I love how you posted this thinking you might get a serious response from someone on this board.

there is always a chance, too bad stink got too high and mighty for us, or he'd post in this section once in a while

there is always a chance, too bad stink got too high and mighty for us, or he'd post in this section once in a while

They ARE seemingly coming out of Bolivian(MJeff's word)

Mtyson, not Mjeff. Still hilarious every time though.

there is always a chance, too bad stink got too high and mighty for us, or he'd post in this section once in a while

the Dead Things having the same record as the Thrashers right now is pretty hard to believe.

Franzen's been out and will be out til after the NHL takes a couples weeks off for the Olympics (Feb 15 to March 1st).

Filppula's also out for a couple months.

Regardless of what seed they end up in the playoffs, Red Wings will still be the favorites to return to the Stanley Cup finals out of the Western Conference come April, too much Stanley Cup playoff experience on that team for them not to be.

Buffalo. Wait until you see Tyler Myers.

I think you spoke too soon. Just read that Buffalo is souring on the rook after he cost them a game recently with a bad turnover.

He's a rookie so I don't know why that wouldn't be expected occassionally, but apparently they aren't too happy with him lately and he might get sent down.

The turnover was flukey.

He passed the 9 game tryout so they can't send him back to Juniors. He's a stud.

Osgood stunk last regular season too. He's a playoff goalie. No way the Red Wings miss the Stanley Cup playoffs. Hell, despite missing Franzen and Filppula they are tied with the Blackhawks right now and the Blackhawks have had an easier schedule.

Well, lets see how the Avs do without their top two goal scorers. Hejduk is out with a knee injury and Jones is out for the year with a torn ACL.

Anyone surprised that Calgary is tied with the Hawks for points right now considering how badly the Hawks have whipped them?

We are now sufficiently deep into the season that we can start looking at whether or not a team's offseason moves have worked out for the best. If nothing else, it will give you a reason to feel really good or really bad about the team you have chosen to support.

To be honest, a shocking number of huge decisions have turned out to be very, very good. The Dany Heatley(notes) trade is working out for everyone, Phil Kessel's(notes) been lights-out in Toronto, Jay Bouwmeester(notes) has helped the Flames' defense be not-terrible and Ryan Smyth(notes) was dominant in LA before going down with an injury.
But those aren't as interesting as some of the massive blunders GMs across the league have made in acquiring what they thought would be exceptional players only to find they got a dud.
What, for example, were the Edmonton Oilers thinking?

[Coming up: Jordin Tootoo's(notes) No. 1 and so is Corey Perry(notes); Angelo Esposito's(notes) old trick knee is acting up again while Patrice Bergeron's(notes) (unspecified) is bothering him; Miller's save-of-the-year candidate; the Wings revel in beating St. Louis in a shootout; the Sharks' power play goes in search of the Washington Generals; the Habs get a participant trophy; and the Leafs hire Mocha Joe to mediate a dispute.]

Edmonton could have re-signed Dwayne Roloson(notes) on the cheap for a year or two and gotten a somewhat effective goalie. Instead Steve Tambellini gave a four-year, $15 million deal to injury-prone, 36-year-old Nikolai Khabibulin(notes), who couldn't even out-duel Cristobal Huet(notes) for a starting job in Chicago.

The results, of course, have been predictable. He's played 18 games with a 3.03/.909 line, and -- guess what? -- now he's hurt, leaving the Oilers to rely upon Jeff Drouin-Deslauriers, who is somehow even worse. And jeez, that Mike Comrie(notes) deal worked out too, didn't it? I still don't know how people thought this team would make the playoffs.
But it's hard to have done a worse job than the Canadiens did over on the other side of Canada. Mike Cammalleri has been just fine, but Scott Gomez(notes), Brian Gionta(notes) and Hal Gill(notes) were hilariously bad decisions, especially considering what the Habs gave up to get Gomez in the first place, not that anyone thought the Habs were getting their loonie's worth when they signed anyway. And here I would also list some of the Maple Leafs' offseason acquisitions like Mike Komisarek(notes) and Francois Beauchemin(notes), but that'd feel too much like kicking the slow kid.

The Rangers, too, have problems. Sure, their three big free agent signings of Marian Gaborik(notes), Vinny Prospal and Ales Kotalik(notes) are leading the team in scoring, but by acquiring them, the Rangers went all-in on a defense made up of two rookies, two decent second-pairing guys, and Michal Roszival and Wade Redden(notes). Couldn't have invested $11.6 million in defense? Offense is nice but when you score better than league average and then allow more than you score, that's a very, very bad thing.

Speaking of Gaborik, Minnesota replaced him with Martin Havlat(notes) which seemed like a good idea at the time. Consider, then, that Kyle Brodziak(notes) has twice as many goals as Havlat, ye fantasy owners, and weep.
And finally, what was going through Ken Holland's head when he let Marian Hossa(notes) walk, and then replaced him with Jason Williams(notes) and Todd Bertuzzi(notes)? Keeping the team together is important, I guess, but you can't know you're going to let a 40-goal guy go and not have some sort of contingency plan. That blunder is a huge reason they're 10th in the West right now.