Thorner

I want this guy to hit the open market so the limitations of what a coach actually does can be exposed. Dude is the most overhyped asset in the NHL I all but guarantee it - bookmark this post The concept of Rod Brindamour

My mistake and apologies

Bit of an oxymoron but I’ll take it

It’s asinine lol. I mention it every chance I get The jets can choose

The contrast with my Sabres fandom actually allows the Jays to remain incredibly fresh. Making the playoffs is fairly satisfying in and of itself: that’s what these teams have taught me and my opinion thus informed. Which actually fits on nicely with this bit from Harrington I liked that’s on the front page of the site right now: 'Ruff’s troops need to get into the postseason, take some five-game loss in Round 1 and then we can all get on to the process of aiming toward much longer hockey springs around here. And he’ll be a hero. You might argue that’s a pretty low standard to have and you’re right. But that’s simply the reality of where this organization is.'

Lol Jets That’s the 5th time among their 7 playoff berths where their exit consisted of losing 4 straight games Suppose I can’t talk as a Sabres fan. Fun to see em lose, regardless

Lol I’m a die hard Jays fan I know all of this already - but thank you for attempting to explain things to me as if I am 5 You are *literally* doing the “it’s all Tage Thompson!” thing again, but here haha. I do not care about this argument, it is not an interesting argument And, I absolutely cannot stress this last part enough: *it is not relevant to what I am saying* GM’s are allowed to do things. Your go-to argument is even more absurdly placed here as the signs with Vladdy have been there since leaving Dunedin. This isn’t a one year thing, and their approach here was particularly unusual b/c unlike the Sabres, the Jays usually care about having and meeting some level of expectations. Even had they gotten the exact Vladdy of last season, they be in dire need of help right now. Yes, it was obvious the team needed more help this year. It is not a surprise Vladdy didn’t bounce back to “form” yet. We may never see 2021 Vladdy again, truth be told. The idea is constructing a team in light of what you actually have - not what you were hoping it would be - - - the “they were good but lost in the playoffs cause Vladdy shut it down” is the chef’s kiss portion of this. You are cherry picking stats as if it’s a theme. Check the stats of the other players in those games. Most importantly: go look up “8-1 Jays, John Schneider pulls Kevin Gausman” edit: for the record, the constant bashing of Vladdy online is annoying anyways. I think he can be and is a good player. I can live with that. I think he can and will get back to his production from last year, this year. If they continually expect greatness, when that’s proven to be dicey at best, that’s on them.

I’m sure they did. I just enjoy missing it intentionally

I mean overall roster construction has been by far the biggest issue we’ve had We’ve yet to assemble a roster that’s reflected by a standings finish higher than 20th in 13 years There is a chasm between the leafs and us. Yes, just assembling a deeper, more balanced group of players is worth a lot on its own - unless someone is one of those “only the cup matters” guys and all other result is equal failure until you do… then ya sure there isn’t much that can bridge that conversational gap

Exactly. As to Eichel in Vegas. The issue wasn’t the player not fitting, the issue was that we didn’t build a team where good players fit. cause we didn’t have enough good players

Just don’t pull another “Kevyn Adams”. Even sports teams close by are catching the stench:

