travel_dude

The thing about MSL is he became a thick player. Big legs. That allowed him to play in the NHL. His advice to Johnny was build up core and lower body, since the hands are pure gold. Phillips would do well to follow that lead.

I live in the land of the enemy, and I have zero desire to watch the Oil Kings. As far as Rogers Centre, the only time that NHL seats were decent price was during the Oiler losing streak. A Flames game there would be just annoying. Puke Orange everywhere. I get to the occasional Flames home game, but normally Blues or COL @ Calgary. It would be interesting for the Flames to have a faceoff stud.

By all things considering, he is no smaller than Yamamoto. And I don't think Yamo belongs in the NHL any more than Phillips doe. Difference is that EDM had the luxury of zero depth or difference makers in the AHL. True that a smaller player has to use his escape velocity to avoid hits and stay off the boards unless digging at a puck. We should really just trade him. He didn't impress Sutter, who thinks guys like him need about 20 pounds of extra muscle.

I don't get to see any CHL games at all. Have to rely on you scouts that tend to see them or follow them more. I would love to watch the Heat play, but they want too much for a season pass. Or I am cheap. Maybe both.

Don't get me wrong. I am saying we can't afford to replace Monahan if we trade for cap space or buy him out. So that leaves us with an aging (possibly regressing) Backlund and little depth. In an ideal world, we trade Monahan and Lucic. We use some of the new cap on a replacement for Monahan. That replacement ideally becomes our future #2C and we move Backlund to 3C. It's apparent we don't need Backlund with Mangiapane. Maybe Mange-New C-Toffoli and Coleman-Backlund-Dube is good enough. The transition to next year's roster is going to be tough due to the cap. The roster is mostly working the way it is, but won't know for sure until we hit the playoffs.

Against Minny, Kyl looked great after the crash. He uses his edges a bit too much at times, so falls are going to happen. He might to need to get sharpening tips from Johnny, since he plays more minutes and his edges seem to suffer. Backlund's line got most of the time against MTL's 4th line, but I found too often they struggled in the D-zone. Having 4th line against the top line is a mystery. Fine on the forecheck fine, but don't expect them to handle D-zone; beyond useless. Gaudreau can only play high going East West when the D support it. One goal sequence was a risky play where he was picked off at the blueline. Think Monahan was in deep on that. The shortie was a miss at the blueline by Ras, where there was no D-support and covering spot in too deep. The 5v3 goal was a poor cover on the short side by Markstrom. The OT goal was all on Backlund. This isn't about playing down to the competition. Or being too high on themselves. This was a sloppy game. Lucic made the 3rd line look bad, but Monahan didn't exactly help them. Good on faceoffs, but boy they looked bad and out of sync at most times. Don't expect Johnny to be good in the D-zone, so the other 4 have to get it out of there. The PP was really bad tonight. Toffoli is fine, but the team hasn't quite adjusted to having another RHS out there. The 2nd unit needs to be looked at. Monahan and Lucic is not a great look. Maybe consider Monahan and Backlund if you are using 2D. Big body doesn't help if you can't keep the puck long enough to get a shot away.

'Nato had a good week last week. Named ECAC star IIRC. I don't expect him to be a rookie star just yet. Use the time to develop. Get him into the AHL unless he comes out of college as a star.

I tend to think a bit out of the box. Johnny should never start an OT shift from the faceoff. If we lose the draw, we defend for his entire shift. Usually he is gassed unless we strip the puck early. Put a defensive winger out there and change to Johnny when we get the puck. Monahan and Backlund were good on the dot, as was Lindy. Monahan-Coleman Backlund-Mange Lindy-Gaudreau Lindy-Toffoli Monahan-Johnny Hanifin is a poor choice for OT, but Kyler was having a bit of an off game. He's the best skater on the team but was maybe hitting ruts. He's high risk/high reward, but is suited for an open ice shift. We are only built for 3v3 OT in a possession situation. We have speed on the wings, but only shown in a longer OT period.

Mangiapane is a good defensive player. He added to Tkachuk and Backlund's games when they were mostly defensive line. He's easily top line talent. If we had a good 2nd line scoring C, he would be even higher in points. To do that, we either need Monahan to be much better and trade Backlund for a cheaper, younger, C or move Monahan and get a better, cheaper 2nd line C. Buying out Monahan saves us $4m, but leaves us with a hole and no money to replace him. Need the savings to use on signing guys to new deals. What we should be doing is moving Monahan and Backlund out somehow, bring in a 2nd a 3rd line C or just a 2nd line C and move up Ruzie. We lose a bit of Backlund's defensive game, but you need that spread out on all lines.

Must have been thinking about Beck. Only saw highlights, so my mistake.

You disappear for a day, Dome is inhabited with a bunch of screaming Habs fans, we take a stupid amount of penalties, and we blow the home win streak. Next thing you know, JJ will be back telling us how bad a team we have and we need to re-build. Seriously though, Lindholm was the only thing carrying the top line for most of the night. On for three against. Markstrom was good enough to keep us in the game in the first. He started losing his net and scrambled a bit much. His penalty was caused by that and that led to another 5v3 PK; goal score on that kill. I wouldn't say we were overconfident; it looked like we came out of a break and were forgetting what we do to win games. Montreal is aggressive at the blueline, so without support a F is going to get picked off and play goes the other way. Some player notes: Lucic - turnover machine, couldn't make many good passes either Monahan - slow coming back on at least one goal Lewis - looks like he is playing by himself out there, had a couple of good chances Johnny - too much E/W and not enough N/S; picked off at least twice Tkachuk - didn't see much out of him Richardson - the between the legs stuff is fine if you can do it, but when you need a goal and you are alone, shoot Ritchie - Les sigh; useless Backlund - good mostly, but played OT shift like it was 5v5 and wanted to dump the puck to get off The rest of the team played well but each probably made a few mistakes. Lindy, Coleman, Mange were the reasons we had three of the goals. Johnny had a couple good shifts but not much else.

We haven't had a lot of success in OT. One capable NHL center. Monahan wouls have been a better choice with Mangiapane. Backlund doesn't know how to use Toffoli.

I didn't see him fall. Saw him skating slowly back only. Backlund with Tkachuk in OT, Backlund falls, goal against. Why do we bother, Right, because Ruze did something a cpuple of games ago. If you want to use Backlund, use him for the draw and swap him off.

We get two B2B sets coming up.

Sorry there Ritchie and Richardson, you didn't do enough to justify your spots. Couple of good plays, but watching Ricardson try the between the legs play when we were needing a goal....

The D played Backlund when he had the puck. Didn't do much, but Backlund had the chance to reverse t to the goalie or the trailer. Skated like a family skate coming back.

Baclund with the weakest play in the O-zone I have ever seen. Soft pass to MTL behinfd their net.Last one back.

Blockchaining Backlund is Blockchaining useless.

Yikes, now whp do we put put with Mange?

Ok, need to be careful with the dangling.

Difference was Mangiapane out there over Monahan. Wins puck battles everytime he's on the ice.

First Point complete. Begin 2nd point.

Lindy makes me a lyer.

Streak is done

Pull the goalie with Lucic's line out there? Oh, my.