ILikeItILoveIt
Registered User
- Apr 2, 2010
- 824
- 621
Funny how our perception of this team turned beginning last year. Up to last year, we had a great run of making the playoffs, and then finally winning two series. A loss to the Yotes, along with the Russian Curfew-Gate, followed by the desertion of Suter, sent us in a direction we’ve rarely seen in Smashville since we started to make the Playoffs in Year 6: Regression!
Except for the one year after “The Sell-off†where we didn’t make the playoffs (although even that year we weren’t out until the last game), we hadn’t played a meaningless game since 2004 before last year. Everything was a building block, even when we lost. First playoff series, first playoff home game win, first playoff road game win, first playoff series win, etc. We never won the Division because Detroit or Chicago always won the Division. We were 4th seed several times. We were up-and-coming. The Pekka-Weber-Suter core was the best goalie – D1 Pair in the league. For 30 minutes of every game, we could shut you down and light you up from the point.
Last year we reached our obligatory 5th seed for awhile, then injuries hit and we let the bottom fall out. Many meaningless AHL games were played at Bridgestone but we chalked it up to a short season and injuries. A flesh wound at best.
Last night proved where we really are. Win and we’re 6 points out of 8th with a game-in-hand, .500 again in points, and hope that we can stay in striking distance and go on a Pekka-led March run, and steal the 8th spot. Instead, our Grinderfest, Grit-Rich band of 3rd and 4th line brothers played PredatorSoft and laid down. Except for Smith on occasion, there is no forward worth watching. The D would be good if we had all the other pieces but we don’t so they need to contribute more on O and they can’t. We have bad-to-mediocre goaltending for the first time in our franchise history. Neither of our goalies could make any other NHL roster. Maz is a gutzy kid, just like the majority of Grinderville players we have, but not good enough.
The innocence of hope that we were building something great here is gone. We blinked after losing Game 5 to Phoenix in 2012 and it went away. The parties outside before the big games, the sellouts and the end of worrying about attendance, the respect of NHLville that we maintained the solid GM/Coach system and won-with-less while others faltered: All that and more is gone. We now have overpriced 4th line vets with contracts we can’t move, hoped-to-be rising scoring studs who look clueless, an aging Fisher/Legwand, and a honorable coach who believes in his system and players as a faith rather than a science. The evidence doesn’t support him. And on top of all that, we’re dull. Almost no star power and charisma (remember Tootoo whistles!). Remember how it felt to see a young Rads snap off a wrister? Or the occasional big name acquisition (Sully, Arnie, Kariya, Forsberg). Now we’re supposed to get excited about Hendricks and Nystom and Cullen.
It was painful to participate in a crowd that was so disgusted last night, they strained to keep booing Suter. Why bother. He was kicking our can. I hate he blew us off the way he did but we’re proving him right!!! He was obsessed with the fear he’d be locked into Smashville for the rest of his career and we’d suck because the money it would take to pay him, Webs, and Pekka would leave the wallet empty to field a quality front line. He had to be looking around last night thinking, “I so made the right moveâ€. I hate that he’s right.
My fear in firing Trotzy is, we just become another version of the Thrashers/Jets and Blue Jackets. We lose our identity and flounder. “The Predator Way†has worked as an identity in the past when the checks were cashed by Suter/Webs/Pekka. That said, this team may need a perception change. Will FA forwards come here under the combo of this system and a small southern market. We got Sully, Arnie, Kariya, and Forsberg on the back end of their careers, but also when Smashville was on the rise. Who’s going to try and rescue a declining Smashville?
I left with 8 minutes to go last night (and that warranted a gold star compared to the exiting of others). I NEVER do that. I’m the master of “what-if†playoff possibilities. If we win, and they lose, and blah blah blah, we can still make the playoffs. Last night was a MUST WIN and we played it like a pre-season game.
Here’s a sobering thought: (I know, Rads just got a concussion but roll with me here) If tomorrow we reacquired Rads, AK46, SK, and Erat ( 3 KHL players and a Caps 4th liner), they are good enough right now to be all Top 6 forwards on this team. And you know what, if they were all playing Tuesday against Calgary, I’d be excited to watch it and we’d be a better more exciting team. And oh by the way, re-acquire Toots from the Red Wings AHL team and put him on the 4th line. Then sit back and listen to the building as he takes his first chaotic shift. This is not a cry to bring back ghosts. It’s to illustrate how far we’ve fallen and how good we had it and didn’t truly appreciate it.
