Commandant

I think you are better off with an Alfredsson to Montreal rumor. I think the smart thing for the Sens would be just to say it and trade away vets like Alfie and Gonchar

Does this injury mean Ottawa should consider trading Gonchar, and maybe even Alfie? http://lastwordonsports.com/2013/02/13/senators-in-tatters-karlssons-injury-leaves-ottawa-reeling/

Eklund's dumb though. Bob McKenzie was reporting last night that the job was going to Jarmo kekajfglqaoejalien (or however you spell it).... so why would Eklund put up Hextall?

Last night was Cole's best game this season. By far.

All you really need to look is how his stick is positioned. He looks like he's gonna cross check something (in this case the puck). That means he moves his hands to "direct the puck" If he's in normal position, his stick is on the ice. But raising his hands up... thats directing it IMO.

Really Tampa scored two B.S. flukey goals The 2nd goal shouldnt have even counted, and even Kerry Fraser says as much. The 3rd goal is a point shot that hits 3 skates and goes in. 2 pure flukes and they tie the game. We still win in a shootout and escape with our two points. Flukey goals against like that? Not really repeatable... so I'm actually happy with 2 points on the road, and on to the next game.

Biron signed with the Rangers 35 minutes after the opening of Free Agency. He was the first UFA signing of that July 1st. His agent was waiting to talk to the Rangers right at noon that very day. Basically he had already made up his mind, he was going to New York and didnt even listen to what other teams had to offer.

BINGO! the pure stats don't tell the whole story.

No one else has 3 players as small as us. If you remove them from every team we are average. These guys are statistical outliers... not just on the team, but around the league. I think the only team with 2 such players would be Tampa. 3 outliers on a 23 man roster is a freaking huge example of outliers creating a misleading average.

They could also re-waive MacDonald once Kipper is healthy and go Kipper/Irving if they want to.

It is minor, because it only affects three guys who are greatly skewing the average. If you remove Desharnais, Gionta, and Gallagher from the calculation, you have an Average sized team. So for 20/23 guys on the issue, the strength/height/weight isn't an issue. They measure up with the league average. This is why I say its a mere three guys who have the uphill battle. The Habs sent in pictures of his arm. Clearly they should show the bite marks. What the league is basically saying is that they can’t prove the marks came from Grabovski. So as far as I can tell here are the two theories 1) Patches bit himself (or got a teammate/trainer, etc… to bite him in the dressing room). 2) Patches then got in a scrum with the Leafs and intentionally placed his arm near the mouth of a Leaf. 3) That Leaf appears to pull the arm closer for a bite, but isn’t really. 4) Patches shows the previous bite marks from intermission or whenever to the ref. Grabovski is kicked out. 5) the Habs send the pictures to shanahan, in an insidious plot to get Grabo suspended. Or Theory 2 1) Grabovski bit Pacioretty. The NHL (lack of) player safety committee found that in their infinite wisdom (ie lets call Jeremy Jacobs and do what he tells us) that they couldn’t rule out that Pacioretty might do an elaborate and sinister plot to get someone suspended. In fact, in reviewing their records there was the whole incident where he hurt himself jumping into a stanchion and tried to blame it on nice guy Zdeno Chara, so the guy clearly has no credibility.

Also Khudobin played for Boston last night, which means every goalie you named has sat at least 2x so far, the exact same as Price; and Hedberg played his third start for Jersey... so Brodeur has sat 3.

1.5 inches vs the top size team in the league.... that difference drops as you go. Also if you take out the three guys, the team is average sized, so its not the whole lineup that is fighting the uphill battle, its 3 guys.

Calder Watch at the Quarter Pole includes Gally http://lastwordonsports.com/2013/02/11/calder-watch/

I don't think we should use a first round draft pick on a goalie and thats likely where Fucale is going (early 2nd at worst).

Cause the league doesn't suspend for attempted anything, if you miss you are fine. Its such a joke, but its true.

Hedberg has already started 2 games behind Broduer. Khudobin has started 1 game behind Rask (note that the Bruins schedule, ie 9 games has been the lightest in the NHL, they are gonna get their busy period coming up). Enroth has started 2 games (and been called in for relief work in a third) behind Miller. Ben Bishop has started 2 games behind Anderson. Funny that seems exactly the same as the 2 games Budaj has played behind Price.

Are we a contender? NO We are a team that is gonna finish between 7th and 11th place in the East IMO. So stay the course and continue rebuliding. Making moves to help this team this year is not gonna do anything. We need to keep the rebuild going and not think about short term moves. Is Bouillion gonna be here after this season? Probably not... he'll be replaced long term by Tinordi... so thats gonna have a huge sway in that 1.5 inches. If you can trade Gionta and get something for the future, great.... but no need to worry about Gallagher who is gonna be here long term. This team isn't a contender, never were... but we knew that before this season. They are a bubble playoff team working on building.

Remember when Detroit played Montreal last year and we slaughtered them.... didn't make us a better team than us. We slaughtered buffalo last week... didn't help us on thursday. This team wasn't as good as they looked in the Buffalo game, nor as bad as they looked last night... its just that you can't judge by 1 night.

Tinordi is not ready now, and may not be ready in October either. We might be waiting til this time next year.

Stats are skewed by 3 guys. And the difference between the biggest team and smallest? 1.5 inches... essentially meaningless white noise.

Taking aim at the Grabovski incident. http://lastwordonsports.com/2013/02/10/i-swear-gaa-biting-has-no-place-in-the-nhl/

Bozon's scoring streak was finally snapped.

1 goal for bennett.... in 2 games after his return from injury 1g 1a.... Danny Kristo 1g 1a Darren Dietz +2 to get to -5 on the season.

A few things 1) Effort is unacceptable... MT must bag skate the team. I can't think of a single player who played well. 2) That said, a GM must be different from coach, MB can not overreact to one bad loss or even a bad week... the roster evaluation must be more long term and not an overreaction to small sample size. 3) Not sure a pure goon would have helped on the Orr incident. Moen was on the bench, Prust was in the box. By the time our two best fighters can get on the ice, the damage is done. Having a 4 minute per game goon doesn't help because by the time he can get up off the bench, all the players are in the box or thrown out of the game already. 4) I'm glad we traded Grabovski, I don't care how many points he scores, he's a little bi-otch, and an embarrassment to the game. Biting is totally unacceptable. 5) Win a faceoff FFS