Goal-Day Thread Game 3: Coyotes @ Ducks - 7PM - FSAZ

[Neighborhood Coyote]

After last night, we’re 4th league-wide in shots per game (37). We’ve also allowed the second fewest shots against (23).

That shots against stat has me pretty happy. Granted, there have been some grade A shots in there, but it's been 3 games... of course there will be in time. The idea of not giving up a bunch of shots (especially after the team in recent history was just letting them rain down) makes me wonder if it's going to correlate to less goals against by the end of the season. It should, but that's not how the cookie always crumbles haha. But, if the Yotes can sustain those kind of things, good things should happen.

I don't mind being in the position of having good underlying numbers and things SHOULD be going well vs not having good numbers and just hoping that things will go well.

 

[rt]

Strome 69.2% in the dot, 3rd best in the NHL through 3 games.

Nice. You just had to tack on that .2, huh? Couldn’t just let it be perfect?

 

[Neighborhood Coyote]

Strome 69.2% in the dot, 3rd best in the NHL through 3 games.

Hope he can keep this up, btw. That's one of the things I felt like the team could use going into this season... a player they can depend on to most likely win some of the important draws (or at least not get beaten cleanly). Last year the best we had was what... Richardson? Having a player with 69% win rate is a nice tool to have in the box.

 

[Grimes]

Hope he can keep this up, btw. That's one of the things I felt like the team could use going into this season... a player they can depend on to most likely win some of the important draws (or at least not get beaten cleanly). Last year the best we had was what... Richardson? Having a player with 69% win rate is a nice tool to have in the box.

Agreed, and his FO dominance has awarded him more minutes. I see him centering Keller and another skilled forward pretty consistently now when it's the last couple minutes of a game and the FO is in the offensive zone. I like that Stepan can take the tougher assignments now and let Strome and some skilled players matchup against lesser lines.

It's going to be really interesting what the lines look like once Dvorak and Galchenyuk are back.

 

[Grimes]

Looking ahead at the schedule, it would be really nice to come out of October with a .500 W/L record. No back to backs, lots of home games, and a good share of winnable games.

Winnable:
CHI
VAN
OTT

Difficult:
Winnipeg
TBL

Good Tests:
Minn
CBJ

 

[Shepard]

Looking ahead at the schedule, it would be really nice to come out of October with a .500 W/L record. No back to backs, lots of home games, and a good share of winnable games.

Winnable:
CHI
VAN
OTT

Difficult:
Winnipeg
TBL

Good Tests:
Minn
CBJ

Might as well put the TBL game in the loss column already.

 

[cobra427]

I thought we played at least with Dallas in game 1 and we outplayed the Ducks both games. The Ducks are fortunate to get 3 points. It's only 3 games but we have control of the puck more then the other team, that hasn't happened in 10 years at least. Our shot differential reflects that and if it continues we win more than we lose.

Overall we played well. Raanta let in a softie but so did Gibson on Strome's goal. This is why you keep shooting. I am glad Strome scored, that should help his confidence. Also has been great on the dot, that helps. His play away from the puck was better last night, he didn't seem like a liability to me, that will keep him in the NHL assuming it continues. On offence, he will get his points no doubt.

 

[The Feckless Puck]

Overall we played well. Raanta let in a softie but so did Gibson on Strome's goal.

I don't think Strome's goal was a softie at all. The puck basically had its own height of space just right of the five-hole as Gibson's left pad was coming down in the butterfly. It was a hell of a shot and Strome fired it low enough that it didn't even graze the pad.

 

[rt]

More than the impact that the strong FO% has on the team, I’m very glad he’s killing it the dot for self-preservation reasons.

It’s going to ensure he stays at center. It’s going to ensure he’s on the ice at critical moments. It’s going to make it harder on the coaching staff to stick him at wing or keep him permanently stuck on the fourth line with limited linemates and spare minutes.

His FO% is protecting him from his coaches to some extent. What good for Strome is good for the franchise at this point.

 

[Summer Rose]

More than the impact that the strong FO% has on the team, I’m very glad he’s killing it the dot for self-preservation reasons.

It’s going to ensure he stays at center. It’s going to ensure he’s on the ice at critical moments. It’s going to make it harder on the coaching staff to stick him at wing or keep him permanently stuck on the fourth line with limited linemates and spare minutes.

His FO% is protecting him from his coaches to some extent. What good for Strome is good for the franchise at this point.

I want to print this post out and add it to my collection on my bedroom door along with posts by @RABBIT and @ParisSaintGermain because agreeing with this post with every fiber of my being isn't enough.

 

[Name Nameless]

More than the impact that the strong FO% has on the team, I’m very glad he’s killing it the dot for self-preservation reasons.

It’s going to ensure he stays at center. It’s going to ensure he’s on the ice at critical moments. It’s going to make it harder on the coaching staff to stick him at wing or keep him permanently stuck on the fourth line with limited linemates and spare minutes.

His FO% is protecting him from his coaches to some extent. What good for Strome is good for the franchise at this point.

Where's those ice-time stats again. I'm so tired, haven been up since 4AM to watch the game. Yeah, it's 9:30 pm here now

I don't think he had 4th line minutes. Call it 4th line if the team calls it that, but my hunch that wasn't 4th line minutes...

