GDT: 11/28/15 - 7:00PM EDT - New York Islanders VS Tampa Bay

[These Are The Days]

Callahan has officially gone 11 games without a goal
Kucherov has scored once in the last 10 games
Namestnikov has 2 shots in his last 6 games including tonight
Marchessault shanked 2 golden opportunities for goals

Drouin hasn't played in 2 weeks
Johnson is not back yet
Palat will still be out another week at least.

In other words back off Stamkos, guys. He played fine and wasn't the problem tonight. Only one good pass hit his tape on the PP all night long. His line kicked total ass.

Everyone cries out, "Look at what Crosby does! Look at what Ovechkin does! Look at what Malkin does! Why can't Stamkos do that?"

People.... NHL universe left Ovechkin for dead about 4 or 5 years ago and now we have a 3 part thread on why Crosby isn't Crosby. Not to mention people leaving Malkin for dead.

Our team is depleted and what we DO have left is crap... the landscape of the NHL is rapidly changing and a top 6 filled with career 2 way forwards and fringe NHLer's isn't gonna get it done.

 

[Todd1a]

Just bad puck luck is all don't worry guys

 

[FinnLightning26]

Callahan has officially gone 11 games without a goal
Kucherov has scored once in the last 10 games
Namestnikov has 2 shots in his last 6 games including tonight
Marchessault shanked 2 golden opportunities for goals

Drouin hasn't played in 2 weeks
Johnson is not back yet
Palat will still be out another week at least.

In other words back off Stamkos, guys. He played fine and wasn't the problem tonight. Only one good pass hit his tape on the PP all night long. His line kicked total ass.

Everyone cries out, "Look at what Crosby does! Look at what Ovechkin does! Look at what Malkin does! Why can't Stamkos do that?"

People.... NHL universe left Ovechkin for dead about 4 or 5 years ago and now we have a 3 part thread on why Crosby isn't Crosby. Not to mention people leaving Malkin for dead.

Our team is depleted and what we DO have left is crap... the landscape of the NHL is rapidly changing and a top 6 filled with career 2 way forwards and fringe NHLer's isn't gonna get it done.

I'll bet you whatever money I have that Stamkos won't be on this team if we do miss the playoffs. The fall would be almost unprecedented. It's a complete ****ing joke this team isn't a top team. You can bring up the injuries all you want but we were **** even when we had everyone healthy.

 

[Stammertime91]

Nights like these, I feel like rooting for the panthers.


Then I remember that even on nights like these, we are still better than them.

Silver lining?

 

[dechire]

29 years old, 14 points, 22 games

25 years old, 17 points, 24 games

I'm not sure that Crosby's bad start is really the excuse you want to use for Stamkos' bad 2 years. Only one of them was PPG last year and it wasn't the guy smack in the middle of his prime.

 

[The Gongshow]

Put TKO back together once their all healthy and pray to the hockey gods they can carry this team like they did last year. Its literally our last and only chance.

Paq is a big part of the PK and brings some scoring and energy to the 3rd or 4th.
Drouin makes any line he is on deadly and has been one of the more consistent players
Palat is underrated but really does a lot of the dirty work on which line he's on and sets up the plays
Johnson has been struggling but if he can get going he's a game changer.

Bishop and Hedman have been beauties. Bish lets in a softie every game but has still been lights out. I don't blame him for the 2nd goal, thats on Coburn and Ben didn't expect Coburn to loose the puck right infront of him.

 

[Todd1a]

I starting to think does cooper get fired if we lose all our games on this road trip ?

 

[Boltsppy]

Shouldn't we start watching top prospects of this year's draft? It seems we'll get one of them

 

[Stammertime91]

I'll bet you whatever money I have that Stamkos won't be on this team if we do miss the playoffs. The fall would be almost unprecedented. It's a complete ****ing joke this team isn't a top team. You can bring up the injuries all you want but we were **** even when we had everyone healthy.

Right on. I guess everyone forgets even when the triplets were together and Johnson was playing, we played like sheet.

Healthy or not, this teams goal scoring is nonexistent. We have dice the onion defenseman that are poor offensively, not one in the 7 we use can run a pp. Only team in the league? Probably. Our forwards basically skate like public skates, cruise around, slap it around the boards, flick it to the jumbotron expecting a puck retrieval when the closest guy is stomping in place at pur blue line, trudging through mud. It's mind boggling these guys are playing this bad.

They played better tonight, PP killed em. Simple as that. We aren't good enough 5v5 like last year or 2011 Bruins to survive without one, not happening.

 

[Todd1a]

Shouldn't we start watching top prospects of this year's draft? It seems we'll get one of them

What's the point what did we do with drouin play him on our 4th line

 

[FinnLightning26]

I starting to think does cooper get fired if we lose all our games on this road trip ?

He won't get fired now. The second we miss the playoffs he should be out the door though. I don't care what he has done in the past but if this season is lost he should be canned.

