GDT: 12/30/23 - 7:00PM EDT - New York Rangers vs Tampa Bay

[T REX]

Cooper lol.

 

[The Gongshow]

This team isn't making playoffs

 

[Stammertime91]

1 for 32
4 for 18

Lol.

 

[Stelio Kontos]

You really can’t be playing ABB and Sheary in the same lineup. One or the other ideally neither but both? My god

 

[Powerplay17]

I think right now the goal is just making the playoffs, not necessarily aiming for the cup. No one can say this a cup contending team, but you hope if you can just make the playoffs, even if you just crawl in there, maybe enough of the right switches are flipped by the right guys and you see how far that can take you. But with Pointer, Kuch, and Vasy in their primes, we'll retool and retool again to give these guys every chance of making the playoffs every year. I just don't see us making the big deadline moves of the past to put us over when we're not even at the top to begin with. Maybe that's good news for holding onto guys like Isaac Howard and Ethan Gauthier.

I get the sentiment. I really do but a lengthy playoff run is highly unlikely. Just my opinion, but this roster needs a thorough cleaning at the deadline. Shed major salaries and look towards next year. If they could get Hanifin and Tanev as UFA’s over the summer then retooling becomes more realistic.

 

[These Are The Days]

Yeah I'm done. I don't care either guys

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Igor's better

 

[Master P]

lol shitsterkin is the new flop king. Takes over for Mike Smith.

 

[Stammertime91]

Vasy putting in more work skating back and forth than those last few shots. Nice work Coop, make sure he stays awake.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

3 game winning streak in November: Chicago, Edmonton, and then imo the best game of the year, a 5-4 OT win against Boston. Followed by an OT loss to Winnipeg, and then a 8-2 blowout vs Carolina. Maybe the sign of turning things around? Nope. Bolts lose the next 3 including a game to the Coyotes at Arizona State, and then an embarrassing 8-1 L to Dallas

Now once again the Bolts are coming off a 3 game winning streak with a big win over Vegas. Now can we ride some momentum? Nope again.

Frustrating. Florida and NY are good teams, and in no way easy games, but it's still 1 step forward and another one back.

 

[Stammertime91]

Krieder has the fakest looking goatee I've ever seen

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

Coop, why? We've had enough pain tonight

 

[Stammertime91]

Coop, why? We've had enough pain tonight

Anybody need a first career goal? Lol

 

[T REX]

I get the sentiment. I really do but a lengthy playoff run is highly unlikely. Just my opinion, but this roster needs a thorough cleaning at the deadline. Shed major salaries and look towards next year. If they could get Hanifin and Tanev as UFA’s over the summer then retooling becomes more realistic.

There's no money...no assets...no picks...the cupboard is bare as bare can be.

JBB-2 Cups mortgaged the future. I mean took out 2nd and 3rd mortgages.

Two cups. That's the rub. Dark days ahead. And not a thing we can do about it. The parts to fix this just aren't there...it's gonna be a hard and fast fall from grace. Vasy is way overpaid.

 

[Powerplay17]

Disagree. We are entering the struggle phase of Washington and Pittsburgh, aka first round exits.

"Can the Tampa core pull it off?" Will be our narrative until we hit lightning in a bottle for the 91 and 77 retirement tour. We are at the point where changes are needed before it gets worse, we, missing playoffs. This team has very little depth thats needed to play complete games and win high stake games. I have zero confidence in our bottom six and defense come playoffs. I don't think rentals put us in a contending position this year. Seeing too many problems with this group.

There's no money...no assets...no picks...the cupboard is bare as bare can be.

JBB-2 Cups mortgaged the future. I mean took out 2nd and 3rd mortgages.

Two cups. That's the rub. Dark days ahead. And not a thing we can do about it. The parts to fix this just aren't there...it's gonna be a hard and fast fall from grace. Vasy is way overpaid.

All correct points and unless JBB is willing to make hard decisions the needle will continue to point downward.

 

[Brie]

Of course there is a hatty against us...just make things better.

 

[The Gongshow]

All correct points and unless JBB is willing to make hard decisions the needle will continue to point downward.

JBB is a fraud

At this point we're missing playoffs and missing out on a draft, the only way I'll call this season a success is if Blashill is fired and JBB is fired

 

[JTBF81]

I get the sentiment. I really do but a lengthy playoff run is highly unlikely. Just my opinion, but this roster needs a thorough cleaning at the deadline. Shed major salaries and look towards next year. If they could get Hanifin and Tanev as UFA’s over the summer then retooling becomes more realistic.