 

[BUX7PHX]

Not enough NHL-caliber players on this team. The following are not NHL-caliber, they are mediocre AHL players at best.

-Perlini
-Cousins
-Kempe
-Crouse
-Hinostroza
-Fisher
-Richardson

1/2 of our forward lineup isn't good enough for the NHL. What results do you expect? 1 goal in 3 games sounds about right.

LOL, Kempe is an average AHL player. Cousins is a good 4th liner, so probably a better than mediocre AHL player. Richardson is kind of the same. All of the other guys did so well at being mediocre in the AHL that they were brought up to the NHL to continue their mediocrity, right?

Perlini, Crouse, Hinostroza, and Fischer can be dangerous, but they are too young right now to be perfectly efficient at this time, but not anywhere close to mediocre AHL players, at best. I still think Fischer winds up breaking out for 50 points this year.

 

[GiveAFlyingPuck]

Might as well put the TBL game in the loss column already.

It's the second of a back-to-back for them. They play Vegas the night before. However, that hasn't been much of a help in the past.

 

[SniperHF]

Where's those ice-time stats again. I'm so tired, haven been up since 4AM to watch the game. Yeah, it's 9:30 pm here now

I don't think he had 4th line minutes. Call it 4th line if the team calls it that, but my hunch that wasn't 4th line minutes...

Strome plays 4th line minutes 5 on 5, though only about a minute less than Richardson. His PP time is what elevates his minutes above that. Where as Kempe and Crouse are his linemates and don't get that extra time and are last on the team in minutes.

Also it's worth pointing out that Strome sees occasional double shifts with Keller. This happened 3-4 times last night where it wasn't an outright jumbling of the lines.

It's the second of a back-to-back for them. They play Vegas the night before. However, that hasn't been much of a help in the past.

So we get Louis? Anyone feel like yelling at him?

 

[Summer Rose]

So we get Louis? Anyone feel like yelling at him?

I feel like just breathing on him is enough to get his knickers in a twist.

 

[GiveAFlyingPuck]

I don't think Strome's goal was a softie at all. The puck basically had its own height of space just right of the five-hole as Gibson's left pad was coming down in the butterfly. It was a hell of a shot and Strome fired it low enough that it didn't even graze the pad.

Agreed. I thought Gibson may have been looking for Strome to pass and it caused him a to be a little slow in geting the pad down.

 

[Summer Rose]

Agreed. I thought Gibson may have been looking for Strome to pass and it caused him a to be a little slow in geting the pad down.

It was an extremely confident move. When you're on the PP, the penalty killers tend to retreat and give you extra space you don't have 5 on 5, keeping that box or diamond tight and blocking lanes. Strome took advantage of that space and walked in relatively unopposed a few strides. He recognized that his outlet lanes were all blocked so he read Gibson's stance and elected to just rip it under his pad. Possibly a questionable decision to shoot there, since the way his teammates were all positioned there was no rebound play available, but he was just all like "Everybody chill the f*** out, I got this." His basic play alternative was to peel to the corner, drawing the left point main against the boards, and pass up the boards to the left point, but he was just all "nah man I'm f***ing scoring f*** you."

It takes some real balls to make that kind of decision.

 

[Imaravencawcaw]

Agreed. I thought Gibson may have been looking for Strome to pass and it caused him a to be a little slow in geting the pad down.

Also an underappreciated play by Panik to lift the defender's stick as Strome starts to walk in, gives him that extra half second to get the shot off without it being blocked.

 

[Mosby]

So we get Louis? Anyone feel like yelling at him?

*Raises hand*

 

[SniperHF]

*Raises hand*

"Hi Renaissance Hotel Security, this is the Tampa Bay Lighting's travel coordinator. Some crazy man is yelling outside our room please have him removed".

 

[azcanuck]

Good win. Interesting playing Strome with Crouse and Kempe, two borderline minor leaguers. But it was the best line in the first period and Dylan got more minutes with guys like Keller (who played poorly). That's the way to do it, reward him for playing well.
Very concerning is our D. Sure the shots mostly because we had the puck most of the time. But when they did get it from us the breakdowns are brutal. Too many breakaways, partials and point blank shots.
That one goal with Ducks wacking away in front of the net over and over drives me nuts. When I coached I always emphasized that it's too easy to end up watching what's going on . You either go at the stick hard or you knock guys on their ass. Brutal .
Lots to fix on the back end and it's not happening this year.

 

[rt]

"Hi Renaissance Hotel Security, this is the Tampa Bay Lighting's travel coordinator. Some crazy man is yelling outside our room please have him removed".

Meanwhile Domingue is cowering under the bed, I’m the fetal position, shivering, sweating, hugging himself and rocking back and forth.

 

[cobra427]

Agreed. I thought Gibson may have been looking for Strome to pass and it caused him a to be a little slow in geting the pad down.

Guys, it was a soft goal, and so was the one on Raanta short side, no other way to spin it.

 

[justin323032]

One has to wonder how many goals we might have scored if we just had someone screening the goalie. Out of our 100 shots, do you guys remember seeing even one legit screen? I know I can't.

 

[Grimes]

Guys, it was a soft goal, and so was the one on Raanta short side, no other way to spin it.