Commandant

Plekanec is not and never has been hyped as a guy who makes his teammates better. He's not at the level of a Malkin or a Crosby where they will take their linemates and elevate them. He is an effective part of a trio, but he's not the man like that. In the same way, DD is good, but he wouldn't have the same numbers he does without his wingers being the top 2 guys on the team. Pleks can't turn Ryan White, Mathieu Darche and others into goal scorers, thats just beyond his capability. But thats fine, because he is a 5 million dollar guy, not a 10 million dollar guy. In fact seeing Staal's struggles through much this season without Cole, has made me question if he could take chicken ***** and turn it into chicken salad too. Pleks can be the pivot on a good line with other good players. Lets also remember that the -22 also doesn't tell the whole story 1) how many of those minuses are empty net goals against? 2) how many of those minuses are short handed goals against when he was completely misused on the point? 3) his lack of offence this year makes the plus/minus worse... remember there are two parts to plus minus, a plus when you get an even strength goal and a minus when one is against you... not producing offence is a bigger factor in this number being so much worse this year, than is any drop in his defensive play. 4) He gets the toughest asignments night in and night out against the best players on the other team.

My post above is more my own personal grudge with Crawford than anything else. The rational view of course is that he is among the top 4-5 candidates for this job (maybe even the top guy) especially if the francophone requirement stays in place. That said, the coaching discussion is premature. The GM will be the guy making that decison, and until we have a GM (and I really believe we're getting a new one) the assessment of which coaching candidate is best is a little early IMO. Sure we should put a list together of potential guys, but who emerges as the number 1 candidate will depend on the GM. I like Roy a lot, but only with a steady and experienced GM above him.

I don't think it will take 4 years for our draft pick to become ready. Forwards mature faster than defencemen. Stamkos was a star in his 2nd season. Seguin is pretty damn good in just his 2nd season in the league. The 05-06 year for Staal was his 2nd NHL year (+ 1 AHL due to the lockout). Matt Duchene John Tavares Taylor Hall Patrick Kane Jonathan Toews These guys are all top 3 picks at fwd and have impact very, very quickly. The other thing you have to look at is pay scale. Staal is an 8.25 million dollar cap hit (or basically the same cap hit as Plekanec + our ELC draft pick).

I think Suter is really good in his own right, but you are again correct in how good a partner can make a guy look. Markov made Rivet look like a D who was worth Gorges and a 1st round pick. Markov then made Komisarek into an all-star with a fat pay-day in Toronto. I do agree that these guys can look great when they are put beside someone elite, so while I don't believe it will happen with Suter, it is a risk to consider.

It might be my bias against Crawford, and I like Boucher (not to the godlike status he's been promoted to, but I like him) so I'd choose Boucher, but even I admit its not a clear cut choice. The other candidate that we can cross our fingers becomes available (and is better than both those guys IMO) is Alain Vigneault if he Canucks flame out. Along with Roy, the other QMJHL coach I like is Gerard Gallant who has done a superb job with St. John, and has NHL experience (a bad record though but it was Columbus). I'd consider him for an interview too. I'm just not 100% sure he's bilingual, but it'd be a question to explore. He does have Acadien roots.

Goal Differential of the teams around us in the standings. Habs -15 on the season (even less if you consider the number of Shootout losses which add 1 goal to the GA column, I think) Columbus -60 Edmonton -23 Carolina -26 Isles -40 Minny -43 You are 100% correct here BCHabnut, We have lost way too many 1 goal games, far more than the other teams around us in the standings, and as such it will only take a slight improvement to get things back in order

I will say this, as its becoming an issue for others... I'll try and take an even higher road than the one I've been taking. Not for lafrous' benefit, but for the benefit of everyone else. If its becoming a distraction and detriment to the site, I'll try to end it on my end, even though I feel I really haven't done anything wrong here.

No guarantee those 2nd round picks would even be in the NHL either. Unless you have a top 10 selection, getting these guys into the league at the age of 19, 20, 21 is pretty rare.

As stated, I'm not just throwing it out for the sake of throwing it out. There are legitimate reasons - 6 years ago and not repeated - 7 100 pt scorers that year... 1 last year - winner of the art ross had 125 pts that year, last year had 104 Scoring was definitely inflated that year, there isn't much doubt about it. We don't look at Gionta as a 45 goal man. We shouldn't see Staal as a 100 pt man either. Eric Staal is -24 over the last two seasons. Tomas Plekanec -14. Plekanec has had a rough year, no doubt about that, but he is also playing against the other teams top lines, and has had 0 consistency in his wingers. His shutdown ability in the #2 hole will be huge, and with the contracts given out recently to Ruutu and Grabovski his 5 million dollar pay day is very good value there. Staal is an upgrade on Plekanec, but the upgrade is only about 10-15 pts in any given year, and he's not as good defensively. I'm not againsts a Plekanec/Staal swap because at the end of things it is still an upgrade. However the upgrade isn't so big that I'm willing to throw in the #3 and possibly #2 or #1 overall pick for it. Look at the history of top 3 picks in the last 10 years, the vast majority go on to be 1st line or top pairing players with only a few exceptions.

