GDT: Carolina @ Dallas 8:30 EST

[CandyCanes]

Is that a hat trick on hat night lol?

 

[hurricure]

Get those skates sharpened for next game gardner

 

[LostInaLostWorld]

Bring Bean up. Sit Gard.

 

[hurricure]

Haha another f***ing dive... refs are pathetic

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

All we are I am saying is give peace Bean a chance.

 

[Canes]

Team needs to add some sort of offense whether it's a forward or D. Scratch Nino and Staal for a game or two.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Bring Bean up. Sit Gard.

I wish but Rod won’t do that. Guys either start with the team or they will be emergency call ups and play 8 minutes a night.

 

[spockBokk]

All we are I am saying is give peace Bean a chance.

At this point bring up a forward too for a spark, both Geekie and Gauthier along with Bean are on fire.

 

[HisIceness]

This franchise has a grand total of 2 wins ever in Dallas. lol

Actually make that 3, the Whalers won at Reunion Arena in 1996.

 

[sctvman]

 

[GoldiFox]

With secondary scoring problems and TVR on the top pair and goalie consistency problems (although not on Mrazek tonight) I'd hesitate to try and fix anything with trades. Stick to call-ups. Too many problems to put bandaids on.

 

[HisIceness]

Clearly that come from behind victory on Saturday did not pay off tonight.

 

[My Special Purpose]

Players like Dzingel and Haula tend to produce better when the puck is moving with purpose rather than being flung around haphazardly or shot unscreened into the logo.

Oh give me a break. The excuses are nauseating. These are pro athletes and they're just cashing checks right now. Yeah, we're down a big d-man who moves the puck well, Haula-Dzingel-Necas didn't play with Hamilton a lot anyway. They simply *have* to be better. Staal has to be better. McGinn has to be better. Wallmark has to be better. Niederreiter has to be better. Gardiner and Edmundson have to be better.

This isn't all about injuries or systems. Guys aren't putting in the effort and it can't be accepted and we can't be making excuses. Losers make excuses. Winners find ways to power through injury issues. Look at Pittsburgh, Colorado and others. We need guys to step up and they're not. Period.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

With secondary scoring problems and TVR on the top pair and goalie consistency problems (although not on Mrazek tonight) I'd hesitate to try and fix anything with trades. Stick to call-ups. Too many problems to put bandaids on.

Completely agree. One caveat would be a RHD that we were interested in targeting in UFA.

 

[SvechneJerk]

With secondary scoring problems and TVR on the top pair and goalie consistency problems (although not on Mrazek tonight) I'd hesitate to try and fix anything with trades. Stick to call-ups. Too many problems to put bandaids on.

Agree 100%.

Why spend valuable assets when you might already have some answers in the system? I mean, other teams do it, right?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Oh give me a break. The excuses are nauseating. These are pro athletes and they're just cashing checks right now. Yeah, we're down a big d-man who moves the puck well, Haula-Dzingel-Necas didn't play with Hamilton a lot anyway. They simply *have* to be better. Staal has to be better. McGinn has to be better. Wallmark has to be better. Niederreiter has to be better. Gardiner and Edmundson have to be better.

This isn't all about injuries or systems. Guys aren't putting in the effort and it can't be accepted and we can't be making excuses. Losers make excuses. Winners find ways to power through injury issues. Look at Pittsburgh, Colorado and others. We need guys to step up and they're not. Period.

FFS, it’s not an “excuse” to point out a fundamental principle of the game.

We lost Dougie Hamilton and are getting the worst of Gardiner. Look at our defensemen after that and tell me which one of them you want leading your breakouts.

If your D can’t handle the puck you will not produce offensively. Period, end of story, this is how the game of hockey works. Dzingel can be playing like rotten swamp ass, and won’t come anywhere near being as big of a problem as the fundamental lack of players who can drive offense in 2/5 skater positions.

 

[Joe McGrath]

A huge part of our stale offense is the fact that they’re getting nothing, and I mean nothing offensively from the D.

Players like Dzingel and Haula tend to produce better when the puck is moving with purpose rather than being flung around haphazardly or shot unscreened into the logo.

The top line is producing because they’re good enough to do it 3-on-5 sometimes.

Players like Dzingle in particular produce when it’s meaningless. He has ONE f***ing goal when the game is within 1 goal.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

This was after a game in January. Why does it feel like we haven't had a game since then (and even a bit before) where at least 1 period was "not a period we ever want to see again."

 

[Lempo]

Aho have the worst best season of his career

League 6th in goals, tied with Eichel.

Some Connor guy is right behind him.

