GDT: G29 - MIN @ TBL - Feelin' Kahk-y - 6PM Central - FSN

[Soldier13Fox]

probably should’ve lost both of the last 2 games

Certainly this one, probably the last one.

 

[Webster]

Lizard show...Fenton is smiling

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

probably should’ve lost both of the last 2 games

But we probably shouldn't have lost the Dallas and Boston games. They seem to end up evening out.

 

[57special]

I didn't see Fiala touch the puck on the Rask goal.

Zuccarello is really playing well. I wonder if he has needed all this time to get comfortable with a new team? He's not as flashy as Granlund, but he does some of the same things. Stalock wasn't good tonight, but he didn't fall apart at the end. Dumba also didn't have his best night, but he played a huge amount.

 

[TaLoN]

Been swamped here at work... didn't hear anything about the game until I got to my car to get lunch and they were doing post game. Bruce was in a really good mood.

 

[melinko]

Does anyone know why we have played nearly twice as many road games vs home games(19 vs 10)?

Seems like a massive imbalance to have 1/3rd of the way into the season.

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

Does anyone know why we have played nearly twice as many road games vs home games(19 vs 10)?

Seems like a massive imbalance to have 1/3rd of the way into the season.

Huh, hadn’t noticed

 

[TaLoN]

Does anyone know why we have played nearly twice as many road games vs home games(19 vs 10)?

Seems like a massive imbalance to have 1/3rd of the way into the season.

Something we've all been wanting to know since the schedule was released in June.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

I didn't see Fiala touch the puck on the Rask goal.

Zuccarello is really playing well. I wonder if he has needed all this time to get comfortable with a new team? He's not as flashy as Granlund, but he does some of the same things. Stalock wasn't good tonight, but he didn't fall apart at the end. Dumba also didn't have his best night, but he played a huge amount.

I think it hit his arm or leg or something.

 

[SupremeNachos]

I didn't see Fiala touch the puck on the Rask goal.

Zuccarello is really playing well. I wonder if he has needed all this time to get comfortable with a new team? He's not as flashy as Granlund, but he does some of the same things. Stalock wasn't good tonight, but he didn't fall apart at the end. Dumba also didn't have his best night, but he played a huge amount.

He likes to try and force passes a bit too much still.

 

[Jugitsu]

Stalock looked brutal on those goals tonight but luckily Vasi was nowhere near the best goaltender in the world. I have mixed feelings about what this team is doing right now. While it's fun to watch them care, battle and win I can't help but feel that we're drifting further away from drafting very high.

 

[Dickie Dunn]

I don't get this team.....like, at all. They were too good to lose that much at the beginning but they are not good enough to be winning like this either. Feels like being perpetually stuck at .500.

 

[Bazeek]

I don't get this team.....like, at all. They were too good to lose that much at the beginning but they are not good enough to be winning like this either. Feels like being perpetually stuck at .500.

It's been said since the beginning but I'm still trying to wrap my head around how true it is: poor goaltending has really undercut the team. Not just letting in weak, early goals, but extending out to how the skaters play. We saw it with Kuemper a few seasons ago and we even saw some of it last night whenever Tampa got offensive zone time. They play nervously and it ****s everything up.

If they were playing in front of 2017 Dubnyk or 2008 Backstrom? They probably still start bad but get things on track much faster.

These last two games have been borderline fiascos in some respects, but they've also been played partially or entirely without Spurgeon and Koivu. When healthy our defense looks as good as I've ever seen it, which is saying something. The forwards are still kind of spotty offensively, but there also isn't really a bad line right now. It's like two second lines and two third lines, with a fair number of young guys that could potentially break out some time this year.

It's hard to imagine them winning a cup or anything, but they could finish 1st or 31st without surprising me at this point. I'm enjoying the ride.

 

[thestonedkoala]

It's been said since the beginning but I'm still trying to wrap my head around how true it is: poor goaltending has really undercut the team. Not just letting in weak, early goals, but extending out to how the skaters play. We saw it with Kuemper a few seasons ago and we even saw some of it last night whenever Tampa got offensive zone time. They play nervously and it ****s everything up.

