Eastern Conference QF: Columbus Blue Jackets vs Tampa Bay Lightning

[Double-Shift Lasse]

GDT open. If you’re coming, please bring a snack or a sixer to share or grab some carry out on your way in. And feel free to let everyone know what you brought.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

Didn’t intend to take all day off from the forum yesterday but a funny thing happened...

Sorry. Anyway, we’ll be in here for a while I guess but soon into a new GDT.

Meantime, to paraphrase the rules for the Holy Hand Grenade in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, I don’t like being down 1-2 mostly because it’s the only way you can get to being down 1-3. Next game is, well, I’ll hold off.

 

[Long Live Lyle]

Elvis tweaked a groin in Game 4 vs Leafs per Porty. Out indefinitely. Ends the “he punched a wall post-game” rumor.

 

[puckthat]

So was that a factor in the 3 goals at the end of his last game?

 

[Nanabijou]

Sucks for Elvis, he was seizing the stage until those last few minutes of Game 4. Doesn't seem like we can have both of these goalies healthy together for a significant length of time.

For Elvis' career sake, I am glad he didn't injure himself doing something stupid like throwing a tantrum after the game.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Elvis tweaked a groin in Game 4 vs Leafs per Porty. Out indefinitely. Ends the “he punched a wall post-game” rumor.

Let me act like the rest of society for a moment:

"That is what they want us to believe. It is a coverup. I didn't see the injury for myself."

Honestly I sort of wondered if that was the case. Nothing obvious sticks out but I wonder if he did it during the big slide across he made to try to stop the OT goal. Or he also came into the previous game cold so maybe he did something small early and it got worse over the course of the games. Either way I'm sure it is probably a couple of weeks at least to let it heal if they caught it before it was too bad. I know Bob really fought with his groins before he changed his stretching routine.

 

[MFRONE]

Game 5 is 12pm on Wednesday. The lack of respect this series is getting is ridiculous.

 

[Monk]

Game 5 is 12pm on Wednesday. The lack of respect this series is getting is ridiculous.

RIP work productivity.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

Game 5 is 12pm on Wednesday. The lack of respect this series is getting is ridiculous.

The scheduling the CBJ have gotten in this round is horsesh$t.

How many times have they been forced to play with less than 48 hour turnaround? They had to play the last game of the qualifying round and then jump right into the first game of the first round. Games 6 and 7 are also a back to back if they can even still stand by that point.

 

[Socks]

Game 5 is 12pm on Wednesday. The lack of respect this series is getting is ridiculous.

Are you f***ing kidding? This is some serious bullshit.

 

[JacketsDavid]

The scheduling the CBJ have gotten in this round is horsesh$t.

How many times have they been forced to play with less than 48 hour turnaround? They had to play the last game of the qualifying round and then jump right into the first game of the first round. Games 6 and 7 are also a back to back if they can even still stand by that point.

if you're the last seed playing the #1 seed I wouldn't expect in favors when schedules comes out.
As far as noon and afternoon starts - that kind of happens when you have 2 team that honestly don't have national appeal. Granted locally the CBJ have a ton of support, but for the national audience CBJ-Tampa probably doesn't draw many people in.

Thanks

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

We aren’t the last seed and Tampa isn’t the top seed. And why are there 3 games being played that day anyway?

 

[MFRONE]

if you're the last seed playing the #1 seed I wouldn't expect in favors when schedules comes out.
As far as noon and afternoon starts - that kind of happens when you have 2 team that honestly don't have national appeal. Granted locally the CBJ have a ton of support, but for the national audience CBJ-Tampa probably doesn't draw many people in.

Thanks

Tampa is the 2 seed. Should be getting a better schedule than Philly/Montreal since at least our series has two US markets that register TV views.

 

[Jacket Junkie]

So who is in charge of starting today's GDT?

I need to vent.

 

[Johansen2Foligno]

if you're the last seed playing the #1 seed I wouldn't expect in favors when schedules comes out.
As far as noon and afternoon starts - that kind of happens when you have 2 team that honestly don't have national appeal. Granted locally the CBJ have a ton of support, but for the national audience CBJ-Tampa probably doesn't draw many people in.

Thanks

Yeah, that's what I am thinking. If we think from a numbers perspective, TBL/CBJ just isn't going to have as much appeal outside of our markets as the other east coast series.

I don't like it, but I get it.

 

[KCbus]

Crap.

That may have been the best game we played in the series, and we couldn't cash in.

I don't see a way back from this. Not against this team, and not with our anemic scoring. That's not to say we might not scrape out a win in game 5, but our guns just aren't firing.

 

[Robert]

Wow... a current game day thread actually open for CBJ fans to voice opinion... That said, the CBJ need to dump Atkinson and get some guys who can score consistently..

That said, please stop shutting down game day threads...

 

[Jyrki]

Continued from the Game 4 thread...

I don't think Foligno is a bad player per se, but he's paid like one of the better wingers in the league and deployed like a 1st liner. This is partially because he's overpaid, partially because Torts doesn't have many options to work with. Which is why I brought up the trades Jarmo had made. The decision to load the 2018-19 roster was correct, and there's nothing he could do about Panarin wanting to play in NYC or Duchene wanting an urban-country life. But the consequence is that now we have gaping holes offensively and we have few assets we can move without creating other holes. It's a matter-of-fact observation rather than criticism. Anderson's injuries and Wennberg's regression only adds to the problem.

Either way, our path forward in the series is limited. Hope they've been grinded down harder than us and come out slower on Wednesday.