I will never forgive crawford for leaving the greatest player in history on the bench for the shootout in 98.

take out 2006 which is an extreme outlier and watch what happens to his average. That was 6 years ago now. Was a season when PPs were through the roof, thornton and jager both approached 130 pts. Cheechoo had 56 goals, Gomez had 30 goals, Gionta 48. Throughout the league 2006 was a year of silly offensive production, and is not representative of what we should expect and is also so far in the past that its relevance should be questionned when its not been repeated. While its true that we hope the number 3 pick becomes as good as staal, the number three pick will be paid about 5 million less than Stall for the next little while, plus you are throwing in another top 6 center in plekanec. I'd rather keep the pick and plekanec.

No thanks Staal is only a 70 pt guy for the most part. To move a top 3 pick plus Pleks I need a real superstar.

Yup, most teams average 2 draft picks per draft who turn into NHLers. Between 2003-2007 (5 drafts) Timmins had 21 players play at least 25 games. 18 play at least 40 (could rise to 19 with JT Wyman close), and has 15 play 100 games (will be 17 as soon as Emelin and White hit that level). No team can match that and he only had 2 top 10 picks.

He doesnt bring any other offence, in 60 games he has 5 assists. Cammy is capable of doing more for a line than Bourque. Also team system comes into play here, the Habs have played more defensive than Calgary and nearly everyone scores more on other teams. Its system, but over the years with Martin coaching that system produced wins so it shouldnt be a problem.

Price, Subban and Patches give us three nice pieces to build around all under 25 years old. Adding another pick will give us a foundation. Eller, DD, Emelin, Diaz, White, Leblanc, are also good pieces. Our prospects are doing very well in junior and the NCAA and we have 7 picks in the first 2 rounds of the next two drafts. Things are not as bad as they've been described. The next GM will start with a better group than you typically find on a 28/29th place club. If you go back and look I always give my hockey opinion. I'm not the person who starts calling people "fanboys" "ignorant" or other names. All I've done is discuss the issues brought up. I dont see how thats instigating. If he doesn't like alternative viewpoints to his opinions he shouldn't post them on a message board.

What that article doesn't tell you is how the team with 90% players PG acquired went to the Stanley Cup final the year after he was fired. Clearly he built an awful club in Anaheim and left them with a foundation of a club that was rapidly declining.

Pittsburgh and Chicago are the only examples of how to run a team, and having one bad year and bouncing back is impossible. I mean its not like the Flyers (07), Devils (11), or Senators (11) were able to bounce back after a bad year.

That may be what bourque is, but that's the reason why the cammalleri trade was so mismanaged from the start. 2.7 in savings, a 2nd rounder and a 3rd line prospect just doesn't make up for this talent downgrade. We just saw the Ruutu and Grabovski contracts, this UFA market is super thin and and its gonna cost an arm and a leg to replace a top line winger that way. Its frustrating that our options here are gonna be so limited. Maybe Cammy needed to go, maybe he really was a behind the scenes problem, but this trade was never fair return for his talent, especially the way prices would get silly a few weeks later.

Another pt for Carolina

http://www.hockeyfights.com/players/14011 If you click on "fight card" you can get videos of each fight and judge for yourself. Voting results there Beleskey Fight Draw 56% Geoffrion 29%, Beleskey 15.1% McKenzie Fight Geoffrion 93% Draw 4% McKenzie 2% AHL fights don't have enough votes to display what people think

In 1995 the Lottery was instituted. Bruce Firestone was fined $100,000 for his comments on daigle made to Roy MacGregor. By the time the investigation finished the rules for the 1993-1994 season and draft were already in place, so it took til 1995 to put in the lottery. http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1993-09-03/sports/9309030168_1_nhl-commissioner-gary-bettman-entry-draft-ottawa-senators

There is no proof the Sens tanked, their record in every month is more or less the same, there is no point you can identify where the tanking started. But their old owner got drunk, told a story to a reporter, and a legend was born.

Because the league doesnt want to reward losing on purpose, esoecially in years with franchise talents. Daigle was hyped as the next one at one time. The Sens pissed off Bettman, when their owner told reporters in a bar that they had lost games on purpose to finish below san jose (the report came out a couple years after the draft. Bettman started the lottery soon after the report). Remember too that Bettman was part of the NBA when they started the lottery because of similar concerns around the Knicks getting Ewing

Something else interesting Man Games x Cap hit Also Average Minutes of injured players Last update February

Last update March 6 http://www.sabresinseven.com/2011/12/injuries-around-the-nhl-2011-2012-season/ Habs 281 and no Bishop or Nash Chris Campoli (31), Brian Gionta (33), Scott Gomez (21), Andre Markov (64), Ryan White (48), Lar Eller (2), Michael Cammalleri (4), Jaroslav Spacek (5), Hal Gill (5), Andrei Kostitsyn (10), Travis Moen (18), Petteri Nokelainen (14), Michael Blunden (15), Yannick Weber (4), Tomas Plekanec (1), Mathieu Darche (5), Aaron Palushaj (1)