travel_dude

Let's not confuse Coronato with Zary. Coronato had 2 years at Harvard, playing against men. Zary had two healthy season in the AHL. They are one year apart in age. Saying that, the reality is we have too many wingers and not enogh C/W. Coronato at least looked good in his last 5. Zary can play C, but should he? Pelletier couldn't even hold the spot here. If we got rid of Mangiapane, we would likely have a better balance: Zary-Kadri-Kuzmenko Huberdeau-Sharky-Pospisil Coleman-Backlund-Coronato I struggled with the idea of Coronato with Uberdeau, since they stuggle defensively. You want Coronato to learn to generate from your own zone on the rush? Play him with Backlund. Heck, put him on LW. He not going to learn hockey in the AHL playing with our lesser forwards.

It's difficult for him to play one game with Kadri then the next bunch with Rooney. He's rushing plays becuase he only gets 10 minutes max. There is no incentive for them to start him in the AHL next year. He will be ready.

Pospisil played exactly the way he does every minute. Maybe just ease up with a 5 goal lead and less than 2 minutes. But there is no off switch. I thought it would have been an even call, but the refs picked out Pospisil, even though he was getting rag-dolled.

F - broke the shutout with 9 seconds left. I was rooting for AM, but luck has a way of getting in the way.

It was so funny to watch. Delayed penalty and Brody puts it on net, with AM standing there. It goes in and no PP. Last minute of play and Tavares one-times it in the net, with AM standing in front. His poor mom was freaking out in the stands.

He should just stop trying. Matthews messed it up last night by changing his game to get that goal. If I was Tampa coach, I would have pulled the goalie for a shift in the last minute of the game. Give him the cheap goal. Would mean less to him, but nobody asks how, they ask how many.

Now Weegar gets his 20th. He's the first D in the NHl to exceed 200 blocks and score 20. Next up. Kadri with his 30th.

Ras gets his 200 career point? Seattle won, so if we get more than a single point, we overtake them. But you know Wolf has the Sharks home phone number, so he shall win. Had we lost to ARI, like the game looked to be headed, we would be tied with them (we win tie breaker) with this game in the air. Would have been behind OTT. As it stands, we either are 8th or 9th, with NJ just behind us. A single point gets us 8th, any kind of win gets us 9th.

Was that year 1? The only reason I won was that there was a re-scheduled game after the last NHL games played. That allowed me to drop everyone but those two teams that were playing. Unlike the Flames winning game 82 last year, that wasn't a moral victory for me. It was just playing the game.

So, it's speculation given that several quote insiders quote were saying a 1st plus Holtz plus. And that Markstrom was asked if he would waive to go to NJ. That would have been pretty risky for NJ at the time, if it was true. Possibly too late to save the season. End up having given away a lotto pick. Yes, it may have been the 2025 pick. Or it could have been 2024. Will never know for sure. LA could get in on any bidding war or be the only team interested in Marky. They are built to win now. It would have to be a 1st this year plus Kaliyev. If they want retention, then they need to add another pick. LA is built not to score, so the G is uber important to them. Marky/Rittich would not be a bad tandem, and Rittich may still be a cheap re-sign.

Markstrom since he was rumoured to be going to NJ near TDL: 1-7-0 record 3.55 GAA .870 SV% (zero games with a SV% above .900) -1.82 GSAA

The converted touchdown win by EDM didn't help you. Not much you can do to widen the gap when that team plays. Great season for you, almost wire-to-wire. And the other contender drains a 30 footer while you double bogie on the 17th hole.

A Markstrom/Husso tandem would do well, assuming DET wants him and he would go. I wouldn't suggest what a return would look like, since you know the team better. It would do both teams well if it was reasonable. Two exciting games to finish the season. Nice. Flyers gambled on a regulation win by pulling the goalie in a tie game. With over 3 minutes remaining. Well, because an OT win would not do it, though the timing of the EN was a little odd. Philly was outshooting them 2-1 in the third. But that sealed DET's fate too. An OT loss for WAS would have pushed DET in WC2. Tough break.

I watched the game, but not 100% focused on it. It was okay. I didn't think Markstrom was near as good as Demko. Can't really say it was all on him, since two or so goals were breakaway or 2 on 1 tap ins. Regardless, the shots he let in from pure shots were all the same, above the pads/blocker/glove. Too many of those this year. Demko stopped all but one of 40 shots. The goal was 100% screened. We got some good chances and I think I counted two posts hit. But, any decent chance was stopped or deflected by their goalie.

