Pre-Game Talk: Last week of the regular season. B-Lose, Preds, @Minny

[Bill Peckerskull]

3 BIG FAT L's



The Savior we want! The Savior we need!

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[Cake Malar]

 

[forsbergavs32]

Having trouble with the poll question. Can I use my 50-50?

 

[Avsboy]

I'd like to see the full roster

 

[RECKLESS]

Colorado Suckalanche.

 

[Pierce Hawthorne]

Scale of 1-10 how much is everyone panicking?



Wonder if we see Landy get into any of these final games. Would be nice for him to get a chance to get his legs under him a little before the real season starts.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

Scale of 1-10 how much is everyone panicking?

I'm not panipanicking. I'm pissed off at their lazy effort and falling into bad habits more than anything.

 

[dahrougem2]

Once everyone returns and is healthy I'd like to see:

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Nichushkin - Kadri - Burakovsky
Lehkonen - Sturm - Compher
Helm - Newhook - Cogliano/LOC/NAK/Whoever Doesn't Suck

Toews - Makar
Byram - EJ
Girard - Manson

Then for the PPs:

Nichushkin - Landeskog - Rantanen
MacKinnon - Makar

Lehkonen - Kadri - Burakovsky
Byram - Toews

With that said, I have zero confidence in those PP units actually happening. I thought our PP was on FIRE when it was Lehkonen/Nichushkin hounding pucks and going to the net while MacK/Mikko/Cale did their thing. Then when Kadri returned it slowed. With Landeskog/Nichushkin you have the puck hounding but even better net front presence from Gabe. Then the 2nd unit Kadri can be on the half wall where I believe he is much better suited since he's a great passer.

 

[the_fan]

When everyone's healthy I'd like to see this lineup...

Nichushkin-Nichushkin-Nichushkin
Nichushkin-Nichushkin-Nichushkin
Nichushkin-Nichushkin-Nichushkin
Nichushkin-Nichushkin-Nichushkin

Nichushkin-Nichushkin
Nichushkin-Nichushkin
Nichushkin-Nichushkin

Nichushkin
Nichushkin

 

[AvsWraith]

I wanna keep Nuke on that top line.

Nuke - MacK - Rants
Landy - Kadri - Bura
Lehk - Sturm - JTC
LOC - Hook - NAK

 

[Nihiliste]

We can’t really dog it against these 3 teams since we they’re all potential playoff matchups

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

Not a huge fan of Hook as 4th line C. Much rather see JTC there but they won't do it.

 

[The Pwnerer]

Time to get things going. We need to build off some sort of momentum heading into the playoffs. Teams don't just flick a switch and all of a sudden get good again. Momentum and confidence is huge. Important string of games here to right the ship.

 

[Northern Avs Fan]

Once everyone returns and is healthy I'd like to see:

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Nichushkin - Kadri - Burakovsky
Lehkonen - Sturm - Compher
Helm - Newhook - Cogliano/LOC/NAK/Whoever Doesn't Suck

Toews - Makar
Byram - EJ
Girard - Manson

Then for the PPs:

Nichushkin - Landeskog - Rantanen
MacKinnon - Makar

Lehkonen - Kadri - Burakovsky
Byram - Toews

With that said, I have zero confidence in those PP units actually happening. I thought our PP was on FIRE when it was Lehkonen/Nichushkin hounding pucks and going to the net while MacK/Mikko/Cale did their thing. Then when Kadri returned it slowed. With Landeskog/Nichushkin you have the puck hounding but even better net front presence from Gabe. Then the 2nd unit Kadri can be on the half wall where I believe he is much better suited since he's a great passer.

I’d move Newhook to the 3rd line, but other than that I like it. I think continuity is the best thing at this point. I’d definitely reunite the top two lines. I might put Girard back with EJ too because there’s a lot of familiarity with that pairing.

They just don’t have enough time to mess around with new lines.

 

[Ararana]

Scale of 1-10 how much is everyone panicking?



Wonder if we see Landy get into any of these final games. Would be nice for him to get a chance to get his legs under him a little before the real season starts.

1 for me. They could lose the last three games and I still don't care. As long as everyone is healthy and ready to roll in game 1 of the real season.

Literally nothing in the regular season matters to me, especially now that their playoff seed is locked in. And from the looks of it, the players feel the same. Everyone is coasting and trying not to get hurt right now.

No joke, I'd sit MacKinnon, Makar and Kuemper the next three games.

