GDT: PDSF Game 2 - 04.18.14 - at Anaheim - 9:00 PM - FS Southwest - 1310 AM/96.7 FM

[Al Core]

In Heika's recently chat he mentioned Whitney being unhappy with his role but predicting he'd power through it for the playoffs.

Holy ****. Really? I can't remember the last time Whitney won a puck battle along the boards. For god's sake, he loses them all the time on the powerplay. THE POWERPLAY!! He needs to shut his mouth. Good grief.

 

[Satan]

Wheeeeee

Anaheim isn't lucky though.

 

[Noodletoro]

The PP doesn't suck because of coaching. It sucks because this team doesn't have the talent to ice 2 units. We have 2 legit top six players on the team currently (who are both elite 1st liners) and one real offensive d-man (Goligoski) who is really doing the best he can on both sides of the ice but isn't the best quarterback. He should be the guy firing off shots with a legit PPQB or QB'ing a second unit. Chiasson and Nichushkin are 3rd line players at this point. Guys like Eakin, Roussel, and Garbutt are effective grinders that can score garbage goals but are more suited on a 3rd pp unit that gets thrown out there every now and then. Daley doesn't have the offensive awareness to be a PP threat and never will. K-Conn is green and his offense has never translated from juniors anyway. Whitney, Cole, Horcoff, and Gonchar are all washed up. When you are putting out guys like that its because your depth is garbage.

Oh and you can't really scratch these guys either. Who are you going to replace them with? Jeffery? Mueller? Rome? The options available are all worse than what we have and lack playoff experience.

Also we really need to give Goligoski and Daley a break here and some credit. This **** they are being tasked with is unbelievable and it is out of necessity because this d-core is so shallow. It was shallow with Dillon healthy and its awful now. They are being asked to play half a game because we have maybe 4 semi-reliable NHL quality d-men right now, one of which has played 10 games at the NHL level. Goligoski shouldn't be playing 30 minutes a game but there just isn't anyone else. Its insane but it is what it is. Nill needs to keep these two and add to them in the offseason. I understand its frustrating but they aren't the problem they are a symptom of this d-core being so shallow. Gonchar needs to go though. He is only going to continue to decline next season and having him here is only going to drag down the kid that is tasked to play with him or block someone's development. You think you are pissed at Goligoski now? Wait until Klingberg/Oleksiak is rocking the AHL next season and isn't being called up because Gonchar is here to be Nichushkin's security blanket.

 

[GreatBritishStarsFan]

Nichushkin [is a] 3rd line player at this point.

Nichu is a 2nd line player with no second line centre to play with

 

[Stars99Lobo37]

In Heika's recently chat he mentioned Whitney being unhappy with his role but predicting he'd power through it for the playoffs.

Holy crap. Hadn't heard that. That's beyond ridiculous.

I for one won't be sad to see either Whitney or Fiddler go. You're bloody vets. Put up and deal with it.

 

[Stars99Lobo37]

Nichu is a 2nd line player with no second line centre to play with

Yep, pretty much. He's more than stepped up his game in these last two.

 

[Brand New Stars]

Holy crap. Hadn't heard that. That's beyond ridiculous.

I for one won't be sad to see either Whitney or Fiddler go. You're bloody vets. Put up and deal with it.

It's so super sad to hear a player isn't happy with their role when they're stealing money from the team based on their play.

 

[Nexus]

In Heika's recently chat he mentioned Whitney being unhappy with his role but predicting he'd power through it for the playoffs.

What the actual ****?

You can't treat a real star power old fart who can't win a single battle for the puck along the boards to save his life.

 

[Hull Fan]

The sports ego blows my mind. I was great back in the day and even though I suck now I've got seniority, a contract and an ego driven right to play every night in the role I think I deserve because that's what I've always done. How dare you limit my minutes and my linemates. I'm mean yeah I had a bad game but...I'll bounce back.

 

[Ambassador Of Fun]

Whitney just isn't a catalyst on the powerplay anymore and has been ineffective all around. He's really done a great job at showing why teams wanted to only give him a 1 year contract.

To be fair, no one on the power play is a catalyst. Benn and Seguin are just as terrible as Goligoski and Whitney about getting the play set up.

 

[beepeearr]

The PP doesn't suck because of coaching. It sucks because this team doesn't have the talent to ice 2 units. We have 2 legit top six players on the team currently (who are both elite 1st liners) and one real offensive d-man (Goligoski) who is really doing the best he can on both sides of the ice but isn't the best quarterback. He should be the guy firing off shots with a legit PPQB or QB'ing a second unit. Chiasson and Nichushkin are 3rd line players at this point. Guys like Eakin, Roussel, and Garbutt are effective grinders that can score garbage goals but are more suited on a 3rd pp unit that gets thrown out there every now and then. Daley doesn't have the offensive awareness to be a PP threat and never will. K-Conn is green and his offense has never translated from juniors anyway. Whitney, Cole, Horcoff, and Gonchar are all washed up. When you are putting out guys like that its because your depth is garbage.

Oh and you can't really scratch these guys either. Who are you going to replace them with? Jeffery? Mueller? Rome? The options available are all worse than what we have and lack playoff experience.

