Well, yes, their choices are much easier than ours. NYR wishes they had our depth problems.

They did say they like playing with each other.

PING! (think “off the post” noise)

A Taco Bell taco or a real taco?

Exactly! Thanks for playing.

That’s pretty racist, but correct.

Risk is a generous word. You waive him at this point, you’re essentially giving him away for free. That only happens if the team really doesn’t have plans for him in Washington and can’t trade him for anything, which seems unrealistic.

Also, at this point, the only defender I see them trying to keep up here is Sloan, if at all, and only if they have a move lined up for someone like ShaMo or Jurcina to acquire picks/prospects, meaning they carry 7 D. (14-7-2)

The next question becomes, is Chris traded or healthy-scratched? I’d really, really, really prefer the latter, mainly because I’m not sold on anyone else in the system top-six-winging right now, including Giroux and Aucoin.

Only delays the problem until Flash and/or Fehr return, and that won’t be very long in the grand scheme of things…

To me, the quintessential cled is “Schultz sucks because he doesn’t hit.”

Dumb jokes aside, George McPhee is a wonderful GM. He’s made some mistakes in the draft (who hasn’t?), but he’s given the org. a cohesive, integrated approach to building a winner that most teams would love to have.

Agreed. All of those players have promise, and if three of those turn out to play in the NHL it’s a decent draft.

Was referring specifically to AnGus and in general to the fact that the upper minors are not awash in Top-6 guys. If Fehr does not pan out, and when BMo and Knuble are gone, there are going to be some slots available in the top two lines.

Perreault maybe fills one, but after that I can’t think of any slam dunks. Giroux is looking more and more like he’s not going to be an NHL regular.

They could use some picks to try and change that, is all I’m saying.

I think the whole “crease-clearing Dman thing”, if it happens, is more likely to happen in the spring. We’ll probably be okay without one for the regular season (see last year), and waiting until spring gives GMGM time to survey the pack, survey the Caps’ play, and decide what is really needed for a Cup run, not just what we think we need. Given our roster depth at D, getting another Dman now could really, really hamstring us at the deadline, and a freak injury could mean that we need something we don’t expect.

I expect GMGM to sit tight until the deadline and wait and see what is really needed.

No, but that’d require an awful lot of peices to fall in to place. The Caps would want to move at least two defensemen, they’d have to find someone who wants what they’re willing to give up, and it has to work financially for both sides. I don’t see any trading partner with a physical defenseman who’s significantly better than what the Capitals have now where a trade makes sense for both sides.

Let’s see what he does with PP time, because I don’t doubt he’ll see it this year.

Another man, not me, a man less intimately involved with the Perreault Lobby, that kind of man might suggest that Marcus Johansson actually has the inside track at 2C because he played in the SEL before his draft year, a more impressive feat than any other C prospect in the system.

That should be Signed as a free agent by Washington, March 19, 2007