Drew Doughty

The defenseman is the one who starts the charge up the ice, as you put it. He needs to know where his forwards are going to be. Of course their roles are different. But I don't think it's a stretch at all to describe the relationship of all five players as having something to do with "chemistry." breakouts are largely set plays, it's something you practice everday, and it's usually a system created by the coaching staff. the "chemistry" between a dman and a forward is almost non-existent. there are set plays in the offensive zone, but it's mostly a free-flow between the forwards (because you can't predict how a defense will react when things actually start happening in the offensive zone, whereas if you watch enough tape, you can see how a defense protects against a breakout). brian campbell is an offensive dman, but he's still a dman. he's going to pinch more often than most, but that doesn't make him any less of a dman. it should also be noted that he's not going to be on the ice with toews and kane on every shift at even strength. bleh, tried to find shift charts for this year but they're not available. i hate that nhl.com took them off their website.

i like pie but the chances of him putting up numbers like Edmonds did in 08 at any point in his career (let alone next year) are pretty slim, even if he's just limited to hitting against right handed pitching. there are lots of reasons to think Edmonds could keep going (maybe not as strong as this year, but still solid numbers). It's not like a 1 year deal with a low low base salary hurts the team anyway (if he's willing to accept such a deal). if he struggles, DFA him and move on. it seems like a much smarter baseball move to bring him back on a low-base, incentive-laden deal to give yourself some depth rather than relying on Felix Pie, who has done nothing in the majors worth noting to this point in his career. he's likely to get some playing time when Edmonds inevitably gets injured/struggles for a period anyway, so I'd just go at it like that. the point is all moot anyway if Edmonds won't take the low-base deal, but he seemed to like Chicago and he knows he's on the downswing in his career.

i have never in my life heard someone describe the relationship between a dman and a forward as conducive to chemistry. maybe on the PP...but it's not like Campbell is charging up ice with Kane on every shift, and even when they are on the ice at the same time, their roles are completely different.

So you tired of hearing of one comparasion means there are not valid comp? Sorry Constable. Just because you don't like the comp, doesn't make it less valid. It's a valid comp in terms of what to expect from Edmonds if you bring him back next yr. There will never be a 100% perfect comparasion of two situations. But the Gaetti .v. Edmonds is a goo dmatch regardless of the varibles that are not related to baseball. Chose to ingore the comp if you want, but the comp is valid. the comp is not valid at all. edmonds was a better player in his career than gaetti. we have a larger sample to go on in going with edmonds. edmonds would be signed to play in a role that is conducive to his success (LH platoon), whereas gaetti was tagged as the everyday 3B (until he played himself to the bench). edmonds did a lot of things differently once coming over from the Cubs and extended his success throughout his 4 months with the Cubs (lowest OPS by month with the Cubs: .881). Gaetti had one good month as a Cub. Edmonds's numbers as a Cub actually lineup with his career numbers (mediocre avg, great on-base and power). Gaetti's numbers with the Cubs were largely driven by an unsustainable hot streak in which he went from a .250 hitter to a .320 hitter. you saying it's valid over and over again doesn't make it valid.

Are they even going to be able to compete this year, or are they going to be similar to last year? I didn't follow their offseason moves. they're handing over the reins to the kids. 3 rookies starting tonight (including 2nd overall pick Drew Doughty), Dustin Brown named captain (with Kopitar being an assistant). They're going to be exciting, probably about what the Hawks were last year.

That was clearly a goal. The 'Hawks have some issues and they're being exposed early. They got dominated in the second half of that game as well. This isn't a bad team looking for positives any more, this is a good team looking for wins. Of course there's going to be stress with two losses to open the year, esp. when you were up 2-0 in one of them.

one thing about the hawks in watching them early this year, they tend to scramble around in their own end of the ice quite a bit. as much as the Campbell signing was a good one, he isn't going to help in that aspect. they really need guys like Seabrook and Keith to step up in the d-zone or they're going to "give away" goals, as Savard said.

