travel_dude

We finally get the setup on the PP, where the pass is on the money. No delay on it at all. Maybe that's the difference

Sutter likes to reward a player that just scored and that usualy means it's prolonged pressure coming the other way. Lucic got a goal off a player's body. Not like he is still a good hockey player. Playing as many minutes as Toffoli makes no sense. And you wonder why a lead never seems to be safe?

The only player getting the bench is Ruzicka. He's not the only player to take a penalty.

Did you notice that after afew good shifts by Lucic, the lines gets shifted. Lucic played with Lindy and Lewis, then Ruzicka and Lewis. I know they went with the extra D, but if the best you can do is give Lucic extra minutes?

That's good. Drive safe, the roads suck in this province. You think they would learn how to clear them of snow after all these years.

Lucic finally breaks the schnide. I have to criticize him more often.

Thanks buddy. Hope you get done your work soon and get some free time.

We are playing 3 bottom pair D that will only play about 5 minutes each. Need scoring from the forwards, and have one guy they aren't even willing to play over Lucic or Ritchie.

The PP has not changed at all. Still useless, slow and stagnant. AT least we are getting chances 5v5. Seeing us overpass on oddd man sushes. Some of them actually were great chances that we didn't finish. Others were the usual

It's new this year. Helps save one travel game.

Pretty lame call, but it was a penalty. Guess Ruzie gets benched now.

Montreal femmes? Ok they win.

Bad goaltending gets you bad defending and vice bersa. What I am seeing is a goalie struggling to find his angles. He's leaving too many holes. I can get a perfect shot peating hi to a top corner, but he's getting beat that way daily. His glove looks like he's lost the feel of the puck and it pops put and deflects off. ANA played the Oilers and a noname goalie stop close to 50 shots. That is what you want to see from a starter. Win a game by yourself. I don't mean stop all but 2 goals and lose 2-1. We've seen too many backbreaker goals. Mackey scores to make it close and we give one up minutes later. Not saying the D didn't blow the pass, but make the f'n stop. I don't care how. To sum it up, there are problems that a goalie can cover, but not may an team can cover for a goalie.

We are missing two core guys on the backend, so it's not figured out yet. We have guys that played lights out with Tanev. One is MIA. The other is playing as if he's top 2. I'm not sure exactly which players would work the best together at this point. Since we haven't had all 6 yet. Weegar-Tanev looked good, but I don't like the two RHS together. I might like to see the following: Kylington-Ras Hanifin-Weegar Zadorov-Tanev Seems to me you have a smart defeinsive guy on each pair and LHS-RHS pairs. As far as the replacement players, we built a team to compete in the playoffs. We lost three that were silent every year. If we can get a decent seedng in the playoffs, we could make some noise. Need to fix some things right the Blockchain now though. Fix the PP. Stop playing for 2-1 games and look to score right after you get a goal. Don't just send out the next line up.

Well, he signed for a long time. Not many guys sign for that long and want to get moved. There might come a time, but MTL is no better than CGY for climate and fans.

There has been little to get excited about so far. The first 6 games was likely the best and it was bad. You can see every loss coming a mile away. The odd comeback, but not like the other team did much. We seem to be able to feast on goalies struggling, but only some of them. We bring out the best in the worst. We are missing the players that get on Sutter's nerves. Creative, East West, offense driven. We are chock full of player types that just go up and down and look for a chance. That is what they are being coached to do. Gaudreau and Tkachuk made the stretch passes that worked some of the time. Or the risky plays that sometimes create goals. Blind passes to an area where the other player might sneak into. Now we just put it into a high traffice area hoping a player gets a shot away. I don't even know why we bother putting Looch out there. He won't fight. If he gets pissy, he won't hit. He may get one good shift a game and the rest is the other guys doing it. Give me a creative line maybe that has one beef burger out there. Maybe three guys that can execute a play or a pass. Dump and chase is only good to burn the clock or if your F can skate.

