GDT: 9/25/18 - 7:30PM EDT - Florida vs Tampa Bay [Preseason Game 5]

[DFC]

We seriously blew a 2 goal lead in 1 period against the freaking kitty cats?

Pretty much everybody not on the bubble phoned in the 3rd.

 

[These Are The Days]

Pretty much everybody not on the bubble phoned in the 3rd.

*gag*

Let's hope it stays in preseason

 

[DFC]

*gag*

Let's hope it stays in preseason

It definitely looked like a preseason thing. Hedman seemed to completely lose interest.

Lots of good news from this one. Point was just crazy good early. Looks even faster, shiftier. Cernak was solid and stepped up offensively a little more. Koekkoek looked good.

More positives than negatives for sure.

 

[Steazy Doo]

Teams in the east are salivating at a chance to play us in a four game series right now. If we even make it. We have to right this very very quickly.

 

[These Are The Days]

It definitely looked like a preseason thing. Hedman seemed to completely lose interest.

Lots of good news from this one. Point was just crazy good early. Looks even faster, shiftier. Cernak was solid and stepped up offensively a little more. Koekkoek looked good.

More positives than negatives for sure.

Well that's all you can hope for at this point. I didn't see it but based on what you said it feels like we're going to give Cernak every chance to make the team. Maybe I'm jumping the gun but it feels like if he makes the team long term it will displace Koekkoek. Or he go back to the AHL for optimal playing time -with this scenario latter being far more likely in my opinion. In no particular order or the lineup is Hedman, Stralman, McDonagh, Girardi, Koekkoek, Coburn, Sergachev, Cernak making 8. That feels like a "no more rooms in the inn" situation unless we want to duplicate the 8 D program like we did with Sergachev last year. It just feels highly unlikely that Cernak will stay around just to ride the pine. If he does make the team then well..... let's just say Koekkoek has played 180 AHL games and is probably unlikely to learn anything more after that amount of time in that league.

 

[Stormbreaker]

 

[LightningStrikes]

Cooper already in midseason form

 

[BeingTheThunder]

Cooper already in midseason form

Man, I appreciate his wanting to look at the positives but how many times did we see this team appear to be totally disinterested last year? I remember multiple times against Buffalo and Phoenix... far inferior teams. He needs to take the last 25 minutes and use that as a teaching tool. Don't bury your head in the sand and act like this team should only focus on the positives. That stinks of complacency. Those last 25 minutes are an opportunity for him to actually coach instead of simply riding out one of the most talented rosters in the world.

 

[Hockey4Life91]

Focusing on the bright spots, Pointer looks DANGEROUS! Hope he can stay healthy - if so, I am estimating a 70-75 campaign.

 

[Five Alarm Fire]

Florida games are always a disappointment. That team always plays up to the occasion when we face them.

 

[God King Fudge]

I don't care how bad they phone it in in September, as long as I don't have another year of talking about how they're phoning it in in February and March.

 

[RegularSznAllStars]

Teams in the east are salivating at a chance to play us in a four game series right now. If we even make it. We have to right this very very quickly.

It’s september

 

[CupsOverCash]

Agree. If we are playing poorly early in the season and losing games then Im worried. Preseason is never something you want to overreact to. Good play or bad.

 

[DFC]

Man, I appreciate his wanting to look at the positives but how many times did we see this team appear to be totally disinterested last year? I remember multiple times against Buffalo and Phoenix... far inferior teams. He needs to take the last 25 minutes and use that as a teaching tool. Don't bury your head in the sand and act like this team should only focus on the positives. That stinks of complacency. Those last 25 minutes are an opportunity for him to actually coach instead of simply riding out one of the most talented rosters in the world.

At the same time, it's probably not the smartest thing to go pedal-to-the-metal in pre-season. We went pedal to the metal October-January last year. That's when the nasty habits popped up. So it's not like this team doesn't KNOW how to keep their foot on an opponent's throat. They're just always going to be over-confident. But I don't think the way to correct that is to take the pre-season too seriously. Our vets just need to use it to get their timing back, to be ready for Game 1, same as every other team. Pre-season success isn't correlated at all, so far as I know, to regular season success. If anything, it feels like the opposite holds true.

 

[DFC]

Focusing on the bright spots, Pointer looks DANGEROUS! Hope he can stay healthy - if so, I am estimating a 70-75 campaign.

I think he looked even better than those numbers. Just the raw skills. He was beating guys one-on-one with no issue whatsoever, with both his hands and his feet. It was awe-inspiring. I really hope it holds up in the regular season. But it looks like both his legs and has hands have improved, which is kind of crazy.

 

[Hockey4Life91]

I think he looked even better than those numbers. Just the raw skills. He was beating guys one-on-one with no issue whatsoever, with both his hands and his feet. It was awe-inspiring. I really hope it holds up in the regular season. But it looks like both his legs and has hands have improved, which is kind of crazy.

No argument from me here. Just wanted to keep the projection reasonable. He definitely can put up 80+ points if the stars align and he is able to stay consistent across an entire season, always a hurdle for younger players.

 

[DFC]

No argument from me here. Just wanted to keep the projection reasonable. He definitely can put up 80+ points if the stars align and he is able to stay consistent across an entire season, always a hurdle for younger players.

Point is a rare exception to even that though. He's been remarkably consistent. Even when he's not scoring, he tends to be one of our better players still.

This is a real gem of a player. It almost makes you laugh that we have him.

 

[Rschmitz]

Not his style. Master P is dead on with his comment. That being typed, carrying a player like that as protection of the far more skilled players on either the NHL or AHL roster is not in the plans of development of the talent of this organization.

I think he's our second best 5v5 righty defender, not someone to live in the press box or hide on the bench. 12-15 minutes a game

 

[BeingTheThunder]

Point is a rare exception to even that though. He's been remarkably consistent. Even when he's not scoring, he tends to be one of our better players still.

This is a real gem of a player. It almost makes you laugh that we have him.

Yeah - dude's got some scary talent that seems to be blossoming because he's also got scary hustle.

 

[Steazy Doo]

It’s september

And before you know it we'll be golfing in may.

 

[VoluntaryDom]

And before you know it we'll be golfing in may.

Mans overreacting more than me

 

[Sky04]

Doesn't mean anything yet, but I remember 2 years ago when 95% of you laughed at losing games in October/November. No big deal, "it's only December, January, February etc.. " until oh shit we missed the playoff by 1 point, how embarrassing injuries or not.

Then you guys came in next season preaching about how starting in October/November certainly do matter - look how far it carried us last year, we were pretty much locked into the playoffs before December.

 

[DFC]

Doesn't mean anything yet, but I remember 2 years ago when 95% of you laughed at losing games in October/November. No big deal, "it's only December, January, February etc.. " until oh **** we missed the playoff by 1 point, how embarrassing injuries or not.

Then you guys came in next season preaching about how starting in October/November certainly do matter - look how far it carried us last year, we were pretty much locked into the playoffs before December.

And we started 2013 something like 5-0 or 7-0. It goes both ways. It's hard to win cups.

 

[Steazy Doo]

Doesn't mean anything yet, but I remember 2 years ago when 95% of you laughed at losing games in October/November. No big deal, "it's only December, January, February etc.. " until oh **** we missed the playoff by 1 point, how embarrassing injuries or not.

Then you guys came in next season preaching about how starting in October/November certainly do matter - look how far it carried us last year, we were pretty much locked into the playoffs before December.

yawn

 

[Steazy Doo]

BTW, I was being sarcastic with those posts. Obviously I don't think Septemer matters DOM, get it together!