GDT: 5/13/18 - 8:00PM EDT - #1M Washington VS #1A Tampa Bay [ECF GAME 2]

[DFC]

Our forecheck has a weakness - if you clear it up the walls we'll eat you alive, but if you have someone ready in the middle of the ice the breakout is more effective.

But I still don't think that's exactly what's happening. We're not forcing their Dmen into making quick decisions. Our forecheck has just been too slow.

It looks like they're collapsing so quickly toward their net that they have somebody ready and waiting for our dump in. And they do seem to have somebody in the middle, and he often breaks up our cross-ice passes.

We're not even making it tough on them right now, which is why I think we need to tweak the approach more than we need to do what we always do more effectively.

 

[Stammertime91]

And the broken record keeps on spinning. I'm pretty sure we heard variations on this tune after game 1 as well. Eventually, you run out of opportunities for the cliche lip service.

Yeah I don't buy this. If there's one thing that's a given with the players in this organization it's that talk is cheap. They said the same thing after game 1 and they said it so many times in the 2nd half of the year that it's redundant. They had a day to sit and think about how to perform, how to prepare, to practice and get ready to play better than game 1 and they managed to have a showing of the same or less than game 1. It could've been 6-1 without that gift of a powerplay. Getting blown out in the playoffs doesn't often display the pedigree of a championship team nor does it show heart capable of winning a hockey game. As far as I'm concerned;

Stamkos, Hedman, Sergachev, Coburn and the 4th line (They have their moments tbh but I don't expect much offense from them at all these days) have shown up. That's 4 to 7 guys. About a third of the team showing up in the ECF speaks volumes to the heart of this team. I expected better. Even if we still lose, I expect better. I haven't seen things I saw since pre Boucher days. That was some straight up ass level defending and man to man coverage in our zone. They were structured and smothered us. They made one pass and had a 2v1 or 3v2 damn near every time and the other paint sniffers were coasting back into the zone.

Not even expecting a win at this point so in case we do win a game, I can just raise my eyebrows, give a subtle "yay" and fall back into depression. Got me all excited for nothing.

 

[Bolt 45]

Our forecheck has a weakness - if you clear it up the walls we'll eat you alive, but if you have someone ready in the middle of the ice the breakout is more effective.

But I still don't think that's exactly what's happening. We're not forcing their Dmen into making quick decisions. Our forecheck has just been too slow.

They're stacking at the blueline. They're actively slowing our approach to the puck, and on top of that their D skate well enough to get out of trouble if the extra time bought by clogging the blueline isn't enough. They're also using passes that were clearly designed with our forecheck in mind. I don't know that there's anything we can do to change that.

I'd maybe try abandoning the forecheck altogether and force them to skate or pass through our forwards in the neutral zone, rather than leaving the passing lanes they've been using wide open. Our better chances tend to come from breaking up plays in the neutral zone. If they want to clog, we should clog them right back and turn the rest of the series into a shameful mess of dead puck hockey.

 

[T REX]

So...Cooper is getting abused? Yes?

 

[Todd1a]

So...Cooper is getting abused? Yes?

I tried this fire cooper last year TRex cooper is here to stay in Tampa. Our fans would rather keep the Andy Reid of hockey ! Aka cooper with those eagles teams 4 straight nfc championship appearance and 0 Super bowl wins. All you will here from our fans is if we fire cooper there will be nobody better to hire !? Will mike Sullivan was not a big name hire for the penguins and I think it worked out very well!

 

[LonLon Lei]

 

[gg720fla]

Watch the Vegas and Jets game and you see a good team and coach make adjustments after getting beat the first game. They are playing like a playoff team who isn't falling back into a "woe is me" cry and showing the Jets what they are made of. Even if they lose, they are in the game and battling more than I can say the imposters that are the Lightning have shown.

 

[T REX]

Game 2 was all you needed to know how this series was going down. That was a must win and we got dominated. Coop had no answers. None. Best regular season? Who cares. I hope we set our bar higher next year.

 

[Bolt 45]

Watch the Vegas and Jets game and you see a good team and coach make adjustments after getting beat the first game. They are playing like a playoff team who isn't falling back into a "woe is me" cry and showing the Jets what they are made of. Even if they lose, they are in the game and battling more than I can say the imposters that are the Lightning have shown.

Kind of a different situation for a variety of reasons. That being said, our guys could use some of the chip that Vegas has had on its shoulder all year long. Some of our guys are holding their sticks with outstretched pinkies, and skating around with their noses in the air. Smh.

 

[Flat Ronnie]

Kind of a different situation for a variety of reasons. That being said, our guys could use some of the chip that Vegas has had on its shoulder all year long. Some of our guys are holding their sticks with outstretched pinkies, and skating around with their noses in the air. Smh.

Who are these guys you are talking about?

 

[Bolt 45]

Who are these guys you are talking about?

Mainly the younger guys from the last runs, the Triplets and Killer. They've all looked good at points, but I'm not seeing any of the hunger that they played with in years past.

 

[gg720fla]

With all the great moves Stevie Y has made thru the years, I bet the one that has him shaking his head and kicking himself is letting Marchesault walking away from this team. And to think that he signed Johnson and Killorn instead of him is probably making him sick.

 

[Todd1a]

With all the great moves Stevie Y has made thru the years, I bet the one that has him shaking his head and kicking himself is letting Marchesault walking away from this team. And to think that he signed Johnson and Killorn instead of him is probably making him sick.

