What is the Plan???

Doug MacLean, George Matthews, Bill Davidge, Steve Konroyd and Dan Kelly can talk all night about how the bluejackets are showing effort.... But what is it going to take for this skid to stop?? :dunno: All personnel back from injury? Different Personnel? Shake up in the front office? A trade for a Scoring RW? The fans have done their part, paying for tickets, food, and merchandise. What needs to happen to make this a successful season from this point on?

Now that we've completed nearly 10% of the season with 20% of our team I say it is time to start making bold, drastic, sweeping changes.
Once we've traded the entire team for draft picks and fired the coach I suggest torching the arena and collecting the insurance money. Can't lose if you don't play and losing is unacceptable.

[Not that we ever REALLY lose - it's those referees every time the game is close. They never let us win.]

Maybe the owners can buy a controlling share of the Columbus Stars and they can bring in guys that made our team great like Steve Maltais, Jan Caloun, Robert Kron, Steve Heinze (who would have righted all our wrongs if we just would have paid him like the LA Kings did), Bruce Gardiner, Jamie Pushor, Petteri Nummelin, Matias Timander, Serge Aubin, Alexander Selivanov, Chris Nielsen, Jamie Heward, Deron Quint, Kevyn Adams, Lyle Odelein, Frantisek Kucera, Blake Sloan, Mike Maneluk, Radim Bicanek and Psycho Oliwa. Then the Stars can win the Also-Ran Cup in their first year of existance and we can be satisfied with what the team has done.

I thought we did play a decent game tonight. However, there were some breakdowns. Both of the last two goals were by guys who weren't pressured when they got the puck. The last one was scored partly because the Jackets all got back into their zone too fast and too deep. They didn't pick up their man. I think that Nash probably should have had the trailer, DiMaio. But he failed to check him and DiMaio had a clean shot.

But the main reason we didn't win tonight was because of Marc Denis. He did not makes the saves he needed to make. Both of the last goals were from the right sideboards, which is not a great angle from which to score, and while Denis will complain about being interfered with on the last one, he wasn't in the right position (he was cheating too much to the post). Give credit to Arnott for providing a textbook moving screen -- he moved through Denis' field of vision right as the puck was shot.

One thing that definitely needs to change is our powerplay. We had 8 great chances, and two of them were 5 on 3's. Our puck movement was not fast enough and, again, we sometimes tried to force the puck to places that were clogged with opponents. Our D at the points held on to the puck for too long at times, which gives the opponents time to shift the PK triangle/box.

But bottomline, our plan is fine. I only question a coaching decision like the one to give Spacek lots of ice time. Sydor should probably be given that time, because Spacek is subject to more defensive brainfarts as he gets tired. Also, Walser shouldn't be getting as much time as he was at even strength. A big problem is not having Klesla and Westcott out. Makes things hard chemistry-wise in the D pairings.

Its simple: You have to score more than 2 goals to win a game.

Just like before, we wont win until we stop making excuses. Before it was "Its OK, we're just an expansion team." Then "Its OK, we're still young and dont have the depth of other teams." Now that we have depth and some size and skill "Its ok, we just have guys injured" or "Its OK, we were close or tied for most of the game." If I see another article in the Dispatch in the morning like we got after the Detroit game, Im going to be really worried about the future of this team. We need to cut the excuses.

We also need to cut the dump until we grow the cahones to do the chase. I actually love the dump and chase. If done right, it brings out a lot of contact. But we just dump it and watch them break out.

I agree that the effort has been there and Denis has not made the big saves when it was needed. Coaching has to be questioned some last night as it was apparent that we were playing the third not to lose instead of trying to win the game. The forwards were content to make the zone and get off for a quick line change. We stopped the forecheck and cycle in their zone and sat back and tried to force turnovers in the neautral zone.

Also, three goals against the Richardson - Spacek Knutsen, Nash & Marchant unit. This is supposed to be our top group yet they came up short. The Guerin line was better than our top line last night.

This summer everyone was crying about our defensize system and now that we are playing one (very well mind you) everyone is crying about a lack of goals. We missed Sandy on the PP last night. He's the only one willing to shoot from anywhere on the ice.

We have lost to Detroit, Dallas Tampa Bay (still unbeaten), Atlanta (Snyder Tribute) and Nashville. Four of those games were one goal games where we had opportunities to earn at least a point. Three were decided in the third period. We are playing better and any time a team is missing three - five established NHLers and replaces them with AHL talent it will affect the outcome. Am I making excuses. No. I think we are close to being a solid team. We simply need to learn to win. Guys like Sydor and Marchant should help with that, but once Denis comes around it will make a huge difference.

Personally, Id stay the course, trade Knutsen and get a top 5 Pick in the Draft, but thats just me.

The Problem is that Attendence is going to die in the process.

Personally, Id stay the course, trade Knutsen and get a top 5 Pick in the Draft, but thats just me.

The Problem is that Attendence is going to die in the process.

Sounds like a fine idea. Knutsen seems to have a bad case of HIA syndrome. (that's head-in-ass):rolleyes:
My biggest problem with our Plan is how ingrained the dump is. (beating a dead horse, I know) but if you have the ability to keep possession of the puck, by all means hold on to it. (isn't this why face-offs are so critical??)
Something else, and we've all seen it, is the tendency to play five on five like a penalty kill, when we're up a goal. Dump the puck -quick line change- let 'em come at ya- repeat as necessary.... How many times do they have to get bit on the ass to see that's not working? Is this a coaching call, or just something in the team mentality?