The bad thing is we didn't get any practice time before the roadie to sort this crap out. New lines are great if there is some kind of communication or chemistry out there. Passes in the O zone going to the place where the player isn't. Not hitting the tape on a simple pass. Thinking that a pass on an odd man rush is a good thing, when you haven't completed any all game. The skill is there once they get it. But they control the puck for a shift and basically just toss it. No turnover to a fresh player or line while they have it. The PP looks like they need a vacation. Standing around at the bar waiting to pass it or get a pass.

Might work as it. If you are playing Dube on the 4th line, then move him between Zoh and Lew. My problems is lack of merit for minutes. Lucic was not one of the best players after being scratched for 3 games. No way he should have gotten that many 3rd period shift...with Backlund. I wouldn;t say that Ruzicka had one of his best games, but he was better than Hubey. Didn't cause a goal on a soft play. 1 shift in the 3rd period, along with Lew and Zoh. The PK is really the only good story, but we have a habit of trying for the shortie and getting burned. The PP was good to start, top 10 IIRC. Then we changed it for some reason. Moved Kadri away from the net.

Good thing the suckage continues up north. Oilers lose to Ducks with their new starter (Skinner) on 17 shots from the Ducks. They had 49 but many of those were 3 or 4 on the same initial shot. How do you lose 4-3 when you have 49 shots and 6 powerplays. And yes, all but one of their goals scored on the PP

Herbavores are disappointing in the dinasaur world. Always getting eaten. Cows are the modern days version good on the BBQ

All I hear is you saying it's the GM. Old sthick.

It's funny how easy it would be to forget the latest losing streak. Simply by winning 4 in a row. The Sutter effect in games is starting to wear on me. Up one or down one, we play to hold the puck and slow down the play. Follow up a goal with a shift from the 4th line. Got a PP? Stand around and pass it around until we miss a pass. We don't have the same high level goaltending as last year. Part of that is poor defensive play and being prone to a forecheck. But the other part is we are playing for 2-1 games every night. No Tanev that is almost impossible but anyway it's not this NHL. 4-2, 5-4, 4-1, 6-2 is much more likely. Sutter seems stuck on 2-1 games, he say's it every presser. The PP can't convert, but he says it's because we have no finishers. Maybe it's the outdated PP setup and strategy. 2nd unit, get ot to Stone for the slapper, yet we have dynamic players out there. 1st unit is pass it around, look for the shot from the circle, but never get close to the net. Kept it at the high circle close to the boards. Never start to encroach from the line. Ras is just passing it to a wing. Never moving in at all. At some point you have to give up a plan that isn't working or designed with the team we have. Hubey was a passer, but he's on a different yeam and maybe needs to start going to the net. Maybe attack on the rush, where we are more successful. Mayb stop shutting down offence with a one goal lead. Maybe only activate one D at a time.

I must have missed the plays where Lucic emerged as a premier LW and Ruzie was garbage. The 2nd period saw us outshoot STL 15-3, and little of that was 2 straight PP's. Ruzicka ended up with one shift in the 3rd along with Lewis and Zohorna. Lucic ended up at over 12. Overall, the changes to the lines had impact. Backlund's line had an off night, but still kept STL off the board. Until they played Lucic with him. That was some terrible backchecking by Lucic. The Hubey line suffered a bit from Kadri's bad faceoff numbers. I think they looked dangerous at times. Would give this line some time. But OMG, that 4th line. Lucic has about 5 good minutes in a game. Swapping him out for Phillips is not the worst thing in the world. Ideal that we use Phillips in the top 8, but there isn't a fit with 9 healthy bodies up there. Ruzicka may have had some bad shifts but he is the only big body on the line. He wins puck battles, makes subtle plays, but I find him getting better chances away from the boards.

Yeah, have a good Christmas break away from this team. 4 games next week should give us an idea if we can stay close to a playoff spot.