NotOpie
"Puck don't lie"
I had to calm down a bit to come back and write this...Like others have said, I rarely make calls for the coaches head. Hell, I'm one of the major pollyannas on this board. But in my opinion the first mistake tonight was made on the lineup card. Even though Lindholm and Aho have some chemistry together, when you put them with Staal, Lindy gets less aggressive and tends to yield that type of work to Jordan. You end up with Jordan doing some work, but invariably losing the puck...or when it makes it back to him for a shot he flubs it in any one of a number of ways. For my money tonight was Jordan Staal's worst game of the season. He repeatedly lost control of the puck, made bad passes, couldn't handle passes made to him, and his sot was completely ineffective.
Splitting up TT and Aho is a stupid move, period. They have chemistry, they work well together, they play responsibly defensively, and paired with somebody like Jordan (or Lindy), that line shines. Sure the Finns may be slight, but when paired together they have much more jam.
Sure Victor Rask has sucked for a good bit of the season but his game actually has improved the last few games. Yup, he got out battled on the boards a couple of times and made some errant passes, but he was working all night. I'd like to see Skinner/Rask/Williams back together for a while. And if we're not going to reconstitute the TSA line, I'd like to see Aho/Lindholm/Teravainen given a few games together. I think you'd see aggressive Lindy surface again.
I don't know where to start with Justin Faulk. He's been flat out horrible for the vast majority of the season. He equalled Staal's futility last night. No, check that, he actually made mistakes that lost us the game. Scott Darling's muff that led to the 1st goal, didn't change the momentum nearly as much as Faulk's ineffective coverage on Grabner's 1st goal. It was the 3rd time he had given up inside position during that game alone (and there probably were other times). I've come to the conclusion that Faulk's doing something with drugs or alcohol that is rapidly eating away at his brain. One man cannot lose that much hockey sense so quickly or completely.
Back to Peters....I'm one who still thinks he's a very good coach....but I think he's lost the proverbial room. The guys just don't seem to be listening to him on a consistent basis...or he can't motivate them on a consistent basis....or he can't game plan effectively for this particular team on a consistent basis....and that's the rub....there's no consistency and hasn't been for the last 3 years. Something's got to give, some change has to happen. Maybe a shake up trade, maybe a demotion and an elevation, or maybe you just find another coach....I just don't know...
