GDT: Game 10 - Bolts @ Avs - 7:30 PM 10/24/18

[S E P H]

I am not going to blame the refs in that game, that was a man's game and Avs having one shot in 12 minutes of action, while half of that was down by one was not good enough. If you thought the game was poorly officiated, go watch NBA where fouls happen every two seconds. I am not too frustrated because holy smokes Lightning played a perfect road game, all credit to them for coming here and imposing their game.

Not going to even blame the offsides call because that was a pretty pathetic play by Jost. I get that it was one centimeter and seems unlucky, but Tyson should've known better and been on the side of caution when he see's a MacKinnon flashing into the zone with the puck. I am not trying to scapegoat him at all because I don't think he has looked too bad compared to other posters here....but holy **** was he bad today. Like bad enough that I want Kamenev in for him for the next game. To me, half of the game it seemed that his head was elsewhere and not in the game of hockey - he looked lost.

Rantanen also had a pretty weak game, but you can tell that Lightning were sending two guys his way. I thought he was making bad decisions with the puck and around the offencive zone though.

Good learning lesson, off onto the next one.

 

[CobraAcesS]

It's not a number issue, it's making calls like the one in Barrie that was not existent mid way through the 3rd in a tie game that is a problem.

Then couple that with the no call on the MacK partial break a few minutes later, or the even clearer hook on the Dano break that was not called.

The only reason we had more PPs is because the refs were forced to call a delay of game penalty when they flicked the puck over the glass.

It's never been a number issue, it's always been a making the proper calls both ways issue. Which didn't happen.

I think NHL refs have sucked for years long before it cost us games. It's just the way shit is now. So I really don't see much point in complaining anymore. Complaining about refs is either emphatically backed up, or used to make you look like a sore loser. It's a dark hole of shit to even bring it up.

NHL reffing sucks now, and it's inconsistent as hell. It's the new breed of refs who are constantly riding a wave of ever changing initiatives by the league without clear definition in the written rules, and then handicapped by piss poor use of technology.

 

[dahrougem2]

Meh - can't win 'em all. Went 60 minutes with arguably the best team in the NHL and stood toe to toe. If that doesn't give positive signs about this team, I don't know what will outside of actually beating them.

Top line was dangerous all night - they came to play. Vasilevskiy was just out of this world tonight. Any other goalie in the league, and the top line probably has 3-4 goals tonight. That said, they have to fix this PP. MacKinnon and Rantanen are spending too much time looking for one another cross-ice, and teams know it. Simplify things to get things going again.

Thought Girard had a real solid game after a slew of poor games.

Tyson Jost - what else can be said that hasn't already. He sucks this season. He's been handed an opportunity on a silver platter, first via 2nd line centre and then 1st unit PP. He already managed to choke away his 2C role, and I'm willing to bet he finds himself off the PP1 very soon, too. This kid just screams Curtis Lazar. Not good.

I'm sure the boys will be amped to get back in the win column next game.

 

[Frobbo]

+'s This team can play with anybody. They have come so far so fast. Cole signing looks strong, he looks like he is in galoshes out there sometimes but his overall play has been strong. MGM looks great. SOME of the younger guys are developing nicely.

-'s Jost is not the answer at center. Wilson is underperforming. Nieto is a borderline NHL player. Can't have 3 players not playing well against good teams. Starting to wonder if Wilson is not just a mistake but a HUGE mistake. Doesn't seem to have hit the reset button after an off year last year. Nieto is what he is. Jost isn't ready for primetime yet, not sure if he will ever be. The Avs need help up front to compete with the big boys. This is where the Bleackley and Hishon draft whiffs hurt.

 

[S E P H]

I have no problem people ripping Jost, but I do have a problem when people are judging the rest of his career off a ten game sample size. I reckon that he needs another entire offseason of improving his foot and agility speed, but I still argue that the talent is there.

Also...holy smokes Calvert has terrible puck skills. I thought they would be a bit better, but they're almost in or in the stone category, so many plays die on his stick.

 

[Pokecheque]

While I thought there were some soft calls, the Avs benefited from them as much as they suffered from them, so I don't blame the officiating for this one.

That is one of the best teams in the league, and the Avs ground it out for a 1-0 loss. They went into this with one dominant line, stellar goaltending, and a whole lot of other players not yet really started, so I'm fine with that. Imagine the next time these teams face off and they have something cooking with lines 2-4.

Gotta be honest, Jost was a disaster tonight. No confidence whatsoever and I don't get why they're giving him top power play time and scant even strength time on the 4th line. I also thought Andrighetto was just flailing all over the place, falling over, mishandling pucks, even crashed right into the net for some weird reason.

I also think lines 2 and 3 are simply not working. Quit saddling Soda with guys who can't do anything offensively, and QUIT USING KERF AS A CENTER.

