21-22 Season - Jekyll or Hyde ?

[purdue81]

First game I’ve watched in last 4. Dreadful. Risto has been awful tonight - glad I didn’t buy that sweater.

For you Philadelphians - here is where I was on Saturday

Back home in SC now

 

[awaz]

This is exactly the case, we have been so guilty of building up players because they have done well in Lehigh etc. I think Farabee could be the only top 6 player out of our younger guys also. Other problem is bringing in aging vets instead of investing in youth and talent with those bigger contracts. I can think of a 100 plus players I'd rather give the money we have, JVR, Hayes and now Ellis. I also don't think we have the right coaching staff on any level. No way you start out the season hot and then just go that cold. Somewhere between coaches and the players on this team themselves, there Isa severe disconnect.

We weren’t alone in possibly overrating the young guys. Every outlet around loved the pool of players Hextall built up. But they came in, impressed for their first couple years and then either plateaued or regressed. It really doesn’t matter what parts they brought in to fill out the roster if those guys all fall short of All-Star caliber. No team in the cap era has been a contender without a solid crop of homegrown talent.

And I stand by liking Fletcher’s off-season. I think he pushed the right buttons for what he had to work with. Take one more swing at it and see what happens. Problem is, a couple guys got hurt and the youth hasn’t bounced back like we’d hoped.

Maybe they can turn it around, but it looks mighty sad right now. And the future looks real bleak at this point.

 

[awaz]

Gotta beat a team like the Devils tonight in regulation or forget about it. Yes, we have a lot of critical injuries, but there are no excuses for this one. It's a big game against a big rival no matter how you slice it.

Watched very little of this one, but Twitter does not think highly of their performance.

 

[Chris p Bacon]

We weren’t alone in possibly overrating the young guys. Every outlet around loved the pool of players Hextall built up. But they came in, impressed for their first couple years and then either plateaued or regressed. It really doesn’t matter what parts they brought in to fill out the roster if those guys all fall short of All-Star caliber. No team in the cap era has been a contender without a solid crop of homegrown talent.

And I stand by liking Fletcher’s off-season. I think he pushed the right buttons for what he had to work with. Take one more swing at it and see what happens. Problem is, a couple guys got hurt and the youth hasn’t bounced back like we’d hoped.

Maybe they can turn it around, but it looks mighty sad right now. And the future looks real bleak at this point.

At this point we need a huge youth over haul IMO, if things still look bleak at the deadline, then I believe you part with Giroux for someone's young talent pool. The other problem is our youth regression you speak of, what happens if these players have plateaud? Then your basically starting a rebuild again. Only thing I can think of is start shedding these big contracts for older players and start going after and locking up some high caliber youth, we don't ever seem to be in those battles for some reason.

 

[Sparhawk]

Well...... there's the Union I guess????????

 

[awaz]

At this point we need a huge youth over haul IMO, if things still look bleak at the deadline, then I believe you part with Giroux for someone's young talent pool. The other problem is our youth regression you speak of, what happens if these players have plateaud? Then your basically starting a rebuild again. Only thing I can think of is start shedding these big contracts for older players and start going after and locking up some high caliber youth, we don't ever seem to be in those battles for some reason.

Honestly, that's why I was on board with one more big swing from Fletch. Moving salary out to start a rebuild is going to be tough. And they have enough talent to not really bottom out. Some dark days ahead if they can't right the ship. And fast.

 

[Maverick426h]

Watched very little of this one, but Twitter does not think highly of their performance.

We were in good position to win this game, but did not cash in on a power play midway through the 3rd that would've given us the 3-2 lead and then from there on it was an embarrassment defensively. I'm not sure if Braun got hurt, was benched or we just had some poor changes, but Provy was out there with Risto and they fumbled the puck on what should've been a routine play that led to a goal against. Then, Provy was out there with Yandle and they combined to be a step slow and allow another one. Pretty frustrating to see teams go tic-tac-toe on us for a couple quick goals in clutch time of what was a tight game late.

The power play is dreadful, offense is struggling overall and the defense/goaltending is slowly crumbling under the pressure of having to keep the other team at two goals or less. About the only thing we do well is kill penalties.

