The last powerplay was embarrassing. Vermette standing still, wondering when the puck was going to enter the zone. Ribeiro skating sideways, with no particular sense of purpose.
The problem isn't the first part -- "standing still" and "skating sideways" -- it's the second part -- "wondering" and "no particular sense of purpose."
I don't want Ribeiro and Yandle on the same powerplay unit anymore. Give Yandle the first group, with maybe Doan, Hanzal and OEL, and give Ribeiro the second, with Boedker and Vrbata. Put a sprinter (swear to God, I'm fine with Bissonnette and MacMillan here) on each unit to be the terrier and lead the forecheck. Flip the puck in the zone and then go chase it like madmen.
Beyond that, I want dumber players and dumber coaches. Paul Maurice's fairly-anonymous team took us to school the other night, and Ken Hitchcock's better-but-no-superstars team did it tonight.
And I want to know why this team divvies up ice time the way it does.
Some of tonight's totals:
Doan ... 22:12 (6:10 / 6:47 / 9:15)
Vrbata ... 18:49 (6:22 / 5:29 / 6:58)
Korpikoski ... 16:18 (4:54 / 5:51 / 5:33)
Bissonnette ... 4:58 (2:36 / 1:56 / 0:26)
Doan is a warrior, nobody doubts that. Bissonnette isn't a 30 goal scorer, nobody doubts that. But especially after the good shifts they skated in the first two periods, I can't understand why the bottom 6 guys never get to play late in the game.
Paul Bissonnette's post-game comments said:
It’s upsetting & frustrating, especially when we played so well for 40...We just had to keep making predictable plays, stay on the puck…We got away from that…a recipe for disaster."
Hmm ... anybody on the team capable of making simple, predictable plays?
I'm off to the roster thread about this, but not before I try to talk some sense into AP and rabbit ...
Makes we wish we has traded for Jeff Carter over Vermette instead.
How would THAT help?
THAT, on the other hand ...
If Maloney is smart he grabs us a player tomorrow before our next game. Who cares if you give up a first. Your goal is to make the playoffs every year.
Wrong. Maloney's goal is to manage the short- and long-term health of the pool of players available to the franchise and to field a team for Tippett to coach. Making the playoffs every year isn't exactly either of their jobs, but it more closely resembles Tipp's.
I'm so sick of these little trivial moves bringing us a "depth player." This entire team is full of DEPTH players.
Ribeiro, Hanzal, Vermette, Doan, Vrbata and sometimes Boedker and Korpi are good players. That's 7 forwards. Halpern, Klink, Chip, Moss, Biz and McMillan (and Kennedy) are depth players. The ratio there seems pretty reasonable. There's a case to be made that our good players aren't as good as other teams' good players (true statement) and that our depth players aren't as impactful as other teams' depth players (I'd agree but there's room to argue), but we are one 25-30 goal winger away from everyone shutting up about this.
We need a game changer. Someone who we can rely on to score near a point per game average. Look at the last 10 Cup winning teams, each one of them has at least ONE (if not quite a few) players who have the ability to score 30 or more goals a season.
We don't have that, and we haven't in YEARS. We maximized this team's potential in 2012. A team full of 2nd line players will not make it to the Finals. Enough of this Moneyball ****. Your system is not working Don.
Here's a list of guys who qualify ... stop me when we get to the guy you want, and let me know your plan to get him:
Crosby, Kessel, Getzlaf, Tavares, Ovechkin, Kane, Perry, Okposo, Giroux, St Louis, Sharp, Malkin, Backstrom, Pavelski, Thornton, Toews, Seguin, Hall, Karlsson, Kunitz, Marleau, Duchene, Benn, Vanek ... and we get the point. You act like point-per-game players are out there like Alaskan gold in 1895, just laying on the ground to be picked up. There are a lot of teams in the league who don't think they have enough Milan Lucics and enough Jamie Benns.
