The team came into tonight midpack in goals per game, 5on4 goals, and PP% . Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it .... and we did.
Over the past week our big guns have been silent ... our big three are making key errors ... and our kids are looking like kids. Luckily, we're on the same pace as pretty much every season since 06-07 (24pts after 21 games).
Klein was out there for all 3 goals against. Time to sit him in favor of anyone else.
Can't single him out for the first goal as it was a total team failure and he was at least trying to get around the net at the time (unlike Spaling)... the second goal wasn't his fault .... he was also on the ice for our goal for.
Klein makes mistakes, but those are all that are ever commented on. When Suter, or especially Weber, screw up the board goes into see no evil mode.
The line combos kept us from getting any chemistry together. Trotz wants Legwand to stay with Wilson and Hornqvist but they work together with Smith. Which renderend that line basically useless. Fisher/Erat/Smith as it started out with then reverted back Sk who is afraid of contact which renders that line useless along with Trotz juggling the lines around. Tootoo scores two goals and now he's on the pp it always happens. Their wasn't any line that continued pressure. Wilson this year is basically carrying the offense but they won't let him alone with Hornqvist and Smith The defense especially Klein had their moments but we can't generate offense to tilt the ice so to speak. When you can't create and finish then the momentum goes to the other team. We need a change and I'm not talking about bringing somebody up we need to shake the team up
Fisher, legwand, erat, and kostitsyn cannot generate any offense or even carry the puck in on a scoring chance. We cannot win any puck battles and our defensemen cannot make a decent north/south pass to spring anyone. Too much thought trying to react rather than attack. Right now in our top 6 we have too many legwands (fisher) and too many Erats (kostitsyn)
Not a fun game to watch, alas.
Somebody stop me before I jinx again.
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Thanks, Howson, for cleaning up MacLean's toxic waste. Welcome, Kekalainen; let's get good things built!
I can't believe people are really trying to single out blame on one person or line.
The team, as has been the custom for about the last two weeks, collectively did about everything you can think of wrong. We were chasing a much better, much more talented team around the ice for sixty minutes, completely at their mercy. On any given night we have to play our system to a T and get solid goaltending, or we're going to lose a lot of games. For the last little while, we've had neither and--surprise, we're not just losing, we're getting embarassed.
I'm not going to say much more, since I don't want to sound like I'm "panicking," but there's a lot to be very concerned about right now, with the lineup as it stands.
Totally outworked tonight. Detroit was flying around, skating circles around our guys who were standing still. Couldn't win any battles along the boards. Blind passes to no one. Refusal to shoot when we actually do get the puck for more than 2 seconds.
There were 2 plays that I remember than just summed up the game.
-The puck was coming to the wall near the penalty box and a Pred and a Wing were skating towards it. The Pred was ahead by about 2 strides but stopped skating and the Wing kept skating and blew by the Pred and took the puck.
-A Pred was skating down the wing in the Wings zone and Cleary just skated up from behind and took the puck off his stick and went around the net and back down the ice for a chance the other way.
I can't believe people are really trying to single out blame on one person or line.
I know I blame Klein, and, while he was worse than anyone, it was truly a case of suckage by committee tonight. No one person is to blame, but we just need to wake up and play like we mean it. Also, give Josi regular minutes and put Smith back in the top 6
The line combos kept us from getting any chemistry together. Trotz wants Legwand to stay with Wilson and Hornqvist but they work together with Smith. Which renderend that line basically useless. Fisher/Erat/Smith as it started out with then reverted back Sk who is afraid of contact which renders that line useless along with Trotz juggling the lines around. Tootoo scores two goals and now he's on the pp it always happens. Their wasn't any line that continued pressure. Wilson this year is basically carrying the offense but they won't let him alone with Hornqvist and Smith The defense especially Klein had their moments but we can't generate offense to tilt the ice so to speak. When you can't create and finish then the momentum goes to the other team. We need a change and I'm not talking about bringing somebody up we need to shake the team up
they were getting stagnant when legwand came back. they hadn't done much in the 5 or so games prior and no one noticed bc the fisher line was carrying the team. fact is, all the lines suck right now.
Groin tweak. Trotz thought he might not make it through the game, hence starting 7 defensemen.
Quote:
Originally Posted by roseyc
The line combos kept us from getting any chemistry together. Trotz wants Legwand to stay with Wilson and Hornqvist but they work together with Smith. Which renderend that line basically useless. Fisher/Erat/Smith as it started out with then reverted back Sk who is afraid of contact which renders that line useless along with Trotz juggling the lines around. Tootoo scores two goals and now he's on the pp it always happens. Their wasn't any line that continued pressure. Wilson this year is basically carrying the offense but they won't let him alone with Hornqvist and Smith The defense especially Klein had their moments but we can't generate offense to tilt the ice so to speak. When you can't create and finish then the momentum goes to the other team. We need a change and I'm not talking about bringing somebody up we need to shake the team up
This is a bad game to make judgements about Trotz's line juggling. Since we played 7 D, we didn't even have 4 full lines' worth of forwards...so of course stuff was going to be juggled like crazy.
I do think though, that pretty much all the lines suck right now. We need the big guys--Fisher, Leggy, Erat, SK--to get going.
