Gonna be honest I only know it because my nephews haha. Turning into an old man over here, just not get off my lawn old man yet
I have been reasonably happy with Lalonde so far this season, but as guys start coming back next week, the roster choices Lalonde makes could sway my view. It’s fair to reason that Vrana and Fabbri return next week, and considering we are carrying three goalies, two of which are terrible, waiving one of Ned/Hellberg is an easy choice. With Hagg on IR, we also have a second spot open, so getting Fabbri and Vrana up isn’t an issue. Bertuzzi and Zadina should be back in mid January, and at that point the roster has to be thinned out. Elmer is producing but he is still fairly weak on his feet so sending him to GR isn’t a huge deal. Berggren and Veleno are the other two guys with waiver exemption that could go down, but sending either down would be asinine at this point. One of Erne or Sundqvist should be traded or waived when we have everyone happy, and if neither are at the expense of the kids, that’s a big red flag. Next week with Fabbri and Vrana will be a dream though. My ideal lines at that point: Rasmussen - Larkin - Raymond Vrana - Copp - Perron Fabbri - Suter - Kubalik Berggren - Veleno - Soderblom Erne/Sundqvist
Also Elmer keeps producing, and even though an AHL stint won’t hurt him, I’m not sure how you can send him down when the team is struggling to create offense.
I've just decided my 2023 resolution is to learn hockey stats so I can one day look at a chart like that and have any clue what it's saying
The higher the number the more likely your team is to score a goal when said player is on the ice at even strength
If they're all that easy, my resolution should go well. So basically we were very lucky to win that game last night and got severely outplayed?
We need to make a roster move by 2 PM today. I assume it’ll be Ned going on waivers but it’ll be interesting to see if that’s the case.
I wonder if something happened while Vrana was in GR? Maybe he just wants to head back home? Feels like if that were the case he’d just be in an exempt list though.
Internet rumors about a blow problem. Not sure how that’s different than the rest of the team/league tho
My hope is the team realized he needed more than the two weeks for conditioning in GR they were allowed, so they are waiving him for an extended stay. My concern there is they hadn’t used the entire two weeks yet, despite yesterday announcing that was the plan. There was no need to waive Vrana today when they could have waived shitty back up 1 or shitty back up 2 instead. Unless there is a trade in the works for one of the goalies that required a day to get over the finish line, this seems super short sighted at first glance.
My assumption now is that when Ned’s conditioning stint ends we move one of the goalies (likely via waivers) so Bertuzzi can be recalled. Any move after that will require waiving someone or a trade. I imagine Vrana is in GR until after Zadina is back. And then once Vrana is back, who knows what happens? I imagine we look to trade him but that doesn’t seem likely to happen.
Our even strength play has been better but our special teams are now bad. Just flipping the script from earlier this year. Yzerman is going to be at a crossroads soon I’m afraid. We aren’t any closer to the top teams in the division and now we are being passed by Buffalo. He’s going to have to either bring in a legitimate top six forward/top four D that also happens to be in their mid 20’s, or get rid of guys and rebuild further. I’m sick of losing but right now we are getting passed by.
I don’t see this as a realistic option because Larkin has a NMC and I don’t think Yzerman is actively looking for move Larkin. That said, if Larkin isn’t signed by the deadline and the team has completely fallen off the cliff, it’s not crazy to think Yzerman moves him if a mutually agreeable deal comes available.
Of course that happens, but still, we look good. Seider has three assists already. He’s just so much better away from Chiarot.