No thanks to overpaying a 35 year old Tanev, and there will be no room for Hanifin and his large number when they already have Hedman and Serg on the left. None of Cirelli, Serg, Hagel or Cernak are going anywhere, so unless they move Stamkos or let him walk, they can't afford a.big name ufa this summer.

 

[Bozo Nicholson]

JBB is a fraud

At this point we're missing playoffs and missing out on a draft, the only way I'll call this season a success is if Blashill is fired and JBB is fired

Stevie was the puppet master.

 

[Stammertime91]

The only move worth exploring is around Cirelli. We have Point, Paul and Stamkos to play center in the top 9. That's good enough. That 6M is huge to get a true winger capable of playing with one of them or more importantly, a RD.

 

[The Gongshow]

No thanks to overpaying a 35 year old Tanev, and there will be no room for Hanifin and his large number when they already have Hedman and Serg on the left. None of Cirelli, Serg, Hagel or Cernak are going anywhere, so unless they move Stamkos or let him walk, they can't afford a.big name ufa this summer.

Problem is they've tried the plug and play dman a few times now and it's not working. They need a legit dman. They can only afford old, useless players with their lack of cap so Cirelli and some of the mid contracts have to go. Cap is needed to sign an actually NHL player that can make an impact. A shake uo needs to be made

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

I get the sentiment. I really do but a lengthy playoff run is highly unlikely. Just my opinion, but this roster needs a thorough cleaning at the deadline. Shed major salaries and look towards next year. If they could get Hanifin and Tanev as UFA’s over the summer then retooling becomes more realistic.

Part of what helped the 2020 team was just getting lucky. I'm not taking anything away from JBB making the deals, but look at something like Koekkoek for Jan Rutta, who at the time was a nobody. Or picking up Luke Schenn, who had spent half of the previous season in the AHL trying to resurrect his career. Shattenkirk was a buyout looking for a place to help his career. Pat Maroon thought St. Louis would find a way to squeeze him in and then was stuck without a team in late August when most the league had finished their summer signings. You could even add in Bogo, who because his contract termination cost us nothing to aquire or sign him.

There's 5 solid cup contributors right there that come in nice and cheap. Not all of them pegged for big things, but it just eneded up working in our favor. We're a team with no cap space right now and we could really use some magical signings like those. You roll the dice on some guys and while those ended up working unfortunately some of the ones lately haven't.

 

[T REX]

Problem is they've tried the plug and play dman a few times now and it's not working. They need a legit dman. They can only afford old, useless players with their lack of cap so Cirelli and some of the mid contracts have to go. Cap is needed to sign an actually NHL player that can make an impact. A shake uo needs to be made

There aren't any moves that make us stronger. You have to trade impact pieces for impact pieces. The cap makes it a zero sum game. JBB is a victim of his own successes. Hindsight is 20/20. Covid probably screwed up his long term plan(though the Jeannot trade and signing was post covid - and what a crappy trade). Crap is always going to happen. JBB seems to be in over his head at this point.

 

[Ducati Boy]

1 for 32
4 for 18

Lol.

This is the thing. We’ve had more chances but we can’t finish. Vasi gets outtended 2 out of 3 games.

 

[JTBF81]

There's no money...no assets...no picks...the cupboard is bare as bare can be.

JBB-2 Cups mortgaged the future. I mean took out 2nd and 3rd mortgages.

Two cups. That's the rub. Dark days ahead. And not a thing we can do about it. The parts to fix this just aren't there...it's gonna be a hard and fast fall from grace. Vasy is way overpaid.

Until the Jeannot trade, he really hadn't "mortgaged the future" that badly for a team with a win now mindset. None of the 1sts moved in the Coleman. Goodrow or even Hagel deals were going to help this team win a Cup with this core, and all 3 trades proved successful. The Savard trade was a little weaker but still helped bolster the defense, even if it was a straight rental. The Jeannot trade is the only one that looks bad, and mainly because those picks could've likely been used to acquire more needed assets. Some of the contracts are too high, but in 2 years and beyond, there's a decent chance they look much better with a significantly higher cap. I wish they would've kept Colton or signed another ufa over Sheary(and never acquired Jeannot, usibg that money towards a dman), but JBB isn't perfect. It's far from dark days ahead, especially in another year or two when they will have the cap space flexibility(not to mention the likely emergence of a few talented elc's on the way) to be very strong again.