GDT: Sens @ Lightning | Tuesday April 9 | Part 2

[starling]

Bench everyone and bring Da Costa.

 

[mcnorth]

I'd like to see Greening with Turris maybe, have him take the draws and then they can switch from there. Greening isn't an ace or anything, but he can learn to not lose them outright. Maybe.

Sure would like to see Turris just try to scramble every draw when it's a PP.

 

[Milan the God*]

Smith has been playing below the value of his contract ever since he signed it. In no way does he deserve 1C responsibility.

Smith had a great first half of last year. In the first 37 games of the season, Smith had 11 goals and 8 assists. Not amazing numbers, but very good for the role he was playing, which was a third line center.

Honestly was expecting Smith to top out at 20-23 goals and the same amount of assists, while playing great defensively, hitting hard and not being afraid to drop the mits. His play this year has made me think he'll probably top out at 13-16G and probably the same amount of assists. He has a very hard shot, but misses the net wayyyyy too much.

 

[mcnorth]

I guess it's time for people to start throwing Smith under the bus again, huh?

He deserves his critics. I would love to be praising his game tonight.

 

[pucky]

Anderson with a .875 save percentage tonight.

Below average goaltending stats and most teams lose tbh regardless of what's actually going on.

I'm not down on Andy but when your averaging a .878 save percentage it's hard for any team to win.

The Bishop trade was stupid. You don't trade a #1 calibre goalie for a smallish forward. What was the point of that trade, anyway? Was he mad about something?

Made little sense.

 

[Scrub*]

I guess it's time for people to start throwing Smith under the bus again, huh?

No but it's not time to put him #1 centre either.

 

[WhiteLight*]

to be fair the only time Smith played well this season it was with Alfie and Lats so why the frik not

 

[Qward]

The Bishop trade was stupid. You don't trade a #1 calibre goalie for a smallish forward. What was the point of that trade, anyway? Was he mad about something?

Made little sense.

The guy is in contention for the Calder...

 

[mcnorth]

Smith had a great first half of last year. In the first 37 games of the season, Smith had 11 goals and 8 assists. Not amazing numbers, but very good for the role he was playing, which was a third line center.

Honestly was expecting Smith to top out at 20-23 goals and the same amount of assists, while playing great defensively, hitting hard and not being afraid to drop the mits. His play this year has made me think he'll probably top out at 13-16G and probably the same amount of assists. He has a very hard shot, but misses the net wayyyyy too much.

He was one of the Bingo boys who really faded down the stretch. I thought they were just gassed after the Calder run and that was fair enough. He has had his moments but has not played as well as I expected.

 

[source]

Smith had a great first half of last year. In the first 37 games of the season, Smith had 11 goals and 8 assists. Not amazing numbers, but very good for the role he was playing, which was a third line center.

Actually, I'm wrong. His new contract kicks in next year (1.887/yr for 4 years), but I think he signed it sometime after that great 1st half.

Ideally, Smith can play that type of game you mentioned as our 3rd line C, but so far he's been a liability.

 

[YNWA14]

Smith on line 1? ok...

It worked well last time. Then they decided to move Turris back up because he was on a hot streak. Turris is cold again (relatively) and the team just isn't meshing well right now...don't know why it wouldn't be worth trying. Smith looked really good with Alfredsson and Lats actually.

 

[Legend Killer]

The Bishop trade was stupid. You don't trade a #1 calibre goalie for a smallish forward. What was the point of that trade, anyway? Was he mad about something?

Made little sense.

They HAD to make room for Lehner.... Apparently...

I would have dealt one of the 3 in the summer... No need to do it at the deadline. Between waiving the Daug and trading Bishop Murray Rocked the apple cart!!!!

 

[shootingrubber]

How the **** are we still in 6th place? I can't believe it. Thought we'd be in like 8th, or maybe 7th. Granted I don't check the standings that often, but still, we've lost 5 in a row. Just shows how much of a cushion we did have 5 games ago. Now not so much.

We need to start winning games, and we need to start now.

Andy is not the problem, Lehner is not the problem, and Bishop was not the problem. The guys can't ****ing score goals, people have forgotten how to play hockey, our D is soft, our forwards are soft (right now), the whole team is soft. Why the **** are they not using Kassian, Neil, and Smith to protect our other forwards getting pushed around? That is why we did bring Kassian in, right?

