travel_dude

This is our 2nd two game win streak this month. Our next spoiler is VAN, but they will fight for a spot until they are eliminated, then just be a spoil sport. Markstrom has not fared well against them in the past. I'm not convinced that we can take 12 of 14 points in the games remaining. And to me, it's all or nothing. Markstrom has been the reason for our wins (all but 1 this month) and the reason for our losses. A dominant win is followed by a multi-goal against game. Playing in VAN is not a great place to try to get the 3rd in a row. If we lose to VAN, we might as well pack it up. WPG is weird, where they had Vezna goaltending all season until this month. They look like a broken team. No idea if they can get back to winning. NAS is a tougher call. They are winning despite trading away players. Josi was out for the most recent run, yet they manage to get points. They will be facing some tough teams, but their last 2 games are against Minny and COL, who are likely to be sitting players.

I would tend to want a bigger C, like Ruzicka. The trio that will never play together with this coach.

They did manage to use the 4th line prior to the end of the PP and a shortie chance almost went in. So, yeah the stupidity continues.

In many a game, that would be a foul. We got away with the marginal non-call. In the Bedard cup, the Preds just passed us for 16th. They have one game in hand, but will have two once we finish tonight. So far, it seems like we can only win Pacific games.

Mangiapane..... Only waited till the end of the season to get a PP goal again.

Good news. Markstrom made the first save. PP time

The Kings Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff: Byfield – Kopitar – Kempe Fiala – Danault – Arvidsson Iafallo – Lizotte – Vilardi Grundstrom – Kupari – Moore Anderson – Doughty Gavrikov – Roy Durzi – Walker Korposalo

The Flames Projected lines courtesy Daily Faceoff: Mangiapane – Lindholm – Toffoli Huberdeau – Backlund – Coleman Ritchie – Kadri – Dube Lucic – Lewis – Duehr Hanifin – Andersson Zadorov – Weegar Gilbert – Stecher Markstrom

LInes shortly

I think we went after him because he was a winger. We need C's but also need RHS wingers.

It doesn't take two years of pain. You begin to see the change immediately, sometimes called the new coach bump. You see the coach and players adjust to find the right balance. In the current one, we see my way or the highway. There is no adjustments, only benching. Play my way or don't. If you look at last year, you see some things that were allowed for. Top line given a lot of rope. If something doesn't work, they stopped doing it all the time. Some things may not exactly match the coach's desires, but he wouldn't stop them. To me, that is the biggest change. My way worked last year, so my way is the only way. I don't care if you found something that worked, it's only my way. If you are going to make changes to either the coaches or the team makeup, or both, you need to make the right decisions. Define what the team should be, get the right coach in place and make the roster fit that. I don't personally care who the coach is, just make sure you aren't just recycling the same garbage.

I think the AHL doesn't like teams sending their NHL players to flood the teams. In other words buying a Calder Cup. There was a cutoff for that very reason, since the AHL playoffs start at roughly the same time.

#Flames tonight vs. Los Angeles: Mangiapane-Lindholm-Toffoli Huberdeau-Backlund-Coleman Ritchie-Kadri-Dube Lucic-Lewis-Duehr Hanifin-Andersson Zadorov-Weegar Gilbert-Stecher Markstrom Why does this sound so familiar?

There is an adjustment from one league to the next. I think the speed is less of a factor myself. I see the NHL as a place that you don't have time and space to make decisions. You get hit if you hold the puck or you have to move. Gaudreau was able to transition because of his edges, not so much his skating speed. He got out of situations. Smaller players tend to be harder to hit because of the lower center of gravity and how they learned the game. IMHO, Phillips plays too much like a bigger F. Coronato is thicker, so maybe more like a Debrincat. Have to see him at the NHL level to really know how he compares. Anyway, excited to see him get a NHL game in. He will find it to be a blur, but instincts should kick in and he should be fine.

There is a cutoff for the AHL playoffs. I believe that the new signings for the AHL team don't allow them to be in the playoffs. It's regular season depth, to allow them to sit Wolf, etc. We had to assign Pelletier and Duehr there to allow them to go back down for the playoffs. Really the NHL playoffs is not the issue, it's playing in the NHL. You have to sign an ATC to play in the AHL, but can't also play a NHL game. That's my take. I know Cross has a good handle on it.

