GAME DISCUSSION THREAD

[LabattBlue]

He printed them himself. He bought a mimeograph machine on eBay -- low bid of $4.95!

:lol:

[nfreeman]

FWIW, they played a lot of good hockey down the stretch under lots of pressure.

Not against NJ and Detroit, when a playoff spot was theirs for the taking. They crapped the bed twice in a row.

 

This team doesn't need a major overhaul, but it needs more guts.

[NowDoYouBelieve]

Not against NJ and Detroit, when a playoff spot was theirs for the taking. They crapped the bed twice in a row.

 

This team doesn't need a major overhaul, but it needs more guts.

 

Those are two of the best teams in hockey. Losing to them is not crapping the bed. Crapping the bed is what we did against NYI, Atlanta, and Ottawa all year. As an average team, the point to winning the easy games is so that you can afford some losses against the more difficult teams.

[Kristian]

Those are two of the best teams in hockey. Losing to them is not crapping the bed. Crapping the bed is what we did against NYI, Atlanta, and Ottawa all year. As an average team, the point to winning the easy games is so that you can afford some losses against the more difficult teams.

 

NJ has played like far from one of the best teams in hockey for a while now. I think at the point where we played them, they'd lost 3-4 games straight.

 

I'll give you Detroit, but NJ was a typical Sabres "effort", and a game they sure as #%^$#! should've showed up in before being down 3-0.

[Team Strike Force]

Those are two of the best teams in hockey. Losing to them is not crapping the bed. Crapping the bed is what we did against NYI, Atlanta, and Ottawa all year. As an average team, the point to winning the easy games is so that you can afford some losses against the more difficult teams.

 

That's true, but despite all of that, going into that Devils game, their season was still very much alive. Same thing with the Wings game two a few nights later. Those are two home games against teams which basically have things sewn up. Boston had things wrapped up this last game, and Buffalo thoroughly dominated them. Ditto the Hurricanes.

 

A team that's playing for the right to extend it's season should always have more passion than a team that's jockeying for the 2nd or 3rd seed in their conference. I'm willing to excuse the Red Wings game because they were very good that game, but the Devils game was unacceptable. As soon as there was a decent buzz and excitement around this team, they did not rise to the occasion.

 

If they had taken care of business against the poorer teams in the conference, then the Devils and Red Wings games wouldn't have meant so much. Since that's not what happened, they needed to show up against the Devils, and didn't.

[Chief Enabler]

One interesting tidbit from this game was Ellis taking faceoffs instead of Moore. Going into UFA & beyond, Mac,Ellis,Moore in my book are all playing for one position next year.

[LabattBlue]

One interesting tidbit from this game was Ellis taking faceoffs instead of Moore. Going into UFA & beyond, Mac,Ellis,Moore in my book are all playing for one position next year.

I disagree. Ellis is strictly a 4th line/spare forward. MacArthur and Moore either belong in the top 6 or need to be sent packing. IMO...neither fits the skill set for either the 3rd or 4th line.

[carpandean]

I disagree. Ellis is strictly a 4th line/spare forward. MacArthur and Moore either belong in the top 6 or need to be sent packing. IMO...neither fits the skill set for either the 3rd or 4th line.

I agree on Ellis, but disagree on Moore. First and foremost, he is a solid two-way forward. He would be a great third-line/backup-scoring-line center, who could chip in by taking key faceoffs and playing on the PP. The Hecht-Gaustad-Kaleta line was a decent third (checking) line and, if they could find a way to move Hecht (big if), Moore could be signed (for much less) to take his spot/role. Gaustad-Moore-Kaleta could be quite effective against top lines.

 

As for Mac, he's not a center and will likely be at most a depth winger.

[Chief Enabler]

I agree on Ellis, but disagree on Moore. First and foremost, he is a solid two-way forward. He would be a great third-line/backup-scoring-line center, who could chip in by taking key faceoffs and playing on the PP. The Hecht-Gaustad-Kaleta line was a decent third (checking) line and, if they could find a way to move Hecht (big if), Moore could be signed (for much less) to take his spot/role. Gaustad-Moore-Kaleta could be quite effective against top lines.

 

As for Mac, he's not a center and will likely be at most a depth winger.

I guess were talking on the template of two scoring lines and two checking lines. Which IMO, keep Moore around; but those top two scoring lines better be the balls.

[R_Dudley]

I think there's a lot of blame to go around for this season. I didn't like the Lalime acquisition, I would have preferred Auld or Tellqvist for the the whole season, but that of course is not the only reason. I liked the Rivet acquisition, but they should have taken the opportunity this past offseason to get some value from Tallinder. I think they could have gotten a really good player in return for Tallinder. Maybe a package deal for Jokinen or Cammalleri as both of these players were traded in the offseason and a package of Tallinder and maybe Paille/Stafford could have done it, but that didn't happen, either. A lot of mistakes by the front office, but I don't think it ends there.

 

The players did not show up consistently enough. This team in its current format is talented enough to make the playoffs, they just don't have the heart and integrity to do it. How much of that is on the front office and how much of that is on the players themselves? Within the constraints of the salary cap, there are only so many moves you can make, after that, it's up to the coaches and players to put up, and they did not do that this year with enough consistency.

 

I have tough time putting blame on Lindy as these players are more the problem than he is, but he also made some mistakes as well. I think Lindy not effectively utilizing 2 lines of scoring and 2 lines of grinding throughout the year hurt. I think guys like Gaustad and Hecht are not meant to be playing on scoring lines and they should be grinders. I think there needs to be a checking line that goes against every team's top offensive line like we had with Peca, then Curtis Brown, and then Chris Drury. I think Gaustad, Hecht, and Paille fill those roles, but Lindy has not used them much in that role, and I think he could.

 

Overall, there's a lot of blame to go around. It's frustrating because it seems like the talent is there, the mind is not, and that's what's preventing this team from taking the next step. So do you get a new coach or do you get new players? My expectation, with Darcy Regier as the GM, neither will happen. But, there's plenty of blame to go around, that's for sure.

 

Good post... and for the bolded line double that sentiment.. To me this team never developed any chemistry and I also think Lindy is to blame there. His 'I don't know what this teams identity is' seventy some games into the season is a bad statement for a coach to make since thats one of the coach's biggest responsibilities. However it did seem to be dead on. So did he really put a puck pressure scheme into play or defensive first ? ( I seem to remember the season starting with a stated defense first philsophy). Did we modify it early in to a puck pressure ? Did we modify it again once Miller was hurt ? Sure often looked like the players were confused out there and that is coaches responsibility..

 

Easier to perform without the pressure of expectations for this bunch.

Yep thats what I saw as well and that also can be attributed to the confusion created by what I also saw above.