Series Talk: Round 1 | Colorado Avalanche (1) vs. Nashville Predators (8)

[triggrman]

I am assuming this post was not sarcasm.

On paper and with the years many of our players had, yes, this team should be better than last year. And for much of this season, I would agree that it was probably better.

But right now? And in the past month or two?? No way this team is better than last year at the same time in the season. I went over some stats in a previous post, but last year over the last 2 months we were almost the best team in the entire NHL. And gave up around 2 goals per game. We took it to everyone down the stretch.

And then played a team in the playoffs in Carolina that had basically the same record as the Avs team we are playing now, and we played them off their tails. 4 of the 6 games went to OT, and another one was a 1-0 game in the final minute. It was basically a dead even series, one that we easily could have won.

This year, we have pretty much ran out of gas and have been terrible down the stretch. Have given up a GAA of 4 in the past 25 games and FIVE in the past 10 games.

And when you factor in last night's embarrassment?? No way, at least RIGHT NOW, that this team is better than last year's

You're talking results, I'm talking overall state of the team. We're absolutely better as far as the state of the team.

No one expected us to be here, especially with all the young players we're playing.

 

[CRay]

Olivier had no business being out there. He was sent down and has been down for a reason. Bringing him back up and then benching Tolvanen is just stupid imo. On a team that already pulls too many penalties you don't suddenly start playing a guy that has a tendency to take penalties.

I think he was injured and sent down for conditioning and never made it back up. What is Tolvanen giving you, maybe a decent shot but cant get free to get it off? Only reason to play him is to give him some experience which is legit. Would hope Olivier would give you some juice on the forecheck. More questions than answers right now. As far as penalties go it is no coincidence, too much reaching and grabbing and not enough skating.

 

[Armourboy]

I think he was injured and sent down for conditioning and never made it back up. What is Tolvanen giving you, maybe a decent shot but cant get free to get it off? Only reason to play him is to give him some experience which is legit. Would hope Olivier would give you some juice on the forecheck. More questions than answers right now. As far as penalties go it is no coincidence, too much reaching and grabbing and not enough skating.

Olivier isn't going to give you anything you don't already have with some other guys, and they don't take the silly penalties he does. Tolvanen at least has a shot at putting the puck in the net and isn't bad defensively either.

 

[CRay]

You're talking results, I'm talking overall state of the team. We're absolutely better as far as the state of the team.

No one expected us to be here, especially with all the young players we're playing.

Problem is which youngster looks like a slam dunk top level contributor. This team as assembled is not nor will they ever be legit Cup contenders, the question is what needs to be done to get over the hump. Might take another year to find out if one or 2 of the young guys can get to the next level.

Post automatically merged: May 4, 2022

Olivier isn't going to give you anything you don't already have with some other guys, and they don't take the silly penalties he does. Tolvanen at least has a shot at putting the puck in the net and isn't bad defensively either.

Yea probably right, one thing for sure Olivier and Tolvanen are the least of our problems right now.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Olivier had no business being out there. He was sent down and has been down for a reason. Bringing him back up and then benching Tolvanen is just stupid imo. On a team that already pulls too many penalties you don't suddenly start playing a guy that has a tendency to take penalties.

I suspect Olivier is a bit of a "hail mary" attempt by Hynes to try to get the team's killer instinct back. It worked once upon a time when Olivier's arrival ushered in Herd 1.0 and the start of the Covid-era turnaround. Ostensibly because Oliver works hard, on and off the ice, brings a sense of purpose and determination to play hard at all times at all costs, etc, etc.

Hynes isn't blind. He sees this team has lost its focus and mojo and effort level. I guess he's hoping to recreate the same magic as the Herd 1.0 brought, that other players will be motivated by whatever off-ice characteristics Olivier brings.

But alas, the team is too lost right now for that.

Might as well play Tolvanen instead because we still need to figure out how to get him and Kunin untracked with the fading hope that one of them can still be a top-6 winger next year. But that's now a "shrug, might as well" player development choice, not something any of us will expect to make any difference whatsoever to the outcome of this playoff round.

