Atomic

Personally I believe that in a strong offensive year, say Drew Willy throws for 4500+ yards, Kohlert will approach and possibly eclipse 1000 yards. I believe that the best is still yet to come and he will be our leading Canadian receiver for the next 2 seasons at least.

3-5 weeks?? I thought they said next 3 games + All Star weekend.Nope, it's 3-5 weeks.http://www.nhl.com/ice/m_news.htm?id=748770 Well that's fantastic news. For us, I mean.

So then you think he has already hit his ceiling? Or at least come close to it?

3-5 weeks?? I thought they said next 3 games + All Star weekend.

The Canadian Target stores have been a massive disappointment. Poor inventory, even poorer staffing, and average prices. We already had this kind of store... it was K Mart and it was Zellers and now you can add Target to the list.

That depends how you define upper tier. Picard is a top 3 centre in the league, Kohlert had the third most yards in the league for any Canadian receiver, and Bucknor was probably the best Canadian corner in the league last season. If you defining tiers by position, we certainly do have a few of those guys. Nope none of those players qualifies in my mind. We don't have anyone who is a canadian but also among the best in the league. Years ago we had Brown and Labatte who were top players regardless of nationality, there's no one on the roster that qualifies for that now. Picard is too old and not the same player he once was to qualify anymore either. Watson would be close if he could stay healthy but he sadly can't. There's a lot of solid canadians and some interesting depth but lacking those couple real high end guys holds the team back. Then by that definition, most teams don't have many upper-tier Canadians... probably 1-4 per team, and we have zero. I can agree with that, for the most part, although I would still put Picard in the mix and potentially Kohlert. Upper Tier Canadians BC - Harris. EDM - Rottier, maybe Coehoorn or Steele. CGY - Jones, Cornish, Federkeil, Mace. SSK - Getzlaf, Bagg, Labatte, Heenan, Foley. WPG - None, maybe Picard or Kohlert. TOR - Keeping, Durie. Holmes, Van Zeyl, Emry. HAM - Laurent, Bulcke, Fantuz. MTL - Perrett, Bourke, Brodeur-Jourdain. OTT - None. Accurate? Does the so-called "upper tier" of Canadians contain anyone I missed?

Behind closed doors, I'm curious to know where Pavelec's headspace is with this hybrid rotation approach Maurice has taken. I'm not sure what he has said to the media, but how does this approach really sit with him. I'm positive he hates it. He is a 60+ game guy for the last what, 3 years? Not including the lockout of course. And it shows in his play. He has always done better in long stretches of uninterrupted work... the rotation hasn't been great to him.

2013 ALL-MAC THIRD TEAM: Inside Linebacker - Shamari Benton, Central Michigan...Benton, a team captain for the 2013 season, combined with Justin Cherocci to provide the Central Michigan defense with one of the nation’s top tackling tandems. In the past 25 games, they have combined for 490 tackles, an average of nearly 20 tackles per game (19.6). Benton recorded 100-plus tackles for the second consecutive season, totaling 111, which ranked third in the MAC. Benton also led CMU and ranked seventh in the MAC with 10.5 tackles for loss. He reached double digits in tackles in seven games, including tying a career-high with 14 stops twice. Benton also recorded 2.0 sacks, one interception, one forced fumble and one fumble recovery. - Central Michigan football

I just find this to be such an odd argument. Chicago is up 6 points on Winnipeg and Winnipeg is up 7 on Dallas, but Dallas has a better chance of catching Winnipeg than Winnipeg has of catching Chicago?

Don't get me wrong, Price is a very talented receiver and he will help the REDBLACKS offence. I just don't like that they gave up their best off-season find from last year.

Great message to send to the team. Boys we'll never beat Chicago so don't worry about this one.

That depends how you define upper tier. Picard is a top 3 centre in the league, Kohlert had the third most yards in the league for any Canadian receiver, and Bucknor was probably the best Canadian corner in the league last season. If you defining tiers by position, we certainly do have a few of those guys.

Funny that it is shaping up to be his worst season by far but his first playoff appearance IIRC.

