I don't think he was as pessimistic in the more competitive years and so complimenting of/worried about our rivals, but one of my earliest memories of him was when he made either a post or a thread about how the Devils could have drafted Anton Volchenkov, but passed up the opportunity to draft him and took David Hale. David Hale was picked one spot behind Volchenkov. Ottawa took him one pick ahead of us, so I'm not sure if we traded back or what. I don't even remember if that was his point or not.
It just so happened that we signed Volchenkov not too many years later and for an unsavory contract and bought him out with one of the amnesty buyouts that they gave every team two of after the 2013 CBA.
He was also very critical of Conte, which he got a lot of shit for early on. I was one of the earlier critics of Conte and called for his removal as early as 2011 or so. And I didn't make many friends around here because of it. It was only a couple of years later before Conte was merely the punchline to a joke around here by the general consensus of this board, even the people who were still pro-Lou staying on as GM of the Devils.