 

[triggrman]

I suspect Olivier is a bit of a "hail mary" attempt by Hynes to try to get the team's killer instinct back. It worked once upon a time when Olivier's arrival ushered in Herd 1.0 and the start of the Covid-era turnaround. Ostensibly because Oliver works hard, on and off the ice, brings a sense of purpose and determination to play hard at all times at all costs, etc, etc.

Hynes isn't blind. He sees this team has lost its focus and mojo and effort level. I guess he's hoping to recreate the same magic as the Herd 1.0 brought, that other players will be motivated by whatever off-ice characteristics Olivier brings.

But alas, the team is too lost right now for that.

Might as well play Tolvanen instead because we still need to figure out how to get him and Kunin untracked with the fading hope that one of them can still be a top-6 winger next year. But that's now a "shrug, might as well" player development choice, not something any of us will expect to make any difference whatsoever to the outcome of this playoff round.

Kunin was awful last night. Out of position, chasing the puck, chasing the play, not a good game for him.

 

[nine_inch_fang]

Kunin was awful last night. Out of position, chasing the puck, chasing the play, not a good game for him.

Trig, have you noticed that our pet peeve of holding the puck too long and dumping it in after everyone has had to stop or slow their forward momentum has crept back into the game lately. It's killing any possibility of a good hard punishing forecheck because they're trying too hard to be creative and make passing plays between center ice and the blueline.

If you can't get in with speed just dump the f***ing puck and go hit someone while retrieving it.

 

[LeighDx59]

You're talking results, I'm talking overall state of the team. We're absolutely better as far as the state of the team.

No one expected us to be here, especially with all the young players we're playing.

I know we havent looked good the past few months (especially last night), but alot of the younger players are playing their first full season in the NHL, which means our top guys have had to take the reigns and last night you could see that theyre out of gas. Jeannot, Carrier, Trenin will get better as time goes on, so I agree the state of this team is in a way better state than last season.

 

[sparkle twin]

103-45 shot attempts.

58 more attempts at the net. The difference is more than we attempted. We blocked more shots than we put on goal.

This is like watching District 5 vs the Hawks.

I don't care what anyone says, there is just no excuse for playing like this.

 

[drwpreds]

So after sleeping on it my feelings on that game 2 really have not changed much.

I am normally not overly negative/pessimistic, but I come away from that game last night almost feeling worse about the situation. Look, going in, if you had told me we were going to lose in OT I would have gladly taken it and said that was a great effort.

But the way it actually played out?? Not so much. I posted last night that it was almost embarrassing the way we were completely overmatched and dominated, and I still feel that way.

The Avs are a great team, no argument there- and we are probably not beating them in a 7 game series no matter what. I see many saying “I am not surprised- Avs are great and I expected to get swept”.

But you know what? They ain’t that good. They aren’t THAT much better than us. They are not the 80’s Oilers out there and that is what we are making them look like.

It is not like the Preds are some crap team who is just lucky to be out there. We have too good of players to be getting completely dominated like that. That kind of domination is what you see when Arizona or Montreal play at Tampa and Florida or Colorado, not in the NHL playoffs.

The last 3 periods of that game basically looked like an Avs power play. We generated almost zero offense for 3 periods- I was just happy whenever we could just enter the offensive zone, much less get a scoring chance. How freaking sad is that? 42-15 SOG after the first period?? How is that even possible? Embarrassing.

And the thing is, this is nothing new- over the past month or so, this is how most of our games have gone. Total domination- and we either get blown out of the building or we somehow keep it close mostly thanks to goaltending. Our defense is so bad it is almost hard to believe.

My question is this- did we really play any better last night than we did in game 1?? I don’t think so, and it may have been even worse. The difference was Connor Ingram played the game of his life and we got lucky about 10 times that the puck somehow, miraculously, did not go in our net.

If Rittich had played that game last night, what would the score had been? Probably just as bad as game 1.

I know some say that we are just out of gas- our playing style has just worn us out, etc, etc. Well, if that is true, isn’t that kind of a big problem? What is the point if you have nothing left for the playoffs?? I never liked the Hynes hire but he had just about won me over with the way last season ended and this one began. But I admit I am back to having my doubts about him. Probably doesn’t matter as I am sure he is going to be re-signed.

