Yes, they helped Drai get the goal, but otherwise, their play was substandard. A ton of giveaways in the neutral zone and the dzone, especially by Foegele, who had a bad game. There has to be something up with Kane. But with the way he is doling out some big hits, you wonder where the issue is. The puck just keeps dying on his stick.
100%. If Drai commits to a more responsible game on a consistent basis things will start going better for him offensively as well. Him and Kane have the ability to run hockey games, it’s absolutely ridiculous that we’re even talking about Kane and Draisaitl not being able to produce together because of Connor Brown or whoever else is on that line. These guys can both make a play and they can both be one shot scorers. This is a formidable pair, they should be 2/3 of the hardest line in hockey, they’re aggressive, physical, and down right dirty at times, they can both defend well when they want to, they just have to pull their heads out of their asses.
This is a short-term 'fix.' Agree, Foegele had one very bad own zone play that stood out for me where he had a clear carry at their own blue line and instead dropped a soft pizza to no one back in their own zone. But I think it still worthwhile to try to kickstart Line 2 with the speed and forecheck work those two can do and stronger tendency to dish pucks to the more skilled guy. And push opposing defences back with speed.Yes, they helped Drai get the goal, but otherwise, their play was substandard. A ton of giveaways in the neutral zone and the dzone, especially by Foegele, who had a bad game. There has to be something up with Kane. But with the way he is doling out some big hits, you wonder where the issue is. The puck just keeps dying on his stick.
And hopefully Holloway can stay healthy for more than a couple weeks when he does come back.
Maybe he's being held accountable. Since the new coach came the biggest takeaway is that Drai can't find a role to help the team outside the pp.
id rather they try Lavoie with them.
I'm not sure it kinda got blendered including Gagner getting hurt. I'm out of the broadcast viewing area so my 'workaround' is to watch on my phone. The obvious for me was the Kane and McLeod switch.
Drafting a goalie now isn't going to help us in the interim. He'd likely be 3-4 years away at best. Their best bet IMO is to get another teams prospect who is just about ready to play in the bigs.
Agree. This team need to fortify from the back end out. Goaltending has rocketed to a must happen imperative. I'd still upgrade with a top 4 RD. Beyond that stretching Santa's Wishlist beyond likelihood a 3C upgrade would be valuable. This team has a prospective ripe internal RW option they need to test-drive with Lavoie. Easiest and cheapest find at trade deadline are wingers.
2 games.
They need both. Shopping list is unfortunately the exact same as it was last year: top 6 forward, top 4 defenseman, and a goalie. The issue is exacerbated by Kane usually looking like he's not a legit top 6 forward anymore, along with Brown being a colossal miss and guys like Holloway still not taking a step.
Significantly on the play though Drai doesn't get a pass, it isn't a pass, and the only pass on his stick all night, (one) was on the PP. I come into the thread and people saying Drai should be able to play with this. How do you produce a drop when your linemates are making horrible plays and passes? Kane and Foegele were so bad today it was like they were drunk. As I stated earlier Janmark missed DRai by 5 feet on a side to the goal chance. Drai probably cashes that. He's frustrated because his wingers can't make a single play.
Foegele had lots of tape to tape passes.
Connor Brown told him to score that way....
Yep. Just keep it simple, rote plays, dumps, basic cycles. Its all he has to do with Drai. he doesn't unpack that, Foegele sees flashing highlights in his head where he's the superstar goal scorer. Its like the guy thinks he's McDavid trying to pull off passes and plays he just doesn't make.
The other aspect is that when McD turns it on no other player, no other mortal stands close to him. I say this because Drai is constantly compared to the greatest player on earth and thats always going to turn out second fiddle. Drai would be the best player on 20-25 teams in the league and nobody would be complaining about his play every day, every thread.
Wasn't that the goal where idiot Foegele shot right into a screen instead of making the dump behind goal line play Drai wanted? All of the turnover tonight on the Drai line were when his team mates refused to make the simple cycle play or get pucks deep. Foegele in this game, in the 3rd period actually passed the puck behind into his own zone, no look, nobody was there. Foegele actually did that. On a deeper club Foegele would've been benched, again.
Yup, I know it wasn't a pass. But it resulted from a strong, aggressive forecheck by them. McLeod and Foegele are third line players but short-term can help Draisailt with speed, forecheck and willingness to defer to skill. Help backoff defences to give Draisaitl more space to operate and do the board work to feed him kill zone shots. Help also speed up the tempo for Draisaitl to play at.
