Thorner

If he’s physically healthy, he doesn’t need to “rest”. He’s a kid. What good is that? He’s either full healthy or not. If there’s no greater risk of further injury there’s no reason he shouldn’t play. If the reason is, “so he doesn’t suffer another random injury” that’s not a good reason and not a part of his contract

As soon as they lose 3 more games in regulation they are essentially mathematically eliminated. If they have a road trip where we drop a couple games, that’s probably the end of it If we fail to grab 7 points of the remaining 32, we cannot make the playoffs if a team gets 93 Best bet is 12-4, hit 91 and win a tiebreaker. If we beat the NYI tomorrow their current pace would actually be 91

They’re not done. They came into today with an identical record over their last 10 games to us 2 points up on us with 2 in hand = ~ 4 points up on us. And they are the easiest of the 3 we need to catch

10 of the last 12 out of town scores we’ve needed (Tampa, Detroit, islanders, devils, caps, pens) have gone our way, in addition to winning 2 in a row so, 12 of last 14 results have broken our way

Out of town scoreboard has been in our favour of late

I think generally the way it works is they play if they are ready. Don’t rush it, but if you are physically ready you are physically ready: if the doctor says you aren’t risking further injury. At the end of the day it’s still a job: they are paid handsomely to play and the paying customers fork over for what is ultimately an entertainment product

I’d settle for a 2 gamer (2 more) with losses by Detroit to Arizona and Islanders to Ottawa along the way

I think we can read a lot from how Botts lost his job. The subtext there was, “we are bad while spending a lot of money, look, we can be bad while spending less, in that case.” I think he’s willing to fork out, it’s just not the default anymore. Our GM is to do whatever he wants to do in an economic way, first, and if the pillars of the operation progress to the extent it looks like it can support the weight of more cash: it’s on the table. I don’t see close to the urgency in fielding a winner that id like to see, and some of that manifests in our leaning towards spending less, but it’s not a hard line thing

If we go out and wallop the Islanders tomorrow, really wallop them like we saw with Detroit, I’ll probably start to shift from “mathematically possible, still in it” mode to belief they have a real shot. That “we need to go 14-3” (and now 13-3) thing looms large but I can’t shake the feeling the number comes in a bit below 93. If it’s 91: tiebreaker is prob something we own 12-4 over final 16? It still seems just ridiculous but…again, with what we saw vs Detroit..I’d say that team could maybe do it - - - What we really need is for the islanders to drop their game with Ottawa while we play Detroit again. Even if we beat the islanders tomorrow we’d be 3 back with them having 2 in hand so realistically 5 points: a tough hill to climb with other teams still in the mix. But if we take care of business vs Detroit while they lose to Ottawa..1 back with them having 2 in hand…3 points, more less…you never know

Right I mean if we have to have an argument by way of including all of those caveats and stipulations and assumptions you listed for what the GM WILL do, then yes, it would be tough to supplement given all of that. But none of that HAS to be the case. We don’t have to resign Z or Robinson or play Krebs in the top 9. The distinction here is im saying it reasonably CAN be done, not that it necessarily will be. But we have the fluidity to be able to attempt almost anything we want. He did TRADE Mittelstadt. I think it’s fair to credit KA for moving on from a significant complement in the aim of approving the team: at the very least, it showed me he can break from that expected rigidity Pretty big for me. Proof is in the pudding there as it’s a hopeful move to make

That’s a great point: looking at the standings, the teams below us DO have losing records of late (one caveat: Calgary is tied with us and they have one point less over last 10, so they’ve been on a similar stretch, Caps have also matched our stretch and they are within 2) But it’s still pretty salient. Being able to transition to finding results over the course of a full season is, as you point out, just something they need to learn how to do. I say “learn” but it’s not really “learn”: the team needs to be configured in such a way that it’s capable of achieving the results we want We have had a dearth of expectation here for a decade, the process can be an eye opening one and unusual for fans: if you are measuring based on actual results like the rest of the league does it, what matters is our actual output over the 82 games allotted to each team: and your performance in the standings over such is significantly more reflective of the composition of your team than reading in to any ONE segment of games The more you dilute the sample size, the more you try to blame it all on the struggles of a player or two, the further you stray from logic