Anyway, just my 2 cents, sorry for the length but this my hockey therapy session- lol

Am I being too negative here??

 

[hockey diva]

Bless their hearts, they tried.

 

[Armourboy]

So after sleeping on it my feelings on that game 2 really have not changed much.

I am normally not overly negative/pessimistic, but I come away from that game last night almost feeling worse about the situation. Look, going in, if you had told me we were going to lose in OT I would have gladly taken it and said that was a great effort.

But the way it actually played out?? Not so much. I posted last night that it was almost embarrassing the way we were completely overmatched and dominated, and I still feel that way.

The Avs are a great team, no argument there- and we are probably not beating them in a 7 game series no matter what. I see many saying “I am not surprised- Avs are great and I expected to get swept”.

But you know what? They ain’t that good. They aren’t THAT much better than us. They are not the 80’s Oilers out there and that is what we are making them look like.

It is not like the Preds are some crap team who is just lucky to be out there. We have too good of players to be getting completely dominated like that. That kind of domination is what you see when Arizona or Montreal play at Tampa and Florida or Colorado, not in the NHL playoffs.

The last 3 periods of that game basically looked like an Avs power play. We generated almost zero offense for 3 periods- I was just happy whenever we could just enter the offensive zone, much less get a scoring chance. How freaking sad is that? 42-15 SOG after the first period?? How is that even possible? Embarrassing.

And the thing is, this is nothing new- over the past month or so, this is how most of our games have gone. Total domination- and we either get blown out of the building or we somehow keep it close mostly thanks to goaltending. Our defense is so bad it is almost hard to believe.

My question is this- did we really play any better last night than we did in game 1?? I don’t think so, and it may have been even worse. The difference was Connor Ingram played the game of his life and we got lucky about 10 times that the puck somehow, miraculously, did not go in our net.

If Rittich had played that game last night, what would the score had been? Probably just as bad as game 1.

I know some say that we are just out of gas- our playing style has just worn us out, etc, etc. Well, if that is true, isn’t that kind of a big problem? What is the point if you have nothing left for the playoffs?? I never liked the Hynes hire but he had just about won me over with the way last season ended and this one began. But I admit I am back to having my doubts about him. Probably doesn’t matter as I am sure he is going to be re-signed.

Anyway, just my 2 cents, sorry for the length but this my hockey therapy session- lol

Am I being too negative here??

Well keep in mind part of the learning process with the young guys is learning when to back off the physical part and realizing you don't always need to beat and bang. You think about the Herd line and early in the season even when we had leads they just kept coming. Now that's fun to watch but it may not really be necessary.

One of our big issues is that with our 2nd line doing nothing the Av's don't even need to plan around them. They basically load up against the top line and Josi, put their next best group against the Herd line and basically beg the other 2 lines to beat you. That makes it pretty easy from a coaching stand point.

Carrier has not played the smart simple game we need him too. Tolvanen has been non existent, Kunin has been worse because he is taking bad penalties. Hynes has made some poor personnel decisions in playing Olivier imo.

Granlund has been horrid in the faceoff circle so when the top line does have a chance to start in the offensive zone its almost totally negated. I think I would have moved Joey into that slot to see if you could at least do something there. He has been better at the dot anyways.

 

[triggrman]

I'd move Joey to the top line for sure. I'd scratch Kunin, play Tomasino. Kunin has been our weakest forward.

Forsberg-Joey-Duchene
Tolvanen-Granlund-Tomasino
Herd
Olivier-Mac-Cousins

 

[Predsanddead24]

I still can't get over that we had a 2 minute 5 on 3 and they got the best chance out of it. I get the young guys being flustered but our vets have a lot of playoff experience and look the same way. Hopefully being at home can get them to settle down.

 

[Legionnaire11]

I didn't stay awake through either game so far lol

Seriously though, the scheduling sucks. Is the national audience really big enough to justify pushing puck drop to 8:50? I bet more people would tune in locally at 8 and stay through the entire game, the national audience can join in progress.

