travel_dude

I found that sometimes the streams are poor internet broadcasting, so it looks like it's blury. Glad the Ruzicka is still keeping it up. Maybe they should really consider playing him in CGY

I'm really curious as to what Ward thinks has been his best lineup choices. Survive a game with the goalie shutting out a team or stopping way too many shots. Some days the PK stops everything and they don't gove an inch. Other nights it's sit back, allow entry and setup, and just wait fo the scoring chances. Players are sat for no real reason and players come in for similar lack of reasons. Leivo - either scratch or 4th line less than 10 minutes or top 6. In for games against TO, out against Ottawa in favor of Robinson? Bennett - similar to above but not scratches as much, also plays more minutes. Kylington - not sure what he did that was wrong. On for two hames where we shut out the Leafs, until they scored with a minutes left. Nesterov - comes in after two games of shutting out the Leafs (almost 2) and we get blown out; not directly on him, but why the need to change? Is there an opportunity to move Gaudreau to Lindolm's wing? Why not, nothing else has stuck the landing. Many ways to do it, and they aren't exactly ground breaking: JH-Lindholm-Tkachuk JH-Lindholm-Dube Mangiapane-Lindholm-JH Gives you as many options with Monahan. If you arn't going with Purple Juice line, then what exactly are you doing to get the line going?

Zag was on emergency loan, so I don't think that was required. Anyway, the lines are back to what more or less was not working. Maybe the Lucic line has some bigger impact, like before. Bennett will probably be sat out. Ryan coming in and Ritchie more of a RW grinder for the Ward game. I don't know. The coach is looking to fix a problem that isn't just due to lines. I don't mind Leivo getting top 6, but I can't tell if that's a response to a good time on the 4th line or lack of options.

So, who is telling Gio to hang back until the line change is done and the other team is completely set? Is that Ward or Huska or Gio deciding that. It's pretty fundamental.

Please, oh please waive Nordstrom. Leivo will get picked up if he gets waived IMHO. Poor usage impacting him.

The extra year in junior did Draisaitl a world of good. But really, when a player steps into the playoffs and plays pretty well, do you turn around and send him back to junior? Tough decision. Couldn't go to AHL. Instead he followed it up with 18 goals and 18 assists in his first season in the AHL. The following year, we had Tkachuk starting, Gaudreau signing at the end of camp and a new coach... The 3M line was created. I know there was a choice that could have been made, but it's difficult when you have a new coach laying out his plans. Bennett may not have been destined for playing with Brouwer, but he just didn't overtake anyone in the top 6. Blame Gully for it, the GM was just going on what he said. 🙂

Maybe Bennett was not given the job, but he also was not consistent enough to keep the spot. Let's face it, if Bennett scored as frequently as Monahan, he would still be there and we would have three C's that were effective. Or we would have traded one. Pretty hard to ignore 30 goal seasons. But, we were in the fix it mode after the BH firing. Get back to the playoffs because we got away from what worked. Beating VAN was not a win, but going from playoff 2nd round to missing the playoffs was a failure.

I would be content with the latter. But here we are 23 games into the year and still asking what the problem is. I've seen no measurable adjustment to anything that isn't working. It's hard to fathom that a player like Gio would fall back to a passive strategy on his own. Or that Ras could not be shown tapes that show the options he has and get him to follow the guidance. If those two are the problem, then you hold them accountable. Change the pairs to get the type of setup you want. If the F are blowing the zone to get ready for offense, then they have to be accountable too. Bennett's lazy backhecking. Monahan skating back slowly. The biggest reason to bring in a new coach is to identify the scheme, personnel required (scouting), and get it ready for next season, not just trying to scrape a win in the playoffs. You get the plan in place, evaluate what you have according to that plan and fix the issues with the team by the off-season. Going with the current coach implies he is part of the solution.

Hard to pin the 2014 draft on BT. He was freshly hired in April. Burkie was all over the draft. Regardless, there were a lot of misses in that draft. Pasta going in the 20's. Point in the 3rd. Ward continued the same thing with Bennett that BP did, use Ryan at C until the playoffs had Ryan losing his spot due to "injury". This season was no diferent in that someone else got the nod for 3C. He either had to play 4C or on Backlund's wing. He did neither well. As far as development, what would have time in the AHL have done? Not much, I think. He played a certain way from day 1. Maybe if they didn't put Granlund at C, it might have improved his C game. But, I suspect Bennett wanted to be the gritty forward and never developed the skills needed to take the next step.

