The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

[gopher_guy]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Man, the Wild are putting on a clinic. 24 shots in the second period.

Crawford's the only one who got the memo that the Hawks had a game tonight, apparently.

[gopher_guy]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Well, this is the Wild team we saw early in the season.

Dubnyk since joining the Wild: 6-1-0, 1.48 GAA, .945 SV%

Hopefully it's not too late.

[jyoung]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Carter Hutton keeps the Predators/Leafs game from going to overtime:

Spoiler

He didn't have a great game, though, aside from that recovery save. Get well soon, Pekka Rinne!

[ImTellinTim]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

It's the annual Save Yeo's *** Streak.

[AdamJones113]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

***** Leafs. They're done, they're absolutely done. We've NEVER been a late-season team and losing 10 in a row here is ridiculous. 7th in the division, I can't predict much higher. No shot at the playoffs. Boston started slow, they're in 4th but they'll finish strong.

And I'll tell you why. We aren't a mentally strong team, for any reason or another. 7-15-4 (7-19) on the road. We do not have what it takes to win in another team's building. Our last road win was in Boston on December 31, a shootout. Haven't won a clean game (Non-OT, SO) since beating Dallas 4-0 on December 23rd. We haven't won a clear road game in 43 days.

Did I mention Nazem Kadri is on pace for an astounding 44 points? And he's only missed 2 games? Did I also neglect to mention that we have a mere 4 players with over 30 points, one being Cody Franson??

Daniel Winnik has played well: he seems like the only one. 20 points, +12 as a third-line C.

/Rant.

[DrJones]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Did I also neglect to mention that we have a mere 4 players with over 30 points, one being Cody Franson??

No, but you did fail to mention that the Leafs won't be able to keep Franson because they're capped out due to continually overpaying guys who are supposedly great at "mental toughness" (Clarkson, Robidas, Polak, the bought-out ghost of Tim Gleason).

[bad_philanthropy]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

No, but you did fail to mention that the Leafs won't be able to keep Franson because they're capped out due to continually overpaying guys who are supposedly great at "mental toughness" (Clarkson, Robidas, Polak, the bought-out ghost of Tim Gleason).

Keeping Cody Franson is the least of this team's worries. They don't need a good UFA aged player right now anyway. Get what you can while he's worth something, and get comfy on the bottom for a while.

[DrJones]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Keeping Cody Franson is the least of this team's worries. They don't need a good UFA aged player right now anyway. Get what you can while he's worth something, and get comfy on the bottom for a while.

I agree, but it would appear the Leafs are stuck with several bad UFA-aged players for awhile. The Leafs' biggest problem has long been the significant chunk of the Toronto organization/fanbase/media obsessed with acquiring "character" instead of "talent".

[rdnk]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

I don't think Franson wants to stay there anyways. The Leafs had multiple shots of extending him when he was a RFA, but kept kicking the can down the road. I never understood why either other than obvious cap problems.

He is known as an offensive defenseman. Despite that, the Leafs give him 42% offensive zone start (only Polak gets more defensive starts) and have him playing the second toughest minutes after Phaneuf. He also plays on the 2nd PK. Properly sheltered, Franson could be Byfuglien-lite, but clearly the Leafs have no idea what they have in Franson.

Since he's been in Toronto, Franson's primary partners have been:

2011/12- Liles and Gardner
2012/13- Mark Fraser
2013/14- Gardner
2014/15- Phaneuf

Why only stick him with offensive defensemen and Mark Fraser? Why did they never try Gunnarsson-Franson pairing? Just because you're big and physical, doesn't mean you are good at defense.

[jyoung]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

They were talking on the TSN broadcast last night about the Predators potentially acquiring Kadri and Franson from the Leafs before the trade deadline.

I wouldn't mind swapping some draft picks and Volchenkov/Bartley for Franson. But I hope that Nashville holds onto Weber/Josi/Jones/Ellis/Ekholm. All of those defenders are too valuable to lose.

I suppose Kadri has the potential to become a decent replacement for Mike Ribeiro, but that's only if Nashville chooses not to resign him in the off-season. Otherwise, there's no reason to add another center to a roster that already has an overabundance of centermen.

[gopher_guy]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

Presented without comment

Spoiler

[SidVish]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

So Evander Kane was a healthy scratch last night because supposedly he showed up in Vancouver wearing sweats instead of a suit. It seems like it's always something with him.

http://www.si.com/nhl/2015/02/04/winnipeg-jets-evander-kane-healthy-scratch-suit

[DrJones]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

So Evander Kane was a healthy scratch last night because supposedly he showed up in Vancouver wearing sweats instead of a suit. It seems like it's always something with him.

http://www.si.com/nhl/2015/02/04/win...y-scratch-suit

Not wearing a suit? If I didn't know better, I'd say Kane was trying to troll Don Cherry.

[BlueNGold]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

We're going to trade him for 50 cents on the dollar, he's going to magically mature and get his **** together, become a yearly 30-40 goal scorer and make us look like idiots. This is inevitable.

[DrJones]

Re: The Official 2014-15 Regular Season Talk Thread

We're going to trade him for 50 cents on the dollar, he's going to magically mature and get his **** together, become a yearly 30-40 goal scorer and make us look like idiots. This is inevitable.

Probably. I sometimes wonder how Patrick Kane would've fared had he been drafted by a Canadian team.