Iron Crotch

As best as I can tell, I think he is trying to play more of a counter-attacking system. But, with so little team speed, that doesn't seem well thought out. I'm a proponent of selecting a style of play and acquiring players who fit that style. We could field a big, bruising hard hitting team. We could go for speed, speed, and more speed. We could field a team of guys who are uber-skilled with the puck. We could build around goaltending and defense. ...but, I can't tell at the moment exactly what we're trying to be. It's just a mismatched bunch of puzzle pieces that don't fit together.

I think the whole "ruined by losing" mantra is overblown. Keith and Seabrook played on bad teams for their first couple of years in Chicago. And, it didn't "ruin" them. I'm not sure I get the whole "keep them in Rochester because losing in Buffalo will hurt their development" argument. In life we learn more in defeat than we do in victory. If these guys have such fragile psyches that they'll be ruined forever by a bad season then they shouldn't be professional athletes. And, if these kids in Rochester are better than the veterans ahead of them, they should be up with the big club. If they aren't ready for the NHL, fine... but a guy like Larsson is ready for a shot. So is Pysyk. Perhaps others as well.

Oh, and we've gone 10 games without a single power play goal. That's ridiculous.

We're averaging only 1 goal per game (NHL worst, of course) and are dead last in the league in shots for at just 21.8 per game and are dead last in shots against at 36.7 per game.

I miss Lindy Ruff. Yeah. I went there.

:sick:

We are the worst offensive team in the history of hockey.

It's up there. There were a couple last year that were similar as I recall. Honestly, I think the Amerks could have done better than the Sabres tonight.

Icing on the power play. Jeebus.

Jesus. Do we even practice? It's like our guys have no idea where others are supposed to be on the ice. Actually... ....I think our players have no idea where others are supposed to be on the ice!

Hug it out.

Hodgson is terrible. For all those on here who defend him. You're wrong. :angel:

Go Dallas too. I still think there is a chance the Blues will struggle this year. Probably not bottom-5, but I think they might miss the playoffs giving us another good pick.

We just looked silly on that goal. It's like they picked up a lucky win last game then just decided to take the night off. Leaves have 3 more goals this period than we have shots!!! :sick:

That's a bad call, but whatever.

Meszaros is ###### useless. Can we just put him on waivers?

Well.... one more and they're there...

Ugh. Trick shot goal for perpetually out-of-shape Kessel.

They had to poop.

I don't believe we actually have an offensive system. I think is is just "skate around and hope to get a shot off."

Reinhart getting tossed around like a rag doll again today. I hope the kid hits the weight room when he gets sent back to juniors.

It's kind of hard to win when you get outshot 100 to 3.

Scoring was way up that first year post-lockout (Carolina won the Cup). Since then we're back to the new old NHL where defense and goaltending wins Cups (and timely scoring, of course).

Elite scorers get you to the playoffs, elite d-men put you over the top to win you the Cup. With the exception of 2009 (Pens), all of the recent Cup winners have had Norris-type defensemen to go along with good scorers. Doughty, Keith, Seabrook, Chara, Lidstrom, Rob Niedermayer, Pronger, etc. Edit: I'll add that many of the best d-men in the game were not Top-5 picks.

Sports fans are never happy. Given the Bills have been terrible for the past 15 years, I'll take winning ugly over losing ugly. I also think the play calling left a lot to be desired, but I think game situation and personnel dictated conservative play calling in the second half yesterday.