That's the assumption we're operating under. We're certainly going to look at all of our options, but we're under the assumption Pavel will not play with us this season. |
The doctors have told him that it's a minimum of four to six weeks with no physical activity. Obviously, they'll continue to monitor and continue to gather information. Still, as of right now, we still do not have a definitive reason. |
The game is designed for skill players, ... and Pavel is as skilled as they come. |
The injury has kept him off the ice this week, and we'll know a lot more on Monday when he plans to skate again. If he's not 100% healthy, he's not going to play because it's a long season, and we're going to need him. |
The playing field is level. |
The rollback allowed us to keep more of our nucleus, |
The rollback allowed us to keep more of our nucleus. |
The two areas I'm still concerned about is goal scoring and our size and toughness. We only have so much money left to stay under the salary cap, so I don't know if we'll be able to address all of our needs in our new world. We're going to have a lot of question marks that might not get answered until midseason, but I think that's going to be the case for a lot of clubs. |
There are some things that we know, ... We know our nucleus. They know the league. They know how to win. We've got a proud bunch of players. That's a good start. The new CBA has been put into place to level the playing field, but you know what? At the end of 82 games, somebody has to be in first overall. |
There is going to be some activity around the league, whether there is going to be a lot depends on what happens (in the standings) over the next week. How many teams will fall far back enough out that they'll feel they are out (of the race)? |
There's a lot more moves than I thought and that people thought there was going to be. I think a lot of teams in the West made themselves better over the last 48 hours. |
There's lots of work to be done. |
They're both good young players with a lot of ability, but they're not finished products, |
They're going to get a chance in the preseason to show what they can do. |
This is a big stretch for us. We saw what happened to San Jose last year when they got off to a slow start and what happened to Dallas two years ago. The Western Conference is so close that if you get too far behind the pack ... |