Well we rarely surprised any team after TDL. We beat teams that played like crap. We never should have been battling back against Zona and ANA, but they got hot early and could have won. I thiknk we lead the NHL in 3r period comebacks, so it had to be a low scoring game for us to lose. I don't even know what that game was against Zona.

Tres funny. I am amazed that we managed to lose as many as we did. Had we traded Markstrom, we might have been closer to 16th overall. The team on a whole gave up after TDL. Markstrom checked out a bit. The F didn't want to block shot for the most part. They got called out and they also rallied in front of Wolf to help him get a victory. I'm one of the few thinking we need to keep Kuzmenko. He's basically a rookie in the NHL. His skill level is off the chart. He doesn't do everything well, but sometimes you have to pick and choose your team. Not everyone has to be a two way player. Chip in, but don't ruin the player.

At best we can only win one, but that makes Seattle needing to win out. They got Mercer because they were just a little worse than us. Time for us to pick up the better player in this draft. If NJ ended up 8th last, they would win the otto. If it's us, nobody behind us wins, nor do we. Crazy to think that we started the game against ARI where they would have tied us and only needed a single point to pass us. But we won, so they remain where they are.

Kadri has a full NTC for the next two years, then the M-NTC (13 team). He may decide his future is on a contender or even near-contender. But that doesn't bring you a top 10 pick. The best you could get would be a Necas type, where a team wants a vet and is willing to give up a guy trending up but is a certain style. I mention CAR because Staal is nearing the end and they need that battle level. I don't think it's the vet cup leadership that makes Kadri valuable to you, it's how he plays the game. We lost that style with Tkachuk leaving. He's showing the young guys how it's done. Go to the net. Ask Zary. Kuzmenko is scoring at a 35 goal pace by being there. Trade him or don't trade him, but a late 1st (at best) isn't going to work. Mange's game is horrible. He's turned into bad Huberdeau that cuts back every zone entry. Trade him for a C that is just complementary. We have too many guys that can ride shotgun with Coleman and Backlund.

The things that jump off the page for me is around changes to the game. The NHL said that it wanted to increase scoring way back when. Scoring was down in their minds and it made the game "boring" for the new fans. Hard to sell a 0-0 regulation result as exciting. OT helped a bit, but that has morphed into a possession snooze fest at times. Make the pads smaller. Okay maybe that made it harder for poor goalies to make saves. Increase the number of shots by cracking down on certain infractions. More PP = more penalties. Instructing the refs to call more penalties. I can remember watching playoffs where you could attempt murder on the ice and the refs overlooked it. Now they call so many bad penalties that scoring can't help but increase. One thing they don't call as much is running the goalies in the process of scoring. At most the goal is turned back and some refs will waive it off. At worst it's a PP for getting the challenge wrong and the goal counts. Wolf looks small in nets because he is small in stature. He needs to beef up. The height is one thing, but almost every goalie plays low. No Ken Dryden's these days. Wolf plays angles and at times is too fluid and loses the net, but his reflexes will win him games.

I'm glad you are confident. Our 2 game B2B have been tough outs. SJS will likely have zero reason to need to lose in game 82, so they will pay us back for the last loss. ARI is 50/50, and this will be after the Oilers overlook them, like they tend to do. OTT plays MTL, so best situtation is OTT wins in OT. Anyway, it only really matters to dropping to 7-5th. Not really huge lotto differences there.

I was comparing him to Ras, who will pass up any chance to shoot; it's frustrating to watch. It's like he is afraid to break his stick after watching Gio do it for years. Other than the gaff where he tried to hike the puck, I think he is going to be very good. He's still a bit raw but you can see what our scouts saw in him.

I would like to see Wolf win the Calder, but that's asking a lot. Mostly because he has to battle top scorers to win it.

It's pointless to pull the goalie early for this team. We don't have possession nailed down, so one bad pass and we are done. We were pressing with 5v5, and could have drawn a PP.

Miromanov not afraid to shoot.

One assist in the last 10 games. 11 games ago he scored 2. Against MTL, so that should tell you something.