I guess what we should be talking about in this thread is what we reasonably expect BT to do. Doubtful Fire the coach Trade a core player during the season Waive Bennett or Gio. Possible Trade a non-core piece and/or picks and prospects for a top 6 C/RW. Depending on the player coming, it may be just a winger or one that could play both C/RW. Do not expect a mid-season tear down. I don't even think we see the core sold off for picks and prospects in the summer. It will be for players in the same age range or slightly younger. Call it a re-tool if you like, but it won't be a 3-5 year rebuild. We missed out on PLD, but one has to think that Forsberg may be available. That's a Monhan for Forsberg deal. Does it make sense to the Flames and Preds to do it now? Not really with the quarantine period. I think we are going to see BT do very little until the summer. BT believes they are better than what we are seeing.

If the coach would start with the things he has control over, that may go a long way to the team improving. I have seen little adjustment whether we are winning (infrequent) or losing. No, the coach doesn't tell the players to take their toys and go home if they have a bad shift. I think it's going to be hard to get to the root cause of the issues. The core was around for a great season followed by crapping the bed in the playoffs. The coach was part of that regular season success, but is not following that playbook. Or at least it seems that way. I just can't figure out what is causing the team to play so poorly. Dump and chase isn't working; fine, work on it or abandon it. Passes aren't connecting, but it seems like the F are way to far up the ice to execute properly; why is it such a slow methodical process to get out? That seems like some kind of strategy, so why are we doing that and accepting that?

The things he can control are the things that I see being questionable. Players scratched when the ones that play the next game were as much the reason for failure. Use of Lindholm at C long past the time it showed the top 6 was struggling to score. Parade of D-men into the 3rd pair. I would not say the 3rd pair has been the worst, but there is no clear indication of players coming out are because they were bad or to play someone else. Top pairing struggling with no end in sight. Are there things the coach can do there? Ultimately, the players own the problems because they are not playing at top form and not making up for bad plays enough. But two lesser coaches not having success do not prove the coach is right. Lucic owns a few goals against scored on his watch. Two games I can point to are a pass into Bennett's feet on the exit. Example 1, comes back as a goal against, lazy backchecking. Example 2, comes back as a goal against, lazy backchecking by Bennett. That's not even counting the one where Lucic poked it into the middle of the ice and Gudbranson gets a goal. No, I'm not harping on Lucic, because he cares and takes ownership for his mistakes. If the coach feels this is an execution issue and the X's and O's are sound, then bench the guys that are not following or look like they aren't part of the solution. Obviously, the D is not executing something correctly right now. If the positioning doesn't match the plan, drill it into their heads. What is with the 60 foot passes exiting the zone? Why is the forward having so much space to enter the D-zone? Do you expect a one man forecheck to do anything? How is it the neutral zone is a free skate for other teams?

The finish to the year was definitely a team taking the foot off the gas. What we saw in the playoffs was a product of not being hungry. Gio and Backlund and Tkachuk mostly a no-show. The top line being played against Nate? Easy to clog up the neutral zone. The biggest thing I can see similar to that playoffs is asking the goalie to win the games. You knew Smith was going to give up a putrid goal or make 2/3 saves on a single chance. They did the exact same thing this past playoffs. What I see is a team that can't play a certain way and it's being forced to play that way. This past playoffs, same coach that believes in not coaching the game, but using his same tricks to win them. When they backfire, preach the waiting game; wait for your chances and they will come. Wait for the other team to rest on a lead. Play for the 0-0 tie. We can keep going back to other years, but it's really pointless. The coach and team lost back then. The GM made some changes. So far, the only thing that has looked good is the goalie (at times) and Tanev. It's obvious to me that Gio-Brodie was the only way Gio plays like a Norris D-man. So, replace the coach and move on. The player trades are more difficult to do this year. You committed to the team this off-season, so the coaching is the only thing that can change right now. Make the big changes to the core in the off season, assuming the season can't be saved. If we are basement dwellers by the TDL, make as many moves as you can with the depth that is UFA or the ones you know you are not keeping.

This was expected, so that's a good sign that Ryan is coming back. It's about the last thing I expected the GM to do first thing after a failed road trip. Yes, the day is early.

Have we had any coaches that were not at the end of their careers? Or. have we had any new coaches that knew what they were doing? I have to think that an actual coach from this decade might be able to turn around this team.

Your rant is well directed. I don't think it's the inmates running the asylum. I think Nurse Cratchet is sending the wrong messages. Dump and chase and battle for loose pucks is fine, if that is how you are built. We are more than skilled enough to attack with the puck. We are not using the best way to gain the zone, since it seems like the only time we try to hold onto the puck is during a PP. The PP entry is a useless exercise, in that it forces us to gain the zone with the other team lining up. The GM looked at things the team was missing or lost. Pro scouting seems to be an issue, but I don't think the major pieces are the problem. We added a goalie and a D-man that should have made us better. Bring them into a broken environment, and it's going to be an issue. I don't think Gio is the problem on reflection. He's not helping get us out, but his heart is there. Where he struggles is trying to take the team on his back. Doing too much.

