GDT: 10/28/17 - 7:00PM EDT - Anaheim vs Tampa Bay

[DFC]

Funny note: I'm tired, and read Bandit Keith's post as -->

Mel Gibson made some ridiculous saves and Anaheim capitalized on their chances. Way she goes sometimes.

 

[MattM92]

Didn't get to see the game last night. Can't win them all, but from the sounds of it we didn't look good. Hopefully this is a reality check and the team responds well vs Florida. I want to see us smoke the Panthers tomorrow. No excuses.

 

[Bolt 45]

I'm actually okay with playing Budaj more, here and there. Vasy's been disguising our poor defensive play. I've generally been pleased with the effort of our forwards on defense, backchecking, etc., but we could use a little more designed structure defensively. Hedman or Kucherov can make deft little passes to get the puck out of the zone, but some other guys can't, and, at times, those guys are too out of position or behind the play to even ice the puck for a breather.

I feel like whether or not we're using our semi-patented lob pass into the neutral zone to simultaneously relieve pressure and spring a counterattack is usually a good indicator of how well we are playing defensively. We've been good about it so far this year, but I can't remember seeing it as much last night. More concerning, however, was the return on a couple of occasions of the pace-killing, circle-back-at-the-blueline, negative feedback loop nonsense that we all fell in love with over the last year or two. Hopefully it was just a case of us reverting back to bad habits in the face of our first new challenge of the year.

 

[Sky04]

lol Budaj isn't exposing anything he plain sucks. Been that way since the trade.

 

[DFC]

Didn't get to see the game last night. Can't win them all, but from the sounds of it we didn't look good. Hopefully this is a reality check and the team responds well vs Florida. I want to see us smoke the Panthers tomorrow. No excuses.

I thought we played pretty well. We had the vast majority of possession through two periods, but couldn't find a way to generate Grade A scoring chances, and on the occasion we did, Gibson made some nice saves. I had to check out early in the third, so I'm not sure how that looked from there.

 

[MattM92]

I thought we played pretty well. We had the vast majority of possession through two periods, but couldn't find a way to generate Grade A scoring chances, and on the occasion we did, Gibson made some nice saves. I had to check out early in the third, so I'm not sure how that looked from there.

Possession is nice, but it doesn't mean much if it's not dangerous.

 

[The Macho King]

Possession is nice, but it doesn't mean much if it's not dangerous.

Frankly, neither side had a lot of scoring chances. Budaj didn't play well and we missed some good ones, but that was an even game (probably even slightly tilted in our favor). The problem was it was an even game in the Ducks style, not in the Lightning style, so they had the advantage.

 

[MattM92]

Frankly, neither side had a lot of scoring chances. Budaj didn't play well and we missed some good ones, but that was an even game (probably even slightly tilted in our favor). The problem was it was an even game in the Ducks style, not in the Lightning style, so they had the advantage.

I didn't get to watch it, but listening to Mishkin and Espo made it sound like we were in neutral all night. That's not good enough.

 

[The Macho King]

I didn't get to watch it, but listening to Mishkin and Espo made it sound like we were in neutral all night. That's not good enough.

...

Okay? What reaction are you looking for here?

 

[Bolt 45]

You're both right. Calling it a relatively even game that was played in the Ducks style is pretty spot on. We didn't play poorly, per se, but the Ducks made us play the way they wanted to play. That alone is kind hard to take, because they alpha-ed and we went full beta. Haven't seen that from the team this year, and there was definitely a coaching component. The final score pretty accurately reflected the coaching battle, IMO.

That being said, the team was absolutely stuck in neutral all night. We wanted to out-talent the Ducks, but didn't appear to want to put in the effort when it became obvious we would have to. This team (obviously) likes to play fast, finesse hockey, and they tend to lose interest if they have to grind it out against bigger, more physical teams. Echoes from the last couple of seasons were audible the other night.

Quick take: Coop's yet to perfect his approach against big, mucky teams, but I'd still like our chances on talent and/or speed and/or Vasy alone against the Ducks over the course of a seven game series. They didn't dominate us in that sense.

 

[DeeVeeUss]

You have to figure there's already been an organization philosophy to prepare better against these bigger west coast teams in the future just by how we've been drafting(e.g: Raddysh 6'1, Joseph 6', Katchouk 6'1, Yan 6'1, Howden 6'2). If any of these can work onto the main roster in the coming years that makes our wings a bit taller/bigger than our current

 

[MattM92]

...

Okay? What reaction are you looking for here?

What? I'm not looking for anything. I simply responded to your post.

