I think the recent troubles we're encountering can be derived specifically from the defense. Girardi and McDonough look demoralized and tired. Del Zotto looks to be reverting back to last year - being more conservative with the puck, making errant passes, being in poor defensive positioning. Stralman's also lost his edge. The only 2 players who seem to be on the rise are Staal and Bickel.
It just seems like the confidence and swagger we heard so much about is really taking a hit right now. For a lot of players.
During the first part of the season it was Dubi, Anisimov, Boyle, and Prust that really struggled with confidence and performance.
Now its Dubi, Richards, Girardi, McDonough, Del Zotto, and Stralman.
We need a shake up. An energizer. Something that will remind everyone of how confident they were playing before. Honestly. Yea some of you will flame me saying it's only been 3/4 games and that all teams look out of sync at points, but we could be looking at 4/5 seed within the next week if this continues.
I think for the defense, the shake up is simple. Put Staal on the 1st defensive line pairing with Girardi. Move McDonough with Bickel as the 2nd pairing. Relegate MDZ and Stralman to the 3rd pairing. Girardi and Staal are reunited hopefully reinvigorating Girardi playing with a harder hitting and more energized Staal. McDonough losing his spot on the 1st pairing will hopefully motivate him to raise his game up a little bit and work harder. Moving MDZ and Stralman to the 3rd pairing, and giving them minutes accordingly, helps MDZ get healthy (since that's what I think his recent struggles can be attributed to) while also allowing him to play against slightly worse lines to get his confidence back. Stralman just needs to buckle down again.
As for the offense, because this is a huge problem in general, I think adding Kreider if/when BC is knocked out of the tourney, will energize the entire offense. Similar to how the Rangers were energized with Hagelin, Kreider's presence should help tremendously. You'll all be amazed by what Kreider's speed creates in terms of chances and team energy.
I think Kreider should take Mitchell's spot. Just makes the most sense.
Kreider should be based on 2 factors:
1 If he's here, he can definitely help WITHOUT hurting his own development.
This LOOKS LIKE that's the case, or at least it's the case that if he's just here for the end and the playoffs, we're not going to ruin him.
Were that not so, it would not make sense to put him in, only to see him fail.
I don't expect a problem with his skating.
Whether rest of his game is beginner NHL quality today, not sure (again, about today --- he can probably be here next year, worst case scenario).
2 he can fit in and fill a need.
Kreider replaces Wolski, Avery.
Kreider does not have to replace a hard working productive player like Mitchell.
However, Kreider will be the second incarnation of Dave Keon, not Wayne Gretzky.
We need another sniper.
We lose games in some cases cause teams like Edmonton stay close enough and then seal the deal. The King can do wonders, but eventually he's gonna let something in and my thinking is it will be from a sniper. So we need more premium snipers to change that in our favor.
We are neither as bad as we fear nor as good as we hope, at this point.
We will give it our best, and the competition will have to take it away from us.
Hopefully we get better at that not happening as we push into the playoffs.
I would say about half the posters didn't want to trade any of the cute and cuddly prospects for scoring or other needs. I forget who all held those opinions (and I am not saying you did at all, ken, as I have no idea where you stood), but everyone that did needs to live with this and realize that it was a terrible decision to not add anything to this team besides Scott.
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"Of course giving Sather cap space is like giving teenagers whiskey and car keys." - SBOB "Watching Sather build a team is like watching a blind man with no fingers trying to put together an elaborate puzzle." - Shadowtron
Sestito still on the make a wish tour. - rholt168
I would say about half the posters didn't want to trade any of the cute and cuddly prospects for scoring or other needs. I forget who all held those opinions (and I am not saying you did at all, ken, as I have no idea where you stood), but everyone that did needs to live with this and realize that it was a terrible decision to not add anything to this team besides Scott.
Gaustad costing a 1st shows you what the market was like.
I honestly think Sather asked for everybody, but his peers werent interested. I mean, Edmonton decided to hold on to Smyth and Hemsky??????? WTF is that? Edmonton???
I cant blame Sather for not overpaying for some scrub. But he could have easily added one body on defense and one guy up front for 2nd and 3rd rounders.
Clearly priority number 1 is the PP. Nothing more to discuss there, they need to figure it the **** out.
Number 2 is the defense. Girardi and at times McD look absolutely gassed. The bad news is Staal has been pretty streaky lately, IMO his lack of conditioning (especially in terms of lost strength while he was sitting out) really shows itself at times.
Thirdly, nothing really to fix, but a few soft goals have killed this team momentum-wise lately. That needs to end.
