Observations V

[Byrddog]

Bad feeling Jones is going to be exposed badly this afternoon.

 

[SouthNash]

Game day thread??? Anybody???
Go Preds!!!!

 

[PredsV82]

Game day thread??? Anybody???
Go Preds!!!!

Waiting on Forceberg... if he doesn't show I've suggested usi BFF games twos GDT just adding to it...

 

[Armourboy]

Eh my concern isn't Jones, my concern is we don't jump on Darling early, we don't make our opportunities count and then a single Jones mistake costs us the game.

My one hope is that Rinne knows Weber is out, he has to play big and then just comes out and shuts them down. I'm hoping last game gave him some confidence, he makes a couple of early saves and then is off and rolling.

They are going to make mistakes, the question is can Rinne make that big save we need for it not to matter.

 

[jstreet]

Forceberg is MIA . If we lose, it's on him.

 

[PredsV82]

Forceberg is MIA . If we lose, it's on him.

We are in good shape...GDT is up

 

[LCPreds]

I observe that on my mobile phone I get a Star Wars digital pop up advert every single time I go to a new page. I used to like Star Wars...

Also, seems Preds are missing Fisher and Weber today. Hopefully they can strike quick in the 3rd to get some confidence flowing.

 

[101st_fan]

Time to see if Lavi can make adjustments and if the players can execute to steal a win on the road and regain home ice.

I'm not feeling confident right now.

 

[wadesworld]

Time to see if Lavi can make adjustments and if the players can execute to steal a win on the road and regain home ice.

I'm not feeling confident right now.

It's all on Peks. If he doesn't steal it, it won't get stolen.

 

[Armourboy]

Several things that went wrong in this one, foremost, Rinne was bad.

Forberg, Wilson and Neal were completely irrelevant in this game, that can't happen.
The defense was trying to do too much, which got us in trouble several times. Josi and Jones just didn't play well. Chicago did a good job of taking their opportunities away by clogging up the middle and letting very little through. We didn't adjust by trying to keep things down low so it would open those lanes up, granted it may have been because the forwards were bad today. They were also way to soft on forwards entering the zone, just poorly played.

You can tell the team missed Fisher and Weber today. We got away with it last game, today it bit us in the ass.

Ribs needs to keep his mouth shut, it's going to cause us some serious problems I'm afraid, the Refs will get tired of it.

Jarnkrok, that kid is going to have to put some muscle on in the offseason. He just gets bounced around out there like a pinball.

Darling wasn't even great in this game, just good enough. We did nothing to test him really after the second goal, can't even blame it on the Refs.

Chicago is a solid team, but I see them getting bounced if they get passed us. They aren't great by any stretch.

Oh and I put a ton of this game on Lavi, he did nothing to adjust to what the Hawks were doing at all.

Oh and we were insanely bad at clearing the puck. Too much soft crap, passes to the middle of no where, and god knows what else. It was bad all game long.

 

[101st_fan]

The Linda Lovelace like 2nd periods need to stop.

 

[Armourboy]

The Linda Lovelace like 2nd periods need to stop.

Frankly the third wasn't much better than the second. Really the first wasn't that great either, neither of the top two lines skated like they gave a damn.

 

[101st_fan]

Frankly the third wasn't much better than the second. Really the first wasn't that great either, neither of the top two lines skated like they gave a damn.

Three second periods ... three suckfests. We played well in two first periods and escaped the other at a tie. We haven't been outscored in the third.

This team sucks hard in the second period right now and have for a while. If it's in game adjustments ... mentally letting down ... whatever ... that stanza is the Achilles's heel.

 

[Enoch]

Lots of things I can pick at, and what I am about to say is slightly unfair, that said: Bad Rinne showed up today. Predators will not win with bad Rinne.

Rinne was okay in game 1, but he gave up a pretty bad tying goal to Toews. He was solid game 2, arguably played very well. He was awful today.

Rinne has to step up and be a star goaltender. He has to at least make these routine saves. He is consistently giving up 1-2 weak goals a game for quite some time now. He has to be better.

----

I think the game was closer than it appeared until the Hawks got those two goals on a weak Rinne. Very back / forth at that point.

The Predators can beat this team, but it is going to be hard if Fisher is out. Our biggest advantage has already been neutralized with Weber out, and it showed big time today.

 

[Armourboy]

Three second periods ... three suckfests. We played well in two first periods and escaped the other at a tie. We haven't been outscored in the third.

This team sucks hard in the second period right now and have for a while. If it's in game adjustments ... mentally letting down ... whatever ... that stanza is the Achilles's heel.

Game two's second wasn't that horrible, at least not on the level that game 1 and 3 were. Something is clearly happening though, whether it be poor coaching, or the guys just being emotionally in a funk coming back out. One thing is for sure, I've never seen a team consistently imploded at the same point in every game for this long of a stretch.

You can only blame the guys so much, at a certain point the coaching staff has a hand in it as well.

 

[101st_fan]

Game two's second wasn't that horrible, at least not on the level that game 1 and 3 were. Something is clearly happening though, whether it be poor coaching, or the guys just being emotionally in a funk coming back out. One thing is for sure, I've never seen a team consistently imploded at the same point in every game for this long of a stretch.

You can only blame the guys so much, at a certain point the coaching staff has a hand in it as well.

Oh .. I have no problem blaming the alleged leadership. I still have the read receipt in my email from calling out Trotz.