There was so much “room” for Casey on the roster it’s not even funny. Purely smoke. Purely talent evaluation. Trade being good or bad will purely be based on who’s the better player straight up The truth of the matter, if we cut to the chase and call a spade a spade, is they brought Byram in specifically to parter Dahlin. Everyone knows that’s what the deal was attempting to do. They weren’t ambiguous about it in their statements on the matter. They have a history of making transactions with this sort of limited mindset. The trade will likely be good if he’s that and not so good if he can’t. He’s supposed to be top pair left shot cause Dahlin can play the right. Byram doesn’t play the right well. If we dealt the guy who was performing as our best C for a second pair left shot guy interchangeable with our other left shot #3s, I wouldn’t consider the deal good value. If he is going to be a second pair guy by talent exclusively it wasn’t too much to ask for a right shot to aid our balance. If he’s far and away our best #3 and he’s blocked by an excellent top pair, sure, the deal would be fine regardless of handedness it looks a little underwhelming currently. But these things are always subject to change if Krebs starts next year as 3C, the trade was bad. Really really bad - I’ll put that out there Wait, what? Casey had a better chance to find a role on the best offensive team in the league that he did on the Buffalo Sabres? Consider me skeptical. Maybe I’m misreading your point. - - - On a tangent: It’s funny that the “this isn’t a video game” bullet point gets brought up most when people advocate for roster moves but in reality it would be most accurately employed when people suggest minimal roster movement. You don’t go to “edit lines” in real life and push “X” in 2 spots and boom your top 2 Cs are set for the next decade. We aren’t “set” at C. We aren’t close to set at C. Or F. Or anywhere on the roster. We have room for Casey. We even have room for Ilya Kovalchuk A big plus we talked about with Tage and Cozens being locked up to reasonable deals is that we *could* afford to pay another centre. I feel like we are willingly mitigating that advantage here. D is a different minefield: Dahlin is NOT underpaid. Power isn’t as much as the forwards, either. Lmao I mean ya, sub context really can be that difficult when you are apparently attempting to make the point that he’s the exact same player by saying…precisely the opposite So your point is muddled. It’s also inaccurate: if Casey “couldn’t be that guy” here cause we can’t surround him with competent finishers, that’s not a Casey problem that’s a GM problem. That’s a “Casey won’t be that guy here cause of the GM” not “Casey can’t be that guy here” your argument is, “the GM isn’t good so by that prism I don’t mind dealing a guy he wasn’t going to do anything with anyways” haha

I do like how the Hall of Famer is the one with the apparent negative connotation lol

For having arguably the 2 best skaters in the game the oilers sure are PP fiends. Brutal penalty call after none all game gets them on the board the best days of the playoffs are when the Canadian teams lose

Not over yet and I don’t want to jinx it, and I was wrong about Hellebuyck apparently (yeesh) but: It’s really their D AND offence that has let them down. They seem ill-equipped for playoff puck

I’m the focus on pr / messaging guy too, but for the record I agree with you

Personally, I’d take a stretch of multiple enjoyable regular seasons leading to playoff berths ultimately ending in disappointment than I would multiple terrible regular seasons to the tune of the worst run of all time in professional sports followed by coming in even lower by expectations than the Leafs because we can’t finish higher than 22nd any single season but that’s just me He’s so damn good

Ya I was being sort of tongue in cheek

Blue Jays really struggling to start off..who would have thought the run-it-back, rely exclusively on internal improvement from everyone all at once strategy instituted during the offseason could backfire?? - - - It’s funny cause just now Buck Martinez picked a good time to explain the Dodgers are so successful specifically because they block all the prospects with competent roster players 😭

So are you looking to give Krebs first crack at 3C this year? He’s your guy for game 1? Byram wasn’t even CLOSE to as good as Power was, I don’t think we’ll be able to see eye to eye on evaluation here “Move the extras for a top 4 D” yes, our scraps that we don’t want will fetch a player as good or better than our 1C did…doesn’t seem very realistic tbh

Maybe a 40-50 game trial for Krebs next year on the menu? He should get a development year in the role (On a side, more straightforward note: before the Mittelstadt trade we needed a top 4 D man. If after trading our leading centre on the roster and biggest trade chip we come away still needing a top 4 D, on a roster that already had Dahlin and Power before said trade: the trade failed)

Ya I mean if this is the do or die year for Adams, playoffs or canning, might as well let him have the coach he wants the most and that’s Lindy. We should get to see his full intended plan That Lindy is the coach it turns out I also really wanted is a nice plus

Things change fast when you lead your team in scoring an are your team’s best centre demonstrably, which he hadn’t been before. The biggest thing is the piece we dealt him for. It looks odd at first and the early returns were very poor. It’s worryingly looks like another potential “hindsight need not apply” blunder. We didn’t really need another second pair left shot D. I understand Adams doesn’t care about handedness and probably doesn’t think he’s a second pair D, but those aren’t my evaluations, personally

C. Mittelstadt up top there seems like a guy in the mold of the centre we should be targeting this offseason imo