GDT: 11/11/22 - 7:00PM EDT - Tampa Bay @ Washington

[LightningStrikes]

 

[ccman68]

This board starting to turn into Montreal's, can't blame Vasi cause he's got no defense, but he makes 9.5M so there's no money for defense. At the end of the day he has a .901save% and 3.11 GAA, there are worse goalies on worse teams with better numbers, half the team is under performing right now Vasi included on that list.

he's been pretty average this year for sure but even now he has saved more goals than expected. you can't look at someone's save percentage when there is no defense in front of them.

if he was giving up a lot of bad goals i would get it but it's mostly just us letting them shoot from right in front of the net and if the player aims well it doesn't matter who is in the net it's gonna go in

 

[DistantThunderRep]

he's been pretty average this year for sure but even now he has saved more goals than expected. you can't look at someone's save percentage when there is no defense in front of them.

if he was giving up a lot of bad goals i would get it but it's mostly just us letting them shoot from right in front of the net and if the player aims well it doesn't matter who is in the net it's gonna go in

It's like people thought consistent god like performance and bail outs every game was sustainable and a reasonable expectation.

 

[Rschmitz]

Me. He wouldn’t make a difference. Seen any preds games?

Ian cole has been a serviceable LD shotblocking replacement.

Actually I think with the addition of perbix and when bogo comes back our defense will be better than last year.

I have watched enough preds games, have you watched any Lightning games?

His stats reflect he’s been pretty solid for one of the worst teams in the league. It is also irrelevant. The question is how he performed versus how these new players are performing and with the exception of Perbix I think we have seen enough to say the difference has been pretty big.

It’s definitely no improvement. Lol

 

[RussianGuyovich]

I have watched enough preds games, have you watched any Lightning games?

His stats reflect he’s been pretty solid for one of the worst teams in the league. It is also irrelevant. The question is how he performed versus how these new players are performing and with the exception of Perbix I think we have seen enough to say the difference has been pretty big.

It’s definitely no improvement. Lol

Well, I live in Nashville and I post here so I feel confident about my educated opinion. McD wouldn’t make a lick of difference, as he’s a LD so perbix is irrelevant. He’s a shot-blocking defensive specialist and cole has pretty much replaced him. And with serges emergence as a dual-threat, he would just be in the way.

I hope you can find someone new in your life, as we all deserve love.

 

[DFC]

It's like people thought consistent god like performance and bail outs every game was sustainable and a reasonable expectation.

I think that's a little much. He has played the last season or so like the equivalent of the 70 point Stamkos. We dont expect him to be the best goalie in the league every single night, or even every single year, but he should be in the top handful. I don't think he's been a top 5 goalie on the last season +, and probably not top 10. So I think the criticism is fair, just like it was with Stamkos, until it veers into "it's all his fault" territory.

 

[Rschmitz]

Well, I live in Nashville and I post here so I feel confident about my educated opinion. McD wouldn’t make a lick of difference, as he’s a LD so perbix is irrelevant. He’s a shot-blocking defensive specialist and cole has pretty much replaced him. And with serges emergence as a dual-threat, he would just be in the way.

I hope you can find someone new in your life, as we all deserve love.

Ok, does living in Tampa make me more qualified to speak about the Lightning than you then?

There's this cool thing called NHL Center Ice which you can use to watch games outside your region, and a million streaming sites. Maybe you have connections within the Nashville organization or something that nobody else is privy to? I definitely wouldn't call our distant thunder less knowledgeable than the rest of our members.

You're the one who brought up Perbix to start with, why did you do so if you didn't think he was relevant? The fact is our RD this year are taking some of the minutes that would have went to Serge, who is taking minutes that would have went to McDonagh. It's a large, dynamic change that has occurred on our blueline and it was never a question as to which individual player could replace McDonagh. Collectively, they are clearly buckling under the added load.

Cole can't hold McDonagh's jock strap. The fact that you've watered his contributions down to what a single player can do shot blocking says everything we need to know about how objective your viewpoint is.

The shots at my love life are why I post less these days. Too many on here can't just talk hockey w/e taking things personal. Maybe I did actually just lose a loved one recently and want to distract myself on these boards. I may be a jerk about from time to time about peoples opinions but I only wish the best to all of our posters in their personal lives.

 

[Rschmitz]

It's like people thought consistent god like performance and bail outs every game was sustainable and a reasonable expectation.

If you're considered the best in the world at something, shouldn't anything less than meeting those expectations should garner criticism?

Especially with that fat new contract. As long as no one is saying stupid shit like we should trade him, when that happens is when reason should be applied.

 

[RussianGuyovich]

Ok, does living in Tampa make me more qualified to speak about the Lightning than you then?

There's this cool thing called NHL Center Ice which you can use to watch games outside your region, and a million streaming sites. Maybe you have connections within the Nashville organization or something that nobody else is privy to? I definitely wouldn't call our distant thunder less knowledgeable than the rest of our members.

You're the one who brought up Perbix to start with, why did you do so if you didn't think he was relevant? The fact is our RD this year are taking some of the minutes that would have went to Serge, who is taking minutes that would have went to McDonagh. It's a large, dynamic change that has occurred on our blueline and it was never a question as to which individual player could replace McDonagh. Collectively, they are clearly buckling under the added load.

