Silver Nuggets: Kuba on IR and out 3-4 weeks

If he is back and plays well, but his trade value is reduced due to injuries history, Murray may not want to trade him or a 5th rounder… then we keep him and make a playoff push. We finish 6th, and sweep Florida in first round 4-0 with Kuba contributing on both ends of the rink and Alfredsson leading the team in scoring. Then we face Boston in round 2 and Tyler Seguin misses a breakfast twice!! and is a healthy scratch for both, with Ottawa winning the series 4-2 behind stellar performance by Craig Anderson and not so Vezna-worthy play by Tim T. Now anything can happen after that, I know, but this Kuba injury is a blessing in the sky as it guarantees us run deep into the playoffs and playing Penguins in the conference finals. Best news of the day!

Out of every injury comes an opportunity to someone else, so this opportunity—at least for now—is falling mostly to Jared Cowen, and also to David Rundblad and Brian Lee to a certain extent.

He’s a good backup, but I wonder how he’ll play when he inevitably cools down and loses a few.

I never had anything against him really, and I am definitely not saying “I told you so”, it is just funny that we had him play just as well here, but it was not perceived the same way, because our sample size was much bigger than St. Louis. The team was very inconsistent as so was Elliott. But to answer your questions – yes, I would have taken him before Auld, especially for $1M that Auld is making. However I think new scenery, lower expectations, different coach helped him and good for him, Let’s not forget we traded him and it might be weird to sign him back. However I do not think there were any hard feelings…
Would be nice to have goaltender controversy again in Ottawa, NO? :) With team playing so well and exceeding expectations we are so forgiving these days to our GKs even on nights when they do not stand on their head and win us one…, and good for us! :)

Brian Elliott’s Agent: Brian, Bryan Murray is on the phone, he’s offering you a two-way $650K 1 year deal.
Brian Elliott: Is Bruce Garrioch dead?
Brian Elliott’s Agent: I haven’t heard or read anything like that no.
Brian Elliott: So why are you calling?

The question of success becomes, “Are you able to do the little things consistently?”

For me, that’s how a player like Alfie becomes Alfie. He knows he’s not the best at anything, so he focuses on the mental aspect of the game and uses that as his advantage. That comes less easily to a player like, say, Kovalev, because their talent usually lets them succeed without maximum effort.

Do I believe Elliott has the talent to be an NHL starter? Yep. Do I believe he has the consistency to be an NHL starter? Nope.

Nikita Filatov send the CSKA Moscow for 3 Fabergé Eggs