Fifth Avenue Forum

I think you rushed that a little and don’t even like it, yourself.

But...there’s a thing here where I look at a guy and think how he’s gonna help win a game. And I find Rust to be eminently helpful. I think you prioritize the toolkit rather than all that. Sure I’m fairly ignorant on today’s NHL but I think there’s another rift here about what it means to be “better”.

I don’t expect to win any game against any opponent with this current lineup....but for entertainment value I’d like to use this opportunity to look at some more interesting/intriguing players. Zohorna, for example.

Ah yes, The Edgar Snyder Hit of the Game....two guys bumping shins and one of them falls down.

Nah, you're mischaracterizing what I'm about...I want to win, but it's about team building, right? There's impact players and there's support players. There's an endless supply of support players. There's a finite supply of impact players. If you get a chance to swap out a support player for an impact player, you do it. In the rule of 5, 6 wins.

I like Rust. I like what Rust brings. Rust helps us win. Rust is a support player. I can find another Rust, just like everyone does.

When you trade support players for impact players, you generally win. When you do the opposite, you generally lose.

St. Louis for Callahan. Easy win for New York, even getting the older player, they go immediately to the Final.
Seguin for Eriksson, Smith, Fraser, and Morrow. Easy win for Dallas. Seguin emerges as an elite player.
Hall for Larsson. Easy win for NJ, Hall wins the MVP, wills team to the playoffs...
Burns for Coyle and Setoguchi. Burns explodes, wins a Norris, takes team to a Final.
O'Reilly for Sobotka, Thompson, and Berglund. O'Reilly immediately delivers a Cup, wins the Smythe.
Kessel for Kapanen, Spaling, and Harrington. Penguins immediately win 2 Cups, one of which Kessel was the actual MVP for.
Oshie for Brouwer and Copley. Caps immediately start winning playoff series for a change.
Hossa for Armstrong, Christensen, and Esposito. Penguins immediately go to the Final.

It's really tough to scrape together enough depth/support players to reverse the impact of losing an impact player. When you have a bunch of impact players, you trade for depth to sure things up (see: Tampa acquires Goodrow and Coleman). Tampa just ****** found those guys...they went out for a stroll that afternoon and went, "ok, I'll take these guys, thanks...", they got their receipt and they left. They drafted the hard to find pieces because they're not usually available...and if you look above, when you're in a situation where you're moving them, you lose.

So, if someone came to me and said, "We'll do Teravainen for Rust", I couldn't say "yes" fast enough...Teravainen can move a line forward...Rust cannot. If it turns out I need another Rust, I'll just go find one...because he's a support player, and they can be had...

If we lean too hard into this idea that support players are greater than the sum of their parts...it dredges up some more "possibles" from the list into definites...Tom Wilson, Josh Anderson immediately come to mind...you probably have to start to consider Patric Hornqvist too because we added that character piece...

I think I get it. He’s not “the guy”.

Now list 300 players that are not better than Rodrigues.

Flyers blow a 3-0 lead, nice.

Now list 300 players that are not better than Rodrigues.

I take that back, mikey, because I know you'd do it and then I'd have to feel bad again.

Flyer re-take the lead, ****.

Right. He's a terrific depth piece, he's a terrific support player. Yeah, well, so is Dustin Brown...so was Wayne SImmonds...I can just buy them off the rack. Even if I draft them, I don't even have to think about it until the 3rd or 4th round...

So any time you see an impact piece become available...any time someone is giving you a dollar bill for coins, you take it...there's a lot more change lying in a parking lot than there is paper money...

Now list 300 players that are not better than Rodrigues.

I take that back, mikey, because I know you'd do it and then I'd have to feel bad again.

Honestly, if you need to find players better than Rodrigues...it's almost every single one of these players: https://www.hockey-reference.com/league ... aters.html

We’ve all seen the shots on goal heat map. I’d like to see an offensive zone puck possession heat map. It would essentially be a ring around the boards.

I've never seen an exciting devils game

Rust never sleeps.

Take that mikey. Clutch gene

Needed Zahorna

Garbage time goal = clutch. No wonder you think the list is bad...

I didn't comment on your list

I thought Marino looked a step quicker than he did pre-injury. He must have been on the Dumo rehab

It was more of a general comment at the board...

Agree that Marino looked more agile, quicker...it'd be nice if he could salvage this season down the stretch...

Season high 42 SOGs.

I've never seen an exciting devils game

I was just thinking about this, out of the past 20+ years I've watched hockey, I can recall maybe 1-2 times where it was above a 5 (highest being 10) on the excitement scale. Everything about that team has always just screamed "meh."

That's including the Kovalchuk years, etc. Just a lame, lame team.

Nothing exciting about Hischier. Before that, nothing exciting about Henrique. The 20 games where Hall cared about things were fun and the playoff run with Kovy, but generally their top guys bring no pizzaz to the table.

Tomorrow is an afternoon game against the Devils..so buckle up for a bumpy ride.......