GDT: [#45] Dallas Stars at Philadelphia Flyers, 6:00 PM CST (FS-SW)

[serp]

They had more shot but thats irrelevant with how many odd man rushes the Stars gave up

 

[Kalamazoo Wings]

Oh well, no depth scoring, lots of passengers doing FA as usual. Nice game ****ers

 

[Henderson33]

The game shouldn't have even been close.

Despite what Josh and Razor would have you believe.

 

[Kcb12345]

No need to worry, according to Nill this is the best depth we've ever had

 

[Kalamazoo Wings]

It could always be worse, we could be Oiler fans

 

[Kcb12345]

It could always be worse, we could be Oiler fans

At least they get to watch McDavid every night

 

[MBTendy]

Ugly loss but we are still sitting 3rd in the division. The boys were 5-1-1 prior to this game. Move on and hope they can answer back with a dub next game

 

[Kcb12345]

Well one positive thing, I thought this was easily Honka's best game offensively this season. Working that trade value up a little

Nice of us to snap the Flyers 8 game losing streak

 

[ItsBennGreat]

we are good at breaking streaks.

 

[Satan]

"streaks"

 

[M88K]

Well one positive thing, I thought this was easily Honka's best game offensively this season. Working that trade value up a little

Nice of us to snap the Flyers 8 game losing streak

No worries he'll be a HS next game

 

[Satan]

 

[Zapp]

I'd trade Benn and Bishop for Panarin and Bobrovsky in a heartbeat.

 

[Kalamazoo Wings]

And I'd trade Valeri for Bogdan Kiselevich in an instant.

 

[Kcb12345]

Our depth, everyone:

"Valeri Nichushkin hasn't scored all season. Devin Shore is goal-less in his last 25 games. Radek Faksa has one goal in the last 11 games. Mattias Janmark has two goals in the last 36 games. Blake Comeau has one goal in the last 14 games. Jason Spezza has scored once in the last 17 games. Jason Dickinson and Martin Hanzal are hurt. Tyler Pitlick recently had a three-game goal streak but endured a 16-game goal drought that included a pair of healthy scratches."

On top of this Erik Condra hasn't produced anything at all and Roope Hintz hasn't scored in 13 games. Heck throw Gurianov with 1 goal in 11 games in there too.

How's that for the best depth we've had, Nill?

 

[Frozen Failure]

So conservative it hurts.

I like how they played better when Jamie Benn was out of the lineup.

 

[serp]

I'd trade Benn and Bishop for Panarin and Bobrovsky in a heartbeat.

I want no part of Bobrovsky or his new contract he supposedly wants. Bishop is fine more than fine actually. Also i guarantee Benn vetoes any trade to Columbus in a heartbeat.

 

[Zapp]

I want no part of Bobrovsky or his new contract he supposedly wants. Bishop is fine more than fine actually. Also i guarantee Benn vetoes any trade to Columbus in a heartbeat.

Lol why would you guarantee something that like when you have no proof.

 

[serp]

Lol why would you guarantee something that like when you have no proof.

If you think Jamie Benn would play for John Tortorella you're crazy. Moving a playing with a full NMC without resulting in a massive loss of value is almost impossible. Remember when we couldn't trade Richards because his new team would've given up too many assets for him ? Why do you think Benn would accept a trade that doesn't benefit him personally ? Players wants NMC for a reason. They want to be in charge where they move and for what.

If you move a contract like that you have to sit down with the player and hope he plays ball because you sure as hell can't force him to.

 

[Blindsummit]

Our depth, everyone:

"Valeri Nichushkin hasn't scored all season. Devin Shore is goal-less in his last 25 games. Radek Faksa has one goal in the last 11 games. Mattias Janmark has two goals in the last 36 games. Blake Comeau has one goal in the last 14 games. Jason Spezza has scored once in the last 17 games. Jason Dickinson and Martin Hanzal are hurt. Tyler Pitlick recently had a three-game goal streak but endured a 16-game goal drought that included a pair of healthy scratches."

On top of this Erik Condra hasn't produced anything at all and Roope Hintz hasn't scored in 13 games. Heck throw Gurianov with 1 goal in 11 games in there too.

How's that for the best depth we've had, Nill?

