GDT: Game 27: Coyotes @ Oilers - 7PM - FSAZ+

[Jakey53]

This was a winnable game. I don't know about the coaching, particularly late, but we had two posts in overtime. That pass from the Edmonton corner by Stepan was brainless and cost us dearly. Man should be benched for a game. Clearly, if Strome plays a top 6 LW needs to sit or a RW sits with a LW moving over. Next game I would like to see Strome and Duclair both in the game with Stepan sitting. I know that our chances of winning go way down without Stepan, but he needs to sit a game due to this and other boneheaded plays.

We should have won that game, but OEL pinched at the wrong time. That Stepan pass was not good, but tell me, where the hell were the D? That goal was all on the D.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

Funny not one word that I can remember in the broadcast about Duclair being scratched from Nash.

That's because Tyson Nash has the attention span of a parakeet. If it's not in front of him, he doesn't think talk about it.

There's gotta be something behind it, I'd just love to know what. Gotta be attitude I guess, because if it's effort level, defensive play, or turnovers we have other players who are worse (like Stepan, in all 3 categories).

My latest conspiracy theory re: Duclair is his conditioning. Tocchet talked about guys not being in the right shape, and maybe some of Duclair's "laziness" might be attributed to him not having the stamina to burn for a proper shift.

I dunno, guys, I'm just throwing stuff at the wall now. I have no idea what the coaches are thinking with Duclair. But Chayka seems to want to keep him around so...

 

[Neighborhood Coyote]

When I saw that Duke was scratched for some unknown reason again I knew this would be a frustrating game. Alas, it was. Yotes have more than enough players who play "defense" but can't score to save their lives. Since the game is won by scoring more goals than the other team, at some point they need players who can actually score to play.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Keller-Richardson-Strome line. It didn't feel like they had chemistry to me. Guess we will see what happens on that... but I did notice Strome was benched at the end of the third for the "defensively responsible" players and we lost the lead. It did feel like a winnable game but as everyone said, Yotes didn't play well in the third and let it slip away.

 

[moosemeister]

Completely agree with a lot of the people.

Keller - Stepan - Fischer
Domi - Dvorak - Duclair
Perlini - Strome - Rieder
Martinook - Richardson - Rinaldo

If you absolutely, 100% need to play Strome at wing.

Keller - Stepan - Fischer
Domi - Dvorak - Duclair
Perlini - Richardson - Strome
Rieder - Cousins - Rinaldo

Rieder is getting traded. Guarantee it. There is no need for him to be spoon fed top minutes. He's getting the Boedker treatment right now.

 

[rt]

You need Martinook for he D play and Cousins is a C.

Move Martinook to 4C and shoot Cousins into outer space.

 

[moosemeister]

Move Martinook to 4C and shoot Cousins into outer space.

I'd rather strap Martinook and KConn into the same seat and fire them both into the sun.

 

[Mosby]

The Cousins trade was a mistake. Hopefully the goalie we acquired in the same deal turns into something.

 

[rt]

I'd rather strap Martinook and KConn into the same seat and fire them both into the sun.

Nook is 3rd among Fs in PKTOIG. Our PK has been good. He gets like 10min 5v5 /GM so I don't mind him as a 4th liner. Cousins doesn't contribute to specialty teams. He's the obvious one to blast off.

 

[moosemeister]

Good idea rt. Fire KConn, Cousins and his Jeep that we needed a story about into the sun.

 

[ClassLessCoyote]

Glad to see Keller got another point.

 

[moosemeister]

Glad to see Keller got another point.

Get out of here with your positivity.

Doom and gloom!

 

[Bonsai Tree]

Who do you sit? Cousins or Martinook would be easy choices.

We need to make room in the top 6 for Strome, to get a good, 1/2 season look at him with regular minutes. So the question is, who do you sit amongst the top 6?

 

[Mosby]

Perlini - Stepan - Keller
Domi - Dvorak - Duclair
Rieder - Strome - Fischer
Nook - Richie - Rinaldo

Play the top 3 lines relatively even minutes. That's what I'd go with.

