GDT: 10/13/18 - 7:00PM EDT - Columbus vs Tampa Bay

[DFC]

Or committing a costly penalty late in the game to which we all hate him for

That generally happens after the inevitable injury though.

 

[Steazy Doo]

Miller was great in the 3rd too.

I criticized Miller after the first game, but man, he really stepped it up tonight and looked much better. Same with Palat. I think one of the more encouraging things that have come from the last two games is the play of Johnson though. Maybe he could surprise some people and hit the 60 mark.

 

[DFC]

I criticized Miller after the first game, but man, he really stepped it up tonight and looked much better. Same with Palat. I think one of the more encouraging things that have come from the last two games is the play of Johnson though. Maybe he could surprise some people and hit the 60 mark.

If we keep TKO together, and I don't even want to say the other thing in fear of jinxing it, both of those guys should be more productive than in recent years, IMO.

Agreed on Miller. I think the 4th line duty might have been a wake up call. He attacked the net last night, and passed the puck when it was his best option, rather than "an" option.

 

[VoluntaryDom]

-Score 1 on Nilsson
-Score 8 on Bobrovsky

Ok Tampa

 

[Cmac66]

Managed to only watch the first period but have watched the highlights. What a game that was and that just showed how well we can play when we are on are game. Was refreshing to see TKO back looking forward to playing the hurricanes. Lets just hope the god does not play for them.

 

[BeingTheThunder]

That was a fun game to watch.

Hope Cooper doesn't think he's shaken up the lineup enough and decide to put Stammer and Kuch back together again Tuesday. He acts like that pairing is a marriage he must go with. Hope he goes with the TKO line until it dries up. Playing Stammer with Pointer and Gourdo will hopefully break Stammer of "looking" to pass and just gets him back into "let her rip" mode.

McDonagh and Strals are both rock-solid in their roles. We're very fortunate to have them in addition to Heddy.

Hopefully we are seeing the start of a long run of some dominant hockey by one of the top 2 rosters in the league.

 

[DFC]

That was a fun game to watch.

Hope Cooper doesn't think he's shaken up the lineup enough and decide to put Stammer and Kuch back together again Tuesday. He acts like that pairing is a marriage he must go with. Hope he goes with the TKO line until it dries up. Playing Stammer with Pointer and Gourdo will hopefully break Stammer of "looking" to pass and just gets him back into "let her rip" mode.

McDonagh and Strals are both rock-solid in their roles. We're very fortunate to have them in addition to Heddy.

Hopefully we are seeing the start of a long run of some dominant hockey by one of the top 2 rosters in the league.

The thing I'm most optimistic right now is McDonagh. We didn't make an addition in the off-season, but this version of McDonagh, combined with Mathieu Joseph's arrival, gives me some hope that we still managed to improve.

It seems like D rentals never work out, because it takes a defenseman more than 20 games, with limited practice time, to figure out the new system. So I don't think the McDonagh we saw last year was what we really got in that trade. What we're seeing now is what we got, and it's 10x better.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Yeah MacDo sure is a treat to watch right now. Brings so much stability to our blue line.

 

[BeingTheThunder]

I don't think the McDonagh we saw last year was what we really got in that trade. What we're seeing now is what we got, and it's 10x better.

Agree 100%!!! I was very disappointed with what we got out of him in the brief time we had him last year. JTM turned out to provide more to us from that trade last year than McD did. However, seeing how McD is looking now really has me excited about the prospect of having him long-term.

 

[DFC]

Agree 100%!!! I was very disappointed with what we got out of him in the brief time we had him last year. JTM turned out to provide more to us from that trade last year than McD did. However, seeing how McD is looking now really has me excited about the prospect of having him long-term.

Seems like D rentals backfire more often than not, league-wide. Every coach is different, so it's a little unfair to plug a guy in on the blueline and expect him to be as good as he was with his old team. He might have been a little banged up too. The main advantage of having him last year was it took Sustr out of the lineup. But this year he's playing like a 1b.

That pairing is an incredible luxury, when you consider we have arguably the best defenseman in the world not even on it.

 

[The Macho King]

I'll go as far to say that McDonagh has outplayed Hedman so far (although quality of partners certainly makes life easier on McD than Hedman; Girardi has been pretty awful).

 

[DFC]

I'll go as far to say that McDonagh has outplayed Hedman so far (although quality of partners certainly makes life easier on McD than Hedman; Girardi has been pretty awful).

Yeah. With Hedman though, the offense will show up inevitably. He was always great with TKO, because the way they cycle allows him to creep in from the blueline, which we've already seen result in a goal on Saturday.

 

[The Macho King]

Yeah. With Hedman though, the offense will show up inevitably. He was always great with TKO, because the way they cycle allows him to creep in from the blueline, which we've already seen result in a goal on Saturday.

I'm not worried about his offense - top PP has largely sucked so that's limited his points, but 5 on 5 he's been fine. In fact, I think he's been great offensively. He's created a ton of offense and could easily have 3-4 goals so far with the chances he's generated. The read on the play where he scored to jump in there is really underrated - that was a high IQ move. That wasn't him sneaking back door - you don't see D crashing the net very often and it being the right read. I think he's been a little off on his breakouts and some of his in-zone coverage hasn't been perfect. I think he's played well on the whole, but I was more complimenting McD than criticizing Hedman.

 

[God King Fudge]

I won't lie and say I wasn't concerned about McDonagh after last season, but I definitely tried to keep it in perspective. He was hurt in NY, came to TB still hurt and then had to recover (because you know these guys come back at 75-80%) all while learning a new city, new teammates and new system. It's going to be a seamless transition for very, very few dmen in the league.

 

[Rschmitz]

I was ecstatic with McD last year. Not looking at his play as a whole, but for some of the flashes he showed. Brought several elements of play to bare which we haven't had in a while. None of our defenders man-handled forwards along the wall physically until he came along, and he could do it from a fixed position and then accelerate the puck out of the zone by either skating it or a quick pass.