Some questionable coaching decisions right now IMHO. MacLean is a great coach, I think he's the best coach this club has had in a LONG time, but c'mon, use your players effectively. Use them to promote their strengths and hide their weaknesses, not the other way around.

Gonchar? WTF happend to him? Invisible the past 6-7 games.

Smith is not as bad as everyone is making him out to be, but he has not been great. I do think that this is partly the coach not using him where he is most effective, however.

Turris played better than he has played in the last 2 months, but he is NOWHERE near a #1 C. We need Spezza back, and it can not come soon enough.

We have no effective puck movement defensively, we can't get the puck out of the zone on a regular basis, we can't ever have a clean breakout, people are getting beaten to the puck constantly.

No drive, no heart, and no urgency. Players thought they had the playoffs all locked up, and it's biting them in the ass right now. They're believing their own BS. #PeskySens, yeah right.

Start winning some damn ****ing games.

 

[Milan the God*]

Actually, I'm wrong. His new contract kicks in next year (1.887/yr for 4 years), but I think he signed it sometime after that great 1st half.

Ideally, Smith can play that type of game you mentioned as our 3rd line C, but so far he's been a liability.

To be honest, I was wrong as well. I thought he signed around the same time Greening did and now I remember he signed last fall.

 

[ChocolateLeclaire]

Gryba was the best d-man at moving the puck out of our zone tonight.

Think about that.

Gonchar...

 

[mcnorth]

Are the D eating it and taking so many hits b/c the forwards aren't getting back and the opposition is taking away the hard around? Seems like Gonch and Phillips and co. have had to hold on to a lot of the pucks they're retrieving and they're not moving around and up in some pretty tough spots to be in. The TV angles rarely let you see it, but there has to be a reason these guys are keeping it in their feet and taking the hits, right? Right?

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

No but it's not time to put him #1 centre either.

You're getting hung up on a number. The point of that move is to spread out the offense. Most NHL teams will focus on shutting down Alfie and Latendresse rather than Turris and Greening on another line.

We have one line really clicking right now in Conacher-Zibanejad-Silfverberg and the rest aren't generating much (Turris' line was actually very good tonight, more just talking about the past 4-5 games). The idea is to find space for another line to produce. Whether that be Lats-Smith-Alfie or Greening-Turris-XXX, it doesn't matter. We're at our best when we have a three line attack. As it stands right now, our bottom 6 is doing jack squat. I'd also recommend we carry 4th liners who can contribute in significant ways. We have a bunch available, so there shouldn't be excuses of injuries here.

Its not a coincidence that we struggle on the road when Turris is on the "first line". It creates very very easy matchups that even a rookie coach like Ron Rolston can exploit. Smith shifting into Turris' spot is meant to make this more difficult. We were successful when this switch was made earlier in the season.

Time to put egos at the door. It doesn't matter what line number a guy is on, we need them filling a role and contributing to Ws. Smith's faceoffs and willingness to shoot are a good complement to Latendresse and Alfie. Turris' skating and playmaking are a good complement on a line with a guy like Greening.

 

[PatrickEaves]

I'm sick of people blaming Regin for all our problems. Fact: The guy has zero goals on the season, so of course he deserves some flack.

That being said, he is far from being the biggest problem on this team during the current losing streak. He's not even the biggest problem on his line. The fact of the matter is, the 4th line has gone from being a 10-12 minute a game line to a 4-5 minute a game line ever since we put Kassian on it. For a team that is missing top line talent that needs to be on the ice more, and a team that was thriving in the 3rd period because they had more energy than the other team because they were rolling 4 lines, this is a problem.

How many games have we lost in the 3rd period lately? This a team that was rolling and dominating teams in the 3rd period earlier in the season. I'm still not sure why Kassian is in the lineup on a regular basis, especially when it's obvious 'Stache doesn't trust him to play a regular shift.

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

Gryba was the best d-man at moving the puck out of our zone tonight.

Think about that.

Gonchar...

But what's the alternative? Play Benoit or Lundin 20 minutes a night? He just has to battle through it. There are no reinforcements coming. According to Lavoie, Karlsson could be back in 3-4 weeks, I tend to believe that but it'll be too late if we don't make the playoffs. Gonchar is all we have at this point. You gotta live and by the sword at this point.