 

[The Gongshow]

What's the point what did we do with drouin play him on our 4th line

Yeah with Coop prospects won't even want to play let alone get the chance to play for Tampa.

 

[Stammertime91]

What's the point what did we do with drouin play him on our 4th line

Brought depth....

/sarcasm

 

[Brie]

Put TKO back together once their all healthy and pray to the hockey gods they can carry this team like they did last year. Its literally our last and only chance.

Paq is a big part of the PK and brings some scoring and energy to the 3rd or 4th.
Drouin makes any line he is on deadly and has been one of the more consistent players
Palat is underrated but really does a lot of the dirty work on which line he's on and sets up the plays
Johnson has been struggling but if he can get going he's a game changer.

Bishop and Hedman have been beauties. Bish lets in a softie every game but has still been lights out. I don't blame him for the 2nd goal, thats on Coburn and Ben didn't expect Coburn to loose the puck right infront of him.

I'm actually all for giving them another try, Kuch is playing 100 times better now than he did at the start of the season and Johnson was looking good in the Kings game and if he and Palat can come back 100% healthy I'm sure you'll see two players that will be hungry and ready to go so it's worth a try to see if we can get them back to how they were.

 

[Hoek]

Nights like these, I feel like rooting for the panthers.


Then I remember that even on nights like these, we are still better than them.

Silver lining?

Not head to head so far this season.

 

[Brie]

...and then they faced us and their stats started looking better.



Just sad.

 

[Stammertime91]

Not head to head so far this season.

1 cup to 0 was more of the case I was making.


But thank you bad news Hoek.

 

[The Gongshow]

Nights like these, I feel like rooting for the panthers.


Then I remember that even on nights like these, we are still better than them.

Silver lining?

Not by much... theres a really good chance we loose the most important prize of them all this year.... The Governors Cup

 

[Hoek]

1 cup to 0 was more of the case I was making.


But thank you bad news Hoek.

You're welcome.

Blame this team for thoroughly eroding my optimism.

 

[These Are The Days]

Do you fire your baseball manager when your aces are losing every night despite only giving up 2 runs a game while your leadoff (Drouin), cleanup hitter (Johnson) and #5 hitter (Palat) are all out with injuries and you can't score a run to save your life?

I've been a Rays fan since 2009 and watched a team that couldn't score more than 2 runs a game fully healthy and meanwhile Joe Maddon has won his 3 MOTY and this time in the NL. It's made me needlessly patient in a situation like this.

I'm the most vocal coach killer you will EVER see and even though I wanna break Cooper's neck about the PP and PK, I'm not gonna blame him while all the "go" pieces of the offense sit on the injured reserve another week. We can't score 5 on 5 to save our life!

I'm getting pissed too but it's more directed at our unwillingness to shuffle a struggling roster that's going to experience turnover anyway in an effort to salvage the season.

 

[Cigar City]

If Engblom was really chose over Kevin Weekes, multiple people need to be fired.

 

[Steazy Doo]

I'm not pissed at as much at Cooper as most on here, I'll admit it, but something's gotta give. I get that we're missing some important pieces, but still, you can tell something is wrong in the way we play.

Condra was a heart and soul type guy in Ottawa, always counted on to make the right play. Don't know what happened to him over the summer, but he's not that type of guy here.

Callahan is on decline in his career, but you could at least count on the effort from him if you weren't getting the offense. We barely get either these days.

Boyle; another guy you could count on to make the right play. Nevermind, that was last year. This year you can count on a lazy clear attempt every game to go along with his stupid penalties.

People blaming Stamkos right now are laughable, especially the garbage spewed by a certain poster who I shall not name on the account of getting an infraction for calling a spade a spade. He IS our offence right now with the triplets out. Is he showing he's a 10 million plus player? **** no, but I will confidently say he's been our best forward this year. That isn't saying much, but it's true.

 

[BoltSTH]

wish the Lightning was like Amazon and I could get a refund on my Season Tickets for getting a defective product, not as described.

 

[2MinutesforGiraffing]

Can we at least fire Lauer that PP coach who wasn't so good to start? Because converting on 1/4 of our PPs would have made a difference.

But maybe that's just the rum talking.

 

[MattM92]

Having functional special teams would go a long way to fixing this team.

0/4 on our PP. Isles went 2/3. There's the game right there.

I don't understand our PK at all. You seem most teams are so aggressive on the PK. The forwards will skate out and pressure the pointmen and the puck carrier along the half wall, but we don't do that. We stay back in a diamond shell. Fine, keep everything to the outside and keep the slot and crease clear. Nope, we allow cutters and crashers unhindered access to whatever spot they want. If you're going to go into a shell, you HAVE to keep everything outside! You can't give them the time and space to do whatever they want!

Everyone on this team just doesn't want to get their nose a little dirty and play some ****ing hockey.