 

[dogbazinho]

Saw the highlights of Gardiner falling and Mrazek letting in some softies. Rod has a prob that most former great players have. He thinks players can just play through adversity like he could. They can’t. They don’t seem to have the same motivation or ability and need to sit or be shown the door.

 

[The S5]

Oh give me a break. The excuses are nauseating. These are pro athletes and they're just cashing checks right now. Yeah, we're down a big d-man who moves the puck well, Haula-Dzingel-Necas didn't play with Hamilton a lot anyway. They simply *have* to be better. Staal has to be better. McGinn has to be better. Wallmark has to be better. Niederreiter has to be better. Gardiner and Edmundson have to be better.

This isn't all about injuries or systems. Guys aren't putting in the effort and it can't be accepted and we can't be making excuses. Losers make excuses. Winners find ways to power through injury issues. Look at Pittsburgh, Colorado and others. We need guys to step up and they're not. Period.

That would make sense if the guys you mentioned were good players. Nino had that stretch last season and every got excited, but he has found himself back playing like the guy that got traded out of Minn. Edmundson is what he is, a big lumbering D who can't move the puck very well. Dzingel has shown very little all season and I don't think its for lack of effort. Staal, at this point, is a role player, who bring almost no offense. And, last, but not least, is Jake Gardiner. I don't want to beat a guy when he's down, but this guy is just awful. For the occasional nice pass or whatever it is that he supposedly does well, there is a myriad of bad. I can't imagine bringing in a kid for the A would be a downgrade of any sort. A team can't win with a guy like that in the top 4. It's gotten to the point where I laugh watching this guy play. He's lost.

 

[The Faulker 27]

League 6th in goals, tied with Eichel.

Some Connor guy is right behind him.

What a bum.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Three things that are wild to me:

A. despite not having the right personnel or more than 8 players regularly contributing, the team is 32-21.
B. We trade for a guy like Edmundson knowing he doesnt fit the model of Rod's system and then keep him. I get that STL moved him because of cap but why didnt we flip him?
C. Also knowing Rod plays a highly aggressive system we went value on goal-tending instead of getting the better but more expensive Lehner.

I dont blame the FO for Haula, Gardiner, and Dzingle not working out but, based on performances they get an F for non-draft off-season.

 

[My Special Purpose]

That would make sense if the guys you mentioned were good players.

First of all, they're all good players. They've all had success before.

Secondly, I'm not even asking for "good." There are degrees. Right now, Nino, Haula, Dzingel, McGinn, Staal, Wallmark, Gardiner and Edmundson are *worthless*. We need them to be *not* worthless. I can't even see "good" from where we are. We need them to be "better." That's not too much to ask.

 

[Svechhammer]

Lots of anger right now.

I mean the writing has been on the wall here for a LONG time this year. Staal is a shell of the player he used to be. The old age wall has hit him HARD this year, and he's a boat anchor when he's on the ice. He's actively hurting his linemates nightly, and doesn't deserve the minutes he gets. He needs to be moved down the lineup and his ice time protected to play a pure defensive forechecking role. He's barely above average in the faceoff dot nowadays as well. His best days are long behind him.

Edmundson has been a major disappointment this season. He was supposed to come in and be a defensive stalwart who would help solidify our lines and instead, he's just a mess. Never really able to gel with anyone, takes far too many penalties for his own good, and finds himself out of position. A lot. So much so he makes his defensive pairing look awful for having to cover for him.

Nino is a complete mess. He has Top 6 talent, but Bottom 3 numbers. Defensively nondescript, he is allergic to contributions on the offensive zone. And even worse, he takes some of the most mindless penalties often. A guy like Svech, that's not terrible, because there's a decent chance he'll make up for it on the scoresheet. Nino? There's effectively no hope he'll make up for his mistakes.

Dzingel is perplexing. He should be better. He doesn't play a bad game, but he's been absent offensively this year. Haula is kind of the same way. He has the talent to be better, he's just not. But he's not consistently making the boneheaded mistakes others make that cost us games.

Gardiner was brought in to be a puck moving offensive defenseman whose offensive numbers would offset any struggles he would have defensively. The first half of the season, he was a complete disaster, but his game is coming around now. You're never going to get him to be defensively sound with his game, that's just not who he is. If you're expecting that to be a part of his game, you're gonna be in for a bad time. If you pair him with someone like TVR, Fleury, or Edmundson, you're asking for trouble.

McGinn and Wallmark? I mean what do you expect with these guys? We know what they are. We also know what they are not. If we are relying on these guys to win games, or at the very least not lose games, their play is the least of our worries.