Post-Game Talk: 1/24 vs Buffalo

[Anton H Christ]

both j staal and semin are better passers than i realized.

 

[Boom Boom Apathy]

99% sure he's kidding.

Ok, I wasn't sure.

Given how McBain has been healthy scratches two straight seasons and I have always thought he wasn't the strongest on his skates, the comment made some sense to me. And since I didn't see much of the game, I was curious.

 

[kohlerk08]

both j staal and semin are better passers than i realized.

Thats what happens when you have years of practice playing with 2 of the most gifted scorers of this generation

 

[w e l o s t b o y s]

Also, we were good on the dot tonight

 

[Lazyking]

I don't why people say Ward wasn't good tonight. He was, he's one of the main reasons we won the game imo. His rebound control isn't perfect yet but two goals out of three no one would have stopped.

Enroth was the mediocre goalie tonight. That Faulk goal

 

[LadyCane]

I don't why people say Ward wasn't good tonight. He was, he's one of the main reasons we won the game imo. His rebound control isn't perfect yet but two goals out of three no one would have stopped.

Enroth was the mediocre goalie tonight. That Faulk goal

That Faulk goal was precious. Nearly as funny as the goal NMU scored on OSU this past weekend--one of our boys caught the goalie halfway out of his crease and just slid it on in. We in the student section could barely cheer for laughing so hard.

 

[Layn Dime]

glad we won thats for sure now we need some defense and semin to score, its only 3 games in and eric just got his first scores so semin gets a pass lol

 

[Ole Gil]

Staals career hattricks is something to keep an eye on. Only 15 players ever have gotten 20. Will be fun to see him climb that list over the next decade.

 

[clumping platelets]

I don't why people say Ward wasn't good tonight. He was, he's one of the main reasons we won the game imo. His rebound control isn't perfect yet but two goals out of three no one would have stopped.

Enroth was the mediocre goalie tonight. That Faulk goal

Any goalie would look mediocre with the atrocious D the Sabres played

 

[urho]

And what is Joni Pitkanen's training regiment? No hockey in lockout, transistions straight into 24 minutes a night. Is he secretly a gym rat?

In Oulu Pitkänen is known to be a guy that exercises very hard and also often. Combined with his nearly perfect skating technique he's able to outskate almost everyone in the league. Tuomo Ruutu said once that while he goes to make a change half dead, all out of breath, Joni comes to the bench after a half minute longer shift having not broken a sweat

Btw, a healthy Pitkänen has been a joy to my eye... He's just beastly at times with those hard passes tape to tape and he's skating so effortlessly. I really hope he stays healthy, this team is so much better when Pitkänen is on his game.

 

[Joe McGrath]

Pitkanen is like a beer league defenseman who plays the whole period and comes back without breaking a sweat while still getting to every puck he needs to. At least he was last night. He makes everything look so effortless, which is what gets him intotrouble when he has an off night.

 

[tarheelhockey]

both j staal and semin are better passers than i realized.

Same here. I guess JR was right in thinking they could flourish outside their narrow roles elsewhere.

Man, if we can get both those top lines going with good chemistry between players who can both pass and shoot, combined with the group of defensemen we have right now, we could have a seriously deadly offense.

 

[geehaad]

99% sure he's kidding.

100% sure I'm not.

Leaving last season, I said McBain was in dire need of vastly improving his leg strength. The boy can't change direction for ****, and he sure as hell can't battle for pucks along the boards. You *have* to be able to be strong on your skates at low/no speed as a defenseman. It's extremely disappointing that it's so obvious that he's done nothing to improve that basic part of his game in the 8 months he wasn't on the ice.

And clearly I'm not the only one who feels he neglected his game in the offseason. It's no mystery to me why he's been a healthy scratch so far this season...

 

[bb99]

Is Boychuk worse than Larose?

 

[Blueline Bomber]

Is Boychuk worse than Larose?

In general? Yes. Playing the 3rd line? Hell yes.

Surprisingly, Tripp put it best yesterday when talking about Bowman, talking about how consistent hes been. Not so with Boychuk. There needs to be a consistency in his game that he simply hasn't found. And coaches will trust the players that they know what they're getting each time they hit the ice

 

[bb99]

I wouldn't mind if he, Corvo and Boychuk had a princess tea party in the press box.

