GDT: Game #2 (FINALLY) | Blue Jackets @ Panthers | 7PM

[PanthersHockey1]

Yandle had his odd bad game. But I thought Matheson was terrible. Too many poor decisions and looks to quit on the play. It’s like his brain freezes sometimes on an entire shift and then sometimes he looks like a potential top 2 guy. Need more consistency from him.

Reimer was okay. Definitely not good but I didn’t think he was as terrible as some here

The team looked rusty to me. They had energy but were fumbling the puck, missing passes, very out of sync.

Speaking of out of sync, the second line has no chemistry as of now. I still think it will gel but outside of maybe two or three shifts, they were a huge waste of talent.

Despite his goal last night and driving to the net on barkov’s goal; bjugstad did not play well at either end of the ice. I’ll chalk it up to rust.

Barkov and Dadonov were phenomenal.

They’ve got to work on special teams more and win tomorrow night.

+1. I think the players from the 2nd and 3rd lines need to be mixed up. That 3rd line is huge defensive liability. Also Weegar or Kiselevich will be a huge upgrade over Petrovic.

Reimer never can make the big save that the team needs.

 

[PanthersHockey1]

Between now and next October this team needs to figure out who its goaltender will be for the next 3+ years.

It certainly won't be Luongo and it certainly won't be Reimer.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

That 3rd line is huge defensive liability.

No it ain't but carry on.

 

[Lundell4Prez]

My ideal lines..

Huberdeau-Barkov-Dadonov
Mamin-Trocheck-Hoffman
Vatrano-McCann-Malgin
Brouwer-Bjugstad-Sceviour

 

[MintyFresh88]

Huberdeau is a notoriously slow starter. I hope that 2nd line figures themselves out at some point soon, though. It was our worst line last night and there's way too much skill and potential for that to be happening. Huberdeau and Hoffman also both missed prime scoring opportunities.

In regards to goaltending, Korpisalo had no chance on any of our goals whatsoever. 2 backdoor type passes, and two deflections right in front of him. Reimer absolutely had to make the save on Duclair...that's a routine save for almost every goalie in the league. The goals in the 3rd, you could argue both ways, so I won't blame him for those, but at the end of the day, he wasn't good enough and that's a fact.

I actually liked lines 1,3,4 and the D was okay for the most part. The good news that we can take away from this is that we lost based on individual errors and not because of the team as a whole. A game to forget for Yandle, specifically. It's something I would expect from a guy like MacDonald or Weegar (if playing), but guys like Ekblad, Yandle, Matheson, Petro and Pysyk have no excuse whatsoever for mishaps like that.

Also, like someone else mentioned...last year, we had one of the best records when leading after 2 and now we've lost back to back games to start the year with the lead after 2...the second half of last season is going to seem like a distant memory pretty soon if this continues.

One last thought...I would 100% give Hutchinson the start on Saturday. We don't have time to wait for Reimer to get going. If Hutchinson can come in and win that game on Saturday, I'd keep rolling with him for sure. I think it's a great opportunity for him and he'll be hungry to make an impression.

 

[Sassashka]

Reimer wasn't awful tonight. He did make some big saves in the first period. He had some problem behind his own net, like in the last goaI he could have played to the other side with backhand. Well he didn't and we lost puck.
I just hope he doesn't have to be the number one goaltender and play 40+ games.

 

[CHGoalie27]

Come on now CH, that wasn't exactly elite goaltending what we saw last night. Defensive breakdowns or not.

Yeah, saves for the goals he couldnt do anything about, no goalie is stopping Panarin like that in that circumstance either @RainingRats , I argue very heavily that what I saw I consider to be elite goaltending.

Then again what I consider to be elitle goaltending, tough saves, soft goals- are different than many, including some of those who played themselves(most any ex goalie who have made post playing careers in the media)

I was the only one near my section making a big deal over quite a few saves last night, whatever that means...

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

Yandle had his odd bad game. But I thought Matheson was terrible. Too many poor decisions and looks to quit on the play. It’s like his brain freezes sometimes on an entire shift and then sometimes he looks like a potential top 2 guy. Need more consistency from him.

