jad1

It's mind-boggling. The NHL provided the players with tests. The players peed on the stick. The stick said the players were negative. The League can't figure out what went wrong.

And Thompson back on the first line, because he, ya know, 'earned' it.

It's a Lindy Ruff team. Not the most talented, but the effort is always there. It's characteristic of dinosaur, re-tread coaches. The first thing they address is team effort. Once you get high energy from the roster night after night, the other problems work themselves out.

Seattle is an expansion team that will have to hit the cap floor. That's difficult to do when you're not signing your own RFAs. An expansion team will take a vet with a high cap number to hit the floor while loading the roster with inexpensive young guys (Vegas did this with Fluery). The length of Skinner's deal, however, could put the kabosh on this idea. Seattle won't like the contract when the RFA deals come up for their young players in 3 years.

It's a win, good on them for that, but I don't think this team is coming together. They play with no urgency. No creativity. No edge. All in an effort to win by the smallest of margins. They play to minimize their mistakes instead of maximizing their potential. Their lineup, at this point, is better than the Rangers and Devils. But they are only able to eek out 1 goal wins against these teams. Maybe it's just bad luck that the proven goal scorers are slumping at the same time, and when Eichel, Hall, Skinner, and Dahlin break out, the team will be competitive with the Bruins and healthy Capitals. Or maybe these guys are slumping because they're being asked to play the game the same way that Lazar and Okposo play the game. Time will tell, but this lineup should be better and more exciting than it is currently showing.

They could tick him off so much that he waves his NMC. It makes sense for Seattle to take him. Top six potential, salary that eats up some cap.

The Southampton Saints would be proud

The guy is awesome.

So do you think that the Risto screen was planned, or was it something he decided to do on his own?

You would think so, but with Krueger drawing the lines... Thompson is the mistake the organization doesn't want to admit it made.

He's not getting an $8m dollar contract next season at this rate.

Thompson has over 100 games of NHL experience. If he hasn't figured it out by now, he never will.

RK is better at trolling Sabres fans than coaching an NHL team.

Yeah Ralph has them ready tonight. Does Dahlin have to be on the ice for every goal against?

4 guys above the faceoff dots the entire power play, trying to score with unscreened one-timers. Straight-up malpractice.

FTW

I think I agree, although they did let Rex HIRE HIS BROTHER.

So who conned the Pegulas better, Rex Ryan or Krueger?

I don't know, the Pegulas are pretty good with the sneaky firing. It's probably their best quality as owners.

He plays like Luke Adam's less talented cousin.

Wtf is Chara doing out there?

Wtf is Dahlin doing out there?

Hopefully something is done about this soon. This s### is unwatchable.

People have been losing their minds at the beginning of each of the last 10 seasons. And yet when those seasons ended, those who lost their minds early pretty much had it figured out. Right now, just start by putting something out on the ice that makes a lick of sense.

Krueger's a fraud. This lineup isn't based on analytics or principles; it's based on wishful thinking. Cozens isn't a 2nd line player yet. Lazar isn't going to recapture his scoring touch from juniors 6 years ago. Thompson's ceiling is 13th or 14th foward. Sheahan isn't a NHL quality player. Skinner is a top six foward (especially on this roster). The only thing this lineup is missing is Hutton in goal. Hopefully the team gets an MVP-quality performance from the top line and some puck luck to pull out a win.