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MikeyD

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Everything posted by MikeyD

  1. You just posted the foreshadowing of the rest of his career being stuck in the AHL because he's too old now for teams to consider bringing into the organization. He was about as good as Rathbone was in the AHL (put up less points but looked absolutely in control of everything like Bone did)and then they have him come up to sit a whole bunch of games. Gets one opportunity, panics knowing it's his only opportunity to impress and has 1 bad period. Settles in and has 2 decent periods. Not good enough. Relinquished. Never used again. Now teams won't even look at him.
  2. We all get that. But why Joshua? He has ten hits in 4 games playing on the 4th line. The bulk of those coming from one game lol. He had 0 hits last game.
  3. Big team over there, better continue playing the guy that's only gone out there to get bodied. Smart decision.
  4. Moronic decision again. Let's just call a spade a spade, the guy hates small forwards because why possess the puck when you can just give it to the other team so the big guys who refuse to skate can't get it back!
  5. I'd buy this if guys didn't want to re-sign here but it seems we have no issues doing that. People that could have taken a better paycheck on other teams and gone away from the toxicity decided not to do so, so I'm gonna chalk this one up to another BS story from the media train again.
  6. Not if I resurrect this thread again in 5 years.
  7. Some people get excited for The BOA, The Battle of Alberta, others get excited for The BOUB (the boob for short), The Battle of Unfinished Business. Who will come out on top? Find out next game when Canucks fan faces off against Canucks fan live on PGT!
  8. I actually know Burrows and he had a burner account on here too. Started the thread, "Burrows, do we really need him?“
  9. Also Minny had major issues when he was theur head coach back in the day. Don't recall the Blues but I'm also ignorant to that. I remember the Wild having lots of bag skates and he ended up going irate on them. https://youtu.be/LRbHF7l9W0E
  10. Haven't followed him for years but absolutely loved his play back in the day. I remember Oilers traded Hall for Larsson and I was going, "Why the hell didn't they ask for Serverson?! He's exactly what they need on a team that can't find a steady defenseman!" But alas, Edmonton does Edmonton things and can't fix their defense to save their lives.
  11. Needs somebody to hold possession long enough for him to get into the zone and then pass the puck to him lol. He needs a real strong play driver that can slow the play down enough for him to catch up lol
  12. I agree but he has stated the reasons why he scratched Garland and Burroughs. Garland because he felt he wasn't playing up to his potential and Burroughs because he preferred the lefty/righty combo on defense (still doesn't explain why others were chosen over him). Aside from that, I completely agree with your post.
  13. I don't believe he is a scapegoat. I think the players are responsible first and foremost. If the players performed well he looks like a genius. It's just something that isn't aiding the team, that's all. Like I stated in the post, when the big boys are rolling, this team is very difficult to beat but we are a team of Jekyll and Hyde because we rely on our big forwards to be point producers. We don't attack the fundamentals of playing hard and making the other team work. That rests on the players. But messages can be sent by staff to encourage such behaviour. Plays like JT giving up on plays or players not backchecking because they don't care should be zero tolerance. I couldn't even get away with that in Div 1 sports, let alone at a professional level lol. And now that I'm older, I've played on less competitive teams and I see what good teams who can make it to nationals do vs bad teams who can hardly win I realize just how important a good coach is towards establishing proper attitudes towards the game and how having accountability is absolutely hugeeeeee in sports. It's honestly one of the most underrated aspects in team sports. Edit: typo
  14. Absolute waste of 21 seconds of my life. I'm at work though, so thanks!
  15. It's a fair point. Definitely a sore spot but I'm more pro-active than reactive when it comes to things like this. Demko struggled heavily on the pk, but I also think he wasn't letting in a plethora of weak goals either. Wasn't making enough big saves, for sure though.
