Randall Flagg

At the very least, that should happen when 26's pair is on the ice! He showed why @Hoss had a point when pointing out the waiver nuance - he was waived and passed, but hasn't been assigned to Rochester yet, because we have enough injuries that he's our 7D, even though he's probably not ranked higher than Guhle/Pilut, but we want them playing top pairing Roch. minutes and not sitting up stairs. When Bogosian gets healthy (yeah f*cking right, have you learned your lesson Jason?) I assume he goes down and one of Nelson or Beaulieu takes Tennyson's current spot in the press box.

The injury was an ankle fracture, he had successful surgery today, and the timetable is 8-10 weeks.

And actually the more that I look at it, as long as Tennyson remains the scratched 7D, this is basically the best thign to do. Risto-Scandella Dahlin-McCabe Beaulieu-Nelson for right away, Tennyson in the box. The key thing will be, if someone else gets hurt, Tennyson has to stay where he is, and Guhle/Pilut/Bogosian needs to be the replacement. As of now, you don't want Guhle/Pilut sitting in the press box. And presuming good AHL seasons from Guhle or Pilut, it will be unacceptable to have Beaulieu playing regular minutes over them as the season progresses. But hopefully they've got this down. FTR, our opening night D is going to be gross, and would have been even if Bogo was healthy, which nobody should have been relying on. I hope they have a plan to make it better as fast as possible.

I agree that a solid goalie makes a world of difference on a hockey team in general, but I definitely don't connect the lack of D-scoring to a lack of confidence in the goalie. I think most of that difference comes on the 2/3rds of the ice closest to the goalie. I think our D couldn't score because they don't have the puck skills to open up their own space at the point, the vision to get shots through, or the cannons that actual scoring D have for their shots. In fact, I think almost all of our defensemen are actively bad at each and every one of those things. Dahlin has vision and puck skills, Risto has some vision and sometimes a shot, and as far as I can tell, the well is dry after that.

I can listen to the logic behind sending Alex down, and can even buy it just fine. But if I'm watching Matt Tennyson on Thursday, and not Nylander, then it is a little hard to take their "culture of competiton" and earning spots based on performance seriously, insofar as it's at least dishonest. You can put the case together that with development, waiver eligibility and other things thrown into the mix that icing a roster that isn't your best in early October is reasonable, but we blew up a team including a trade that still reeks to me with an emphasis on this thing that isn't being followed through completely. And look at me, I'm one of Nylander's biggest critics here historically. But since I base nearly every take I have on the hockey I see on the ice, all you need to do to change my mind is change the hockey, and to this point Alex did that, to the tune of being one of the best forwards on the team in preseason. I hope he takes it the right way and goes off in the AHL, and even respect this challenge to him, as his track record isn't good in this instance. So what I'm getting at, is Jesus Christ you guys better not dress Matt Tennyson for Boston.

Our D has all the same players plus Dahlin, what makes you so sure we'll see much more scoring from them? I basically have no reason to expect notable improvements anywhere but in goal, though I'm hopeful that kids & Dahlin & a better bottom six than we started with (how much better currently, and how much it offsets ROR, is open to question) could improve other areas, but I'll believe it when it's actively happening

We like to talk about McBeane's player evaluation here, but if Tennyson gets a single second of ice time without at least 5 D on IR...

Practice thing with Nylander? Because one could argue he was a top 5 forward for us in the actual preseason games. Hopefully he takes it the right way and understands how close he is. We need him displacing one of Zem/Pominville/etc. as soon as possible. Unless these guys are magically rejuvenated, which fans say about their old-or-bad farts every single year and never turns out to be the case

Watching the catches that other teams' WRs, good and not good, routinely make to help their QBs out makes ours look even worse than I thought they were

Nothing butters Tom Wilson's roll like headshotting a Blues player in the preseason. That's at least the second time he's done it It's even better than that actually: This will be Tom Wilson's third suspension in the last calendar year for hitting a Blues player illegally

Allen was indeed bad, but I actually found myself enjoying the bad game of our very own rookie QB. Of course, the enjoyment hinges on a belief that he'll learn and get better, and if he doesn't, then we're screwed. But I can worry about that at a later time if it happens. Really, since 2005, this was all I ever wanted. Concerns about the offensive group they've put together are of course present too.