Also we really need to give Goligoski and Daley a break here and some credit. This **** they are being tasked with is unbelievable and it is out of necessity because this d-core is so shallow. It was shallow with Dillon healthy and its awful now. They are being asked to play half a game because we have maybe 4 semi-reliable NHL quality d-men right now, one of which has played 10 games at the NHL level. Goligoski shouldn't be playing 30 minutes a game but there just isn't anyone else. Its insane but it is what it is. Nill needs to keep these two and add to them in the offseason. I understand its frustrating but they aren't the problem they are a symptom of this d-core being so shallow. Gonchar needs to go though. He is only going to continue to decline next season and having him here is only going to drag down the kid that is tasked to play with him or block someone's development. You think you are pissed at Goligoski now? Wait until Klingberg/Oleksiak is rocking the AHL next season and isn't being called up because Gonchar is here to be Nichushkin's security blanket.

I disagree, look at how this team scores the vast majority of its goals. On the rush, so why slow down and set up instead of going hard at the net on entries as often as possible.

Ok so we stop and set up, the biggest problem we then have is we can't stop hitting out own guys up front and keeping the puck in the zone. Once we get set up, we typically go into this two guys at the net two on the mid wall one D up high. Maybe this is the entire problem it means both points by design are open on the boards, unless the D can get to it in time, but then the other side is wide open. Maybe sending two guys + two defenders to the net isnt the best of ideas. Sure sometimes it works, but I don't think it works often.

You know what I want to see, I want to just start treating the PP like a normal shift, if your line is hot you get to play. No more odd 4 forward looks. Just run the lines as you had them configured all game, if the work during 5vs5 you have to figure it might work 5vs4. Mainly because our PP specialists in Gonchar and Whitney (not good PP specialist) dont look very effective at all most of the time on the PP. Oh and it would be nice to see Connauton get some minutes on the PP opposite Goligoski on the shooting side. Maybe next year?

 

[Klockis]

I haven't read a single post but.
Kari:

GAA 3.56 SV %.870

Andersen:

GAA 2.50 SV%.930

Gee I wonder why we lost those games.

 

[Caseman]

Benn had a pretty horrid game excluding the ppg assist. I know that's a bit unfair, but he's one of our best (if not the best) overall player on this team and did not play like it last night.

 

[Klockis]

Benn had a pretty horrid game excluding the ppg assist. I know that's a bit unfair, but he's one of our best (if not the best) overall player on this team and did not play like it last night.

Both him and Seguin looked off. Val has been our best forward in the post season.

 

[Primetimey*]

Both him and Seguin looked off. Val has been our best forward in the post season.

You guys must see stuff in Val I don't. Constantly trying to get over the blue line fumbling the puck, doesn't know when to leave the ice even with his teammates slamming their sticks on the boards yelling at him, bad positioning in defensive zone, and more.

Far from the best forward.

 

[Klockis]

You guys must see stuff in Val I don't. Constantly trying to get over the blue line fumbling the puck, doesn't know when to leave the ice even with his teammates slamming their sticks on the boards yelling at him, bad positioning in defensive zone, and more.

Far from the best forward.

You might be right but I just watched the game and was very underwhelmed by Benn and Seguin (and I'm really pissed at the Refs ). My judgment is not really good right now and may be largely influenced by that Val gave full effort. But of Val hasn't been the best forward who has? No one has really stood out.

 

[marquee]

I haven't read a single post but.
Kari:

GAA 3.56 SV %.870

Andersen:

GAA 2.50 SV%.930

Gee I wonder why we lost those games.

Sometimes numbers dont tell the story. Kari hasnt stolen a game yet but hes not the reasom this teams in a hole.

Cant keep relying on a goalie to bail the d out game after game. Goli and daley need help and forwards need to back check.

This team has to create some quality scoring amd test andersen. Get him moving laterally and elevate the damn puck.

 

[Primetimey*]

You might be right but I just watched the game and was very underwhelmed by Benn and Seguin (and Is really pissed at the Refs ). My judgment is not really good right now and may be largely influenced by that Val gave full effort. But of Val hasn't been the best forward who has? No one has really stood out.

Benn/Seguin don't match up well against Getzalf/Perry so when we get on home ice I expect better results.

 

[Klockis]

Sometimes numbers dont tell the story. Kari hasnt stolen a game yet but hes not the reasom this teams in a hole.

Cant keep relying on a goalie to bail the d out game after game. Goli and daley need help and forwards need to back check.

This team has to create some quality scoring amd test andersen. Get him moving laterally and elevate the damn puck.

Kari has to bail out this team if we are going to have any chance, the D sucks but that is not exactly new is it? If you have that poor SV% it usually means that you have two losses, not entirely on him but he has to be the elite goalie he can be.

 

[glovesave_35]

Not to jump on the Whitney hate train but I was looking at the game notes and noticed Whitney had zeroes in virtually every category except he had 1 hit (lol). No goals, assists, shots, blocked shots, giveaways, takeaways, and an even +/-. He managed to not have a single shot on goal in 6 minutes of PP time.

 

[ginblossoms]

I don't read that isolated Heika comment (without more context) about Whitney as being necessarily bad. Maybe Whitney realizes that he hasn't played up to his standards this year, so he understands why his role has diminished. He can understand it and still be unhappy. Not automatically an attitude problem.

 

[Elysian]

I don't read that isolated Heika comment (without more context) about Whitney as being necessarily bad. Maybe Whitney realizes that he hasn't played up to his standards this year, so he understands why his role has diminished. He can understand it and still be unhappy. Not automatically an attitude problem.

I'd tend to agree if Whitney showed ANY sign that he's trying to improve... But we have a full season to judge him by, and he stinks.

 

[DaStars99]

At this point Jeffery brings more to the table than Whitney. I'd be 100% behind a change like this but I know that it is far from happening. Start your retirement early Whitney and **** off.