thewookie1

They are better than last year and arguably a toss-up playoff team but are injured to hell and back and its hurting them. Last night's game was actively a bad matchup with the Blues clogging up the middle and the Sabres lacking Benson and Zucker who are both good at piercing those areas in their own ways. The PP relies heavily on the combo of Dahlin-Thompson-Doan-Benson-Zucker since 3 different guys like to net front scrum and Benson loves to skate around. Sans Benson, they try to move around but have less effectiveness and fall into standing minus Thompson and Dahlin passing or moving up and down/left and right.

Can't happen; all I can say is it can't happen because I doubt this fanbase would survive.

We have them pinned in their zone but every pass seems to go to the back hand or bounce or get deflected. It’s maddening

Thompson has looked slowish since that shot block against Washington. The AHLers aren’t exactly helping him either. We have so many forward injuries that we can’t sustain anything between shifts. UPL has to make that save Quinn is both the most and least skilled puckhandler on this team.

The power play is where you see the loss of Zucker and Benson the most

Always need to throw daggers at Dahlin.... As for the pictures I agree, there was a pick play which effectively took Tuch off Keller Once the rub had worked and Keller was going in on Quinn, Quinn needs to step up on him with Tuch in pursuit. Not back away towards Dahlin who is positioned to cover the backdoor. Had Keller passed it to a guy who scored then Dahlin would be more at fault but Keller just drives the net. Dahlin realizes Quinn backed off and does make a last ditch effort to get to Keller but he's too late at this point. As with defensive play in general, when playing a 1v1 with trailing support you want to either slow or angle the opposing player away from the net allowing the back checker either time to catch up or cover the possible trailer. In that particular case it would be Quinn's responsibility as he was the "LHD" at that time to take on Keller; Dahlin would then need to adjust accordingly based on the potential trailers coming in. Ideally in 3v3 Quinn steps up onto Keller and sandwiches him with Tuch causing a turnover or at least no shot as it slides harmlessly to Lyon. Dahlin is trapped guarding against the trailer incoming; he can't commit to Keller unless he effectively abandons his position to puck hunt.

If this odd start continues through Thanksgiving it will effectively kill that goal line for the season. I can't recall the entire conference being over NHL .500 simultaneously 12-14 games in

I won't blame them on Eklund, they legitimately tried. Jarvis, have at em.

They really need to get healthy, Thompson looks befuddled with Greenway and Quinn and beside the Doan-McLeod-Tuch line they are all defensively terrifying. Then the 4th line is pure woof, Malenstyn being the lone NHLer playing out of position at Center.

Keller just took a stroll up to Lyon 1v3 Quinn got out of his way strangely We got the loser point again though so we keep pace with the East lol

Feels like we are the road team but we’ve got a point somehow while being down 6/7 forwards

Yes, a stick cannot be above the crossbar if batted into the net, anywhere else it can be as high as your shoulders

For sake; ***** the Dodgers, ***** the Dodgers, ***** the Dodgers, ***** the Dodgers!!!!!!!

We got 2!

I give Dahlin, Thompson and Tuch credit for their gutsy play with that ugly 3 min shift

Guess someone lit a fire under their *****

He looked a tad off last night and at one point was bear hugged and thrown to the ice so that could be cause for it. Not good regardless, without Benson we are 0-3 and look pitiful

I’d actually place more blame on Thompson charging in than Dahlin blowing a tire. Dahlin is trying to kill time so Muel can change. When he blows a tire Thompson needs to recognize that there are 3 Bruins and only Quinn back and just try and stall on the 3v2

Dahlin blows a tire and Thompson goes on a suicidal charge game lost again

Not from the angle I saw IMO, looked like Arvidsson ducked a hit and was already losing his balance when Greenway and him met skates. 3 straight OT games, 3rd times the charm perhaps?

This better not be GI, nothing there is even questionable

Benson ended up as a Dman on the 3v2

Dahlin hauled down, no call

Lyon having a rough night Almost got our 2nd, *****

Positives: - Legit victories that weren't just flukey bounces and legitimate 50+ minute efforts - Doan and Benson have helped drag some borderline players into the net front battle crew - Goaltending, minus UPL, has been solid - After an atrocious 0-3 to start the year we've bounced back with 4-1-2 including a shutout of the defending champs (yes I know they are banged up) - Timmons has been a hugely positive impact on the defensive play who brings what we had all hoped Clifton might bring (Clifton would get too hit happy and try to jump into offensive plays too much for a defensive stalwart) - Muel has reverted to the guy we all loved when he came up from Rochester Negatives: - Thompson has had a rough start to the year, thankfully he seems to be getting shots so its not 911 emergency levels - 4-4-2 is Average as a record, technically 5-3-2 is the bare minimum for a playoff pace when broken down to 10 game segments with 2 bonus games - OT looks impotent - UPL came back early, then arguably lost us the Toronto game - Team still has a tendency to go into lulls where 3/4th the team plays on power saving mode - Injuries have yet again stabbed this team in the side; losing Norris in 1 game plus Dansforth and Kozak who have given solid depth hurt this team as a whole ???: - Power has played better as a whole with Timmons as his partner but still fails far to often when physical prowess/size is needed - Dahlin's started ok; he looks somewhat distracted and or distant (honestly for understandable reasons) but is still a Top 4 D man with this handicap - AHL call-ups have been a mixed bag, happy Dunne scored though