travel_dude

His next deal will be tough. He has always been the bridesmaid. Can we re-sign him is as important as will we. If the choice is Lindholm or Backlund, what would you do? Or Dube vs Backlund.

As Cross points out, we have a chance. The ruies get adjusted every once in awhile, but are stable for now. Our chances of making the playoffs are still okay, just due to the math. I don't think you can calculate the odds, since we have the Sutter factor and team losing interest. A loss to ARI and players might feel time to fold up the tent. They know how many wins they need. 2-1 over three games doesn't cut it. Has to be 3-1 in 4. Or better.

Not leading anyone one is far different than letting it be known that he wants to leave. Let's not bother debating the reasons why, though. He is not going to be honest about it. He respected Sutter, regardless of how he felt abput playing for him. As far as Tkachuk, I was worried we were getting his father. I think he played the team to a T. His trade request was basically Team A. Only interested in signing there. The deal he signed was to make the trade happen, to get the extra year. The return he got wasn't nothing even if you don't like it. We got the 1st from them that was available. Maybe you don't win with Gaudreau and Tkachuk. We didn't win with Iggy. EDM hasn't won with CMD. MTL didn't win with Price. TOR hasn't won with AM, MM and JT. The biggest thing setting us back was the Neal signing and the subsequent Lucic trade. A GM mistake followed by ownership demands to make a trade for less money. We have a 2M Lucic like player (Reaves level ability) and we can make better trades than Jarnkrok. We miss out on Stone because we won't give up Valimaki. A player deemed useles by Sutter. We miss out on Eichel because we won't give up something of better value. Ownership needs to sign off on some types of trades, because it involves high salaries. The GM is not without fault. The tendency to keep long standing players is a fault. The owners look at fan faves as revenue. Gaudreau sells seats and jerseys. Backlund is forever a Flame. Etc.

So, BT puts together a team just slightly not able to win 2 rounds. The coach gets the props, even though he was outcoached by a rookie NHL coach. And stayed with the struggling goalie when it was obvious he had lost his mojo. It's not obvious who's fault it is we lost Gaudreau and Tkachuk. Maybe all on the players. Maybe the GM played hardball the wrong year (previous ones). Maybe they were fed up with the coach. If your hope is that the new GM builds a better team, then prepare to be sad. That means that a lotto team has picked the losing coach over the GM. That translates to Sutter players. Don't worry about prospects, he won't use them. Get some cup winner rejects. Think about it. Last year the team was built to please the coach. Sutter arrives and Bennett traded because Sutter couldn't change him into anything. Sutter new year, so we sign Guddy and get a big hulking D. Valimaki doesn't factor into the season. Sutter likes Toffoli, so we get him at a high cost of picks/prospects. Sutter wanted depth at C, so we go after Jarnkrok and Carpenter. Second year, missing a top 6 winger. Sutter doesn't like any of the prospects or Milano or even Ruzie. We sign Lewis and Ritchie. Sutter doesn't like Valimaki, so we waive him. Doesn't like Ruzie, so he sits. Ritchie having an off year, so we trade for another Ritchie in the Sutter mold. We go from a playoff team that underperforms to a non playoff team that can't get ot together. Don't look at the coaching, it must be the GM.

The data has some faults to it. Some of the W/O Lewis and Lucic is first line duty. It would only make sense that it would be a better result. But the W/O Lucic is pretty obvious. All of what, 3 games? The decisions on lines is one thing. The in-game decisions are both predictable and frankly odd. I don't have to look at who is on the ice for an upcoming faceoff. I count the other lines that have played. 1,4,3,2 or 4,3,2,1 or whatever the sequence is remains pretty constant. The other obvious thing is when we have a stong shift and then momentum shifts and we defend for a minute or so, most times it's the 4th line. Duehr has improved that a bit. But when you see the other team ice it and you leave out a 4th line against their 4th, you wonder. Sutter, so confident that he knows more than anyone, laughs about the idea of Huberdeau playing LW. He scored coming in on the right side, didn't he? More like the middle, but he actually managed a backhanded tip. Deft hands, but not exactly a power move. You are right, there's no logic that he can't play RW. Just hasn't played it in the NHL before here.

Well, ya got me. Trade off Coleman, which makes some sense. I don't know if Dube is the answer at C, but he can just take draws there too. My concern though is we need a high end center.