 

[Maverick426h]

The wheels have definitely fallen off here. I would say the only silver lining is that we have so many critical injuries and also we've been playing some of the best teams in the Nhl recently. We have yet to ice our true starting roster, so we really don't even know what we have yet when we are 100% healthy.

 

[awaz]

We were in good position to win this game, but did not cash in on a power play midway through the 3rd that would've given us the 3-2 lead and then from there on it was an embarrassment defensively. I'm not sure if Braun got hurt, was benched or we just had some poor changes, but Provy was out there with Risto and they fumbled the puck on what should've been a routine play that led to a goal against. Then, Provy was out there with Yandle and they combined to be a step slow and allow another one. Pretty frustrating to see teams go tic-tac-toe on us for a couple quick goals in clutch time of what was a tight game late.

The power play is dreadful, offense is struggling overall and the defense/goaltending is slowly crumbling under the pressure of having to keep the other team at two goals or less. About the only thing we do well is kill penalties.

The power play issues are my biggest issue right now. With the injuries they have, they absolutely need the PP to make a difference in a good way. They have enough talent to put a good PP out there and they're exactly the opposite. They have no chance to stay afloat with Hayes/Brassard/Ellis out if the PP can't get it going.

 

[Maverick426h]

The power play issues are my biggest issue right now. With the injuries they have, they absolutely need the PP to make a difference in a good way. They have enough talent to put a good PP out there and they're exactly the opposite. They have no chance to stay afloat with Hayes/Brassard/Ellis out if the PP can't get it going.

Get JvR back out in front of the net on PP1 and bombs away. Giroux needs to one-time it more and quit hesitating or looking for the perfect passing play. Just shoot it on net from the point with traffic. We need to get some dirty ones and then you can get fancy later on. So, I would put our top line out there with JvR and Provy. Use a double screen with Coots and JvR if you have to.

Practice this shit with the same personnel over and over until we get it right.

Also, you can shit on JvR all you like, but he's a big body that has great hands, is very adept at deflections and is good in front of the net overall. Let him earn that paycheck on PP1.

 

[lasgop8]

We weren’t alone in possibly overrating the young guys. Every outlet around loved the pool of players Hextall built up. But they came in, impressed for their first couple years and then either plateaued or regressed. It really doesn’t matter what parts they brought in to fill out the roster if those guys all fall short of All-Star caliber. No team in the cap era has been a contender without a solid crop of homegrown talent.

And I stand by liking Fletcher’s off-season. I think he pushed the right buttons for what he had to work with. Take one more swing at it and see what happens. Problem is, a couple guys got hurt and the youth hasn’t bounced back like we’d hoped.

Maybe they can turn it around, but it looks mighty sad right now. And the future looks real bleak at this point.

As far as the home grown talent: They were never supposed to be "all star caliber" if any only Prov . Hextall screwed this team with his draft picks as well as his free agent signings and trades.. We were then and are now a middle of the pack team like it has been posted here for years. I dont care what every outlet was saying all you have to do is watch the games to know this medicore team would be the end result. I wasted thousands of posts pointing out the obvious only to fall on deaf ears.

However i do like most of the moves that Fletcher made. He was trading guys at the lowest value so his hands were tied and free agents he signed are half decent. At least he tried something that didn't work yet. Maybe it will by season end.

The one move i really hate is trading a first round for Risto. It was a pretty high pick too for a guy who may not even sign with us and if he does sign he will have to get a raise to at least 6 million per which he is not worth.

 

[lasgop8]

At this point we need a huge youth over haul IMO, if things still look bleak at the deadline, then I believe you part with Giroux for someone's young talent pool. The other problem is our youth regression you speak of, what happens if these players have plateaud? Then your basically starting a rebuild again. Only thing I can think of is start shedding these big contracts for older players and start going after and locking up some high caliber youth, we don't ever seem to be in those battles for some reason.

We needed a huge overhaul for at least three to four years now. Several teams have overhauled and built back up and are now better ,way better than us. The worst part is the rags are one of those teams who cleaned house and built back up from scratch and are now better than we are. Carolina is another one that comes to mind right off the bat.

 

[lasgop8]

We've played several other teams without their best players and we are still losing to them so without Brassard Hayes etc we still have our top players in the lineup so that should not be an excuse.

