travel_dude

Blue Mountain used to be a treat for me. Drank it in Jamaica, but got strange looks when I wanted cream. Sandals used High Mountain which is a little less good. And thy kept the cream on the heater, so it was kinda gross. Weird habit.

I don't drink black, so I can get ya. My preference was always to have real coffee from Columbia or Jamaica (Blue Mountain). The closest I could find was Second Cup. Not convenient, and I don't bother with drip coffee now. Starbux? Seriously? When you see an oil slick in your coffee, there is a problem.

AT the very least we need to win the games that we on paper shouldn't win. That sets up the schedule wins and the against lotto team wins. But, until we see more than one win in a row, we are kinda hooped. 3/4 points in a B2B is fine, but how we lost isn't.

If you go to Duncan's in the US, they give you a styrofoam cup that stays hot for days. Believe it or not, there isn't a Mickey D's close by. And I have a habit of re-heating my coffee after it gets cold. Never had any luck with McD.

Opinions not proof. Your opinion and mine combined + $2.18 gets you a large Tims. 1st and 2nd periods, fine. One goal against with the Vegas PP. The penalty was taken with the 4th line out there. 3rd period, 4th line out there for two shifts in the first 5 minutes. Vegas scores on their 2nd shift. Weak goal, blame the goalie. Not getting any momentum? Play 4th line every 3 minutes for the rest of the game. Couldn't be coaching.

The one guy we have had that maybe plays above his level, but is always producing above his salary. Yeah that might change, but not exactly the right time to make the change. We should have an idea of the cost to re-sign and his wanting to be here. Wingers are easier to replace. I would do Toffoli way before Lindholm. But that's me. If we are selling the oldies, then I hang onto Backlund unless there is a crazy offer. Hold him to TDL next year. Hanifin might be in the same boat. I think the market for him is better this summer. We can't really do a rebuild, so a retool is all that's available. Tanev, Hanifin, Mangiapane, Toffoli, Z, Backlund, Coleman out at some point, and we have added enough cap or traded for players that could turn around the team. Oh yeah, ditch the coach since he is making it worse.

It's been awhile. Ii would be okay with a retained salary trade. He's a project and it may complicate the cap next year, but that is next year. He's likely better than 3 of our bottom line players. I think it's too obvious that we have no reason to keep Lewis or Lucic and I would even suggest Ritchie. Send him to play with his brother. Lewis is 44% on the dot this year and 42 last year. Unwilling to use Ruzie there? 46% in limited games at C. We can retain 50% on Lucic and it's just fake money. See if VAN would want him to finish out the season. They need a good string of losses.

Do you think they would do a pick plus Lucic? I mean they aren't a bunch of whimps, but nice to protect the stars. It's just cap going their way with Lucic, only about $400k in salary to be paid. Maybe toss in Mackey for the troubles?

Oh, so tired. Lucic played 13 minutes against Arizona, so everyone else was less than normal. If you listen to the coach, it's always protect the lead. Down one, get tied. Up one, hold the lead. Let me ask you this? Did the players decide to have Lucic out there when they took the penalty? Did Lucic decide he would play like crap and still play 13 minutes against a top team? On for a goal against, and he still plays the last minute of a tied game? Sounds like coaching to me.

I can relate. I may have a bit more time for Toffoli, but unless he shoots, he's boring. Ya have to feel for the goalies. Hey, we have your back, only 10 shots over 2. Let's start to dump and chase and put this to bed. Wake up, we forgot there was another team out there. Sorry about leaving guy open, what? You let that one in? Shoulda had it. Ok, up by one? Dump and chase. What they tied it up? Let's coast into OT. Put Lucic out there to ensure we get to OT. The game plan matches the output. Get a few and hang on. Wait till you are down 2 and try to get back in.