 

[FolignoQuantumLeap]

I'm sick of people blaming Regin for all our problems. Fact: The guy has zero goals on the season, so of course he deserves some flack.

That being said, he is far from being the biggest problem on this team during the current losing streak. He's not even the biggest problem on his line. The fact of the matter is, the 4th line has gone from being a 10-12 minute a game line to a 4-5 minute a game line ever since we put Kassian on it. For a team that is missing top line talent that needs to be on the ice more, and a team that was thriving in the 3rd period because they had more energy than the other team because they were rolling 4 lines, this is a problem.

How many games have we lost in the 3rd period lately? This a team that was rolling and dominating teams in the 3rd period earlier in the season. I'm still not sure why Kassian is in the lineup on a regular basis, especially when it's obvious 'Stache doesn't trust him to play a regular shift.

So we can all agree that O'Brien should be playing ahead of Kassian? This is getting ridiculous. Our 4th line is almost always a factor historically. I like Kassian but he's useless in this stretch run. Neil or Gryba will have to step up to fight if needed. This shift in our 4th line has coincided with our PK becoming average to bad when we were ranked #2 all year.

 

[Tundraman]

TB concentrated on making late and dirty hits on our young line tonight. They called it "finishing their checks". Zbad absorbed the bad hits, paid the price for it but didn't fade. The other 2 backed off carrying the puck especially along the boards near mid ice trying to reach the red line for a pass or dump-in. I saw Silfv leave the puck, bail and turn away quite a few times so as not to take a hit. I'm not saying they played badly, they had a very good start but it did affect their tempo and synch later on.

 

[mcnorth]

TB concentrated on making late and dirty hits on our young line tonight. They called it "finishing their checks". Zbad absorbed the bad hits, paid the price for it but didn't fade. The other 2 backed off carrying the puck especially along the boards near mid ice trying to reach the red line for a pass or dump-in. I saw Silfv leave the puck, bail and turn away quite a few times so as not to take a hit. I'm not saying they played badly, they had a very good start but it did affect their tempo and synch later on.

I was really impressed with Zbad and the way he kept going and finished some checks of his own. Silf didn't really have the puck in space tonight it seemed so I'll take your word for it.

The Kid line has been good but I'm open to moving Conacher somewhere else to see if we could create scoring in more places.

 

[Slack]

to be fair the only time Smith played well this season it was with Alfie and Lats so why the frik not

Yep Smith actually played really well a little while back when he was handling 1C duties. He hasn't been very good since, but the same can be said for Turris. I mean Turris was better tonight than in his last few, but he's still painfully bad on faceoffs.

I guess the positive thing is that we outplayed the other team tonight, and if it wasn't for O'Rourke we'd likely have gone to OT or snagged a W.

 

[Caje]

I'm sick of people blaming Regin for all our problems. Fact: The guy has zero goals on the season, so of course he deserves some flack.

That being said, he is far from being the biggest problem on this team during the current losing streak. He's not even the biggest problem on his line. The fact of the matter is, the 4th line has gone from being a 10-12 minute a game line to a 4-5 minute a game line ever since we put Kassian on it. For a team that is missing top line talent that needs to be on the ice more, and a team that was thriving in the 3rd period because they had more energy than the other team because they were rolling 4 lines, this is a problem.

How many games have we lost in the 3rd period lately? This a team that was rolling and dominating teams in the 3rd period earlier in the season. I'm still not sure why Kassian is in the lineup on a regular basis, especially when it's obvious 'Stache doesn't trust him to play a regular shift.

Completely agree. Kassian needs to go. He barely fights, and when he does it never changes any of the momentum. He doesn't prevent cheapshots - where was he when Zibby got an elbow to the head? There's literally no use for him. It was a reactionary trade that never made any sense. He needs to go.

 

[WhiteLight*]

That Greening Smith Neil has absolutely no chemistry. why they're playing together I don't know


Latendresse - Smith - Alfredsson
Conacher - Zibanejad - Silfverberg
Greening - Turris - Condra
Regin - O'Brien - Neil


Do it

If that doesn't work, put Lats with the Swedes and Conacher with Turris