RayCathode

OEL and Myers always in trouble. For Myers it's because messages take too long to get from his brain down that long neck to his extremities.

win or lose, it's a great opportunity for these young d to get some experience

Yes, it comes back to ownership's desperate need to be mediocre.

GM signed old farts to huge contracts, trades away high draft picks, makes desperate trades, team is squeezed on the cap -sound familiar? All in a rush to be mediocre immediately - sound familiar? Rutherford copying Benning - results? Same as Benning. Where does this come from? Ownership that can't stand up to fans that demand to have immediate success. It's just a formula for mediocrity in the short term and dismal failure in the long term.

The only way to move Boeser is by throwing in somebody useful - maybe if we throw in Hughes and Petey someone will take him, but boeser is Horvat's best argument for getting a raise.

Putting two guys out three on three who have trouble carrying their money around is not a good plan - that is on Boudreau.

.500 does not make the playoffs.

A couple more D won't stop Pearson from taking dumb penalties nor Miller from making ill advised passes. Forward candidate for being benched and Hoglander coming in - Pearson. More D won't stop the D we have from not having a clue on who to check when the puck is in our zone, nor keep both D from checking the same guy in the corner and leaving the net front open - that's something you expect from minor house hockey. Miller and Boeser seem to be weighted down by all that money they were given.

Man, this kid has wonderful physical gifts.

Based on limited observations, this kid"s mobility and stickhandling is top drawer.

New players who have made or are likely to make the team: Aman Kuzmenko Mikheyev Rathbone? Lazar Wolanin? Significant changes.

With the perceived performance level and the injuries to significant players, one has to wonder in what shape they came to camp.

The thing that bothers me is that these special teams have been poor through several special team coaches and two head coaches. So what then is the problem? Is this a player personnel problem? Is there a common factor in our poor PK performance, for instance? Is there a common factor in PP performance? Lately, it seems to me, most of the goals scored on Demko are on deflections and/or on Canuck PKs. Set aside for a moment, that Demko's even strength performance is exemplary, is there something in his style that makes him particularly vulnerable to the PK situation? Is this a problem of D not tying up Fs in front of our net? Is this an issue of not enough pressure put on the points? We seem to have stopped our strong up ice pressure that we maintained during a not too long ago strong period of PKs. Also, our PK has once again begun to collapse around the net, surrendering the outside to the opposition instead of hounding opposition players with uncertain possession or isolated along the boards. Other teams kill our PP by a: not surrendering the blue line. and b: we retrieve shoot ins very poorly. How do other teams succeed at easy entries while we struggle? Just questions, I'd love answers to. Are my assumptions wrong? What are the proper assumptions with regard to special team apparent problems?

Is Rathbone hurt? I don't see him in the past few games...

Tonight's French refs have long memories. Remember Burrows/Auger? Still not forgotten: NHL investigating Auger after Burrows claim - Sportsnet.ca Auger got fired. Never forgotten.

After watching Hughes struggle in his own end and rack a pretty awful +/- I may have a solution. Play him as a D until we get a lead, then deploy him as a forward and let a stronger defender help protect the lead. This is how Phil Housley, another fine offensive defenceman who struggled at playing defensively was used in years past to great success. The great Paul Reinhart was double shifted in Calgary against the Gretzky era Oilers as a center when they wanted to create more offence.