 

[BUX7PHX]

Couple of quick takes:

Domi's head is moving too fast for his body - he knows what he wants to do with the puck, he is just so eager to do the "play fast" thing that he is not realizing how much time he has. Like that chance on the side of the net. He didn't have a great angle, but could have made it a better angle by gathering the puck in a little more. There were a few other times where he knew where the puck was going, but flubbed it a little b/c his head was moving faster than his stick. Just needs to relax a little more out there and let the game come to him.

Still a few too many WTF? moments at crucial times on the defensive end.

Movement of the puck looked good, for the most part.

Wedgewood played one hell of a game. Our PK looks way more in tune - I think special teams was an area that we were radically poor at in the beginning of the year, and with some time, we have gotten it together. Not certain if this was related to the team talk that happened a few weeks ago or coaching changes, but I don't necessarily think that the PK improvement is solely on Wedgewood vs. Domingue alone (although your goalie needs to be your best player on the PK).

Strome looked less out of place than last year. Amazing what learning the offense in a different setting can do. Looks far more confident out there, and you can see the "looks like he is not doing much, but you see some of the chances that he is helping to facilitate" in his game.

BTW, month of October, averaging 32.1 shots against and in November, averaging 31.2 shots against. First 20 games of the year, average of 32.6 shots against. In the last 7 games, 29.0 shots against. I am assuming that the shots against metric is also playing out where "dangerous" chances were more prevalent in the first 20 games than the last 7 - let me go into NHL.com to see if I can find some general shot metrics from locations on the ice. I'd be more than willing to think that once the players had their meeting to discuss what is going on and the buy in to the system, first thing discussed was toning down of these high percentage chances for the opposition.

 

[Dirty Old Man]

Tony Orlando OT, twice on the pipe.

(I might be the only one who got this, and for my troubles I now have an earworm. Thanks.)

 

[Murf]

Benching Duclair is dumb.

Duclair - 20g, 6/5/11 and -1

Fischer - 25g, 7/4/11 and -11
Domi - 27g, 2/13/15 and -12
Richardson - 25g, 1/4/5 and -13
Martinook - 26g, 1/3/4 and -11
Rinaldo - 22g, 2/0/2 and -6

The golden boy is -17 (!) in 27 games, but at least he scores.

I don't give a crap that Richardson or Martinook or Rinaldo are playing a different role that Duclair presumably would. They are producing less positive things and more negative things that the guy they left in the lockeroom.

He's 5th in goals, 8th in assists, 7th in points, 2nd in +/- (1st if you exclude Strome and Hanley) - but 16th in ice time!

 

[Jakey53]

When I saw that Duke was scratched for some unknown reason again I knew this would be a frustrating game. Alas, it was. Yotes have more than enough players who play "defense" but can't score to save their lives. Since the game is won by scoring more goals than the other team, at some point they need players who can actually score to play.

I wasn't a huge fan of the Keller-Richardson-Strome line. It didn't feel like they had chemistry to me. Guess we will see what happens on that... but I did notice Strome was benched at the end of the third for the "defensively responsible" players and we lost the lead. It did feel like a winnable game but as everyone said, Yotes didn't play well in the third and let it slip away.

I think you have it a little backwards. Hockey games are won with D, keeping the puck out of the net. Like the old saying goes "defense win championships".

 

[Jakey53]

Benching Duclair is dumb.

Duclair - 20g, 6/5/11 and -1

Fischer - 25g, 7/4/11 and -11
Domi - 27g, 2/13/15 and -12
Richardson - 25g, 1/4/5 and -13
Martinook - 26g, 1/3/4 and -11
Rinaldo - 22g, 2/0/2 and -6

The golden boy is -17 (!) in 27 games, but at least he scores.

I don't give a crap that Richardson or Martinook or Rinaldo are playing a different role that Duclair presumably would. They are producing less positive things and more negative things that the guy they left in the lockeroom.