As far as I am concerned, the GM has done the best he could this year to do a re-tool, while still pleasing the owners and their choice for the coaching. Huberdeau was going to have trouble adjusting to the completely different style of play. Kadri is a support player not the difference maker. Weegar played with an awesome offensive minded D, so asking him to play with the best pure shutdown D on the team is questionable. Would have fit better with Kylington or Ras. The failing of the team are on the owners and coach and players. Too many games the players look like they are gassed or disinterested, but more likely fed up. Tired of playing something that guarantees you have to fight to win every time. Early on, the coach saw wins as the right time to make a change to fix something. Now he looks at a close loss as the time to keep it the same. Giving Pelletier to Huberdeau seems like brilliance, but anyone could see that from his first game. Scratching Lucic for lousy play was a good call, but it was just a time out to get Lucic back in the top 6. The owners want playoffs. But if the GM believes that the sum of the parts is better than what this coach can get out of them, the owners need to back the GM and allow for a coaching change. The team was built to win in the playoffs, but the coach can't get them there. Not without adding a game changer. And that's the problem. Used too much to get to this version of the team, so can't get the needed piece to get there. Yeah, I know. We are as likely to fail in the playoffs due to goaltending or something. No 3 point games, though. No shootouts. In a 7 game series, the other team would lose 2 players to injury. That is what we do. But we can't get there with the existing playbook. RANT OVER

For those of us in the SN West region, we get force fed Oilers dominating the universe. Early games or weekend matinée games, if we get them are PITTS, BOS or PITTS vs BOS. The bozos from NESN, wicked good and chowda. Paing blathering on... No dog in the fight, so it's just early evening entertainment. I appreciate a good game, but other things to do in a day. I'm actually to the point where I don't want the Flames to win. What is the point when you win one lose one or lose two? Just lose a bunch and get the team to decide if they have the right coach for once and for all. You know the players must be at that point themselves. What are we doing here? How is this system supposed to win games? Why are we just trying to injure other teams? First shift of OT, and we send out Backlund and Tanev. Backlund gets a small rush chance and weak shot attempt on net. Two F decide to change, one going off then Backlund after the loss of possession. An OT start designed not to get scored on. But the plan is go offense and not defend, with a defensive line. Not get possession and move chess pieces around. Not make the change when you are passing around. Wasn't the worst OT I have seen but no idea what the plan was. But the 3rd period is always the problem for us. Sutter claims that the 2nd goal (which he said Vladar would love to have back) allowed Vegas to get the win. They started playing after that. But, hey, we had the win on our stick, hit crossbar. Have to go high on goalie and below the crossbar. Yeah, with 3 shots in the 3rd, a late PP goal may get us a win or a similar OT result. 3-1 leads are the most dangerous ones to try to hold if you don't continue what got that lead. No, Vegas didn't win the game. We gave up the game by playing prevent.

Closer to being overtaken by Preds for the first non-WC spot than overtaking the Kraken or Kings. The coach's stubborness is even ruining any chance of improving the roster. Trade Lewis and Ritchie, who might have some value. Then we still have the anchor Lucic. And he would still play regardless of who we brought up. Make a trade to improve the team, we still get Lucic out there 13 minutes. It seems to me that we play a good type of game until we get a lead. Then it's either a signal to protect or the players start worrtying about making mistakes. The game completely changes in front of our eyes. I lean towards the first. Backwards 2-1, 3-2 lead coach mindset. We dominated the other team. The refs decided to start evening up the calls, earned or not. We still had the lead. Then safe hockey. Don't take the chance on scoring, just get rid of it. At this point, I would prefer to see us lose 6-5 than giving up late goals and OTL due to headscratcher playbook. Score a goal, throw out the 4th line. End of a PP, throw out the 4th line. Last minute of play, throw out the 4th line. Duh. We don't have the Hathaway line out there buddy.

I have the mobile version of that. Only weighs 4 pounds. It tough entering a password, though.

In the month of February, we are 3-3-3. Couldn't draw it out to be more futile strings of onezies. OTL1 L1 W1 OTL1 L1 OTW1 L1 W1 OTL1 Last year just coming off a 10 game streak.

I didn't like the 2nd goal. But I would say that the lack of any offense in the 3rd had more to do with the loss. The Flames keep the streak alive. No wins in Vegas yet. Ever. It was a scheduled loss, but still stings when you have a 3-1 lead with 20 left. Maybe the coach will have some words of brilliance.

Parked the Porche after 2. Took out the Yugo

Backlund, what a dumb change.

I'm done posting for this game.

Way too much time on one side. Okay, yeah lets have Lucic against Eichel.

Okay, let's just get one EV

Switch units

Make it count.

Shorten the bench.