 

[Flat Ronnie]

Honest question - I know this may seem weird at this point (esspecially coming off of 8 goals):

Are we worried about our scoring depth / secondary scoring? If we run into a scenario in the playoffs where Stamkos/Kucherov are getting shut down, do we have enough depth to survive? Should we look at an addition like Neal or similar at the deadline?

 

[Rschmitz]

Honest question - I know this may seem weird at this point (esspecially coming off of 8 goals):

Are we worried about our scoring depth / secondary scoring? If we run into a scenario in the playoffs where Stamkos/Kucherov are getting shut down, do we have enough depth to survive? Should we look at an addition like Neal or similar at the deadline?

Me thinks a team trying to match up with our top two lines while leaving TJ and Killorn on the third line alone, are going to have nightmares. Hopefully we have a guy like Erne or Volkov replacing Dumont before the end of the year to round out that line.

 

[Bolt 45]

Me thinks a team trying to match up with our top two lines while leaving TJ and Killorn on the third line alone, are going to have nightmares. Hopefully we have a guy like Erne or Volkov replacing Dumont before the end of the year to round out that line.

I actually like Dumont on the fourth line with Paquette out. Kunitz and Cally are the point-getters on that line, and Dumont's good at beelining hard to the puck after a chip-in and battling for it behind the net and along the boards. He leaves one of those two free to get open for a scoring chance. Kunitz has been burying his better chances, and I fully expect Cally to start chipping in some too.

 

[Rschmitz]

I actually like Dumont on the fourth line with Paquette out. Kunitz and Cally are the point-getters on that line, and Dumont's good at beelining hard to the puck after a chip-in and battling for it behind the net and along the boards. He leaves one of those two free to get open for a scoring chance. Kunitz has been burying his better chances, and I fully expect Cally to start chipping in some too.

As a fourth liner he is fine, on the third line with TJ and Killorn, which he was last game, he doesn't produce. Granted, this is only when we go 12-6. 11-7 we don't need that third line winger, we rotate in Kucherov or Stammer

 

[The Macho King]

Lock this thread please.

 

[Leonardo87]

I actually like Dumont on the fourth line with Paquette out. Kunitz and Cally are the point-getters on that line, and Dumont's good at beelining hard to the puck after a chip-in and battling for it behind the net and along the boards. He leaves one of those two free to get open for a scoring chance. Kunitz has been burying his better chances, and I fully expect Cally to start chipping in some too.

Yeah I agree. Cally has looked very good out there, and is getting the chances, robbed of a couple of assists earlier, but if he keeps playing he should start chipping them in. I like the Kunitz and Cally combo and think as they build more chemistry will produce more.

 

[Bolt 45]

As a fourth liner he is fine, on the third line with TJ and Killorn, which he was last game, he doesn't produce. Granted, this is only when we go 12-6. 11-7 we don't need that third line winger, we rotate in Kucherov or Stammer

Dumont was with TJ and Killer? Huh?

 

[Bolt 45]

Yeah I agree. Cally has looked very good out there, and is getting the chances, robbed of a couple of assists earlier, but if he keeps playing he should start chipping them in. I like the Kunitz and Cally combo and think as they build more chemistry will produce more.

The chemistry on all of our lines is unreal. Cally, Kunitz, TJ and Killer are all looking relatively good despite playing with new guys every night (or even every shift). I have faith Cally'll start showing up on the score sheet more. But the Palat-Point-Gourde line might actually be the biggest unexpected surprise of the season for me. Those guys look like they've been playing together for a few seasons already.

 

[DFC]

Honest question - I know this may seem weird at this point (esspecially coming off of 8 goals):

Are we worried about our scoring depth / secondary scoring? If we run into a scenario in the playoffs where Stamkos/Kucherov are getting shut down, do we have enough depth to survive? Should we look at an addition like Neal or similar at the deadline?

Killorn and TJ have pretty good production for third liners.

This is the first time in years we have offense/pressure in waves. Not concerned at the moment.

Honestly, the only rental I think we might look into is a 4C, like a better version of Dumont, and I hope to God I have just woken up the injury bug.

 

[Rschmitz]

Dumont was with TJ and Killer? Huh?

yeah, on quite a few occasions. Was talked about quite a bit on boltprospects

 

[Bolt 45]

yeah, on quite a few occasions. Was talked about quite a bit on boltprospects

I thought we went 11-7 against Anaheim... I could have sworn that Kuch and Stammer got shifts with TJ and Killer. Coop must have been shuffling and Dumont must have seen a lot time on the bench. In Florida Brown was on the third with Dumont as 4C.

 

[LightningStrikes]

Let's move it to the Roster Discussion thread or the new GDT, gentlemen!

Thanks!