not one player on tampa was better than drouin last year, not one... not stamkos, not johnson, no one. So with that in mind, it seems a silly coaching decision to staple him to the bench and to the AHL. Every time you play him he produces.

how much better do you have to play than leading your entire team in p/60.

he requested to be called up to the NHL and practice with the big club while waiting to be traded. Of course he did... he's making 1/10th the money in the AHL cause he's still on his 2-way ELC.

I don't mind where his season average is... but we saw him play big minutes in the three games preceeding last night's disaster. I think that had an effect.

Exclusive video of drouin phoning yzerman this afternoon.

He merely needs to be managed. We can't play him 25 minutes a night (in a 4 in 6 nights scenario) and expect him to have anything in the tank for the fourth game. I don't even think he's completely done. I just think he can't be on our first pair anymore.

https://twitter.com/TSNBobMcKenzie/status/689968007234371586 Allan Walsh's statement.

Weird shit going on with Drouin tonight. He's not playing for Syracuse against Toronto. Pierre Lebrun tweets he's been suspended without pay for not showing up to the game. Elliotte Freidman tweets he's in the building sitting with the Syracuse healthy scratches. Bob McKenzie says the relationship between player and team has gone nuclear.

Expect two callups at 5:00pm tomorrow (Bartley and Carr are my guesses).

You are likely right, I'm just pissed off as hell over the slide continuing with no end in sight and a loss to Boston.

Only that big body (DLR) was left in the press box against the Bruins. Carr should be up. We have no wingers who freaking score.

So we'd get one of Pulijarvi, Laine, and Tkachuk. I'm ok with that.

what the is a "sound tiger"

Sure, step 1 is shut price down for the season and i agree no one is trading us top 5 picks. What we get is a bunch of picks in the 20s. or even second rounders. Max was 22nd overall, PK was a second rounder. its possible to get these guys, but i agree its not likely. You know what improves your chances though? Having more and more picks.

Call it what you want. At this point I'm ready to shut down price for the season, and trade anyone over the age of 30 (or a cap anchor like Eller, DD, Emelin) for future assets. Get a high draft pick, get some young assets and depth, go shopping for talent in the summer, and try to put together a good season next year with our star goalie healthy. If you don't want to call that tanking for the rest of the season, thats up to you. (Also note, I'm saying every vet is available, not every vet will be traded, you need to keep some veterans around the team too.... the ones i feel i can get good value for would be shown the door, while keeping some behind. If that means markov out and pleks stays then it is what it is).

Where did I say I wanted to tank for MULTIPLE SEASONS? Where did anyone say they wanted to tank for multiple seasons? You are arguing against an idea that no one brought to the table.

The Wings tanked for Yzerman, thats been an accusation for years. The Bruins who traded away both Joe Thornton and Sergei Samsonov that year?

Or we maybe shouldn't put a 37 year old on our top pair for the last 4 games, played in 6 nights and with travel in between. The fact we haven't reduced his minutes, but instead ramped them up for this 4 game sequence is reason to say WTF to both Bergevin and Therrein. Also Beaulieu wasn't banished from the ice. He was hurt.

We have 2 top line players 4 players worthy of the top 6 6 players worthy of the top 9 (debatably 7) We are missing a piece on every line.