Top lines played too many minutes tonight, but the lines are fine.
Kopecky has no business being on a scoring line. He hasn't played well for awhile now really. Matthias lost his spot.
What is Dineen gonna do? The top line has been our top line all year and they've started producing again. We just found our 2nd line in Bergenheim-Goc-Samuelsson.
No spot for Kopecky or Matthias on the top-6 at the moment. They're not top-6 players, anyway. Kopecky definitely isn't.
I think we have found the 2nd line for this week. I don't believe Goc, Bergenheim or Samuelsson are true second line guys and will likely bounce between second and third line as their fortunes fade and grow. Problem I think is third line. Matthias is only guy who can maybe move up to second line and challenge guys. Santorelli is too weak on the puck. Kopecky is too slow. To make a playoff run first line cannot continue with those amount of minutes. Fourth line is pretty good as far as fourth lines go. Problem right now is 5 third line players and Santorelli? Talon needs to wheel and deal soon, I think
I'm assuming I'm going to have a lot to say here and I'm typing on my phone, which doesn't let me space paragraphs, so I apologize for the ginormous post. Tonight was just not our night. We played absolutely terrible defensively and that was the main thing that I think lost us the game. Way too many scoring chances in flurries in front of Clemmensen, whom I don't believe can really be blamed for the lost. I'm not too upset since I didn't think we'd win this game anyway. It was the second of back-to-backs after a win and Clemmemsen started both games. Can't forget it was St. Louis's 900th career game, so the Lightning were fired up. As for my first experience at a game in Tampa, I was VERY impressed. Their pre-game presentation was awesome and their scoreboard puts ours to shame. The tesla coils are extremely cool. The fans overall were not bad. Only a few people told us to 'go home' or that the 'panthers suck' which I expected. They were definitely more into the game overall than I see at most Panthers games. Although telling Foster he sucks when he's never played in a game and booing us whenever we touched the puck towards the end was pretty lame. I was also impressed at how many Panthers fans were there. I'd say that we made up about 15-20% of the crowd. A girl behind me said you can usually count the Panthers fans there on one hand and she's never seen anything like it there before. It was awesome seeing Laus and Beezer again as well as meeting blackpanthers and panthersflames. I'll certainly be back for a game there next season.
i put this loss squarely on the back of weiss. it's almost impossible to win when the guy who is supposedly your best player is easily the worst player on the ice....for either team. i'm not sure what happened to him tonight but it seemed like every time he touched the puck he turned it over. he was incredibly bad.
I think we have found the 2nd line for this week. I don't believe Goc, Bergenheim or Samuelsson are true second line guys and will likely bounce between second and third line as their fortunes fade and grow. Problem I think is third line. Matthias is only guy who can maybe move up to second line and challenge guys. Santorelli is too weak on the puck. Kopecky is too slow. To make a playoff run first line cannot continue with those amount of minutes. Fourth line is pretty good as far as fourth lines go. Problem right now is 5 third line players and Santorelli? Talon needs to wheel and deal soon, I think
Tuomo Ruutu, Carolina, will it break chemistry if Tallon brings 1st line guy into fold? Of course, something will go back, but Ruutu will be UFA after this season, so not so much?
It was a socceresque dive. The team should be ashamed of that kind of Carolina behavior.
No, it was something i havent seen all that much before, he grabs Steegs stick an trips himself with it. The guy must feel real proud that he had to do something like that to win the game. The sad thing is, for as bad as we played, we would have had a 6 on 3 if the CORRECT call was made, which could have made it a lot more interesting.
I'm assuming I'm going to have a lot to say here and I'm typing on my phone, which doesn't let me space paragraphs, so I apologize for the ginormous post. Tonight was just not our night. We played absolutely terrible defensively and that was the main thing that I think lost us the game. Way too many scoring chances in flurries in front of Clemmensen, whom I don't believe can really be blamed for the lost. I'm not too upset since I didn't think we'd win this game anyway. It was the second of back-to-backs after a win and Clemmemsen started both games. Can't forget it was St. Louis's 900th career game, so the Lightning were fired up. As for my first experience at a game in Tampa, I was VERY impressed. Their pre-game presentation was awesome and their scoreboard puts ours to shame. The tesla coils are extremely cool. The fans overall were not bad. Only a few people told us to 'go home' or that the 'panthers suck' which I expected. They were definitely more into the game overall than I see at most Panthers games. Although telling Foster he sucks when he's never played in a game and booing us whenever we touched the puck towards the end was pretty lame. I was also impressed at how many Panthers fans were there. I'd say that we made up about 15-20% of the crowd. A girl behind me said you can usually count the Panthers fans there on one hand and she's never seen anything like it there before. It was awesome seeing Laus and Beezer again as well as meeting blackpanthers and panthersflames. I'll certainly be back for a game there next season.
That is awesome. Saw a lot of red on my crappy stream.
Tuomo Ruutu, Carolina, will it break chemistry if Tallon brings 1st line guy into fold? Of course, something will go back, but Ruutu will be UFA after this season, so not so much?
JOL
Tough one to call. This hockey team and the way standings are is probably a few losses away from being sellers at trade deadline or a few wins away from being buyers. Either way probably not in it for a long playoff run. Do think though one or two third line players for a second line player would make sense for this season. Next year have to believe Huberdeau would help elevate Matthias and a really good second line is just around the corner.
I want to love Bergy, but he takes so many stupid penalties. Drives me nuts. Clemmer showed some chinks in the armor last night, but still, this loss isn't on him, he still played solid for the most part, this loss is mostly on the forwards, Weiss and Versteeg in particular.
I wouldn't get too hung up about this one though. Tampa is 6-0-1 in their last 7, they are beating everyone, not just us. Too little too late, but they have been playing well. Plus it was the 3rd in 4 nights. We could have still beat them if we didn't have so many dumb turnovers, but oh well. The Panthers are mad, they'll be fired up for next game, so just on to the next one. Plus, it's a big game for the division crown, so there's extra motivation.
