Lateralous

Right? I'm sure there weren't a lot of Caps fans wishing they would play more Summer Party Girls "I Don't Care" and some of the other stuff on the arena play lists between whistles.

The hockey news is pretty high on Nemec. They have him over Hughes as our #1 prospect.

I think the Leafs situation is worse because most of that fan base was convinced they were going to be a dynasty after landing Matthews, Marner, Nylander and Reilly and then getting Tavares in free agency. If you told them in 2018 that one team would make every final from '20 through '22 and win the cup twice, I think many of them would have bet their house it would be the Leafs.

Oddly enough I think the team that could have benefitted the most from Lou in recent years was Toronto. They let him go too soon. He would have kept the tight structure that organization so desperately needs. I doubt he bites on the Tavares thing at the expense of depth, he couldn't have done any worse on the contracts and in general I always thought he was pretty good at rounding out a line-up when he wasn't in cap-hell.

Montreal is way over the cap. Does this means Carey Price is done?

Which is a fair position but IMO, the players performed in Winnipeg for the Jets so I'm fine with it. Even though it is technically a different team, the older portion of the fan base is presumably all the same people. I'm 46 and remember Selanne's 76 goal rookie season in '93 pretty clearly. I see no problem with the Winnipeg Jets and their fans, many of whom were in the old Winnipeg Arena for those games, honoring that.

Not really apples to apples. Say our version of the Devils had left for the new arena in Quebec somewhere around 2012 but then Harris and Blitzer were able to buy the Coyotes in 2016 and moved them to NJ and renamed them the New Jersey Devils. Would you rather see this new version of the New Jersey Devils honor Shane Doan with a number retirement, or Brodeur and Elias? It's still debatable but not really as simple as you're making it out to be. Personally, after watching the latter two for so many years, I would rather see them honored in the rafters of the rock even it they technically played for another franchise that was now in Canada.

Was Winnipeg one of the cities that sued to keep their team name and records? If so, then it makes sense to me. I mean, if they turn around and retire Kovy as well for his contributions as a Thrasher then I think there becomes a problem. I kind of prefer that they retire the number of the guys who actually played their games in the actual city vs following the technical lineage of the current franchise.

As the parent of a 2 1/2 year old, I have no idea how one ever recovers from losing such a beautiful little boy but hopefully there is a day where instead of bringing sadness, his parents can just look at that pic with Connor McDavid and smile and think how bad ass that is.

I easily take the cups. I have such fond memories of all of the Stanley cup runs, remember where I was for all the big moments, etc. Once the Hughes go on to break our hearts and the NYR make their runs, I can turn the TV off and totally ignore their sucess. The HOF thing would be stupid but so was Brodeur retiring as a Blue and not even mentioning the Devils in the initial press conference. It is what it is. I watch sports for the actual events, not the plaques.

Just curious, but what more do you think could have or should have been done that would have given him an A for the defense ? I realize a B+ isn't bad but I feel like he pretty much nailed it with all of the D moves that allow for both immediate improvement while also setting it up perfectly to grow into one of the league best in about 3 years.

Bratt is a good young player that I would love to have stick around as part of the core but if Fitz can’t get him on a team friendly long term deal, I have no problem with a 1 year “prove-it” contract. Undersized wingers coming off their breakout season isn’t something that I feel you need to overpay for.

Yeah, for like 7 years before taking over. Hard to fathom he wouldnt know everyone on the team by name. This is the kind of stuff you might hear about Paterno or Bowden when they were like 100 years old and there’s 110 players with walk-ons to keep track of but not a 22 man roster in professional hockey.

I bought a game worn Zacha in feb 2021 while bored quarantining with Covid. I thought I got a steal buying it before he started really tearing it up. Haven’t been to a game since the Pandemic started so I’ve yet to wear it but I feel like I need to wear it at least once. At this point it feels like I’ll get heckled as much as I would wearing a flyers or rangers jersey into the Rock.

I’m pretty optimistic too. Defense should actually be good. Blackwood either gets his sh!t together or he can just sit now that we have another legitimate option and the forwards should take the next step. Can’t wait for the season to start.