If Dallas does what they should the Avs are going to have a softer first round. The Avs should walk all over either of Nashville/Dallas.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

Once everyone returns and is healthy I'd like to see:

Landeskog - MacKinnon - Rantanen
Nichushkin - Kadri - Burakovsky
Lehkonen - Sturm - Compher
Helm - Newhook - Cogliano/LOC/NAK/Whoever Doesn't Suck

Toews - Makar
Byram - EJ
Girard - Manson

Then for the PPs:

Nichushkin - Landeskog - Rantanen
MacKinnon - Makar

Lehkonen - Kadri - Burakovsky
Byram - Toews

With that said, I have zero confidence in those PP units actually happening. I thought our PP was on FIRE when it was Lehkonen/Nichushkin hounding pucks and going to the net while MacK/Mikko/Cale did their thing. Then when Kadri returned it slowed. With Landeskog/Nichushkin you have the puck hounding but even better net front presence from Gabe. Then the 2nd unit Kadri can be on the half wall where I believe he is much better suited since he's a great passer.

Landeskog/MacKinnon/Rantanen
Nichushkin/Kadri/Burakovsky
Lehkonen/Newhook/Compher
Helm/Sturm/Cogliano/LOC/NAK - will be a revolving door

Toews/Makar
Girard/Manson
Byram/EJ - would rather see G and Bo flip-flopped
JJ//Murray/Dermy - JJ, EJ, and Murray will also be a revolving door. Dermy will be a reactionary play when they get bullied the previous game and we hear about matching physicality in the post-game PC, and your 3rd pairing becomes one Johnson and Dermy, and Bo sits.

PP1
Landy/Naz/Rants
Mack/Makar

PP2
Nuke/Hook/Bura
G/Toews

Would much rather see Nuke and Naz swapping places, and Lehk over Girard on 2nd unit, but we won't

 

[Alienblood]

Nichuskin is our best forward

Fire Bednar and trade Mikko

 

[RockLobster]

Honestly, people should be somewhat panicked. This team hasn't lost 4 straight at all this year and has picked the worst time to just play absolutely uninspired hockey. And 2 of these last 4 games were against teams out of the playoffs and they just looked like dogshit.

They're doing everything they can to just coast in to the playoffs with no momentum, going up against a team that has had to claw their way into those same playoffs. If they don't turn it around, they could be looking at being in a hole very quickly.

 

[Puckstop40]

Avalanchearestupid

 

[Ararana]

Honestly, people should be somewhat panicked. This team hasn't lost 4 straight at all this year and has picked the worst time to just play absolutely uninspired hockey. And 2 of these last 4 games were against teams out of the playoffs and they just looked like dogshit.

They're doing everything they can to just coast in to the playoffs with no momentum, going up against a team that has had to claw their way into those same playoffs. If they don't turn it around, they could be looking at being in a hole very quickly.

Their two most likely round 1 opponents, Dallas and Nashville, have both gone 4-4-2 in their last 10 games. They're not exactly rolling into the playoffs with a f*** ton of momentum, if anything they're trying to play themselves out of a playoff spot right now.

I'm not worried one bit. If the Avs were going to get a St Louis in round 1 who are absolutely on fire right now, yeah I'd be a bit concerned about momentum going in. But Dallas/Nashville, not even sweating it. Just be healthy for game 1 and roll all your lines. Niether of those teams are beating a healthy Avs team in a 7-game series.

There is zero coincidence that the first 4 game losing streak came when the games don't mean anything anymore.

 

[bromando]

Honestly, people should be somewhat panicked. This team hasn't lost 4 straight at all this year and has picked the worst time to just play absolutely uninspired hockey. And 2 of these last 4 games were against teams out of the playoffs and they just looked like dogshit.

They're doing everything they can to just coast in to the playoffs with no momentum, going up against a team that has had to claw their way into those same playoffs. If they don't turn it around, they could be looking at being in a hole very quickly.

Agreed. Momentum is a hell of a drug in hockey. It's one thing to lose a few non-consequential games off bad bounces or to not go all out to try to tie it up in a meaningless game. It's another to just look lazy, uninterested, and coast on fumes of the season right as you should be ramping up intensity.

 

[Balthazar]

The only reason to panic (a little) is because it looks like they care and try to win but they play like hot garbage. The whole Avs bench looked pissed when WPG scored the 4th goal last night.

If they were keeping the foot off the gas there would be no reason to panic for losses but it's not the case.

 

[Vk1ing]

I am not happy with our play but I don't think we should panic. We are missing 2/3 of our top line and arguably our number 1 defenseman. A lot of players have been playing higher in the lineup than they should for a long time and it's showing. As long as the team can show a better effort going forward we should be fine. I hope we can get Rants, Landy and toews back and fully use these as tune up games. I get the argument for load management but I think some good chemistry going into the playoffs is important.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Lol

 

[The Abusement Park]

Nichuskin is our best forward

Fire Bednar and trade Mikko

We should trade Nuke too. He’s too good to waste away his career with all these bums.