This team's leadership, on and off the ice, is an issue. Mistakes are one thing. Repeated mistakes and several week long funks are another. Lavi, his assistants, and those wearing letters on their sweaters have about 48 hours to step the #### up.

 

[Enoch]

Oh .. I have no problem blaming the alleged leadership. I still have the read receipt in my email from calling out Trotz.

This team's leadership, on and off the ice, is an issue. Mistakes are one thing. Repeated mistakes and several week long funks are another. Lavi, his assistants, and those wearing letters on their sweaters have about 48 hours to step the #### up.

I'm interested to here your take on this. Please elaborate.

 

[Armourboy]

Oh .. I have no problem blaming the alleged leadership. I still have the read receipt in my email from calling out Trotz.

This team's leadership, on and off the ice, is an issue. Mistakes are one thing. Repeated mistakes and several week long funks are another. Lavi, his assistants, and those wearing letters on their sweaters have about 48 hours to step the #### up.

Wouldn't shock me at all if someone on the coaching staff isn't looking for a job next season ( and not just the goalie coach). As i've said for a long time, I've yet to figure out why Weber ever has had the C. It's always appeared to me that Fisher, not Weber was the glue in the whole thing. Neal should of never been given an A personally, not sure what he did to deserve it in the first place.

 

[FossilFndr]

Why would Bartley be in today over Volchenkov? We need the size of Volche and he can hit. Neither have a goal and only 3 different in assists so why did we go with a smaller man especially with Shea and his hits out?

 

[drwpreds]

That game 1 collapse is going to cost us the series. A lot of doom and gloom after today, but the fact is through 3 games I don't think anyone could argue too much that we have overall been the better team in the series.

But blowing that 3-0 lead- that just cannot happen, and its going to cost us- even with today's crapper we would still be up 2-1 and all the pressure would still be on the Hawks...

 

[Armourboy]

Why would Bartley be in today over Volchenkov? We need the size of Volche and he can hit. Neither have a goal and only 3 different in assists so why did we go with a smaller man especially with Shea and his hits out?

I think its because Franson is so slow and they wanted someone with a bit more jump to go with him. Bartley at least to me was the least of the problems out there today. I think Josi and Jones played worse than he did.

 

[FossilFndr]

I think its because Franson is so slow and they wanted someone with a bit more jump to go with him. Bartley at least to me was the least of the problems out there today. I think Josi and Jones played worse than he did.

Wasn't really calling out his play, just the general idea of having the grit of Volche over Bartley as a Shea substitute (not that Anton = Shea). I'm thinking of a pre game decision not how it turned out.

 

[Pred303]

another blown opportunity to take the lead in the series.

easy to explain this one. rinne was horrible. the defense wasn't a heck of a lot better. the pp sucked. and we got nothing from anyone except the goal from ribs from any forward. a pretty good recipe for failure.

jones and josi were bad. jones can really skate, but his decision making generally stinks. it stunk tonight. our gap control was awful. we gave hossa and toews far too much room to enter. josi's was probably the worse. all I can figure is he was tentative because he had jones with him, and he was worried about covering for him, or uncomfortable about jones providing support. it was certainly something.

rinne. I just don't know anymore. big game failure. two 5 hole goals and beat cleanly off an unscreened shot off the rush. for us to have even a chance to win, rinne has to be better than CHI's goaltender. he wasn't today and it cost us a shot at a win. right now, Rinne isn't just not elite, too often he's not even been average. for weeks now.

we did a pitiful job clearing the puck. got pinned in our own zone for huge stretches time after time. Chicago has far too much skill for us to survive that. first couple of games we prevented that by being able to dominate play in their end and good gap control on their entries. today we did neither. if we can't get the puck in their end deep and keep the puck away from them we won't win another game.

we don't have enough skill to win on skill alone. it takes it all. and today we didn't have it in the biggest game of the year. it was why I was nervous heading in. and why I am disappointed now.

 

[101st_fan]

I'm interested to here your take on this. Please elaborate.

The on ice leadership needs to set the example in their play. Weber emulated his early 2013-14 leadership ... if it was injury, mentality, caring - doesn't matter ... he wasn't the same captain as we saw come New Year's 2014 through the end of that season. Where was the captain we all know can influence a game? How many games can you honestly say you saw that side of him? Neal hasn't shown me much, especially in the last half of the season. Fisher is the one guy with a letter on his sweater who sets an example on the ice every game and the team responded when he returned. He and Rinne are the bellwethers of this squad.

The behind the bench leadership needs to recognize issues and implement changes to correct them. This team has the same issues now that it had in October and November. This is the same team that didn't fare well against playoff position teams during the regular season. It's a team that crumbled down the stretch and entered the post season on a six game losing streak that ended a horrendous last 6-8 weeks of play. Special teams continue to kill us. Getting consistent effort from our top six remains an issue ... when the 4th line is repeatedly the hardest working, best chance producing group then there is an issue and that issue was evident down the stretch.

I have no problem with where this team finished in the standings. I do have problems with the play over the past two months. I've commented throughout the season on the issues with the play and that those issues would bite the team. We were never as good as the record indicated in the first half of the season.

Now we just need Pekka to once again channel the early 70s version of Esposito and carry the team. I had enough of his Finley impersonation today.

 

[jwhouk]

Three things that have killed us this year:

1. Powerless power plays.
2. Injuries to key players.
3. The puck dropping for the second period.