Gearing Up For The Final Stretch

I was sitting on the couch with my then-girlfriend now wife, watching whatever the NBC sunday game was. Pierre Maguire said something about Dion Phaneuf being traded w/o saying which team, and my wife and I looked at each other surprised that Dion had been traded at all.

Then Pierre said, Dion to the Leafs… and I started jumping around the room screaming.

Then they mentioned that we had traded Blake and Toskala… and I laughed so hard I cried.

I was hungover and my sens fan roommate told me to turn on TSN about noon… we woke up the entire house with fist pumping and maniacal laughter

I had to go to my cousin’s birthday party. I spent the day chirping my Flames fan friend via text, she was happy to be rid of him.

I was on a plane to Calgary. In fact, I had not even heard about the deal until I got to the Calgary Airport.

Except without all the negativity attached to it. It’s like, instead of him getting shot he just gave everyone in the world birthday cake. It’s the Leafs fans “where were you when JFK gave everybody in the world birthday cake” moment.

Hungover, drinking an AM beer to get over it, and watching the Sunday game. CBC tosses up the trade, and suddenly my roommate and I are laughing, screaming, and jumping up and down.

A week and a half later, I created an SBNation account.

Driving home from a friend’s place in NIagara Falls.

DId a double-take at the radio when I heard aboiut the Phaneuf deal.

Almost swerved off the road when they followed up with the Toskala/GIguere deal.

I had just returned from a delicious late breakfast at F&S with my girlfriend. We got back to our old apartment in Ottawa and I opened up my laptop on my bed. Went right to PPP and saw the Phaneuf and Giguere fanshots on the front page and thought they were a joke until I opened them and began reading the comments.

I was in Calgary actually (live there now but was lived in tdot at the time) visiting my gf and I woke up, turned the tv on and saw the trade! I was so excited but we had bought advanced tickets to see Avatar in 3D for noon. So we were sitting in Avatar and I kept checking my phone to read trade analysis. It was awesome.

Unfortunately I didn’t know PPP existed then. A lot of Calgary folk were happy to get rid of him.

Hung over so bad. With my buddy when the text came in. As soon as we heard about it my hangover was instantly gone!

Thanks Burke

Stajan? the centerpiece of that trade was Jamal Mayers… that guy was clutch, he put in 110% effort every game and had a ton of intangibles

I will.

who do they have that’s worth Dion? Kessel?

Delecious

what generally works.

You might get a huge variation here… last year both NSH and MON made the playoffs with barely any scoring at all.

*spent

Yep, I’m a lucky man

They start becoming more useful when there are less games left to be played. As of now, each game can swing the % like 6-8%. Pretty nuts.

Shit we have to beat washington out twice!?

i prefer the stats machines to just looking at the standings, not because i think that ‘70%’ means 70% in reality, but it gives me a better sense of the relative chances of each team.

Yeah based on how awful the SE division is this year, it feels like it could be like that year philly got in with 88 points…at least that’s what I’m telling myself to make me feel better about our playoff chances

All we have to do is beat one of Florida, Washington, New Jersey or Washington, right?

This is exactly how I’m thinking about it. We need to be one game better than one of those teams. I think Ottawa will fall during the 2nd half as well. I’d put the odds of the Leafs making the playoffs at closer to 60-65%.

this gives me a huge sad.

Sounds like it’s time for Reimer to go full Optimus Reim.

Mirtle reminds us that there isn’t nearly as much reason to be optimistic as we think there is.

So you’d like someone who doesn’t give you the objective truth if it doesn’t make you feel good?

This is why Fox News exists.

My first impression after reading Mirtle’s article was that Cox or that ilk wrote it.

Oh shush.

This site needs top 25 ranked media sources and reporters by quality of their analysis and objectivity. Mirtle near the top and Healy and Cox near the bottom. Though I’m curious were Cherry, Friedman etc would end up.

WOOOO MEH

Fun Fact: McKegg’s secret weapon is “the stink bomb” – sits in front of the goalie a la Spezza and lets one go, distracting the keeper and then tossing the puck into the net.

Yeah it really is. Professional Wrestling is full of crazy heartbreaking stories and that’s for the guys who were famous and successful.

Size matters.

1C potential.

He’d cost like infinity though.

JVR still has concussion issues and Carter is out with a separated shoulder. These are the 2 names that keep coming up.

Burke won’t sell low, me thinks. His track record doesn’t show it. He could have sold low on Kaberle last summer but he held onto him because he didnt get the right offer.

Well the upside that comes with the #2 pick status. Plus last year in the playoffs he showed he could be the kind of player that can just take over and dominate a game.

Okay he got 20 goals when he was 21, that’s good.

But does he really have crazy potential? I dunno, I don’t watch the Flyers enough.

Where’s Ubiquitus when you need him

I guess you could use the word “decent.” Players in their first through third seasons who’ve put up between .45 and .55 PPG (JVR is at .51 right now), in similar ice time :

Penner
Lucic
Petr Prucha
(JVR)
Dustin Brown
Lupul
Dubinsky
Malone
Wilson

Two thoughts: One, this list could probably be called “the Brian Burke love-fest”. Two, JVR probably has the potential to play the first line power forward left wing. In short, be a replacement for when Joffrey Lupul stops scoring at an unsustainable clip. My concern would be that his O-zone starts are pretty ridiculous (63.0%), but his O-zone finish is still pretty good, considering (54.5%), and he is second on the Flyers for Corsi rel QoC. And it’s not like he’s spending a ton of time with Giroux.

I’d say a “good” prospect, more than a decent one. I’d also say that we could use another first-line potential talent. I’m not sure I’d be ready to give up on Schenn though, and I’d only want Gunnarsson going out if Burke feels that he has a good shot at Suter in the offseason (he probably doesn’t), or a stopgap defensive defenseman coming to replace him. Without one of those replacement plans, we’re probably throwing away this season.

Lombardi for a pick

/pleasepleaseplease

If there is no big deal then Mac goes in a Versteeg type trade for picks.
Then bring up Frattin on that line

India makes better tea. I want all the tea in India.

I’m against trading Gunnarsson unless it’s for:

a) an upgrade on Gunnarsson (ie. Suter); or
b) Getzlaf

Talking about buy low/ sell high, Gunnar is definitely a potential trade chip.

I could see a trade of Gunnar + a marginal /moderate prospect for a Suter because Nashville doesn’t have the money to sign all the players they’re going to need to re-sign but the problem is that our cap situation is quite tenuous.

I think we have about 3 mil in space… getting a Suter type player, which we’d need to replace a number 2 D, is expensive and we’d need to open up space with a trade of Schenn or Komi or maybe Grabbo.

Essentially though I feel that we already have a good cheap Number 2 D in Gunnar and unless Burke can really swing the hammer and make a huge deal with him, its very unlikely he goes anywhere.

Primarily because we need more scoring/ 1C – power forward rather than another big name D