Except for the one year after “The Sell-off†where we didn’t make the playoffs (although even that year we weren’t out until the last game), we hadn’t played a meaningless game since 2004 before last year. Everything was a building block, even when we lost. First playoff series, first playoff home game win, first playoff road game win, first playoff series win, etc. We never won the Division because Detroit or Chicago always won the Division. We were 4th seed several times. We were up-and-coming. The Pekka-Weber-Suter core was the best goalie – D1 Pair in the league. For 30 minutes of every game, we could shut you down and light you up from the point.
Last year we reached our obligatory 5th seed for awhile, then injuries hit and we let the bottom fall out. Many meaningless AHL games were played at Bridgestone but we chalked it up to a short season and injuries. A flesh wound at best.
Last night proved where we really are. Win and we’re 6 points out of 8th with a game-in-hand, .500 again in points, and hope that we can stay in striking distance and go on a Pekka-led March run, and steal the 8th spot. Instead, our Grinderfest, Grit-Rich band of 3rd and 4th line brothers played PredatorSoft and laid down. Except for Smith on occasion, there is no forward worth watching. The D would be good if we had all the other pieces but we don’t so they need to contribute more on O and they can’t. We have bad-to-mediocre goaltending for the first time in our franchise history. Neither of our goalies could make any other NHL roster. Maz is a gutzy kid, just like the majority of Grinderville players we have, but not good enough.
The innocence of hope that we were building something great here is gone. We blinked after losing Game 5 to Phoenix in 2012 and it went away. The parties outside before the big games, the sellouts and the end of worrying about attendance, the respect of NHLville that we maintained the solid GM/Coach system and won-with-less while others faltered: All that and more is gone. We now have overpriced 4th line vets with contracts we can’t move, hoped-to-be rising scoring studs who look clueless, an aging Fisher/Legwand, and a honorable coach who believes in his system and players as a faith rather than a science. The evidence doesn’t support him. And on top of all that, we’re dull. Almost no star power and charisma (remember Tootoo whistles!). Remember how it felt to see a young Rads snap off a wrister? Or the occasional big name acquisition (Sully, Arnie, Kariya, Forsberg). Now we’re supposed to get excited about Hendricks and Nystom and Cullen.
It was painful to participate in a crowd that was so disgusted last night, they strained to keep booing Suter. Why bother. He was kicking our can. I hate he blew us off the way he did but we’re proving him right!!! He was obsessed with the fear he’d be locked into Smashville for the rest of his career and we’d suck because the money it would take to pay him, Webs, and Pekka would leave the wallet empty to field a quality front line. He had to be looking around last night thinking, “I so made the right moveâ€. I hate that he’s right.
My fear in firing Trotzy is, we just become another version of the Thrashers/Jets and Blue Jackets. We lose our identity and flounder. “The Predator Way†has worked as an identity in the past when the checks were cashed by Suter/Webs/Pekka. That said, this team may need a perception change. Will FA forwards come here under the combo of this system and a small southern market. We got Sully, Arnie, Kariya, and Forsberg on the back end of their careers, but also when Smashville was on the rise. Who’s going to try and rescue a declining Smashville?
I left with 8 minutes to go last night (and that warranted a gold star compared to the exiting of others). I NEVER do that. I’m the master of “what-if†playoff possibilities. If we win, and they lose, and blah blah blah, we can still make the playoffs. Last night was a MUST WIN and we played it like a pre-season game.
Here’s a sobering thought: (I know, Rads just got a concussion but roll with me here) If tomorrow we reacquired Rads, AK46, SK, and Erat ( 3 KHL players and a Caps 4th liner), they are good enough right now to be all Top 6 forwards on this team. And you know what, if they were all playing Tuesday against Calgary, I’d be excited to watch it and we’d be a better more exciting team. And oh by the way, re-acquire Toots from the Red Wings AHL team and put him on the 4th line. Then sit back and listen to the building as he takes his first chaotic shift. This is not a cry to bring back ghosts. It’s to illustrate how far we’ve fallen and how good we had it and didn’t truly appreciate it.