Edit: And yeah, I forgot to voice my disappointment in Cam. Completely snakebitten so far. He has the speed and skill to give the Bolts trouble, but hasn't shown much of his regular season form.

 

[majormajor]

Continued from the Game 4 thread...

I don't think Foligno is a bad player per se, but he's paid like one of the better wingers in the league and deployed like a 1st liner.

He's got one year left at $5.5m. For a UFA aged player that's middle-six money, not a top tier player. It's the same cap we just gave to Nyquist. And he's not getting offensive deployment, he's getting insane defensive deployment with Jenner because he's our best defensive winger. He's totally spent at this point but that's on Torts not Foligno. I don't know why people are targeting Nick at all.

 

[Anisimovs AK]

Yeah, that's what I am thinking. If we think from a numbers perspective, TBL/CBJ just isn't going to have as much appeal outside of our markets as the other east coast series.

I don't like it, but I get it.

But the tv ratings indicate otherwise

 

[Monk]

I was unable to watch the game yesterday, but I was able to listen to some of it on the radio. Just wanted to note here that I really, really enjoyed McElligot's commentary - pretty sure he was being a big ol' homer, but that's what I wanted to hear yesterday I guess. He also, at times, was hilarious.

 

[Long Live Lyle]

I think Foudy's hitting the same wall Texier did last year. Really impactful first series. Basically non-existent second series. I'm excited for him, though. Think he'll end up a nice consistent middle six player/PKer for us for years to come.

 

[DarkandStormy]

Well, the 28th-ranked offense has had what little offense it has go dry. The Lightning don't look like an unstoppable force. But yeah, where has the offense been this series? Z? Jones? Just not much there. You can't win 1-0 and 2-1 in this league over a 7-game series.

Other than some bad/lazy plays by 71-38-13 yesterday that led to the Tampa goals I thought we played pretty well. Maybe the best game of the series, even. The team actually spent sustained time in the attacking zone. Just couldn't convert.

I don't really know what Torts can do here. Tampa is just a good team, though they aren't dominating like last year's historic team in the regular season. Even without Stamkos I don't know where Torts can exploit a weakness. Kucherov-Point on the top line are super talented. They spent picks to shore up Gourde's lines and they've absolutely dominates this series. And then you don't have it any easier against Killorn-Johnson-Cirelli. They're just a deeper team this year with the moves they made. Jarmo spent the deadline shipping out Milano.

I do think he needs to break up 38 & 71. They're both slow, bad, and maybe tired at this point. I know he likes loading up a defensive line of 71-38-13/14/19 or whatever, but I think he needs to balance the lines. Instead of chasing matchups, just try to get some offense going. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Sasha Pavlovic may have been right - my offense is my defense. Point being, if they can sustain pressure in the offensive zone, who cares how well they do in the defending zone. I don't know. There aren't a ton of options anyway.

This team, to me, has peaked with the 38/71/10/13 core. Good enough to maybe win a series, but the top end talent just isn't there to get much farther. I don't know really know how you'd fix it either.

 

[majormajor]

Well, the 28th-ranked offense has had what little offense it has go dry. The Lightning don't look like an unstoppable force. But yeah, where has the offense been this series? Z? Jones? Just not much there. You can't win 1-0 and 2-1 in this league over a 7-game series.

Other than some bad/lazy plays by 71-38-13 yesterday that led to the Tampa goals I thought we played pretty well. Maybe the best game of the series, even. The team actually spent sustained time in the attacking zone. Just couldn't convert.

I don't really know what Torts can do here. Tampa is just a good team, though they aren't dominating like last year's historic team in the regular season. Even without Stamkos I don't know where Torts can exploit a weakness. Kucherov-Point on the top line are super talented. They spent picks to shore up Gourde's lines and they've absolutely dominates this series. And then you don't have it against Killorn-Johnson-Cirelli. They're just a deeper team this year with the moves they made. Jarmo spent the deadline shipping out Milano.

I do think he needs to break up 38 & 71. They're both slow, bad, and maybe tired at this point. I know he likes loading up a defensive line of 71-38-13/14/19 or whatever, but I think he needs to balance the lines. Instead of chasing matchups, just try to get some offense going. I can't believe I'm saying this, but Sasha Pavlovic may have been right - my offense is my defense. Point being, if they can sustain pressure in the offensive zone, who cares how well they do in the defending zone. I don't know. There aren't a ton of options anyway.

This team, to me, has peaked with the 38/71/10/13 core. Good enough to maybe win a series, but the top end talent just isn't there to get much farther. I don't know really know how you'd fix it either.

I thought it was an excellent game by the Jackets. All you can do is do it again. And hopefully ease up on Jenner and Foligno. "Maybe tired" is funny, they're beyond that. You've forgotten that Foligno isn't a slow player if he's rested. He's at 208 minutes in this playoffs, that's about half-an-hour more than the nearest forward on another team (Kane at 180 minutes).

Tampa is a juggernaut with no weaknesses. Stamkos is not one of their 4 or 5 most important players. They did dominate the league from December onward, almost as much as they did the year before.

 

[DarkandStormy]

I thought it was an excellent game by the Jackets. All you can do is do it again. And hopefully ease up on Jenner and Foligno. "Maybe tired" is funny, they're beyond that. You've forgotten that Foligno isn't a slow player if he's rested. He's at 208 minutes in this playoffs, that's about half-an-hour more than the nearest forward on another team (Kane at 180 minutes).

Foligno is slow regardless of how much rest he gets.