This makes me very sad.......

 

[Azzuri]

Was at the game behind the bench tonight. Had a good view of the boys. Some thoughts:

• Honka had a great game, needs to keep that up. Was one of the only players who could make a tape to tape pass tonight.
• Spezza and Monty talk a lot. Much more than him and the other players. You can tell Spezza is really thinking the game at a level others aren't. He's going to coach one day, no doubt.
• Monty looks perpetually frustrated at this point in the season. His body language and demeanor are one of constant disappointment.
• Klingberg and Jamie were incredibly frustrated with themselves this game. Lots of sticks were punished post-shifts.
• This team never uses the stretch pass to generate offense or get through the neutral zone. Maybe they're too bent on breaking out as a team or supporting each other down low. Makes for good defending but stifles the breakout and creativity, leading to a ton of of dump ins (which Monty doesn't seem to mind according to Sean's recap). Feels very Hitch-esque.
• When was the last time we generated something on the rush? I feel like above is because of that. Think back to Ruff's systems which offense was ENTIRELY generated on the rush. Probably because they hung a forward or two high in the zone for speed breakouts? We could use a little bit of flexibility in this regard. If the gameplan isn't working, have a rush strategy.

I haven't wanted to buy into the coaching aspect of this team's mediocrity since that's an easy scapegoat, but it is starting to fee like this team doesn't have a good breakout strategy or good way to generate offense if down some goals through systems play. They could use a few set stretch pass plays or something to get some rush offense going. We don't cycle extremely well and I wonder why we never score off the rush anymore. That's systems.

At the same time, we defend the rush extremely well and defend the front of the net well (usually). So that's a good system approach. Just feels like we're still waiting for that hybrid between Ruff/Hitch hockey we were promised.

 

[serp]

Yeah its starting the feel alot like the offensive system is trash. Way too much dumping the puck . Hell they're dumping the puck when we have no goalie in net which quite a few times instantly allow the opponent to just seal the game with an empty netter. The breakouts are also terrible. Some of the faster players like Janmark , Hintz or Gurianov ( when he was up ) even go ahead streaking to recive stretch passes that quite frankly never come anymore.

I have no idea if this is Montys fault or if its still Hitch thats still in the system but something is wrong with the offense.

The just play around and behind the net and on the perimeter in general forever mostly not generating anything remotely dangerous.

Today was the prime example of that. Yeah Stars had more possesion and shots but how many of those shots actually had a chance to beat a halfdecent goalie ? Almost none.

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

Monty mentioned that the dump ins and icings seemed to be habit with this team, meaning he has decided it is better to work with how they play rather than perhaps risk losing a few games trying to reinforce his system. Coaching what you have is generally viewed as better than trying to mold the players you have to a game that doesn't fit them, no?

Shapiro also mentioned the difficulty of overcoming the "culture of losing" that this club has developed over the last ten years. True enough.

That said, Lindy managed it for a year at least - both in winning and playing up tempo, offensive hockey. Then, he fell back. I wonder what Lindy's system with our current, improved D corps might look like? And, Sean mentioned what all of us wonder about - is it possible to create a winning culture with a roster (leadership wise) of players who have the losing culture so ingrained? Sad to say, it might be looking like that.

It might require a total blow up, assuming some NTC will be moved. Even so, in third place despite a road heavy schedule means TG and JN will think we are close enough to good with tweaks, and it probably won't happen. I doubt we could sell tickets if we were Buffalo bad for a few years, even if the long run would be better. Also, there would be no guarantees that we would win the cup after a rebuild. There never are.

So, I expect TG and JN will acquire a scoring winger at the TDL, at the expense of the future, because, there are enough playoff Cinderella stories to justify getting in with a lower seed.

 

[Troy McClure]

Lindy also had a faster forward group. It's easier to play run and gun when even your depth guys like Fiddler, Garbutt, and Roussel are really fast.

 

[FirstRowUpperDeck]

Which only highlights the folly of TG getting involved and deciding to hire Hitch, and then the acquisition of Hanzel in the big, slow guy mode Hitch favored.

A wasted year, unless you figure Hitch teaching them some D sticks around, which it appears it has. And a departure from adapting to the "new" NHL.