One more thing. Someone needs to tell Pirjeta what a big guy he is, and should be on the body accordingly. Without his willingness to utilize his size and take a little abuse, this guy isn't anything but a slapshot on skates....

One more thing. Someone needs to tell Pirjeta what a big guy he is, and should be on the body accordingly. Without his willingness to utilize his size and take a little abuse, this guy isn't anything but a slapshot on skates....

Doug seems to disagree. 21:37 of Ice Time Last Night.

A Few Notes

-Bench Richardson and Spacek. Minus 3? I dont think so. Spacek seems to have lost his cajones during the summer. This must stop.

-Bench Nash if he ever fakes an injury as bad as he did during our 2nd 5-3. He didnt even get hit, but he still curled up into a fetal ball and grabbed his ankles, warenting a stopage in play. Yet he lined up for the faceoff on the next wistle. :dunno:

-Blame Dave King. That loss rests squarley on his sholders as is said in the Maclean Doctrine, so still have to fault him. He probobly did something out in Germany. You can never trust him... ;)

Doug seems to disagree. 21:37 of Ice Time Last Night.

A Few Notes

-Bench Richardson and Spacek. Minus 3? I dont think so. Spacek seems to have lost his cajones during the summer. This must stop.

-Bench Nash if he ever fakes an injury as bad as he did during our 2nd 5-3. He didnt even get hit, but he still curled up into a fetal ball and grabbed his ankles, warenting a stopage in play. Yet he lined up for the faceoff on the next wistle. :dunno:

-Blame Dave King. That loss rests squarley on his sholders as is said in the Maclean Doctrine, so still have to fault him. He probobly did something out in Germany. You can never trust him... ;)

1. What does Doug know? :p
2. Agree with your Richardson/Spacek observation.
3. Bench one of our only players capable of scoring?????? No.
4. You're right, it's Dave King's fault. Something needs to be done about him.:joker:

While Nash does like to stretch his acting muscles some times, when he went down, it was for a good reason. He got a slash by Richard Matvichuk right on the back of the Achillies tendon. The skates have protection there in a flap that comes up over the tendon, but if you get hacked there, you'll still feel it, and if it's an NHL player doing it to you, you'll definitely feel some pain.

You're right, it's Dave King's fault. Something needs to be done about him.

Hey, the old Kinger is leading the Hamburg Freezers to the top of the German League. Moreover, he is proving that a team can win with Paul Manning playing the blueline. :bow:

Talented teams with depth like Dallas can afford to let Captain Mikey Lumberjack (Modano) sit in the Penalty Box for a 10 minute misconduct to cool him down. The jackets don't have that option, bench Nash and who scores? Sanderson is snuggly soft and is easily knocked out of games. Marchant is a solid two way player, and without a scoring big winger, is pretty much mediocre on offense. Cassels can't find offense without Sanderson in the lineup. Vyborny isn't a big scorer and will never score more then 60 points, Pirjeta needs to assert himself more, or he will just turn into an Oleg Kvasha. Who does that leave??? It comes full circle, we have smallish forwards that are prone to injury due to being smacked around by drawing the other teams 6-6 230 pound d-men and 6 foot 200 pound grinders. Until the bluejackets get some muscle to go with their flash, they will continue to lose lots of man games to injury and continue to experience periods of anemic offense.

The PP lost that game for us. You can't go 1 for 8 against a team like the Stars. They usually don't take that many dumb calls in one game, but when they do you have to jump all over it. The Stars, playing in the third period of a back to back, should never have had those legs in the third if the Jackets kept pounding them into the boards. On a brighter note, I thought Erckison did good yesterday. Walser sucks the large one and should be sent down at the first chance. Spacek has always had the defensive brainfarts, but is his offense enough to keep him around? Nash did a poor job playing defense last night, Daley flew right by on the way to their first goal. But, if the Marlines can go 10 games under .500 early in the season and win the World Series, the Jackets can right the ship and make the playoffs.

The PP lost that game for us. You can't go 1 for 8 against a team like the Stars. They usually don't take that many dumb calls in one game, but when they do you have to jump all over it. The Stars, playing in the third period of a back to back, should never have had those legs in the third if the Jackets kept pounding them into the boards. On a brighter note, I thought Erckison did good yesterday. Walser sucks the large one and should be sent down at the first chance. Spacek has always had the defensive brainfarts, but is his offense enough to keep him around? Nash did a poor job playing defense last night, Daley flew right by on the way to their first goal. But, if the Marlines can go 10 games under .500 early in the season and win the World Series, the Jackets can right the ship and make the playoffs.


:lol: too true with the Marlins Ozzie... I haven't bashed Erickkson cause I thought he played decent, unnoticed, which isn't bad for a d man. poor Spac-o, he's been beat up the last few games, although I've noticed since last year, Richardson tends to cover Spacek's mistakes, which are becoming less and less. I'm also glad someone else agrees that Walser needs to be sent down, the guy is horrendous on the d side of the game and is a defensemen. Keep Walser off the callup list, or at least lower him on it.