The Production Line – TP:60

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Filppula, Expectations and the Legend of Vyacheslav Kozlov

Somewhere in California, Valtteri Filppula is waking up right now. He’s well-rested. He’s refreshed. His team is playing well and he is feeling good. Yes, life can’t get much better right now for the 26 year-old from Vantaa, Finland. Yet somewhere, right now, some writer is putting pen to paper or fingers to keyboard to […]

The Tychkowski Situation

As many of you have seen and read over the last few hours, the Edmonton Sun’s Robert Tychkowski took a few shots at the city of Detroit in his pregame post last night (all credit to Triple Deke Tyler): “Welcome to Detroit, where the forecast, as always, is muggy, with a chance of murder. When […]

Weekend Roundup: 4 Outta 6 Ain’t Bad

As you know, it’s been a pretty slow weekend in terms of updating here at TPL. Petrella’s been hanging out in the Big Easy for work, Disch is lost somewhere in Texas and we haven’t heard from him in days, and I just got back from another trip to California to party with celebrities all […]

Are We Not Men?!

“Back in my day, we had people that stood up to ruffians. We called them ‘MEN.’” This isn’t going to be pretty. But I won’t apologize for a single word of it. Because I woke up and put boxers on today. Not whatever lacy, screen-printed, sweet-smelling bullshit Adam Burish and Teemu Selanne slowly pulled around […]

Frozen In Time

Every hockey game begins with a clean sheet of ice. It’s sitting there right now in arenas all over the world. It remains one of the only constants in a game that showcases individual creativity, and it’s ready and waiting for the first skates to step on it and usher in another season of NHL […]

Deep Thoughts, Player Evals PART II

The continuation of yesterday’s novel regarding pre-season player evaluations. 37 Doug Janik [waived October 4] He may be TPL’s Hero #1, but he knows the score. He’ll be spending the year in Grand Rapids, maybe getting a call here and there to fill in if injuries occur on the blueline. I didn’t see much of […]

An Open Letter to Kirk Maltby (Now with Postscript!)

Hey Kirk. Good to see you again. Hope the summer has been restful and relaxing for you, although it sounds like you’ve got alot on your mind. I don’t envy you Kirk. It’s just a major life changing decision in front of you, right? I mean, let’s look at it objectively. On one hand, you’re […]

NHL Reaches Across Table, Extends Finger

If you were awake late last night, you likely saw the  now-infamous NY Post piece from Larry Brooks regarding the NHL and its butting of heads with the NHLPA regarding — essentially — the pending Kovalchuk contract. Good friend of TPL @mserven was kind enough to shoot me an IM since I wasn’t really hanging […]

The Problem with Bonii

I’m a big fan of the Mike Modano and Ruslan Salei signings. Let’s just get that out of the way right off the top. I’m very pleased with the additions of a local legend and a legit top six guy that will keep two potential defensive liabilities from being on the ice together. You can’t […]