You're like the English professor I always wished I had.
A while back, I taught Composition classes at St. Francis College in downtown Brooklyn. They were nursing students and they always told me I looked and sounded like the guy in the AT&T commercial who asks confused children nonsense questions. They did not much care for me, and based on that comparison, they did not much care for themselves.
I agree with ya man. I never said I like B.D., but he is like Eklund in that sense in that he is right about a couple of things and then wrong. It is rarely fact based. Another good way of putting it is well worded fiction. He has got some good things here and there but I disagree with what he has to say most times then not. (he is definitely not as much as a bone head Eklund is though)
I do think though that we should stand pat at the deadline. Reasons being is that we do not have that many picks the next 2 yrs and that is bad in the salary cap era of hockey because you are not going to be able to retain everybody no matter how hard you try it will catch up to you - notable examples being Chicago and Boston, both of whom we have sniped core players from. Well, Leddy was not a core player yet for them but he is establishing himself as one for us.
Shoot me down if you want as well, but I also think our depth is a tad bit overrated and the incompetent coaching staff makes it even worse. Look at the guy they called up a couple of days ago, Mouillierat. He played like a bonehead vs the Canucks yesterday and hurt us more than he helped us.
I do not see Garth making a home run move, because we already have a nice young solid core intact that hopefully will be around for a long time. If anything he will try and upgrade the depth. We are not even in the play offs yet. Gotta use the off-season to fix what needed to be fixed in the playoffs if we get knocked out early. We should not be buyers at the deadline, run the course .
Agree with all of this. I don't know if our depth is overstated, but I do believe it's less impressive to outsiders than it is to us. Fans have a way of overvaluing "our guys". I don't think other teams or fans look at CMac coming up from the AHL and say, "MY GOD THE DEPTH!!!" And I don't think Mallrat is ready for the pace of the NHL game. I'm not sure he's ready for the press box.
I completely agree with your conclusion. I would love a Phaneuf-type player, but the arguments other fans make against that sort of acquisition are logical; my argument in favor is emotional. I think a lot of it depends on what you think of our window to win a championship (a phrase I can't believe we get to use! **** yeah!). If your a fan who sees free agency, age, and the cap as enemies that are already working towards closing that window, you might say we have from now to the onset of Boychuk's decline (34 years of age or thereabouts is the average age for defensemen according to this:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/when-nhl-players-peak-hockey-metrics-1.2646054). That's something of a pessimist's view, given that we do have some excellent defensive prospects, but one could argue that prospects are essentially raffle tickets. Having a bunch still guarantees nothing.
I don't know what I believe about this team's window to win a championship, but I don't honestly feel like we're there yet. No matter the improvements the team has made, the defense is still suspect. Strait, Vis, and Hickey are easily replaced (you can argue Hickey with me, but I've lost the ability to be objective about him; he gets manhandled constantly and it makes me nuts).
I would hate to see a deal for a rental, and I think a blockbuster for a Yandle type (blecch) might be short-sighted and ultimately damaging to the fine corps of young defensemen we're bringing along in Griff, Pulock, and Mayfield.