Look at the TNT schedule for Saturday. We start at 3:30, then they have a game scheduled at 6 and a game at 8:30. That's a 2.5 window for each one, it's not enough and the later games will end up being pushed back the way we were last night.

First world problems, but seems like they're screwing fans in certain markets trying to min/max the schedule.

 

[drwpreds]

The other thing that really drives me crazy and is so painful is watching the Calgary/Dallas series. Stars headed home with a 1-1 split and Calgary has scored ONE goal in the series. ONE

I will never get over that awful Arizona loss last Friday. We probably wouldn't beat Calgary either the way we are playing, but they are a MILLION times better matchup for us.

Complete fail in that Arizona loss- one of the worst losses for this franchise EVER.

 

[predwings]

Oh no we suck again. If you've watched the team recently these outcomes shouldn't be much of a surprise. We need to get younger and better next year. Need some meat/fat trimmed and to get younger and hungrier.

 

[LCPreds]

I mean this is basically who we thought we might be starting the season right? Top 10 draft pick to fringe playoff team? I think we just got tricked by the way the season played out. Instead of being up and down all year we spiked the first half and the bottom fell out the second half. I just hope that things don't go the wrong direction next season and end up more like the second half than the first, especially if FF9 doesn't sign. Poile then has to figure out how to replace that + whatever else was missing.

Specifically to this series I fully expect us to get swept now or maybe pull out 1 if we're lucky.

 

[drwpreds]

I mean this is basically who we thought we might be starting the season right? Top 10 draft pick to fringe playoff team? I think we just got tricked by the way the season played out. Instead of being up and down all year we spiked the first half and the bottom fell out the second half. I just hope that things don't go the wrong direction next season and end up more like the second half than the first, especially if FF9 doesn't sign. Poile then has to figure out how to replace that + whatever else was missing.

Specifically to this series I fully expect us to get swept now or maybe pull out 1 if we're lucky.

I don't disagree with most of this- I thought the best we could possibly do in this series is lose 4 games to 1.

But my main problem right now is we should not be getting completely and absolutely dominated and run out of the building the way we are. Not only in this series, but in the past month or two of games. Almost every time we face a good team, we have been completely dominated- we either get blown out or somehow squeak out an OT/SO win despite being out shot 48-28.

I mean we looked like the Coyotes or Canadiens out there in those first two games- that is ridiculous.

We are not an elite team but we are a good one- and have some real talent- and there is no way we should be as bad as we have been the last 1-2 months.

 

[Bringer of Jollity]

Oh no we suck again. If you've watched the team recently these outcomes shouldn't be much of a surprise. We need to get younger and better next year. Need some meat/fat trimmed and to get younger and hungrier.

We are already young, and likely to continue turning over guys like Benning, Cousins, etc... into players like Farrance, Afanasayev, Glass, and Evangelista. The young guys are completely run down--this is a great learning experience for them on just what it's going to take and what they need to be ready for physically going forward. This is one of the consequences of "play the kids."

 

[ILikeItILoveIt]

We coulda won. We lost. We found our next goalie. Lets have some fun and win Game 3.

 

[drwpreds]

We coulda won. We lost. We found our next goalie. Lets have some fun and win Game 3.

I have modest goals at this point- we are making the long round trip up for the game tomorrow, spent a good bit of $$ on tickets. I just want to see a win in person tomorrow. That at least gives us one home game to try and even the series.

Give me that and I am a happy camper, even if we go on to lose the series 4-1.

 

[GeauxPreds1]

Wonder how big a factor the altitude played in these games? Our players looked completely gassed

 

[101st_fan]

Oh, Hockey Gods, forgive us.

 

[Loyal Legion]

Game 2 was more of how I expected some of these games to be. We were outplayed, we were on the road against #1 seed, got doubled in shots and we were still 1 goal from stealing a game.

And if we stole one, momentum shifts. Avs players may start holding their sticks too tight, and Kempuer may start second guessing himself.

Let’s see how Avs can handle our barn.

My white flag is in my pocket but nobody can see it yet.