Reimer was okay. Definitely not good but I didn’t think he was as terrible as some here

The team looked rusty to me. They had energy but were fumbling the puck, missing passes, very out of sync.

Speaking of out of sync, the second line has no chemistry as of now. I still think it will gel but outside of maybe two or three shifts, they were a huge waste of talent.

Despite his goal last night and driving to the net on barkov’s goal; bjugstad did not play well at either end of the ice. I’ll chalk it up to rust.

Barkov and Dadonov were phenomenal.

They’ve got to work on special teams more and win tomorrow night.

Reimer was decent but should've caught at least one of those five he let past. The defensemen were generally pretty steady but almost all of them had some really bad moments where they just didn't care much for the outcome. Hubs and Nick are just their regular old versions of themselves: if they were playing on some other team, nothing really sticks out that makes you wish they'd play for your team. I'd reckon that any decent top6 AHL fodder could replace Nick and the 1st wouldn't miss a beat. Nick fumbles with the puck like no one other I've seen for a while in the NHL. Like someone said previously, for one good play, Nick makes at least four bad plays. I know it's just two games in but this is a reoccurring pattern with Nick. The 2nd line has to get going soon i.e. score one or two goals in the next game. Just one extra goal from the 2nd line or on the PP can hide the fact that Hubs, Nick and the defensemen suck, and the Cats have to, yet again, rely on a backup for an extended period of time.

 

[CHGoalie27]

I’m just not blaming him for the loss but both games so far the other team’s goalie has outplayed ours. He stops Panarin on the breakaway and I’ll give him credit for winning the game for us. He makes a better save on the initial shot that was the fifth goal I’ll give him credit for a good game (that was matheson’s fault) but he did lose track of that rebound. The duclair goal he should have stopped. He kinda hesitated getting across and barely got a piece of the puck. The fourth goal is hard to tell if it was a deflection of Yandle or a screen by his team. again, not blaming him but I can’t say he was good.

Its absolutely asanine of all the goals to think Duclair or Panarin would be had by any goalie in those instances. Or the Deflection from Yandle. Or the one where his defense jumped on him not the puck.

 

[Ghoste]

Defensive breakdowns are going to happen. Rare that you'll play a flawless game. So you hope your tendy can bail the guys out a bunch. I didn't feel that happened last night.

That said, the guys looked really crappy the last ten minutes of the game. Special teams need to find their way fast. If the 5 forward PP can't even set up again against Vancouver, then ditch it. Opposition PK is over aggressive with them out there. At least keep them honest with a defenseman.

-ghoste

 

[Ghoste]

FYI, I do not blame Reim on Panarin's goal and the 5-on-3 goal.

-ghoste

 

[RainingRats]

Its absolutely asanine of all the goals to think Duclair or Panarin would be had by any goalie in those instances. Or the Deflection from Yandle. Or the one where his defense jumped on him not the puck.

Not saying he has to stop Panarin but we’d certainly be giving him credit if he did, no? Panarin is not 100% on breakawAys, come on. We need big saves. Lightning got them and came away with a W.

I think you’re in the minority on excusing the duclair goal. Agree to disagree. But again we need him to make a big save.

I excused the yandle goal and the last goal he totally lost the rebound. I blamed Matheson but Reimer didn’t do himself any favors.

 

[CHGoalie27]

FYI, I do not blame Reim on Panarin's goal and the 5-on-3 goal.

-ghoste

How could you blame him for the Yandle deflection n his guys piling on him for the last?

Nobodys been able to answer that lol

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

I've always hated that thing they do on the PK where the forward skates towards the blueline up top. They think they're outsmarting everybody, it's a reason why teams don't do that. The other team just puts the puck towards the net (skating or shooting) with the opening you giving them. That's not how you play the PK, creating giant creases in your defense. They're overthinking things. Keeping things simple is the most genius move you can do most of the time.

 

[EnforceTheLaus]

Had to miss the game but watched some highlights. Bring on Hutch tomorrow.


Still don’t understand the Bjugs continued hate, he isn’t elite in that spot but he is filling the role Jagr had by winning puck battles and being the trailer on the rush. He fits just fine on the top.