I like to believe he would. I have more faith somehow in his willingness to do so than the board appears to. I think the tide is shifting to more less expecting a Kulich/Savoie promotion and maybe a 4th liner or 2. Granted, from what KA said that may be exactly the case. I suppose I’ll continue to think it’s possible because it would make so much sense: like you, I doubt a run back much like we saw last offseason gets it done. We said it was criminal at the time so a redo would be pretty head-desk. It COULD work out, it just seems needlessly risky, unless there really isn’t any sort of urgent expectation to make the playoffs next year, at all. It could be that the organization just doesn’t feel that pressure There’s a large segment of the board that will laugh if you suggest KA take action of note, and there’s a large segment that laughs if you suggest he hasn’t already. It’s a tightrope!

Agree

With some supplementation from the outside to the forward ranks in a meaningful way this offseason I think this trade could end up a Whopper of a great deal for us

So fall into the same trap we did last offseason and promote almost solely from within. We’ll see, cotton *rumblings of injuries and bad luck intensify as visions of running it back dance through our heads* it’s leaving a lot to chance. But it depends on what sort of expectation we want to hold them to. I don’t see much appetite for that sort of thing I feel like if people can look at a GM’s work and say that, in hindsight, it was reasonably possible that had A, B, C etc broken our way, we may have made the playoffs: that’s more less enough. It’s not about achieving a result and expecting anything on that level, more so: did your GM configure a situation where it was impossible to make it? No? Then he did a good enough job

I kinda feel like they are already playing under pressure. Indeed, I think that’s the key differentiating factor: not until our *opponents* feel pressured such that they feel compelled to match our urgency will we be truly tested in this final stretch, here. I think we feel pressure but teams playing the 24th place team simply don’t

The Venn diagram where we fall, of those who absolutely think we can make the playoffs and are absolutely going to hold it against the regime if they don’t while holding them to the expectation is shrinking

Notably, the odds jumped to 3.2% with the win. Doesn’t seem like a lot but it about doubled as it was only around 1.6 headed in. And that was only 1 win. Completing that 5 gamer in a row I mentioned probably gets us to ~ 20%, which be a mark probably on par with the other teams in the mix: ie the odds outright may not look “good” but we may have as good odds as basically any ONE team, and just be dealing with a “field” issue That is to say, it would probably look pretty good to our eyes if it even sat at something like 20

And hey look I detailed a breakdown for making the playoffs without sarcastically mocking anyone! Shock

This place sucks lol Make the f*cking the playoffs get out of here with this gaslighting sh*t yes, if you don’t ever finish above 20th out of 32 your GM is doing an objectively poor job “Besides that wHeRe hAs hE gOnE wRonG aGaIn?!” nhl.com/standings ^ start there. By all means be happy with whatever metrics for progress you want divorced from the what they rest of the league measures by but do not outwardly mock those that actually want success. You are literally sarcastically mocking fans in the middle of a 13 year drought, as if it’s absurd we want to actually win.

See you in a couple weeks

Jesus

You’d certainly take it and go from there you wouldn’t take their season RIGHT NOW for next year, if given a choice? 2nd overall? Considering all the most likely and reasonable outcomes? When you’ve been justifiably down on the regime of late? You wouldn’t take that sort of improvement for next year? I call bs Dollars to donuts we don’t even make the playoffs next year, you can’t turn down 2nd overall regardless of how they got it. The chances we are better by any metric at all up to and including entertainment value is almost nonexistent

I’ll take the 50 wins

And it’s not an “either or”. Sample size is incredibly small. Multiple variables Lmao