Yep and one more year of gourde before he hits FA

 

[Todd1a]

With all the great moves Stevie Y has made thru the years, I bet the one that has him shaking his head and kicking himself is letting Marchesault walking away from this team. And to think that he signed Johnson and Killorn instead of him is probably making him sick.

Losing JAm sucked I wish we could have ditched killorn for him

 

[TeslaCoilFan]

The team seems to have forgotten that defense is more than just the two defensemen on the ice for any given shift. The forwards need to do their part so that the defensemen CAN gap up properly. That being said, yikes, has our blue line been erratic in these first two games!

Hedman – made some great assists in both games along with some wonderfully slick defensive plays in classic Hedmonster mode, but then would make some horrendous passes, got beat by the Caps forwards on occasion (which shocked the heck out of me as he's usually fast enough to keep up with the best of 'em) and ended up shooting even wider at the net than normal.
Strålman – think he’s playing injured as he missed 9:02 minutes of the third period in Game 1, missed Saturday’s practice, then seemed a step or so "off" during Game 2. Seemed to have difficulty getting up after losing an edge behind the net. Had less minutes in Game 2 than normal for every other game in the playoffs where he and McD have been the stalwart 22+ minute crunchers after Heddy's 26+. A couple of times left stranded by his partner but also got beat by Caps forwards on occasion too.
McDonagh – missed his coverage a bunch of times, assisted on at least one Caps goal, made some good defensive plays then would follow it up with a horridly stupid pass. He played pretty badly in both these games. And I was actually starting to praise him a bunch lately.
Girardi – actually hasn’t been too horrible but his minutes are still being managed aside from getting more time when Strålman was out for part of Game 1. Still has good defensive instincts but has gotten burned a few times by the speed of Caps puck carriers.
Coburn – some solid skating and possession and breakouts, but made a couple of ill advised pinches, one of which resulted in a Caps goal.
Sergachev – looking more like a vet than a 19 yr. old rookie at times. Still makes some mistakes and could use more effort in the neutral zone and chasing pucks along walls, but looks like he’s setting in with some confidence.

So how can they fix their woes??

 

[T REX]

I think home teams have a losing record these playoffs.

 

[FinnLightning26]

There is our coach guys no lineup changes at all planned

Why make any changes? It's not like we got destroyed to times in a row at hom... oh..

 

[Bolt 45]

With all the great moves Stevie Y has made thru the years, I bet the one that has him shaking his head and kicking himself is letting Marchesault walking away from this team. And to think that he signed Johnson and Killorn instead of him is probably making him sick.

Yeah, that was one he might like back.

 

[OurlordAndSaviorKuch]

 

[LonLon Lei]

The team seems to have forgotten that defense is more than just the two defensemen on the ice for any given shift. The forwards need to do their part so that the defensemen CAN gap up properly. That being said, yikes, has our blue line been erratic in these first two games!

Hedman – made some great assists in both games along with some wonderfully slick defensive plays in classic Hedmonster mode, but then would make some horrendous passes, got beat by the Caps forwards on occasion (which shocked the heck out of me as he's usually fast enough to keep up with the best of 'em) and ended up shooting even wider at the net than normal.
Strålman – think he’s playing injured as he missed 9:02 minutes of the third period in Game 1, missed Saturday’s practice, then seemed a step or so "off" during Game 2. Seemed to have difficulty getting up after losing an edge behind the net. Had less minutes in Game 2 than normal for every other game in the playoffs where he and McD have been the stalwart 22+ minute crunchers after Heddy's 26+. A couple of times left stranded by his partner but also got beat by Caps forwards on occasion too.
McDonagh – missed his coverage a bunch of times, assisted on at least one Caps goal, made some good defensive plays then would follow it up with a horridly stupid pass. He played pretty badly in both these games. And I was actually starting to praise him a bunch lately.
Girardi – actually hasn’t been too horrible but his minutes are still being managed aside from getting more time when Strålman was out for part of Game 1. Still has good defensive instincts but has gotten burned a few times by the speed of Caps puck carriers.
Coburn – some solid skating and possession and breakouts, but made a couple of ill advised pinches, one of which resulted in a Caps goal.
Sergachev – looking more like a vet than a 19 yr. old rookie at times. Still makes some mistakes and could use more effort in the neutral zone and chasing pucks along walls, but looks like he’s setting in with some confidence.

So how can they fix their woes??

I really hope Strals is OK.
I'd give my 70% of my health for our rest of the playoff run lol.

 

[Herbert Lewis]

Losing JAm sucked I wish we could have ditched killorn for him

Agreed, but hindsight is 20/20.

 

[Todd1a]

Why make any changes? It's not like we got destroyed to times in a row at hom... oh..

Stay the same hope for different results is the cooper approach

 

[Stammertime91]

If the personnel stays the same, I'll be disappointed. If the lines remain the same, I'll be very disappointed. Seriously. Just roll out the triplets, Stamkos, Point and Gourde/Miller and run the rest the same. If Cooper leaves the lines the same who do you call to file a complaint? MySpace message me the number cause I'm gonna flip a table if I see the same lines.

 

[Master P]

If the personnel stays the same, I'll be disappointed. If the lines remain the same, I'll be very disappointed. Seriously. Just roll out the triplets, Stamkos, Point and Gourde/Miller and run the rest the same. If Cooper leaves the lines the same who do you call to file a complaint? MySpace message me the number cause I'm gonna flip a table if I see the same lines.

Buckle up buckaroo!

of course this could just be all talk and he is planning on changing lines but who knows.

 

[Stammertime91]

Buckle up buckaroo!

of course this could just be all talk and he is planning on changing lines but who knows.