Cole can't hold McDonagh's jock strap. The fact that you've watered his contributions down to what a single player can do shot blocking says everything we need to know about how objective your viewpoint is.

The shots at my love life are why I post less these days. Too many on here can't just talk hockey w/e taking things personal. Maybe I did actually just lose a loved one recently and want to distract myself on these boards. I may be a jerk about from time to time about peoples opinions but I only wish the best to all of our posters in their personal lives.

Appeal to emotions aside, I disagree and I already said why, so I won’t bother repeating it

 

[DFC]

If you're considered the best in the world at something, shouldn't anything less than meeting those expectations should garner criticism?

Especially with that fat new contract. As long as no one is saying stupid shit like we should trade him, when that happens is when reason should be applied.

Yeah, it's like criticizing Kucherov. There are times when he is absolutely a liability. ...That doesn't mean he's not a Top 5 player in the world. Calling out his bad games isn't the same as saying we should get rid of him.

I'm sure some of that kind of thing is going on with Vasy, but for the most part I'm seeing pretty reasonable criticism. He's been fairly average for a while, but still comes up with a monster game now and again. Still arguably the best goalie in the world because it hasn't been that long since he was undeniably the best.

 

[Sky04]

Yeah, it's like criticizing Kucherov. There are times when he is absolutely a liability. ...That doesn't mean he's not a Top 5 player in the world. Calling out his bad games isn't the same as saying we should get rid of him.

I'm sure some of that kind of thing is going on with Vasy, but for the most part I'm seeing pretty reasonable criticism. He's been fairly average for a while, but still comes up with a monster game now and again. Still arguably the best goalie in the world because it hasn't been that long since he was undeniably the best.

Kucherov is free game the moment he stops producing the way he does, even his bad games are the least of our worries because it's made up in others. If he was producing 70 points and playing like this would it be excused? Absolutely not, the same applies to not just Vasi but anyone on this team not meeting their contract value, right now there's probably 5 players playing to standard.

I've always hated goalies getting fat contracts because despite playing all 60mins it's still largely team dependent, as evidenced by the people constantly blaming the things in front of them. If they aren't playing "super god tier mode" then what, you have an average goalie that costs ~10M? Goaltending play is just so variable.

 

[Volodya Krutov]

Ok, this one has me a little be worried. There was some reminiscence of 2016 in that game.

 

[LightningStrikes]

How many of ya'll are still shrugging off the loss of McDonagh?

I know what you’re trying to say but I dunno, man. McD had a couple of awful stretches last season. He was the obvious man out given his age, wear and tear etc. Of course peak McD would make us better but is that where he’s at now? He’d likely underperform like the rest of the team right now.

Would be nicer to see Hedman pull his head out of the sand for example. Yup, I went there. He’s been “meh” at best and supposed to be our #1.

 

[DFC]

I know what you’re trying to say but I dunno, man. McD had a couple of awful stretches last season. He was the obvious man out given his age, wear and tear etc. Of course peak McD would make us better but is that where he’s at now? He’d likely underperform like the rest of the team right now.

Would be nicer to see Hedman pull his head out of the sand for example. Yup, I went there. He’s been “meh” at best and supposed to be our #1.

McDonagh is a year older than Hedman, so Hedman is roughly the same age now as McDonagh was when the issues popped up. I'm more inclined to think McDonagh just had an off-year than he is on a steep decline. I don't think there's any way he wouldn't help the situation we're in right now, even if he weren't on his game. Not really talking about the contract etc. Just, "Do we miss him?" Yeah, I think we do, and we're gonna miss him a lot more in May, assuming we're still playing.

I think most of our players have been pretty "meh," including Vasy. Point's offense has shown up, but this is one of the sloppiest two-way stretches I've ever seen out of him. Stammer was great for 7 games or so. Kucherov has been lazy Kuch and he's also pretty much single-handedly won a couple of games. I think a lot of these guys struggle to get motivated when every single game doesn't have a huge significance. But we're no longer a good enough team to sleep-walk our way to the playoffs.

 

[Rschmitz]

I know what you’re trying to say but I dunno, man. McD had a couple of awful stretches last season. He was the obvious man out given his age, wear and tear etc. Of course peak McD would make us better but is that where he’s at now? He’d likely underperform like the rest of the team right now.

Would be nicer to see Hedman pull his head out of the sand for example. Yup, I went there. He’s been “meh” at best and supposed to be our #1.

Well last year an awful McDonagh took ~70% dzone draws against the other teams toughest competition, including first team SH duties. Despite that, 5v5 the team had a 93.3 SV% with him on the ice and was +15. That is far and away better than anything we were getting at the LD position defensively, and right now would feel like mana from heaven.

The reason he is gone is because of his projected fall off relative to his contract, I get it, that was never an argument. It's hand waving the ripple effect this was going to have on the lineup....and which is currently glaringly evident, that I don't get. Perhaps the reason Hedman needs to "pull his head out of the sand" and the rest of the team is underperforming, is because now they have to take on some of those duties?

 

[RussianGuyovich]

Ah yes. If only mcd was here to tell Hedman to not chase the shooter past the circles.

Save us Ryan mcd you’re our only hope. Haha like that star wars movie. Man I love pop culture.