GDT: Game 3: Knights of the Round Table @ Golden Knights | 7:00 p.m. PDT | NBCSN

[rt]

Cousins and Kempe move their feet impressively. Very busy little crazy legs players. It's nice to see all that hustle. It accomplishes literally zero. No net benefit.

 

[Muppet]

I'm sure I'll be booed, flamed, have rotten tomatoes thrown at me, and more but: this isn't as bad as it seems. We weren't good obviously tonight, but really if you throw out the vile, putrid, soul shattering 1st ten minutes this would have been an ok game. We need to work on A LOT of stuff, don't get me wrong, but if we can just raise our low moments from "so bad we guarantee a loss.", to just bad that'll be a huge step in the right direction. We also need to make sure our low moments go from 10 minutes to an entire period of course.

Basically, I'm not saying we don't suck, because clearly we do, but I don't think it's mega panic fire the coach time just yet, and I don't think these 1st 3 games are quite as bad as they look. Ok, unleash the vegetables, I'll try to find some cover.

Nuh I agree with you. Far too early to be hitting panic buttons. We seem to do this every year with less than a dozen games played. I'm far more willing to give them a decent amount of time to figure this out, given they've been through a complete coaching staff overhaul. If they haven't improved after 20 games, I might start asking questions.

 

[Bandit34]

The radio guys said Cousins left the game. If Martinook is still out and Cousins misses time does Strome come up for Detroit? Doesn't seem like there are many options there. Maybe Gaudet for one game if they don't want to bring up Strome.

He came back i believe. He drew the penalty with a minute left to go.

 

[Coyotedroppings]

Well, we kept the shots down.

 

[Summer Rose]

I think that this is what a friendly rivalry feels like. I'm disappointed that the Coyotes lost, but I'm not mad that the Knights won either.

 

[rt]

Crouse is very strong. I'm surprised how much more he's been able to impose his will physically this year so far.

 

[Matias Maccete]

Crouse is very strong. I'm surprised how much more he's been able to impose his will physically this year so far.

Even if he never develops a ton of offense, if he plays angry all the time he'll still be very useful.

 

[rt]

Part of me is glad Chychrun hasn't been exposed to this and hasn't caught the "chuck the puck wherever and don't ever use your eyes or brains" bug that all non-Hammer D have come down with.

 

[0point1]

Just met the 5 traveling Raantas

 

[Grimes]

Crouse is very strong. I'm surprised how much more he's been able to impose his will physically this year so far.

The speed plus the frame plus this confidence is unique. If he can begin to score he will be a similar player to Lucic rather than Bickel. Pretty exciting.

 

[doaner]

Looks like a good game to miss out on watching. Hopefully we can get our first win Thursday against the wings. My newborn will be there, so we can’t let her down!

 

[Grimes]

Havent gotten through the thread yet, so sorry if im repeating whats been said. Is everyone in agreement Rantaa isnt 100%. Whether that's health or conditioning?

Louie made me feel better about him being a backup.

The system is not close to being in place yet. It looks like there are two different pieces to the system, the breakouts (1st pass, neutral zone setup) and the defensive assignment (forwards and defensemen playing high up in their own zone) that are not in synch at all. The forwards always look a step ahead of the play on the breakout, and the defensemen seem to be playing pressure a couple feet too far in front of our goal. Looking forward to the scheme to statt clicking.

PK has been the best part about the team. PP is either abysmal because of zone entries, or dominant because the puck stays in the offensive zone for more then 10 seconds.

Forwards need to play tighter coverage. Defensemen need to play more in a zone. Everyone needs to actually play the boards. All of this started happening in the third and it looked better.

Detroit should be another win. Lets actually get the win and build from there.

 

[0point1]

Awful waffle just confronted the radio broadcast crew of the Knights.

 

[Lilhoody]

But trading OEL almost guarantees Hjalmarsson walks as a UFA.

Keeping OEL isn't worth it, unless he wants to be the 6/7 D

It's a shame OEL and Goligoski wear A's

 

[Sinurgy]

I'm going to chalk this one up to the difficult situation that Coyotes were in...after that intro who wants to come out and try to beat Vegas.

 

[ParisSaintGermain]

Vegas concept with building this season's roster:

Star goalie who is also a leader, an experienced goalscorer and 4 centers that are excellent at face offs as this will relieve the defense. It is simple and very effective as long as the team is disciplined.

So far it has worked and it has been devastating against a vulnerable team.

Coyotes concept with building this season's roster:

New, younger goalie that has demonstrated potential. An experienced D that will anchor a very young forward unit. A rotating leadership.

The lack of success on face offs against Vegas has put tremendous pressure on the D and the experienced D has not been capable of anchoring anything; some players have been all over the place.

Next game is obvsiouly essential and something needs to happen on the leadership front. Already a key game as let's face it, we have not played a legitimate playoffs team yet considering that the Ducks were deplated.

 

[XX]

I'm going to chalk this one up to the difficult situation that Coyotes were in...after that intro who wants to come out and try to beat Vegas.

Things spiraled. It happens, especially with a young team and a new coach. I'm more interested in the response.

The faceoffs though... I swear they are being coached to shovel it forward to attempt to create a break the other way or some shit. Watch them. Most of the time there is no attempt to "win" it like you would traditionally do. It's really bugging me.

