My thinking is those injuries to Savard were related to his style of play, but mostly they were bad luck. Each of the three injuries had nothing to do with the other one. Maybe it’s me but I’m all for having a creative offensive center who doesn’t mind getting dirty, no matter his size. He’s got heart, that is never a bad thing.

On the third point, I agree. But what can you do? For a relatively young team, that mentality is gonna be there for a while. Of course it doesn’t help when your best offensive Dman would rather pass than shoot. Hopefully they will make the adjustments in time and get back into the playoff race.

Secondly, Marc Savard has had an injury problem his whole career. He is so small and yet he goes into the corner and plays with so much reckless abandon that he is always injured. Then when he is injured, he comes back way too fast and gets injured again. First, he tore the ligaments in his ankle, came back six weeks early and played well before getting a concussion. He missed just 3 games with a concussion, before coming only to sprain his knee. Now he is coming back just two weeks later, and I only worry how long before he is hurt again. They should pick somebody up, and give him time to heal properly.

Finally, it is increasingly annoying how the entire team goes out of there way to get the puck to Kovalchuk or, in the instance of the St. Louis game, Heatley. Kovalchuk passed up a point blank shot in front of the net to get it over to Heatley only to have him shoot it high. In a game against Carolina a couple weeks ago, Kovy got two in the first period and the team spent the rest of the game trying to get him the hat trick. They ended up losing 4-3 because the Canes covered him with 3 guys. SHOOT THE PUCK KABERLE!

Very interesting idea about the Pens. I don’t know enough about how those young Pens are perceived by fans and/or management to say it could or couldn’t work. But if your take is right, it could be worth looking into at least if Atlanta falls out of the playoff race this year.

Kudos for the creativity.

Oh good so it’s not just me then…

Jim Slater: 31 pts in 26 games, as well as a +19, for Mich St (CCHA)

Jim’s probably not ever going to be a huge impact player in the NHL but I can see him being good for Atlanta in particular. He’s been the glue holding together an erratic Spartan team this season (they need to fire Rick Comley as coach, he’s not getting it done). They’re fairly young this season (almost *all* freshmen and sophs) and Slater’s been consistent and a leader on the team. That alone bodes well. He’s probably going to need a while in minors though (2 or 3 seasons) before he’d be ready for NHL play.

Kari Lehtonen: with a GAA of 2.36 and a save percentage nearing 93%, he has earned the spot as starting goaltender for PlanetUSA in the AHL All-Star Game

Is there a more-retarded All-Star format in the universe than the AHL’s stupid Canada vs PlanetUSA format? Didn’t think so…

As you might have noticed, I dodged the issue of speculating who might be coming this way. That’s because I honestly don’t a have a good idea of who it might be, and I do not feel like making an ass of myself by throwing out random names. I will, as always, leave that up to the rest of you.

SURGEON GENERAL’S WARNING: No real cred to this idea *whatsoever* in terms of sources but it makes a WHOLE lot of sense to me so here goes.

I’ve been wondering just about all season if Atlanta and Pittsburgh couldn’t (and shouldn’t) help each other.

There are some decent young players that are DYING in Pittsburgh if for no other reason than Pens fans seem bent on killing them when they’re ina no-win situation. They might not be impact-type players in Atlanta but I could see them helping the team considerably if they were the right young guys, and one of them might develop more in ATL when they wouldn’t in PIT. People in Pittsburgh seem to do nothing but whine and complain about guys like Kraft and Orpik, for example. These are guys that maybe wouldn’t have such a burden in ATL as they do in PIT, and could help.

Also, PIT complains a lot about it being hard to get good young players. Well, the best way to do that is to somehow get an extra 1st-rounder…

If Atlanta was really serious about trading away their 1st-rounder if they got something of worth back, and Pittsburgh is truly serious about wanting to rebuild for the future and that they’re not happy with some of these younger players… it only would make sense to package a couple of the much-maligned younger Pens and swap them for ATL’s 1st Rounder and maybe someone else and/or some lower picks. From what I’ve seen of the Pens salaries too if done right it could also slightly alleviate some of the Pens financial difficulties for the time being as well.

But anyways, a package like that. You get the idea.

Again this is 100% my own idea, I haven’t heard or seen anything anywhere to indicate anything so I’m just spouting what makes sense to me. But it, well… makes sense.

Something to really think about.

– Primis

Mmmmmm, EHM trades.

What’s sad is that while cwthrash was mentioning getting a 20-something forward the first thing that popped to mind was “Hey, they could always get Lecavalier or one of the Sedin twins! They’re ALWAYS available in EHM.”

– Primis.

Cheers Tool boy!

Unfortunately time and some consistency are the only things that will put a dent in the perception of some about southern teams, even then it might not work. Three different teams currently in the SE division have made the Stanley Cup Finals in the past decade, but those are normally considered one-time wonders. Even when multiple southern teams do something this good, some fans try and rationalize it away. We can’t win.

But it’s not like I’m gonna stop trying to spread the word. I’m one stubborn SOB.

It would be a great thing for this team to make the playoffs, especially in the pre-CBA year. Any inroads that can be made to quell the (grossly distorted) clamors about the dearth of “real” hockey in the southern US would be greatly welcome.

You want a defensemen? Trade you Skoula for Kovalchuk, straight up. Ha!