 

[pb1300]

The Duclair goal is on Reimer. He reacted to the play slowly, resulting him coming across the crease late. The Panarin one is really 50/50, he either bails Yandle our or not. I wouldn’t put the blame solely on him. We need to buckle down and put games like that one, and the Tampa, away.

 

[Sassashka]

I've always hated that thing they do on the PK where the forward skates towards the blueline up top. They think they're outsmarting everybody, it's a reason why teams don't do that. The other team just puts the puck towards the net (skating or shooting) with the opening you giving them. That's not how you play the PK, creating giant creases in your defense. They're overthinking things. Keeping things simple is the most genius move you can do most of the time.

If I remember correctly our special teams started slowly last year too and they played the PK kind of same way?

 

[CatscratchFever]

It’s certainly maddening being a fan of this franchise. They say they need to have a good start to the season, we say it as well. They say no excuses, we do as well. Yet, here we are, 2 games in playing the, “if we play like this we win more often than not” or “all we needed was...” games. Just win, man, we’re sick of the losing. This isn’t a sky is falling post, this is a cut the crap and win games post.

 

[pantherbot]

Reimer wasn't awful tonight. He did make some big saves in the first period. He had some problem behind his own net, like in the last goaI he could have played to the other side with backhand. Well he didn't and we lost puck.
I just hope he doesn't have to be the number one goaltender and play 40+ games.

Reimer was good in the first period and kept us in the game before the guys started to actually play, but it's hard to say he provided anything close to average in the last two periods. Maybe the first 10 minutes in the second when he didn't even see a shot took him out of the game.

You also make a good one about him handling the puck behind the net. He was pretty terrible at it and makes be nervous everytime.

I don't think people are necessarily blaming reimer, he is the goalie he's always been, sometimes amazing and sometimes bad. He's ok in a back up role and can give some good stretches of play, but when he's off he's a liability and we just can't afford that next game. I say put in hutch and see what he's got, can't be much worse.

Just our luck to have luongo out so early, and just a fluke accident. Never easy for us

 

[Boothinator]

I think Trocheck with Malgin is once again a good idea.. Lets see how Hoffman looks on the third line.

Vatrano on the 4th is a waste. Though I like the look of the 4th line! Brouwer has been fantastic so far


We wanna see Kiselevich!!!!

 

[GrumpyKelly]

I think Trocheck with Malgin is once again a good idea.. Lets see how Hoffman looks on the third line.

Vatrano on the 4th is a waste. Though I like the look of the 4th line! Brouwer has been fantastic so far


We wanna see Kiselevich!!!!

Was just going to suggest putting either Malgin or Vatrano on that second line.

Malgin worked pretty well last year. I don't understand Vatrano on the fourth either and why is that third line getting torn apart if they were supposedly doing well last game? Just switch Malgin with Hoffman and go from there.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

If I remember correctly our special teams started slowly last year too and they played the PK kind of same way?

Yep. But, teams don't see that type of set up on the PK. Now, teams have had a season to get a look at it. That's takes away the one advantage that it had.

 

[Gentle Man]

Vatrano Trocheck Malgin
Huberdeau McCann Hoffman

Do it

Huberdeau Barkov Hoffman
Dads Yandle

Vatrano Trocheck Malgin
Bugs Eks

Do it

 

[GrumpyKelly]

Vatrano Trocheck Malgin
Huberdeau McCann Hoffman

Do it

Huberdeau Barkov Hoffman
Dads Yandle

Vatrano Trocheck Malgin
Bugs Eks

Do it

emailing Boogie

 

[Sassashka]

I think Trocheck with Malgin is once again a good idea.. Lets see how Hoffman looks on the third line.

Vatrano on the 4th is a waste. Though I like the look of the 4th line! Brouwer has been fantastic so far


We wanna see Kiselevich!!!!

Dont understand Vatrano on the fourth line. I think he is going to sit against Vancouver. 4th line did well so why torn apart that too?

Also want to see Kiselevich in action. Hope he takes Petros place in future.