And if Dano is that type of player, I don't see the point at all in having Gabe Bourque on the ice.

This is one very rare instance where I didn't like Bednar lineup decisions at all. I thought Cooper outcoached him a bit even though he didn't have last change, which is fine because Cooper is possibly the best coach in the league, so whatever, but I do hope they re-jigger this lineup and FFS, put Nieto on ice for a game, or put Bourque, or better yet, put BOTH of them in the press box and bring out Kamenev.

Overall I can't be too mad, just hope they figure this thing out soon.

I actually thought Barrie played one of his better games tonight. EJ was also noticeably improved. The defense as a whole didn't look bad to me at all really.

 

[Avs44]

Also...holy smokes Calvert has terrible puck skills. I thought they would be a bit better, but they're almost in or in the stone category, so many plays die on his stick.

Yeah, there was a moment in the game - pretty certain it was in the 1st - where the Avs could have had a two on one, Calvert had the puck, and then he just lost it in his skates and the Tampa player came over to just tie him up...is it too early to say it's a classic Calvert moment? I expect we're going to have a lot of those for the next two and a half years, he already has a bit of a list of them going

 

[The Abusement Park]

I have no problem people ripping Jost, but I do have a problem when people are judging the rest of his career off a ten game sample size. I reckon that he needs another entire offseason of improving his foot and agility speed, but I still argue that the talent is there.

Also...holy smokes Calvert has terrible puck skills. I thought they would be a bit better, but they're almost in or in the stone category, so many plays die on his stick.

The concerns about his skating are really coming to the fore. He just can’t be a center at the NHL level I don’t think.

 

[LieutenantDangle]

One heck of a game. Tip of the cap to Vasilevskiy for single handedly stealing the game tonight. The boys have a lot to be proud of tonight. Not once did they think about quitting tonight. Huge push back in the waning minutes of the game and another superb performance by Varly. Blessed to get to watch great avalanche hockey.

 

[dahrougem2]

I will add, though, that while Vasilevskiy was good, we didn't generate nearly enough on him. Credit to the Lightning defensemen tonight.

11 shots on goal in the final 40 minutes is not going to win you a hockey game.

 

[hooverdam]

I thought the entire defense was really great tonight. Barrie's offense hasn't been there just yet but his defense tonight more than made up for the Flyers game.

The Bolts are really good and still had to largely rely on goaltending to stop the Avs' dangerous chances. That's a huge positive to me. McDonagh played really well too; it looked like Bednar was trying to get MacKinnon away from that matchup by double-shifting him, forgetting of course that that would force poor Nate to play with Bourque.

I know it's tough to complain about the PK when it's been this good, but I really wish they didn't rely so much on Jared's PK Heroes; they are so passive and hesitant on the PK sometimes. This is a Tampa team where you really have to take your chances and push the envelope a bit, but these PKers just really love dumping the puck in and letting it go as if a shorthanded opportunity would kill them.

 

[Pokecheque]

The only time I remember truly yelling at the TV at a d-man was when Barrie passed it to Cole, who promptly telegraphed, texted, sent smoke signals, and bike courier messages to the Bolts indicating where he was gonna pass it, and it promptly got picked off. Flashbacks of Martin Skoula immediately followed. Dude needs to quit trying to be a puckmover. He's no Brad Stuart with the puck but yeesh...I still can't believe THAT guy QB'd a power play for Notre Dame. Incoherently Mumbling Chad Kelly could QB a power play better than him.

 

[LieutenantDangle]

The only time I remember truly yelling at the TV at a d-man was when Barrie passed it to Cole, who promptly telegraphed, texted, sent smoke signals, and bike courier messages to the Bolts indicating where he was gonna pass it, and it promptly got picked off. Flashbacks of Martin Skoula immediately followed. Dude needs to quit trying to be a puckmover. He's no Brad Stuart with the puck but yeesh...I still can't believe THAT guy QB'd a power play for Notre Dame. Incoherently Mumbling Chad Kelly could QB a power play better than him.

Man there’s a lot going on in this post. But ya Cole is best when the puck is far from his stick

 

[Nalens Oga]

The dmen were getting some shots off in this game which is nice (too bad they suck at it but at least they were shooting and applying pressure unlike in the past games). Best thing about tonight was that the team was able to hang with another team which on paper is significantly better imo. Obviously the gap in talent in lines 2-4 is too big between us and them right now but the players are generally playing up to their potential minus possibly Jost and the 1st line was great so they showed they showed they can play against a talented line-up.

 

[MonsterMack]

Jost had an awful night, but the people ripping on him on that offside play need to drop it. He could have handled it better sure, but from my perspective he was trying to time it just right, and Mack did a very slight move at the blue line that delayed his entry.

As others have said, Jost hasn't even shown flashes. I want to believe in him, but he has been an absolute early concern.

