I tore a ligament in my elbow so the only way for me to post for the time being is on my phone...so im going to keep this short
This season is done. You can just feel it. That being said there are some positives. Huberdeau Mueller Shore Kulikov Matkstrom and to a lesser extent Gudbranson are a nice core of young guys to build around.
We also have some solid vets who will come back next year. Like everyone else... Im growing to love Kopecky. Love his passion. Great 3rd liner.
amf althoigh their play.has been subpar this year... Campbell Fleishmann and Versteeg are still good pieces.
The downside is Tallon has littered this team with what amounts to the hovkey equivalent of diarrhea. Kuba is awful. Jovo is awful. Upshall is useless. Clemmensen sucks. All these guys are signed for next season... but they shouldnt be brought back next season. Theyre terrible. Itll be interesting to see if he can get anyone go take one or two of those players and get us off the hook.
He also needs to replace Smithson, Santorelli, Kovalev and even Matthias/Skille with more effective grinders who are effective in their roles. A team like Boston is not only good because they have offensive players... but they have guys like Paille,Campbell, Kelly, etc who are very VERY good defensive forwards.
Tallon did a very poor job of contructing this team this year. What made us such a good team last year is our downfall this season. Our bottom 6/9 forwards were filled with those typr of guys. Madden. Sturm Samuelsson and Bergenheim replaced by unreliable turds is killing us.
Anyway... all these guys have expiring contracts and/or can be bought out. Kovalev. Smithson. Parros and Santorelli all should be gone. and before anyone defends Parros... did his presence stop us from playing soft tonight? We need team toughness like Boston has. Not one useless goon and a team full of pansies.
Ive also about had it with Skille and Matthias. Theyre not good defensively and i dont thinkbits worth waitibg for them to develop the defensive aspect of their game. IF they ever develop it. Were better off trying to bring in a veteran who can do their kob effectively/bring some experience to what will probably be a young team next year. Theyre dime a dozen players... we threw Campbell into the Horton deal as he was nothing and hes a great 3rd-4th liner.
One last complaint: and ill get bashed for it.... but i still dont like the Gudbranson pick. I love the physical presence he brings. But hes not a good defensman right now. Hes lanky, borderline goofy on his skates. Decent mobility for his size but his defensive game needs a ******** of work. As does his offense. No clue why Dineen has him on the PP. He has no pose with the puck...anyone gets near him and he throws a weak wristsr on net that gets blocked or throws the puck into the corner. Hes also a -10 now in 9 games i think. Brutal.
Hes only 20 so I know he has upside to learn and improve. And i Still consider him part of our core. But i still hate the selection from two years ago. Hes shown me nothing.
So much for keeping the post shirt eh?
I think you're wrong about Matthias. I've never been his biggest fan really, but he's been really solid this year and he's getting better.
Not sure why you say he's not good defensively; I think he is. He came into today's game as a +1 on a pretty bad team.
He also, for the most part, has given a consistent effort and he's created some offense. I don't have much hope for his offense. He seems to lack the ability to finish, but I think he's a great 4th liner. Still cheap, still young, can skate, big, willing to stick up for teammates. I've grown to like him. And again, I think he's one of our best defensive forwards (not that that's saying much because this team doesn't have many of those, especially since Weiss became a turd).
when Marky came to the bench for the extra attacker and some little kid gave him props for a good game then I realized it was THEO. Marky looks 3feet taller than Theo. 