Pavs gets the start. I agree with it. Play the better goalie against the better team... Hutch gets Chicago.

There is some good young Canadian talent here. Derek Jones, Jesse Briggs, Jake Thomas, Matthias Goossen, Lirim Hajrullahu, JFG, Rory Kohlert, Teague Sherman. All good players with plenty of time left to grow. Our Canadian "stars" leave a lot to be desired. I loved the Picard pickup and IMO he instantly entered our top 3 Canadians when we picked him up. Beyond that, we have to look at Morley, Greaves, Bucknor and Watson as the team's Canadian "star power." Not ideal. I still have hopes that Watson has a great year in him... but I know many believe that ship has sailed. At the very least, he is a good special teams player and blocker with an oversized contract, at best I believe he could still be an 800-yard guy under the right circumstances. I'd say we are still near the bottom, probably bottom 3 in the league along with BC and Ottawa. But the youth on the team and Walters' aggressive attitude towards acquiring good Canadians gives me hope for the future. With a successful draft and free agency period, I could definitely see us moving more towards the middle of the league, and perhaps the top end by 2016. I guess to sum it up, there is still a whole lot of work to do but I believe Walters is the right guy to fix it and within a couple years, I believe we'll be right in the mix in the conversation about top Canadian talent.

What is Desjardins doing? Like really? He makes this move NOW? Not even an attempt to get receivers in free agency before he gives away one of his best players. I fear for Ottawa, I really do.

Saw a tweet that suggests Waud may be drafted in the NFL draft

I am the 1%

He is turning 31 this year. He had 2 concussions last year, I believe the second occurred against you guys. I don`t see him in football 3 years from now. Depending how this season goes, it will be his last. RB`s north of 30yrs old drop off pretty quick. But as I said, he is a incredible talent and I don`t wish any injury problems on him. I just think the damage is already done. His last season?? You're dreaming

I'm just worried the rug is going to get pulled out from under us and we will end up with Greg Marshall or something.

Absolutely he will.

At this point, yes. But who knows how he will developed. Walter has good rushing/receiving numbers to show in his first 3 years compared to Cornish's first 3. Walters will get more looks/ playing time because he is behind Cornish. Cornish played behind a great running back in Reynolds. What are you going on about? Cornish got plenty of carries when Reynolds was still in the picture, and he is also a better running back than Reynolds was. Walters is no Cornish and will not get the kind of playing time that Cornish got behind Reynolds. Here are the facts since you don't seem to know them or are ignoring them. first 3 seasons in the cfl, Cornish had 52 carries and Walters has 155 carries. Cornish did not get plenty of carries behind Reynolds, in fact he only had 137 carries after 4 seasons. It wasn't till Cornish's 5th season that he got the ball more than 100 times and took over for a aging Reynolds. Walter has triple the carries in his first 3 seasons than Cornish had, mostly because walters is behind a rb that misses more time. As far as Cornish being better than Reynolds, IMHO no way that's true. Reynolds had 6 consecutive seasons with over 1200 yards per season. Reynolds had clearly established himself the starter in his second season with the stamps, it took Cornish 5 seasons to do that. I`d take Reynolds over Cornish any day of the week. As far as Walters is concerned he is a ham and egger, they had to sign him because he is Canadian and they need a Canadian backup for Cornish. Classic Riderfan Cornish hate. I'm sure you had this post saved in a text file on your computer because you got tired of typing it out every time. Get over it.

Depends if we can land a stud like Heenan or Holmes in free agency. That would of course reduce our need to draft an OL with the second pick.

We're entitled to our entitlements

At this point, yes. But who knows how he will developed. Walter has good rushing/receiving numbers to show in his first 3 years compared to Cornish's first 3. Walters will get more looks/ playing time because he is behind Cornish. Cornish played behind a great running back in Reynolds. What are you going on about? Cornish got plenty of carries when Reynolds was still in the picture, and he is also a better running back than Reynolds was. Walters is no Cornish and will not get the kind of playing time that Cornish got behind Reynolds.