 

[klozge]

Great game but once again (I don't care if this gets called a hot take again - the opposing teams seem to share my opinion and love to attack him when he has the puck in our zone), Barrie shouldn't play right now. He isn't fast anymore and without his speed he's too big a risk defensively. I'd also very much like to see Kamenev in and Dano out next game. I've never understood why we picked up Dano with Greer waiting in the AHL anyway. And right now we have zero secondary scoring and still play scrubs like Bourque and Dano while Kamenev is getting punished for being the best player on his line. Play Jost on the wing with Kamenev centering the line and just see what happens. Can't be worse than what we're having right now and at least adds a good, defensively responsible center with play making skills to the group.

Finally, Calvert got away with a few hooks and slashes in this game. He needs to clean up his game a bit, especially when a match is tied in the third period.
Compher can't come back soon enough.

 

[PAZ]

I have no idea how people can criticize Dano. He has played two games with us and has arguably been one of best bottom 6 forwards. I'd hope for:

Kerfoot - Kamenev - Andrighetto
Dano - Soderberg - Nieto
Wilson - Calvert - Bourque

Send Jost down and help him build his confidence back up or try him as a winger. Either way, something needs to change with him.

 

[HartKinnon]

Jost's offside and Johnson's stupid tiger leap on penalty kill ended up costing this game for Avs.

Varly should be extended immediately. Varly's stance has been tweaked a lot during off season. I don't recall that he played that much upright during last season. His groins won't now be as a big issue than they were with his old playing style.

 

[Grigowski]

We need a leader for our 2nd line! BADLY!!! If not, this team wont go far.

We tried Jost, we tried Kerfoot....nada....

 

[TruePowerSlave]

I'm wondering more and more if we rushed Jost too quickly.

Of course we did. He would certain look more dangerous had he joined the team a year later. Now it is possible that we wasted a top 10 pick for a 3rd liner. Something has to happen if this continues either sit him for a game(s) and see if there is a response or send his ass to the AHL as a last option. Jost needs to work on his game and it does not seem certain that he will be able to do properly it in the NHL.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Tough loss but man if a game like this doesn't get you excited for our future I dont onl what will.


Bolts are probably the best team in the league and that game has the looks and feels of two heavy weight, top tier teams going at it from start to finish.


This team is already legit and we're only going to get better as we add Makar and hopefully a top 5 pick to the team in the next year.

 

[Avs71]

Pierre McGuire said last night he thinks that game could have been a preview of the Cup Final. He followed it up by saying people forget the Avs will be adding Cale Makar at the end of the season, and he is probably the best defenceman in college hockey.

I really like having Nemeth, EJ, Zadorov, and Johnson on the PK. They’re all huge and take away so much ice around the net. Cole is also a fearless shot blocker, and Johnson is money when it comes to getting the puck out of the zone.

The Avs are so fast. I doubt there is a team they can’t keep up with. One more scoring threat on the 2nd line, and they will start burying teams.

MacKinnon obviously knew this was a nationally televised game. He was flying. Landeskog seems more skilled lately, and Rantanen seems grittier. All good things. If they play like they did in that first period last night against Ottawa, it should be another 2-3 point night for them.

Jost needs to find his game again. Move him to the 2nd PP, and put him with Kerfoot/Ghetto and shelter that line. They shouldn’t be turning him into a shutdown forward. We saw flashes of the skill last season. It’s all confidence. It looks like he has none right now.

 

[The Kingslayer]

dahrougem2 had to drop a Curtis Lazar comparison to Jost. Great now that's all im going think about when I see ole boy.

 

[The Kingslayer]

I have no idea how people can criticize Dano. He has played two games with us and has arguably been one of best bottom 6 forwards. I'd hope for:

Kerfoot - Kamenev - Andrighetto
Dano - Soderberg - Nieto
Wilson - Calvert - Bourque

Send Jost down and help him build his confidence back up or try him as a winger. Either way, something needs to change with him.

I like Dano. Feisty little guy who plays hard. Easy to like.

 

[Hockey4Life91]

Tampa fan here. Although the final score was 1-0, that was one of more entertaining games I have seen the whole season. I just want to say how impressed I was with your first line, your team speed and Varlamov. No doubt exists that if the Avs can develop some secondary scoring, you will be super dangerous and primed for a deep run. You remind me of the Bolts in 2015, the year their window opened. Young, lots of high end talent, fast and a goalie who can steal games.

MacKinnon is playing on a whole different level right now. He is head a shoulders above Taylor Hall, who we dismantled in the playoffs when he was “hot” and on the heels of his Hart campaign. MacKinnon’s speed - both WITH and without the puck - was popping off the screen every single shift. He very well may be top 3 in the world right now.

Good luck the rest of the way.