Eleven

But the Pegulas will hire the president. So they''ll need a hockey prime minister to supervise the president. And a hockey king to supervise the prime minister. And a hockey galactic emperor to supervise the king. In reality, they just need a better GM.

I think it DID close around 20 years ago--this is another operator.

Your middle initial, would be my guess.

To put this another way: Let's say that several years ago, the Pegulas had plucked Jason Botterill out of Pittsburgh and hired him as president of hockey operations, and then Botterill hired a GM. We'd still recognize that Botterill was the ultimate decision maker, and, therefore, the problem.

Because he--I'm assuming you mean Tim and not Kerry--isn't. We can give the position whatever title we want, but the person who reports to the owners and who makes the ultimate roster decisions is the person in charge. Right now, that title is "general manager" and the person is Jason Botterill. Putting someone between Botterill and the owners doesn't make Botterill better, it substitutes a different ultimate decision maker. And I'm fine with that substitution--believe me. I don't care what the title is. But recognize that there will be one "hockey person" running the team, no matter what called. Again, having two bosses equals having no boss. Seems to me that the problem is that the decision maker isn't very good, and not that he doesn't have the right title.

@dudacek help me settle an argument, please. What years did Housley play at forward and how many games at forward? (And if there's anything I can point to, even better.)

No, he tried to get called for hooking.

Hey. All is not lost. Taylor Leier is in the fold.

Bull-stuff. Pizza tycoons have won Cups and so have folks that just inherited teams. None of them know a thing about hockey. They need one--and I do mean one--person who knows hockey at the top. It doesn't matter whether they call that person a GM or a president of hockey operations. To have two means to have none.

No, this is not the problem. If you need a GM above the GM, then the GM is worthless. The problem is that the GM sucks.

No, we aren't. Before tonight, we hadn't seen the tire fire that is the Ottawa Senators hang a crooked number on the Sabs.

/s

And now Olofsson is missing empty nets.

NO MORE HUTTON EVER. WHAT DOES IT TAKE?

Pathetic.

Well, that's how we end up with another Grigorenko / Mittlestadt situation, then. I hate this CHL rule so much.

I'm talking about their play.

VERY poor.

Well, he likes you...

I was going to guess that chz would take a max of four posts to chime in with "he was hot." I got "he's cute," and it took more than four.

"Below replacement" at that price is obvious. He'll get a contract. He's 29. He'll be fine. I had assumed that sweetlou annualized the price but I may be wrong. Dude, Samson has that alien face thing going on. Risto is your Tiger Beat poster boy.

Come on. I'd do that if I had the time. There has to be water, too, though. And books.

I'm on record, for many years, about hating this rule, but thanks for reminding me! He'll be signed somewhere once his price drops. He's still a good player. He's just not worth the money he makes.

Why does he need to clear waivers to stay right where he has been? I don't know this CBA as well as the last one.

Lazar tore it up the year after his draft, too. Most of these guys do. They're first-round picks for a reason. I would prefer to see Cozens in Rochester. Anyone know anything about Bogosian?