I applaud you for spending the money to watch. Saying that, it's not something enjoyable. The inability stems from seeing the current as being sustainable. We all know it isn't. Winning teams make the hard choices and move on. We define a core based on fond memories. I am okay with including Hubie, Weegs, and Kadri in the new core, since they bring things we need. Also Ras and Lindholm. Beyond that, each player should have a best before date. And each change we make has to take into account what we are trying to achieve. No point in just trading for picks. Think about prospects (scout them) and other players that bring other things to the game. Also, how do we use what we have on the farm. We have to stop with this idea that we have to have a beefy player throughout the lineup. Or have a 4th line that has little offense and is just there to physically wear down the other team by hitting them over and over. Give me 3 Duehr's over what we currently have.

I suspect this was a hasty change due to Pride Night. The Blasty night games always went to Dark Mode and there was no impact to GUI. Regular games the same thing. This seems like a confused bunch of settings, which has two themes applied at the same time. Maybe they should put Golf pics on the border now.

Well, actually we lost two wingers not a center and winger. And to be more accurate, we lost one winger and replaced another. In that replacement, we told them they would play a position they haven't before, because it shouldn't matter. Our top line last year was successful because they were a combo of "go to the net" with superior zone entries and a C that found quiet areas and hit the net with shots. That fell apart in round 2 of the playoffs. The increase in goal against may be attributed to giving up the blue line early and bad goaltending. The lack of scoring for seems to be rooted in constant cycling of the puck and shooting from bad angles. The PP is a lot of that. We don't attack the net as much, and I don't mean avoiding the greasy areas. I mean we don't cycle down low, we cycle high to low and back to high. We tend to score more on direct shots with rebounds and players walking in directly. The PP hasn't been very successful for two years now. The zone coverage gets a wrench thrown when players criss- cross. Dump and chase doesn't work very well when you are sending in one. The D skating it in, then simply skating around the net and back to the blueline makes little sense. Shoot from every angle and drive the net for a rebound that may not be there makes little sense. I don't know if the message is lost or the wrong message. Maybe the messenger is past his expiry date. The coaches alone or the players alone is hardly the reason the season is a fail. Have to address both. But you need someone with a holistic view to figure out the path. It can't just be about the next year. It has to be a long term view.

Well, Cor has 2 years of college, so there's that. Make no mistake, Gaudreau was a special player from the USHL days. It was more how his game was going to reacj the NHL. But anyway, I was just comparing the two because of some of the negativity for Cor's stats. They are nothing super, but also nothing to sneer at. Holloway was probably similar in count, but I never though he was anything. I've seen a couple of games with Cor. I think he has a little improvement to make, but he has the sense for the net.

Did Gaudreau leave because he was dissed by BT last contract? I doubt that. Tkachuk maybe. But I was thinking about when Matty went boat shopping with Walt and Brady. That seems a little fishy, forgive the pun. I don't really trust anything Tkachuk has said about the trade situation. The high dollar QO short term contract was a ploy. Saying all that, Coronato doesn't seem to be cut from the same stalk as MT. More like JG, who wanted to prove himself. Sutter is going to keep him out of the lineup as long as he can. It's not about penalizing him, it about what has he done to earn the chance. The vets have been here all year kid. Whatever your name is. I'll put you in if we are 10 up or 10 down. Or Lewis or Lucic have an owie.

I think I might have missed something. I understand that there is also a draw for #2 overall.

Look, I have always been one to question random number generation through the use of ball drops. Have you ever watched a Lotto 649 draw? The balls are loaded 1-49 in non-random order. So, the random part is how the ball tumble and end up in the ball collector. If you drop the balls into the drum for the NHL lotto in that kind of non-random order, they have the same effect. The NHL (if the process has not changed) is that random number combos are generated for each non-playoff team. The balls are dropped into the machine and 4 balls come up. The combo points to a team with that same combo. So, that is perhaps more rando than 6/49. The numbered balls drop in the order they are numbered though. Probably why simulators come up with the same #1 overall on successive mock runs.

Sorry, my bad. Missed the word.

They keep changing when they see teams rewarded multiple times (ie the Oilers rule). Some Stats & Probability expert could probably figure out how the lotto ball drop is designed to benefit teams. It always seemed hokey to me.

The Oilers? Really? If you look at their current NHL roster, they have 2 players drafted outside the 1st, one is a goalie the other is a 2nd. The Oilers have long been bad at picking outside the 1st round. Improving now, but they are still just prospects. Some may never play a NHL game, even with suspect NHL depth. Where I think we are lacking is graduating players to the NHL. Just recently, because we seemed to be doing better up to this year. Maybe quality of picks influenced that. Have to be a top scoring AHL player in year2 or more to get a chance to play. Some get a cup of coffee. Some have been around for ages and will eventually just not get signed or sign. A healthy roster and preference to use NHL vets over ability. Valimaki and Mackey are just two examples of guys we never really bothered with.