I don't disagree. We saw Ruzie play that way on the win with the other two. They scored and we weren't meshed that well yet. Of we have to move on from Backlund, then bring in a RHS C and move Kadri to the wing. Then try Ruzie between Mange and Coleman. Then have a 4th line of kids. Crazy thoughts, but it would look like this: Huberdeau-Lindholm-Toffoli Kadri-RHS C-Dube Mange-Ruzie-Coleman Pelletier-Zary-Coronato Not your traditional 4th line bangers. You shelter them. They are defensive enough to not get burned. It's the new wave. It gets ice time based on how well they play. Allows you to see what you don't need.

It's 11 teams, since you can move up a max of 10 spots. 10th has a 3.5% chance. But the system is just a fan thing. Get them interested in another loser chance. Tune in to see the ball drop, well more like an hour long show to see a card held up.

I think that Minny is an under represented hockey market. Leafs market? Big deal, it's like the Oscars after parties. People want to be seen. Huge city. Fans spread out across Canada. And yet there are 2 teams in the province. 2 in Alberta, and the only reason they show up in EDM is McD. Used to just be entertainment. Now they think they have a contender.

There are 9 team that don't have a chance at making the playoffs at all unless there was an epic collapse in both conferences. They won't be winning much and at best will try to play spoiler. There are 5 teams in the East that have a shot and 2 in the West. We would likely need to push out EDM or SEA to make it. Minny or COL or NAS will be in the WC. It's not going to be like the Laine draft, where we come one short of getting 2nd overall or one too many to get 3rd. But it's possible we have one win too many to get into the top 10. And top 10 in the 2nd round. A strong finish does nothing for this team.

I am wondering if they can do the same thing in Phoenix. We have seen them play a big game, only to play the opposite game the next. I agree about putting the hammer down. Normally we see them shut it down with a 2 goal lead. We dropped to a one goal lead then got it back and kept going. This was different. I've given up on the playoffs, so a strong finish is really pointless. Where was this all season long or when we needed the wins to grab a playoff spot and hold it.

Bartman should move the Coyotes there.

I'm not really fooled by this team thinking we are going to win half or more of our games. We win two games where the goalie doesn't look great or we manage a SO win because of an offside (DAL and MIN). We beat a tired team with a rookie goalie (OTT). Stranger things have happened, but I don't see the winning continuing. The coaching hasn't adjusted, just the goalie is playing better. We aren't beating Vegas or WPG or LA or NAS. VAN loves to play spoiler for us. And ARI is playing better; 7 of 8 points in the last 4, playing STL, NAS, COL and MIN. My guess is 85 points. That is 10th overall territory.

I'm fine with the overall play of the top unit. But we have seen more goals coming from the 2nd unit. Toffoli, Backlund, Lindholm, Pelletier, Ras or Hanifin. Think about it, the two top scorers are on the 2nd unit. With Backlund and a rookie.

You forget about Toffoli or traded him?

Keep it in mind for next season, when the slate is clean and we can challenge for a cup. Game 68 is not the time to decide a LW should play LW. I have no issues with the player at all. Snakebit playing the wrong wing. Early on, he was adjusting and moved from line to line a lot. Got moved off the top line after he came back from injury. Had every RW possible, Lewis, Mangiapane, Coleman, Ritchie even. Then he got stuck with Lucic, after Lucic had be scratched and came back in. And to make it work, then moved him to RW. Been there from mid December until today. Trying to get wins when you are one loss away from elimination is a great story. Only a month too late.

When was the last time he played LW. Mid December. We were closer to a playoff spot then.

Well, he did say he's never played RW and doesn't feel as comfortable there. But, no doubt it made sense to some fool that playing him on RW was a good thing. Pair him up with Ritchie playing LW.

He tweaked something during the game. He wasn't 100% so they elected to go with the rookie. They play EDM on Tuesday, so we will see if he's back in.

Well, I wouldn't go that far. They are beating a non-playoff team after they played less than 24 hours ago at sea level. They lost another goalie last night, so this guy isn't exactly a top one. He's played exactly 2 NHL games in his career. If we couldn't win this game, then something is really wrong in the world.

After we have a PP is much worse. The defensive guys play the PK for other teams. When our PP end, they are playing the top guys. And we put out Lucic. Tonight, there was an icing with their 4th line out there when Lucic was on. Instead of putting the top line out, he plays Lucic. Not a bad results, but it can end up being an icing where we are caught. Not piling on the 4th line, but Lewis was involved in an odd man rush tonight. Perfect pass in the slot and he falls trying to play it. It was basically an open net.

Yeah, only took a change after 34 games on the wrong wing.

There's the stupid

Good thing we are playing a tired team

No point ever playing the top PP unit. 2nd unit is the best.