[Sohel]

Beamer bro, your comparison to the Steelers is spot on. Necessity is the mother of invention, and in our case, Bowman came up with a way to find great players often neglected because of biased perception. He came up with the hockey version of "Money Ball" decades before Brad Pitt landed his Oscar nomination.

Pasha is indeed a special player. The phenomenal 2-way skills and vision notwithstanding, his presence makes others around him play better. Part inspiration and awe, but mostly his playmaking. Nick has the effect thing and their absence has resulted in mediocrity for the team as a whole. Both are silent types who lead from the front that way, and we can't seem to start well or carry the puck into the opposition zone with ease without them. Junior has become an elite player in many ways but nobody has an outlet pass like Senior. Rafalski also had a great outlet pass and we sure miss him lots. Losing the puck has become another issue in their absence.

Nick is set to retire this year, and as irreplaceable as he is, we'll do fine with Junior, Eric, White, Quincey and Smith. We can do better than Stew and Kindl and we ought to.

Pasha on the other hand is totally irreplaceable. I don't think we'll find another like him in any round let alone the 171st! Gus is capable becoming a similar type of player, but not as good. I rate Pasha's overall game higher than Stevie and Sergei's and that's saying a lot. I can't wait for him to become captain.

Anyway, we seem to be coming back after an unacceptably slow start against the Kings. Hank just scored.

And yes, the Thugs are a good team and Giroux is simply great to watch.