I don't even see a team as good as the 2018/19 team. They at least attacked with speed and knew how to score. What we are seeng is a dump and chase team. The passes run through JH because he's one of the few that can make a pass. But the reasons for passing have a lot to do with taking most of the 2 minutes to gain the zone. We are running every down low play through Tkachuk and he is using his one move. We've had the same coaches running the D and PP since BP came. The breakouts have never looked this bad, so something is up. This is the opposite of possession team. Can't make simple exits and wait for the next wave.

A 7-1, a 6-1 and a 5-1 loss on this trip. None of the games looked inspired or well thought out. The team has bailed on the coach and even on playing for each other. Coaching sucks, leadership sucks. Firing the coach is the easiest, but I think there's failure in coaching beyond just the head coach. Defensive play most nights is a joke. The PP looks designed by a child. I believe the coach said the playoffs was the way he wanted the team to play defense. That seems to be a complete lack of understanding.

Please stop using one line from people's posts to go into you long winded rants. You are blinded by your own hatred of BT. Now Talbot was the best thing BT did and he boobed by letting him go? I thought getting a young goalie from nowhere was the only thing he should be doing. I appreciate how you construct your arguments and the time and space you devote to your passion. Almost like a lawyer paid by the hour or a blogger paid by the column inch. But everything you say is just to support your "Fire BT" theme. Goalie good, fire BT, he is too old. Goalie bad, fire BT he picked the wrong one. Dougie wins the Norris and Stanley Cup, fire BT for trading him. Sure, if that ever happens.

Playoff lines reunited for this game. No idea yet for the 4th liine. Gatorade Line 3M Bennett line

There is no logic to blowing it up during the season. You get little value right now for the best assets. Teams have set the course of their season and will only add an impact player if the money is right and it's future costs. And this isn't the typical year for rental and non-rental players. The expansion draft sets up the receiving team to lose a player they were proyecting. You want to blow it up, you will need to wait for 30 teams looking to make deals. We can ship off players like Gio, Ryan, Backlund at TDL if we are out of it, but is that the right move? It may be if we get value for it. But that also doesn't signal rebuild, it signals we are doing a re-tool and evaluate the remaining players and value. Post expansion trades will look a lot different.

Sounds like a BeeGees song. How deep is out farm? Seriously, we have at least one player who should be in the NHL right now, plus a couple other guys that could make an impact. There are reasons why they aren't playing, and a lot of it has to do with how we have designed the bottom 6. Mangiapane has developed the right way, and for the most part so has Dube as well. We have a couple of prospects on D that aren't even playing in the league. Unless we plan on trading our current D, their development lines up ok.

Here's the thing. The team missing out on the playoffs by doing nothing now signals the worst possible decision making. There can't really be the belief that the coach is going to somehow change the team into a contender. Big trades can have years of failure tied to it. Give the coach more tools? Okay, then how exactly is that working after spending 10m to fix goaltending and add a rugged D-man (who isn't the problem). Get him some new tools? Unless the skill guys are traded for grit, the style of play will resemble a lunchpail crew. Less than 100% effort signals a loss. Bring in skill guys to learn how to play gritty? Can the coach and bring in one that has some clue about modern NHL games and how to actually coach a game. Not a practice where you play a bunch of music. Or you toss a stick. The goal is to hire a guy tht can get any team to win, not just this team. Maybe an actual NHL coach might come up with something that works. And maybe 100% of the players buy in. (rant off)

We are so starved for offense on this club. Absolutely no speed on attack. Most of the shot are at the crest. Call me crazy, but I think it would be a good idea to have a 4th line that might actually generate some offense. Simon-Ruzicka-Phillips The option is there to play Gawdin in the middle and just go with the kids. They might actually score at this level. They certainly can make passes, unlike several of our other lines right now.

The problem is no one can define what the problem is. As an outsider, we may focus on Gaudreau and Monahan as the problem, since they are played against the top lines (power vs power) in the playoffs it seems, and they fail to deliver. Or we could suggest that leadership is lacking, as Gio has not been part of the solution with his struggles during the playoffs. Or we could say that the room is tired of Tkachuk's antics. Unless you are sure of the reasons and the trade addresses the problem directly, you don't make the trade. For the coming TDL, I would recommend trading Gio to a team looking for a veteran leader to join the room. Do it early enough that any quarantine required happens soon enough to help (not sure what will happen with CDN players going to the USA - could change). It doesn't really fix the room, but it may provide a better dynamic for moving forward with any system changes. Pick up a bona fide top 6 RW. Use any cap gained trading Gio to weaponize cap space. Trade Bennett and move on. Bring in a real NHL coach and work towards the future; it may not be enough to fix this season, but it should provide the right platform for next year. Identify who is the right talent to keep; I don't trust Ward to be able to make that determination.