 

[Joe McGrath]

100% sure I'm not.

Leaving last season, I said McBain was in dire need of vastly improving his leg strength. The boy can't change direction for ****, and he sure as hell can't battle for pucks along the boards. You *have* to be able to be strong on your skates at low/no speed as a defenseman. It's extremely disappointing that it's so obvious that he's done nothing to improve that basic part of his game in the 8 months he wasn't on the ice.

And clearly I'm not the only one who feels he neglected his game in the offseason. It's no mystery to me why he's been a healthy scratch so far this season...

You'll have to forgive me with how this board works. I stopped taking you seriously after you said he looked like dog ****. He was part of what was obviously the best defensive pair on the ice, made the perfect pass on Staal's goal, and was at least more physical than he was last year. He wasn't great by any stretch but its not like he was bad either.

 

[What the Faulk]

And clearly I'm not the only one who feels he neglected his game in the offseason. It's no mystery to me why he's been a healthy scratch so far this season...

Yeah, I'm sure McBain being scratched had nothing to do with Muller's self admitted early season experimentations. It's no secret he's probably the most likely to be moved, and they want to see if Corvo and/or Sanguinetti can replace him. So far, no good.

 

[Chrispy]

I'm beginning to think McBain is a lousy practice player who does much better in actual games. This would explain benching coming into the past two seasons based off off-season and training camps, only to play well when he gets into the lineup.

It would be great to see him add lower body strength. That said, it's better to have a defenseman with little lower body strength in position (McBain) than one with lower body strength completely out of position or turning the puck over to the opposition (Corvo, Sanguinetti.)

 

[PaulProteus]

This was one of the most enjoyable games I've watched in person in... jeez, seems like an eternity.

 

[geehaad]

You'll have to forgive me with how this board works. I stopped taking you seriously after you said he looked like dog ****.

Yeah, it's very true that it can be difficult to determine when someone is being sarcastic...on this board or any written word. As someone who was in the corporate world as e-mail became a communication tool, I learned that the hard way.

But yes, I'm serious about being very disappointed in him. To clarify, I think he *looks* like dog ****...slow, sluggish, and weak. There's no questioning his skill and (apparent) hockey sense/thinking of the game. The problem is that he appears to like playing video games more than he likes working on becoming the best hockey player that he can be.

He could be better than Justin Faulk, but he's not, and with each passing year that he doesn't make any improvements, it's becoming a reality that he never will be. And I'm not basing this on the lofty expectations that some had after his initial call-up in the spring of 2010...I never had those expectations, myself. As it is, he is an average 4th defenseman who is not very good at playing defense. And his deficiencies are *so* easily fixed...it just takes a little bit of what the organization hangs its hat on: hard ****ing work.

Such a waste...

 

[Joe McGrath]

Yeah, it's very true that it can be difficult to determine when someone is being sarcastic...on this board or any written word. As someone who was in the corporate world as e-mail became a communication tool, I learned that the hard way.

But yes, I'm serious about being very disappointed in him. To clarify, I think he *looks* like dog ****...slow, sluggish, and weak. There's no questioning his skill and (apparent) hockey sense/thinking of the game. The problem is that he appears to like playing video games more than he likes working on becoming the best hockey player that he can be.

He could be better than Justin Faulk, but he's not, and with each passing year that he doesn't make any improvements, it's becoming a reality that he never will be. And I'm not basing this on the lofty expectations that some had after his initial call-up in the spring of 2010...I never had those expectations, myself. As it is, he is an average 4th defenseman who is not very good at playing defense. And his deficiencies are *so* easily fixed...it just takes a little bit of what the organization hangs its hat on: hard ****ing work.

Such a waste...

I think that's a very valid opinion to have on McBain, I think the timing was just unexpected based on last night's game. I thought he played well but that was in comparison to the piles of Mastadon dung that are Corvo and Sanguinett's defensive game so the bar wasn't exactly all that high

 

[Lazyking]

Sick GDT up for tonight's game.