This team is fine right now they’re just getting terrible goaltending, and suffering from the COVID pause throwing off their mojo like it did last time.
It seems physically impossible for this team to win a game without Grubauer in net. Dubnyk and JJ can’t stop anything. That 4th goal Dubnyk gave up was just atrocious. I’ve never seen goaltender move that slowly to make a save.
I’m also getting pretty annoyed seeing multiple interviews with Dubnyk claiming he doesn’t need to do anything to prepare for games, because he’s played a lot of hockey in his life, just for him to give up early goals every game and look like complete shit early on.
The defense has been pretty bad lately too, that’s another big problem lately. Girard and Toews have been off their game for a while now. G making lots of careless turnovers and Toews just hasn’t been as aware as he usually is defensively.
Nemeth-Timmins has been a train wreck too. Just a really big liability on most of their shifts. TImmins with tons of turnovers and terrible positioning and the same with Nemeth, who I expected to play a lot better than he has.
I’d also really love for Kadri to quite diving and embellishing all the time. It’s really been pissing me off, because he constantly just gives up on a puck battle to flop to the ice or throw his head back on plays that aren’t penalties. If he would keep playing he’d win more battles and help the team a lot more when he’s not scoring.
This team should be fine if Grubauer comes back and plays well, but if that long break plus getting COVID throws off his game, I’m not sure this team can beat anyone.
The biggest problem with the PK by far is goaltending. If they get Grubauer back and he plays like he has this year, I think the PK will be fine.
Aside from that, Nemeth and Toews struggling lately, especially on the PK has been the next biggest issue IMO.
On the PP I think the issue is MacKinnon. He's been having Rantanen like games where he hasn't really been playing that well, but will then have a dominant shift here or there, or find a way to pot a goal.
He really hasn't been playing that well though. He's in that mode where if a play doesn't go the right way, or if someone doesn't pass to him, he throws his head back, pouts a little, and saunters off the ice slowly.
His zone entries haven't been as clean as they usually are, and he's been making too many careless passes as well.
Losing the puck twice in a row in the corner to ROR that gave the Blues their first goal which sparked the come back the other day. Or the 2-0 goal in the next game where he sent a soft, blind backhand pass to nobody that kept the puck in the zone for Schenn to score. Or the back breaking 4-1 goal in that game that came after he tried to casually skate out of the D zone with the puck, allowing Pietrangelo to easily poke it off his stick to hold it in the zone and score.
At times he looks like he thinks he's in a massive funk, but he's got a 14 game point streak. He just needs to stay focused and play hard the whole game. He hasn't been doing that. He's been taking shifts off and he was completely outworked by ROR two games in a row.
Just like the team in general, the PP runs through MacKinnon, and if he's on his game, the PP is clicking. If he's off, it's not clicking.
First off, excellent posts.
I want to reply to a few things.
I think we can win with JJ. He's not great, but the man had a shutout not too long ago.
I also agree that Avs media has been wayyyy overhyping Dubnyk. I think they just love that he'll speak openly, but watching what he says off the ice would come across very different if he were winning. Playing the way he is and watching him talk, I get the impression that he doesn't really care.
G and Toews need a break. I think we're just seeing the effects of how much they've played. It's like when a player comes in from College only being used to a college season - they start out strong but their play peters out towards the end of the year. Neither Girard or Toews have had to deal with these kind of minutes before. I think they're worn out and I'm not sure it's going to improve.
Nemeth-Timmins has indeed been bad, but I put that on Nemeth. I thought Timmins has been playing quite well, but in the defensive zone Nemeth is all over the place, which is throwing off Timmins. I watched a play in the last game where Nemeth inexplicably moved over to cover a guy on the right side, even though Timmins was already on that side. It forced Timmins to shift to the left and put him out of position. I think with the ways he's currently playing, if you put Timmins with a steady partner who didn't handle the puck like a grenade, he'd be much better.
Thank you! I'm so glad to see someone else say this about Kadri. Enough with the f***ing diving. I think I know his thought process - I'm not scoring, so I need to find a way to help the team. I'm not good enough defensively to be like Donskoi and still contribute without scoring, but I sure can try to draw penalties hurr durr. I'm not happy if we win a game by cheating. It sours the victory. I'm just glad the refs know Kadri's reputation and usually don't buy his bullshit.
As for MacKinnon, I think he agrees with a lot of posters here when they say "why the f*** are Compher and Kadri out there?". We all know he get frustrated when other players don't/can't play to his level, but I don't think it has anything to do with his point streak. I don't think he even cares about his point streak. I think he hates it when the team doesn't play well, and hates it even more when the team loses. He's the kind of player who thinks that his line should score every time they are on the ice, and that becomes extra true on the power play. And when it doesn't happen, and it's clearly someone's else's fault, he gets mad at them. I agree with you though he needs to focus on his own game.