travel_dude

Product of Kindersly Sask. Doink.

Phase 2 next.

That was pityfull. Give Tavares that much room. Mangiapane, that home goal scoring whiz. Phase 1 complete

Well, the thing we missed in our last game ahainst them was not blowing them up. That was a close game with no scoring until the 3rd. I suspect we get Phase 1 in the 2nd.

Ah Leah, glad we only have to listen to you on a commercial these days. Right up there with Loubo for annoying hockey voices.

The 2nd time we play the Leafs. The 2nd time we are on the tail end of B2B. How about some CB

Passes off, but keeping TO off the board a good result in a B2B

Stop wasting PP time.

Two monster hits. Dube on little Willy. Zaddy on Kase.

They were listening to Sutter

Dubbe reminded me of Bennett last year. Draw back your stick and try to shoot through a pair of D pads. If he ever gets open again, he might actually get a shot off. Maybe a 2nd player that could skate on his line would help.

Playing like we had the SC final last night. Beer league tonight.

That second unit sometims.... We have a PP and control of the puck in our zone. Give up the puck 3 times. Pretty casual play there. Yes, Hanifin I was looking at you.

I would hope he would never say anthing. Don't even tell who is starting in net. If you are making a change to a line, don't tell. Really, I was just answering C's question. I don't now what makes sense, but I am no coach. Sutter seems to have the answers most nights.

Is it any wonder why people think he is injured? Not making the highlight reels. No getting full speed cutbacks to the net. Can't complete simple passes. Down the ice and the D don't even have control of the puck. His team and they are a mess on the ice. No coach is fixing that, until you break them down to a nub and tell them to start over. Not talking about trades as much as a heavy handed coach. Sorry Connor, but you ain't getting 24 minutes. Sorry Drai, but you don't get 5v5, 4v4, PP and PK time. Time for you to play defensively and stop looking for an award.

Sutter was asked about that. Said, no not about to discuss that in the media. Too funny. Makes sense that Sutter tries to get Johnny and Mangiapane out as much as possible against 3rd and 4tth lines. Liljegren playing 4th line RW. Yikes. I guess we might see Lucic or Dube out against Marner or Willy. But as long as we have the top 4D out there it's less of a concern. Zaddy and Guddy can hammer the little guys if they are stuck out there.

I didn't hear this directly, but read that McD said the team has zero chemistry on the ice. I wonder when they last had chemistry? Before adding a dangerous chemical to the mix (Kane)? When they played to a 9-1 start (lots of teams struggling to start the season)? When their PP was clicking at 35%? Seems to me they have the same players for most of the season, except for the players getting waived. A new coach is going to toss in some sodium bicarb to solve the problem?

Pretty much rolling 4 lines last night, so that helps.

Rematches can be extreme examples. We played STL after we blew them out. That rarely happen and was basically a similar set of circumstances for each team in the loss. We played the same goalie in the B2B, which I would argue was not the best decision. Little work in the CBJ game, but there's a reason for a backup. Next and only game with Vegas in in Calgary. In April. Eichel will be there, but perhaps a good player is gone to make up the cap. One thing to note is that the game in April is after a game in VAN at sea level. They have a day to adjust, but we have seen that not work out for teams.

Fans in EDM somehow thought that a guy that won a cup or two could turn a bleh team into a contender. Never mind what decade he did it in. He had about $30m in EDM and managed to bring them right to the cap without improving the team. Goaltending - need to fix that; oops didn't. Leadership - bring in grey beards; oops, that cratered the cap and didn't really improve anything. Scoring depth - trade defense to get one and pay max term for a good one; half right. Depth on defense - being in a guy not ready but can score, re--sign offensive D-men to replace defensive ones.

What perhaps riled people up was that Smith "demanded" to play last night. Had they won, they would have carried Smith on their shoulders and praised Tippy for making a brave decision. No, I don't think the first two goals were poorly played by Smith. He gave them a chance to stay in the game in the first period. Held them off the scoresheet while the Oiler "pushed back" in the 2nd. 33 shots for after 2. Down a single goal. Yet, they only put up 8 in the 3rd. Headlines today "Smith Lays an Egg". The problems there begin with head office (Nicks, Lowe, Holland) and pick up with the players. Too soft. Flying the zone. Offense wins games. I can get 5 points in a game. I can beat that. Don't ask me about my +/- because I have 33 goals, what's your problem. I hate to see them doing so poorly, because it means that they will get a steal of a deal from some stupid GM. Assuming they trade a top 6 player or a top 2 D (who is that?).

Read somewhere where Puljujarvi has the same points as Yak did playing for EDM. Puljujarvi - 236 games - 42 goals - 45 assists Yak - 252 games - 50 goals - 61 assists Not important, but you almost see fans turning on Puljujarvi. Yet they sing the praise of Bouchard and Nurse, even though they are generally on for a ton of poor defensive play. Bouchard has offense, but little else.

How quickly they forget. Woodcroft was an A/coach a few years back and fans were frustrated with him. Since both Playfair and Tippett were supposed to bring in sound defensive play, this sounds like the players were not buying in. Meanwhile, they are stuck with a guy with no success as a head coach (Gully) and a guy that had little success as an A/coach (Woody). Manson. Wouldn't they need to have players that actually played hard to listen to a guy like that?

Almost like his shot accuracy is poor for some months until he dials it in. What I am liking about the team is that Backlund might be missing in his breakaway chances, but Gaudreau is getting better. Those two players account for a lot of breakaways.

I would say more like a dominant 1st and slight letdown in the 2nd. The 3rd was score effects. The good thing about shots coming from in close is that they mean the Flames are going to the middle. Gaudreau from the slot. Mangiapane from the slot. Smaller players getting into the tough areas. Beating a tired team is one thing. Dominating in the 1st against a team like that is something.