If they were playing in front of 2017 Dubnyk or 2008 Backstrom? They probably still start bad but get things on track much faster.

These last two games have been borderline fiascos in some respects, but they've also been played partially or entirely without Spurgeon and Koivu. When healthy our defense looks as good as I've ever seen it, which is saying something. The forwards are still kind of spotty offensively, but there also isn't really a bad line right now. It's like two second lines and two third lines, with a fair number of young guys that could potentially break out some time this year.

It's hard to imagine them winning a cup or anything, but they could finish 1st or 31st without surprising me at this point. I'm enjoying the ride.

Exactly. It's easy to discount the Wild, because a) they are old b) they know nothing about the team. There were a lot of new faces to the team, goaltending for the first time in a long time was shaky and there was a lot of turmoil. It was easy to see this team in terms of paper being a bottom 5 team, but teams don't play on paper. They are gelling and the new faces are starting to look good.

 

[Webster]

Maybe the locker room culture has been improved, I heard there was an issue. Btw, who used to be a problem in there...Fenton?

 

[57special]

I think Guerin has been a breath of fresh air, and having young guys like Ek, Soucy, and Greenway stepping up on the ice can also help things in the room. I'm sure that Koivu looks on Ek's play fondly, and Staal is happy that he is taking the tough defensive TOI.

IF there is(was) any divide, it was likely between older players with NMC/NTC's and big money contracts and younger players making much less, with no trade protection. A couple/few years ago it was reported that the former were speculating about which of the latter should(would) be traded for TDL help.

That can't be a good thing for team unity.

That being said, they don't strike me as a fractured team. BB showed remarkable grace under pressure last year, and Leipold cleaned up his self inflicted mess about as quickly as it was possible.

 

[Bazeek]

Maybe the locker room culture has been improved, I heard there was an issue. Btw, who used to be a problem in there...Fenton?

I get the impression that the "locker room issues" have been misinterpreted pretty badly. It wasn't so much tension and "cancer" as malaise and a lack of "tightness" off the ice. It kind of sounds like pointing the problem out was all it took to solve it.

Shockingly, it didn't require trading for Brandon Sutter.

 

[Digitalbooya]

I get the impression that the "locker room issues" have been misinterpreted pretty badly. It wasn't so much tension and "cancer" as malaise and a lack of "tightness" off the ice. It kind of sounds like pointing the problem out was all it took to solve it.

Shockingly, it didn't require trading for Brandon Sutter.

LOL, good times!

 

[Bazeek]

This graph is good.



But it's like 10 times funnier when you look at the whole thing and see those little spikes to either side of the second intermission.

 

[Dickie Dunn]

LOL, good times!

That guy had to be trolling but it was still good stuff.

 

[SupremeNachos]

It's been said since the beginning but I'm still trying to wrap my head around how true it is: poor goaltending has really undercut the team. Not just letting in weak, early goals, but extending out to how the skaters play. We saw it with Kuemper a few seasons ago and we even saw some of it last night whenever Tampa got offensive zone time. They play nervously and it ****s everything up.

If they were playing in front of 2017 Dubnyk or 2008 Backstrom? They probably still start bad but get things on track much faster.

These last two games have been borderline fiascos in some respects, but they've also been played partially or entirely without Spurgeon and Koivu. When healthy our defense looks as good as I've ever seen it, which is saying something. The forwards are still kind of spotty offensively, but there also isn't really a bad line right now. It's like two second lines and two third lines, with a fair number of young guys that could potentially break out some time this year.

It's hard to imagine them winning a cup or anything, but they could finish 1st or 31st without surprising me at this point. I'm enjoying the ride.

Instead of 3-10 it would be 5-5 or even 6-4 with those 2 playing at their best. We'd still lose against Nash and Col, and the Jets and Pens games would be close but we don't lose to Tor and Mont.

 

[Dr Jan Itor]

We drastically outplayed Winnipeg and were even with Colorado.