 

[Muppet]

Tobi with the thousand yard stare like he's already dead inside

 

[RemoAZ]

Nuh I agree with you. Far too early to be hitting panic buttons. We seem to do this every year with less than a dozen games played. I'm far more willing to give them a decent amount of time to figure this out, given they've been through a complete coaching staff overhaul. If they haven't improved after 20 games, I might start asking questions.

Yeah it almost seems like they still don't know what they're doing. Maybe Tocc needs to scale things back a bit until they get part of the system right and then expand it. I don't know the answer but I'm not ready to panic yet either. I just don't want them to keep adding plugs and send the young guys with offensive upside down. Hard work and development. That's what I want to see.

 

[mesamonster]

Lots of work is needed at both ends of the rink. Most concerned about Raanta and OEL. he must. Still be playing through the training camp injury.

 

[Jakey53]

How many blow outs and blow ups until Barroway pulls the plug on this experiment?

I blame Tocchet for not having his players ready for the season and for not having a clue about their assignments.

I'm laughing so hard reading these posts. Just a few days ago everyone was a happy camper, and now we are moaning and groaning. I thought we would be 500 at this stage. Last night Raanta was the lone wolf here. If he could have made a save, like good goalies do, this could have been a different story. Once we got down early it started to snowball and the whole team lost any resemblance of structure. I would rather this happen now than later in the year. We only have one way to go.

 

[Jakey53]

Not impressed with Hjalmarsson or Demers. Goligoski still blows. Schenn and Connauton are 6/7 guys. Defense needs some serious coaching to get them playing better. If they don't handle the puck well and clear the zone, Tocc's system will never get going.

Tocc said he wanted Strome playing on the top line and on the PP and PK in the AHL. Strome couldn't play on the PP here but Cousins is? Why does Strome need to be a PK guy? Strome wouldn't learn here playing on the PP and on a scoring line between Fischer and Perlini with NHL coaching to develop him? Not understanding this. Strome going down and playing Kempe and Cousins does not help us now or in the future.

I don't get the Kempe love either. Every time I've seen him he looks like a fringe AHLer. He's just not talented enough to play in the NHL.

I expected it to take time to learn a new system and go from playing completely on their heels to being aggressive. The problem is the organization doens't seem prepared to give them time to develop. That's the same piss poor management we had before. You'd hope that somebody running this team will eventually learn from the past mistakes.

That was one thing that really struck me as stupid was having Cousins on the PP. I would expect we will see Rinaldo in the line up in a couple of games. Which one of the kids will they take out of the line up for him?

 

[Coyotedroppings]

So now Tocchet thinks they're out of shape and that's on him. Is that because he's spending all his time trying to teach a ridiculous "system" that has a complete lack of regard for puck support? Or is the support lacking because the system is inherently difficult positionally?

Give Vegas all the credit in the world, they embarrassed the hell,out of us. There was no courtesy of being taken to the wood shed, we were beaten in front of a national audience. But, my concern is seeing what appears to be an offense first approach and that just won't work imo. All teams currently need to do is pressure us and we collapse and look like rats on a sinking ship.

We only looked better in the third because the Knights had the game in the bag and let up some.

 

[Jakey53]

Vegas is playing extremely well, this may be the best game many of these guys will ever play in the NHL.

I agree. This is not the start I thought this team would have as I thought we would be 500 at this point. Not is all doom and gloom, it's only been three games. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong.

 

[cobra427]

Vegas concept with building this season's roster:

Star goalie who is also a leader, an experienced goalscorer and 4 centers that are excellent at face offs as this will relieve the defense. It is simple and very effective as long as the team is disciplined.

So far it has worked and it has been devastating against a vulnerable team.

Coyotes concept with building this season's roster:

New, younger goalie that has demonstrated potential. An experienced D that will anchor a very young forward unit. A rotating leadership.

The lack of success on face offs against Vegas has put tremendous pressure on the D and the experienced D has not been capable of anchoring anything; some players have been all over the place.

Next game is obvsiouly essential and something needs to happen on the leadership front. Already a key game as let's face it, we have not played a legitimate playoffs team yet considering that the Ducks were deplated.

So now Tocchet thinks they're out of shape and that's on him. Is that because he's spending all his time trying to teach a ridiculous "system" that has a complete lack of regard for puck support? Or is the support lacking because the system is inherently difficult positionally?

Give Vegas all the credit in the world, they embarrassed the hell,out of us. There was no courtesy of being taken to the wood shed, we were beaten in front of a national audience. But, my concern is seeing what appears to be an offense first approach and that just won't work imo. All teams currently need to do is pressure us and we collapse and look like rats on a sinking ship.

We only looked better in the third because the Knights had the game in the bag and let up some.

I agree, his offense first system might be a problem. We don't have the talent and more importantly the experienced players on the Penguins roster. The Penguins can play fast but stay solid on the forecheck and in the neutral zone. To turn this around, we need solid goal tending to start. Past that the team as a whole has to be much better without the puck on D, and in all 3 zones. This will force some turnovers and put us in a position that when we get the puck we can actually move it the ice more effectively and not be in helter skelter mode. This will require a defense first mentality which is the opposite of Tocc's system.