Allen was sick of the drops too apparently

Vancouver Canucks Record last season: 31-40-11, 73 points, 7th in the Pacific Playoffs: None Coach: Travis Green GM: Jim Benning Captain: Vacant GF: 218 (26th) GA: 259 (26th) PP: 21.4% (9th) PK: 78.3% (21st) Top 5G: 1.) Brock Boeser (29) 2.) Daniel Sedin (23) 3.) Bo Horvat (22) 4.) Thomas Vanek (17) 5.) Sven Baertschi (14) Top 5A: 1.) Henrik Sedin (47) he had 3 goals LOL 2.) Daniel Sedin (32) 3.) Alex Edler (28) 4.) Brock Boeser (26) 5.) Thomas Vanek (24) Top 5 PTS: 1.) Daniel Sedin (55) 2.) Brock Boeser (55) 3.) Henrik Sedin (50) 4.) Bo Horvat (44) 5.) Thomas Vanek (41) Key Additions: Antoine Roussel (LW), Tim Schaller (C), Jay Beagle (C) Key Losses: Sedins, Jussi Jokinen (LW), other junk Projected Lineup: Baertschi - Horvat - Boeser Eriksson - Gagner - Pettersson Roussell - Sutter - Granlund Schaller - Beagle - Virtanen Edler - Tanev Del Zotto - Stetcher Pouliot - Gudbranson Markstrom Nilsson Top Prospects we might/might not see 1.) Elias Pettersson, C, 1st round 2017 2.) Quinton Hughes, 1st round 2018 3.) Olli Juolevi, D, 1st round 2016 4.) Thatcher Demko, G, 2nd round 2014 5.) Jonathan Dahlen, LW, trade with Ottawa My thoughts The Canucks are set to be pretty bad this year, though I don't see them getting much worse than mid-low 70s. Pettersson is a special player and should be ready to give them fireworks right from the get-go. Their young group of prospects is awesome and their future is bright, though a bit far away yet. They'll probably be a largely boring and bad-at-defense team, but Horvat/Boeser/Pettersson up front will have some fun games. I'll probably see them play twice total all season

Specifically, NFL kickers are making 17% more 50+yard FGs than they did early last decade. I know they've at least talked about it before

It's crazy how 50 yard field goals feel like chip shots now. Has narrowing the goalposts been talked about? Should they?

Rodgers is so amazing to watch tho.

The weird thing is that usually Fitz gets a big contract before he starts to suck, he skipped a step in the cycle this time. Damn, Josh, lol.

It look like the magic Fitzpatrick run is over already. Sheesh the Bears are demolishing them.

That looks like one of Thompson/Nylander stays and one goes, to me. Sad face. I hope Pominville/Zemgus have really taken steps forward.

Looks like today is the "down" part of the ups and downs we were expecting.

It's going to be a long day when a hobbled Rodgers has 35 seconds to throw the ball

Damn.

Au contraire, both of those teams were closer to that 75 point margin than last year's Sabres by a long shot. The Sabres are the worst team in the NHL, as of the most recent real hockey sample size, and are more than twice as far behind the second-worst-team over the last 5 years than any other team trails any other team above them in that stretch. It sucks, but the true safe bet is that Buffalo is the worst team in the league any given year. That doesn't mean I believe it'll happen again, or that we can't be excited.

wookie, I don't have a specific idea other than EITHER Price is on fire OR Detroit isn't as bad as we think they'll be. Their younger players looked amazing this preseason, and while it is just preseason, it's a good reminder that anything is possible in the NHL. Further, it's not that they need to be good, just to beat my 75 points. I don't think it would be crazy for Montreal or Detroit to get 77 points or something eh?

Yep, I think he was one of our 4 best defensemen this preseason. Watching him kill a Malkin-Kessel rush with ease, and then calmly ignore a Crosby forecheck to get the puck out with a crisp pass sealed it for me. The numbers game plus small-ice concerns are why he was sent down, but he'll be back. Agreed. Is Thompson a rookie with 41 games played last year? I forget the cutoff rules.