He's 5th in goals, 8th in assists, 7th in points, 2nd in +/- (1st if you exclude Strome and Hanley) - but 16th in ice time!

I like Duke as a player but he has to learn to play away from the puck, as it's not always about points. He is getting much better and I don't think he deserves all these scratches, but there has to be a reason that we are not seeing or know about.

 

[MIGs Dog]

I think you have it a little backwards. Hockey games are won with D, keeping the puck out of the net. Like the old saying goes "defense win championships".

Championships? I just want to win a game.

 

[Neighborhood Coyote]

I think you have it a little backwards. Hockey games are won with D, keeping the puck out of the net. Like the old saying goes "defense win championships".

Agree to disagree. Pittsburgh won 2 in a row without stellar defense. They played a good team game but ultimately they scored more goals than their opponent. Example... Last year they were number ONE in goals for and 17th in goals against. The year before... 3rd in gf, 6th in ga. There are teams that are better in GA than GF (LA Kings come to mind) but they had the right personnel to play that style. It appears to me that to consistently be a threat to go deep in the playoffs, a team needs to be a threat to score goals. Chicago is one of those teams too. They played well as a unit but you definitely know they had guys that could light the lamp at any moment.

Obviously, a team can't have horrible defense and must at least be pretty good at it. There must be some balances of course... can't be all offense. But to win you still have to score one more than your opponent. Unless you shut every team out, your team has to be able to score more than one goal a game. But I think that in hockey, a good offense is a good defense as well. Hard to score when you don't have the puck!

So I shall agree to disagree and stick with the method to my madness! haha.

 

[Jakey53]

Agree to disagree. Pittsburgh won 2 in a row without stellar defense. They played a good team game but ultimately they scored more goals than their opponent. Example... Last year they were number ONE in goals for and 17th in goals against. The year before... 3rd in gf, 6th in ga. There are teams that are better in GA than GF (LA Kings come to mind) but they had the right personnel to play that style. It appears to me that to consistently be a threat to go deep in the playoffs, a team needs to be a threat to score goals. Chicago is one of those teams too. They played well as a unit but you definitely know they had guys that could light the lamp at any moment.

Obviously, a team can't have horrible defense and must at least be pretty good at it. There must be some balances of course... can't be all offense. But to win you still have to score one more than your opponent. Unless you shut every team out, your team has to be able to score more than one goal a game. But I think that in hockey, a good offense is a good defense as well. Hard to score when you don't have the puck!

So I shall agree to disagree and stick with the method to my madness! haha.

You can throw out the regular season stats as they mean squat. Playoffs are a totally different game, and I include the goalies when talking D. I haven't looked it up but I bet both Fleury and Murray had a better sv% in the playoffs vs regular season. Teams play much different come playoff time. My opinion of course, so I do respect your view.

 

[Murf]

I like Duke as a player but he has to learn to play away from the puck, as it's not always about points. He is getting much better and I don't think he deserves all these scratches, but there has to be a reason that we are not seeing or know about.

The stats disagree. The stats say that reliance on fluffy cliches are a drain on the team's ability to win.

 

[_Del_]

You can throw out the regular season stats as they mean squat... Teams play much different come playoff time.

Then it completely makes sense to bench Duclair in favour of Cousins, Kempe, etc. We are after all a playoff team in the playoffs and nothing matters but tonight's game.

 

[cobra427]

I like Duke as a player but he has to learn to play away from the puck, as it's not always about points. He is getting much better and I don't think he deserves all these scratches, but there has to be a reason that we are not seeing or know about.

2 coaches are scratching him even though he has production. There must be a reason. I think it is his play away from the puck. Fans aren't smarter than both coaches and don't have all the information either.

 

[Ebb]

My guess is that RT is adjusting the roster to reflect the opponent we are facing. Cousins is better defensively, so it makes sense to dress him against the offensive Oilers. Of course, defensively they suck, so a case could be made for Duclair playing against them for an offensive edge to use; however, Edmonton is much more offensive than we are, even with Duke in the lineup.