Kopitar signed for 7 years :D Kings season-opener in SJ tonight. i suspect we'll get steamrolled but i'm really excited to see the team this year.

theodore lol. what a bad signing that is going to be. pretty even game though. each team with a PP, both teams with glorious chances on the PP. khabi looks solid so far. the caps have so much depth offensively. they're going to be really scary if theodore isn't a complete joke like i think he will be. they have 3 solid scoring lines.

Couple of notes from the first few games I watched this year (I watched parts of ANH/SJ, BOS/COL, and VAN/CGY). Anaheim isn't that good. They're playoff good, but I don't think they're going to contend for the West or even the Pacific. San Jose is much, much better than I thought depth-wise (especially if guys like Michalek and Setoguchi can continue progress and if Marleau and Cheechoo can return to form). Boston has more offensive weapons than I thought they would. They should make the playoffs. Steve Bernier seems like a great fit with the Sedins. Can't wait for the first Kings' game on Saturday.

it seems like he just attacks whoever the newest hispanic player on the team is. for a while it was Ramirez... 10/15/06 also strangely enough he was advocating signing soriano at one point 11/19/06

last year they fought each other and they fought the padres. it didn't work any better.

or he's just the streakiest hitter on the planet and hasn't had the good fortune of getting hot in a playoff series. if the holes are so easily exposed then pitchers would just do it to him all the time.

not really, though the scheduling for the DS sucked.

Liar. They'll never win it. I've wasted 30 years. this loss is much more bitter than all the rest. It is more bitter. Why is that? I am not down about it, like I was last year, this year I am PISSED. because all of the awesome moments -- the comebacks, the home runs, the late rallies, the no-hitter, all of it -- are for absolutely nothing in the end.

http://i27.photobucket.com/albums/c194/vh2k6/wtf_cat-275_640x480.jpg

Light blue shirt, comfortable shorts, cubs hat.

i'm pretty sure that's just if they send him to the AHL. it wouldn't make any sense for that to be the case otherwise. That's what Kuc's article said today. I can't imagine him going to the AHL. But I also can't imagine some other team paying his entire salary. But something will get worked out. well i mean thinking about it, the ducks still had to trade schneider to make room to sign selanne.

i'm pretty sure that's just if they send him to the AHL. it wouldn't make any sense for that to be the case otherwise.

it's in the Terms of Service that you agreed to when you sign up for mlb.tv i'm pretty sure. my friend got mlb.tv last year and actually read the whole thing.

leftovers ftw

6/27/06. As a HS graduation present, my grandparents got me and my dad tickets to two cubs games. http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHN/CHN200606270.shtml It was a lot of fun until the 9th...A big fight erupted in the stands a section to my right. I got to see Z! and Aramis homer which was nice. The next day was a lot more fun though. Juan Pierre and Derrek Lee homered, Cubs came back late and Demp closed it out. Marmol was electric starting that day. Probably had better stuff than Zambrano had the night before.

I don't find it amusing. I DO NOT want brewers in over mets. Philly Mets Brewers LA CC's workload Sheets Elbow Bullpen Defense In a 7 games series that team doesn't scare me at all. Santana/Pedro is a pretty tough combo in a short series in OCT. Are you unaware that Pedro is terrible? Yes but so is Suppan and you see how thats working for us. seriously? in a game 0 people on the cubs seriously care about, we have 1 run in 4 innings against a bad pitcher, so we want to avoid them in the playoffs?

that never happened. i'm like 98% sure that was in the 7th inning. gj rammy. my friend tells me you just hit a home run.

If the Cubs win then the Mets would be tied with the Phils in the loss collumn and also hold the tie breaker. Do you really want to face the Phillies? I think that would be the worst case scenario. I don't really care if the Brewers win, I'll take a Dodgers matchup. The way Myers has looked recently? Bring 'em on. Hamels feels like an automatic L. I don't feel like that about many pitchers, either. Didn't we beat him in the most recent series against Philly? That was the Aramis GS game, wasn't it? he shut us down for 7 innings before the bullpen gave up 5 runs in .1 innings to lose the game.