If it wasn't for Hart and Jones we may very well have the least points in the league.

 

[awaz]

Get JvR back out in front of the net on PP1 and bombs away. Giroux needs to one-time it more and quit hesitating or looking for the perfect passing play. Just shoot it on net from the point with traffic. We need to get some dirty ones and then you can get fancy later on. So, I would put our top line out there with JvR and Provy. Use a double screen with Coots and JvR if you have to.

Practice this shit with the same personnel over and over until we get it right.

Also, you can shit on JvR all you like, but he's a big body that has great hands, is very adept at deflections and is good in front of the net overall. Let him earn that paycheck on PP1.

IMO they need to get more creative. They can't figure out the typical umbrella power play with Giroux on the left and JvR at the net front. Because it cuts off Giroux's option to the guy down low because JvR is left handed. So Giroux's options are basically the seam pass or up to Provorov and it's easy to defend. Plus Provorov is extremely slow with the puck so they can't whip it around (like they could with Ghost) to get the PK out of position. Giroux sucks on the right so you can't do that. The PP has had the exact same struggles since Simmonds (RH) left. But they keep trying to same shit. Move Giroux to the right to try to make it work. Put someone who isn't a net front guy (TK or Couturier) at the net front. Try Yandle up top instead. Rinse and repeat. Rinse. Repeat.

So scrap it and try something else. Put Giroux behind the net or something. Put Risto on the top PP and just have him rip shots with JvR and like Laughton or Lindblom as the double net front. Have Frost be the set up guy on the left side instead of Giroux and put Giroux in the 'Hartnell' spot since his one-timer is pretty dangerous these days. Do something different. I swear this coaching staff doesn't have a creative bone in their collective body. They just bang their head against the wall hoping the result will be different eventually.

 

[lasgop8]

At what point do we send down Lindblom down or if we cant do that contractually just sit him in the press box.

He is obviously not an NHL caliber hockey player at this point in his career.

 

[awaz]

At what point do we send down Lindblom down or if we cant do that contractually just sit him in the press box.

He is obviously not an NHL caliber hockey player at this point in his career.

There isn't anybody to replace him. Laczynski, Allison, Rubtsov, Sandin, Foerster, Wisdom, are all hurt. If you bench Lindblom you're replacing him with career AHL-ers at this point.

 

[lasgop8]

NAK 6 games with the Avs 2 goals 1 assist.

 

[lasgop8]

There isn't anybody to replace him. Laczynski, Allison, Rubtsov, Sandin, Foerster, Wisdom, are all hurt. If you bench Lindblom you're replacing him with career AHL-ers at this point.

Radcliffe, Cates or Shusko until one of Allison or Laczinski is back.

 

[awaz]

Radcliffe, Cates or Shusko until one of Allison or Laczinski is back.

I mean sure. It's kind of like re-arranging deck chairs on the titanic I guess. But I'd be shocked if those guys bring anything more than Lindblom is. They're not even good at the AHL level.

 

[purdue81]

IMO they need to get more creative. They can't figure out the typical umbrella power play with Giroux on the left and JvR at the net front. Because it cuts off Giroux's option to the guy down low because JvR is left handed. So Giroux's options are basically the seam pass or up to Provorov and it's easy to defend. Plus Provorov is extremely slow with the puck so they can't whip it around (like they could with Ghost) to get the PK out of position. Giroux sucks on the right so you can't do that. The PP has had the exact same struggles since Simmonds (RH) left. But they keep trying to same shit. Move Giroux to the right to try to make it work. Put someone who isn't a net front guy (TK or Couturier) at the net front. Try Yandle up top instead. Rinse and repeat. Rinse. Repeat.

So scrap it and try something else. Put Giroux behind the net or something. Put Risto on the top PP and just have him rip shots with JvR and like Laughton or Lindblom as the double net front. Have Frost be the set up guy on the left side instead of Giroux and put Giroux in the 'Hartnell' spot since his one-timer is pretty dangerous these days. Do something different. I swear this coaching staff doesn't have a creative bone in their collective body. They just bang their head against the wall hoping the result will be different eventually.

With the way they’re using Giroux on PP - he is basically a non threat to shoot. Makes no sense to me.