The funny thing is Hakstol did everything everyone asked this game, and it made no difference, played Sanheim, reduced Filppula's minutes, put Laughton with the 3rd line wingers, etc.
And that's because the talent simply isn't there, and the goalies are bad.
Look at Darling and Ward drag down Carolina, look at Mrazek kill our playoff chances.
Laughton, Filppula, Read, Lehtera (Weise, Leier), MacDonald, Gudas, Manning.
Raffl and Simmonds would be fine if they were paired with real centers. They're just not good enough to carry dreck.
And even then, if we just had an average goalie, we'd be a 95+ point team.
He needed to have the last one and it wasn't even that it went in, but how bad he looked letting it in. The first three, how many of those does even Bobrovsky save tonight? Maybe one? I don't think any of Lyon, Neuvirth, or Elliott were stopping any of those either.
Either way, Mrazek has been poor, but this whole "blame the goalie" talking point that has started to surface is absolutely terrible for us. Goaltending is an immediate issue, yes. However, all this talk about goalies is going to do is give Hakstol an even bigger buffer than he already has. Hextall already has his excuse lined up now. Mrazek will be the easy scapegoat even though he was not the major problem tonight. The major problem is that they were dominated in the first and didn't get their first (weak) shot of the game until the first was almost half over. The first shift was decent enough, then MacDonald came on the ice and couldn't keep up with the pace. It was all down hill from there. Both teams had two days off before this one, but only one was ready to play.
Hakstol is such a bad coach...what in the hell was he doing at the end of the game...the last 5 minutes and hes playing his 3rd and 4th line, down a goal with a chance to tie it....he overplayed Manning and Gudas towards the end as well. What the **** is that....you shorten your bench and play your best players if you want to win.
Manning's positioning on that goal when Gudas is in the corner is just stupid. How did he make it to the NHL with decision making like that.
Im so over this coach and the ****ty veteran heavy presence players he chooses to put in the lineup. His own worst enemy, he activately hurts his team by playing bad players.
So frustrating. This team is downright unlikeable.
Hextall fires Hakstol then takes over as coach.
I had this dream before.
Serious question. What would it take for you to buy into this management group again if you currently don't?
For me, it's:
And I would need all of it next year. Of course that's not happening, but here we are.
- A coaching change that's not a retread
- Filppula and Oduya walk
- Simmonds trade
- One of Weise/Lehtera gone with the other in the press box
- A maximum of one of Hagg/MacDonald/Manning on the roster preferably as the clear 7th D but absolutely nowhere near the top 4.
Probably been said a few times already but Mrazek is playing like Mrazek. No surprises here. He can play well and stink. Unfortunately he has been the later more often than not over his last couple years. We have a building team but I still think that Hex could have done more to afford us an opportunity. It isnt easy getting this far and the acquisition was not a strong support shown to the team for the effort they put in.
Philly's goalies have a much better SV% (.908) than Carolina's (.897).
Try another excuse for Hak's choke job .
I think firing Hak and installing this guy as Interim Coach would be a fantastic move.
As of late?I mean, you're being little disingenuous with misrepresenting them as of late but it is what it is I suppose. The second line also hasn't had anyone on the defense to work with to drive that production, which is a problem when you're expecting most of tour offense to be generated from the points.
As of late?
Lindblom has zero points in his 12 NHL games.
Patrick has 16 points in 33 games since Jan. 1. Certainly promising, but subpar for 2nd line center production for a playoff team.
I think it’s a real cop out to blame it on the D, but, even if that’s the problem, the point remains: this team is thin compared to other playoff/bubble teams in the East, & that’s not the coach’s fault.