Finally, I know they are "aware" but this team needs to play every freakin night knowing they have a target on their back. There is no more opportunity to catch teams by surprise, of let off for an instant. Finish every check and for heaven's sake stop being so careless with the puck.
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"Here we can see the agression of american people. They love fighting and guns. when they wont win they try to kill us all." -HalfOfFame
I would say about half the posters didn't want to trade any of the cute and cuddly prospects for scoring or other needs. I forget who all held those opinions (and I am not saying you did at all, ken, as I have no idea where you stood), but everyone that did needs to live with this and realize that it was a terrible decision to not add anything to this team besides Scott.
Who did you want to trade for? There wasnt much out there...and whatever was out there wasnt really any good. A 1st for Gaustad? I mean, are you serious?
Who did you want to trade for? There wasnt much out there...and whatever was out there wasnt really any good. A 1st for Gaustad? I mean, are you serious?
Would've done the Oduya trade and the Pahlsson trade.
I have a theory that we need to score one more goal than our opponent. If they can really commit to this strategy then it won't matter if the score is 2-1 or 5-4 they still win.....
I have a theory that it's 2 games, one of which was with our backup goalie.
These threads lately make me laugh.
the season is 82 games long. Losses happen
I have a theory that you like to make assumptions. I am not one of these doom and gloomers you seem to allude to. The team has just not looked as sharp in the past 3 weeks or so, i would say since the first Chicago blowout. Yes, we did win quite a few games during the early part of this stretch, but I think most of the people who have been watching the games recently have noticed that they just haven't been as crisp as they were earlier in the season.
I think the 2 week home stand will be very good for this team. They will right the ship eventually and will still probably win the 1st seed.
I would say about half the posters didn't want to trade any of the cute and cuddly prospects for scoring or other needs. I forget who all held those opinions (and I am not saying you did at all, ken, as I have no idea where you stood), but everyone that did needs to live with this and realize that it was a terrible decision to not add anything to this team besides Scott.
This is the 3rd or 4th time I've seen you post something to this effect, and before you hurt yourself patting yourself on the back, stop for a second and try and remember what actually happened in the lead up to the deadline. I don't remember seeing anybody on here that wanted the team to do nothing. The debate was over whether it was smart to send roster players and prospects for Nash. That's what people were against (due to it being a short-sighted use of those assets). Everyone wanted the team to add offense (I was hoping for AKost and Oduya).
As for the team's recent struggles, I think it's down to players getting tired. Girardi has been playing 2 minutes more TOI than he ever has before. Stepan had a huge bump in minutes. Callahan had a bump in minutes, and I'm reasonably sure that he's still hurting (at least I hope he is, because he's been playing like crap since returning, particularly tonight). McDonagh went from playing 18 or 19 minutes a game on the 2nd pairing to playing 25+ minutes per game, and this in his first "full" NHL season.
Torts needs to do a couple of things ASAP.
-He needs to call up Erixon and break him in. Sauer isn't coming back this year, and Stralman, Eminger and Bickel aren't going to cut it in the playoffs. Erixon needs to get games sooner rather than later. That will allow Torts to cut down on Girardi and McDonagh's minutes.
-Start leaning on guys who aren't ****ing exhausted. Get some more minutes to AA, Dubinsky and Hagelin. Scale back a bit on Stepan, Callahan and Richards. The former (aside from Hagelin) need to get their games going and the latter need to get their wind back.
People can think I'm nuts, but I'm actually glad the guys are in this slump right now. I say "right now" because the have been so consistent they really haven't had to face much adversity this season.
Image the first slump happen come playoff time?
This gives them a change to work through this as a team and enter the playoffs back on a fresh winning streak entering the playoffs.
If they can't get by this..... well then, they obviously are not final 4 ready yet.
If they get past this..... they will enter the playoffs on a roll, and when this team gets on a roll, few, if any, can beat them.
People can think I'm nuts, but I'm actually glad the guys are in this slump right now. I say "right now" because the have been so consistent they really haven't had to face much adversity this season.
Image the first slump happen come playoff time?
This gives them a change to work through this as a team and enter the playoffs back on a fresh winning streak entering the playoffs.
If they can't get by this..... well then, they obviously are not final 4 ready yet.
If they get past this..... they will enter the playoffs on a roll, and when this team gets on a roll, few, if any, can beat them.
Somebody posted something about how most recent Cup winners went through a February/March slump. It doesn't only happen to bad teams. I really wish people weren't always so eager to hit the panic button.
