3 Questions With...Silver Seven Sens

Hey, everyone. In advance of tonight's game against Ottawa, we talked to Peter Raaymakers of Silver Seven Sens (and No Habs No Campaign fame) about the state of his decimated team, what they think of the new divisions, and of course everyone's least favorite person Matt Cooke. I still think we should have burned Cooke alive when we had the chance, but I digress. Here's what Peter had to say:

1) Matt Cooke is just the worst, isn't he?

UGH don't get me started. He is the worst. I'm not going to get into the debate about whether or not it was intentional, but I will say that it's absurd how quickly people have done a complete 180 and become total Cooke apologists. "Oh, he's changed his game, he's no longer a dirtbag he's a saint now!" Give me a break. I give him credit for becoming a useful player, but don't pretend he's completely reformed.

2) How do you feel about inviting Detroit, Florida, and Tampa into the Northeast?

Well, the idea certainly loosens the definition of "Northeast," doesn't it? But I'm not too concerned about it. It'll be nice to see the Red Wings a few more times every year. Also, since it seems pretty likely that at least one (and possibly both) of the inevitable expansion teams will truly be in the geographic northeast, the inclusion of the Floridian teams is probably a temporary thing.

3) Got any good rookies? Which injury replacement is doing well for themselves?

Hahahaha... well, there are like a million rookies on our roster. Jakob Silfverberg has been the most dynamic so far, and he really seems to be coming into his own (check out the guy's shootout goals on Martin Brodeur, Henrik Lundqvist, and Carey Price; amazing). Mika Zibanejad is still a bit up and down, but he's getting things together. On the back-end, Patrick Wiercioch has been hyped for a while so few are surprised he's doing well (although it's impressive considering the scary slapshot-to-the-throat injury he suffered last year), but Eric Gryba has come in to surprise a lot of people with his physical defensive style. He'll be paired with Marc Methot on the team's top shutdown duo. It's hard to know what's happening with Dave 'Dizzy" Dziurzynski, an undrafted guy signed out of the BCHL who's really taken off within Paul MacLean's system, but it's good to see him finding a niche for himself. And Ben Bishop and Andre Benoit aren't technically rookies, they're both first-year players who've proven to be very valuable to the team in the midst of this ridiculous procession of injuries. So yeah, a lot of new faces on this team's roster.

Thanks again for Peter for being a good sport for this.