A friend wrote me to ask if it was time to officially start the “Fail for Nail” campaign. What do you say to that?
Well, if you’re Gallos, you say “YES YES YES!”, and I think he does make some good points, though he seems to think the Jackets should look for a franchise D-man, and I’d be willing to consider Yakupov, should it come to that. LTL has also started keeping an eye on the draft boards.
It certainly goes back to the argument that the Jackets have always seemed to fail, but never quite fail enough to get the help that a young franchise really needs – the lottery level picks that can make such a massive impact – or mismanaged the opportunities when they appeared. Right now our list of real top tier draft talent is Nash, Johansen, and….well, that’s it.
(Note: I don’t blame Howson for Filatov, not when every other scouting group out there had him just as high. But at the same time…Tyler Myers. Damn.)
Over at the main SBNation hub, Travis looks at why penalty shots are so awesome, but shootouts suck, while Jeff Skinner is hopping mad after the Caps lit up the Hurricanes last night.
Over at Carry the Flag, they have breakdowns from Thursday night and why a new goaltender won’t fix everything.
At Icethetics, there’s an interview with jersey designer Jacob Barrette.
Rob Mixer dusts off the Jackets Report blog for a rare in season update. Rob has never been shy about sharing his opinion, but it’s interesting to see the difference of personal writing style vs the professional work he does for the team website. For a contrasting example, take a look at his game day report for tonight’s matchup.
Over at Backhand Shelf, Bourne looks at the trend of teams failing to wake up for the start of games, how to play a 3 on 2, and a look at JVR in the doghouse.
Steve Mason will get the start tonight, and coach Arniel was pretty blunt in admitting a lot of people won’t like that move. If nothing else, Mason should be thankful every night for the commitment his team is showing to him.
In case you missed it, there was a barn burner in Dallas last night, including Matt Duchene pulling a Juice and getting a hat trick in a loss.
Pro Hockey Talk also sees another possible “last stand” game tonight for Arniel and Howson, while LTL takes a look at a guest in the press box and predicts an ELE. What is the team saying? Take a listen to the audio up at Fear The Hat.
Oven in Minnesota, Josh Harding, the “backup”, gets his 5th consecutive start. So, um, I don’t suppose they’d be interested in talking about Niklas Backstrom?
At Silver Sevens, Peter talks about when the NHL’s policemen fail to do the policing, and the results on and off the ice.
Finally, Puck Daddy talks about the trends in goaltending, the greatest toy of their / your childhood, the Stars are reaping rewards from risks, and truly unusual fighting techniques from the KHL.