  16. There are many good things to like about Boudreau's coaching and many of his system's designs tend to work with seeing a more exciting hockey style being played and some good opportunities to effectively see results, but it comes with a caveat... And that caveat is that (to me anyways) it seems to be entirely dependent on how well the superstars of the team are playing. Now that in many cases, is pretty obvious and applies to any team in the league but here is why I think it is a flaw for our team and the way he chooses to coach: Bruce Boudreau has consistently in the time he has been here has relied heavily on the guys who earn the big bucks, giving them large amount of ice time and major roles as normally they should be given. Now this isn't a problem, but one thing that is ultimately plaguing many of our core players who get paid these big bucks is consistency. Mainly it is a consistency in effort. We've seen guys like Miller, Bo, Brock and even Hughes take nights off where they just seem checked out and will give up on plays and not be 100% invested. Now one thing that we have learned is Bruce doesn't like it when guys aren't playing up to the caliber that they're capable of, and this is a good thing. If guys aren't on their game, I don't believe they should be given the massive amount of ice time as it's just not their night, however what baffles me is that he will bench guys who are not playing well but are putting in the effort but he won't bench players who are being paid big contracts that aren't even putting in the effort. There is a star player impunity that I think goes hand in hand with the lack of culture that this team struggles with. We're supposedly a country-club-run hockey team but the first thing we do is coach like it's a country club. I get that these players can get you points, but they also cost you points in return. There's a very definable reason as to why we have lost 4 multi-goal leads in a row and have established a new record for the National Hockey League. Last year we saw Petey get a reduction in his ice time because he was slumping with an injury, we've seen Garland be a healthy scratch because he's not at the top of his form, we've seen Hoglander be scratched because his "defensive game isn't up to par" (ironic with half the players on the team) and then we've already seen it multiple times this year where you have horses like Garland, Hoglander, and Podkolzin going in an putting in good consistent efforts and getting low ice time as where you have players like JT and Bo literally giving up on plays, doing fly-by's and getting over 20 minutes a game. He leans on his star players even when they aren't putting in the effort. You have players with negative corsi for % at even strength (indicating they aren't controlling play) despite getting more offensive zone starts consistently being launched over the bench but guys who are controlling the play are now being kept out of the lineup? So far this year there has been one player that has been rewarded for having good games and moved up the lineup and that has been Kyle Burroughs, and then he too became a victim of being scratched. These kinds of decisions on who to give ice time to are killing our chances for success. How are you supposed to win hockey games when the hardest working players who are busting tail to go retrieve the puck and keep it away from the other team not getting more playing time? I think it's sending the wrong message and is one of the many reasons why this team is so easy to play against. You don't have to work as hard as long as you can grab a point or two here or there. That is why this team's consistency is like a yo-yo. Building a culture is on the coach first, then the captains and then management. We can't keep rewarding those who are easy to play against if they're not being effective at being point-producers or generating scoring chances. Now with that said, Bruce is still a good hockey coach. We shouldn't panic. We should aim for consistency and part of being consistent is putting the work in. If guys aren't showing up and being professionals at game time, they shouldn't be getting game time. I still think we will make the playoffs but we won't make it unless we get a consistent buy-in, and that starts with coach.
  17. It was in reference to when he was playing with us (last year). Pretty much every team in the league uses the same configuration in some sense. Same shape anyways (whether it be a diamond or square or box). Definitely you're right about this year, no need to panic yet. I'll give them about ten games or so before I create a more accurate judgment with the new personnel on the pk. However what I'm referencing is more to being in unison. You need good timing and communication on the PK and the reason is because you need to be aggressive because you're outmanned. You need to find ways to creatively double-team in certain situations or find ways to force the puck into disadvantageous/crowded areas of the ice in order to cause turnovers. Teams like Calgary are fantastic at this because what they do is they force the play to the boards because the pucks are harder to handle with less room obviously, and when the puck gets sent down a wall they automatically have another pk'er challenging for the puck along that wall. You're forcing the powerplay to handle the puck, be aware of their surroundings and be cognizant of what passing lanes are available whilst also likely with their back towards the play. Now some elite teams like the Oilers have the ability to make these tough plays with great bumper passing and great puck movement, but at the end of the day most teams in the league can't handle a super aggressive PK. But say if you had an aggressive guy like Motte forcing the puck down the wall and your defender is sitting passively to protect the net for some reason, that means that Motte going out towards the point is putting himself out of position because all it takes for the player at the point to make a play is to put the puck down the wall, and now that guy on the half-wall now has time to accept the puck, look for an option and to gain control easily. It also likely means that now Motte is too high in the play because he's opened up a lot of lanes up high for a play to be made for the guy who now possesses the puck on the half-wall. Now if Motte had other players who played with the same tenacity and wits, he'd force the puck down the wall and immediately one of his defenders would be on that guy on the half-wall. He's now under pressure to not only accept the puck off a wall, protect it, find an option with his back turned to the play and a defender bearing in on him and try to not turn the puck over. If that player on the half-wall fumbles the puck at all or isn't quick to make a play, you're now going to get double teamed by the defender on our team and Motte who would now be rushing the play even further in hopes of creating a scrum along the boards which would effectively likely turn the puck over. We've all seen our defense under Green where we allow perimeter play and allow long stretches of possession for the opposing teams and basically just shell up in hopes the other team makes a mistake and turns it over. We kind of have kept that style of play but on our pk and it's a bit troubling. I find guys like Lazar when he's out there is doing similar things Motte did where he's actively trying to cause turnovers while his teammates are being passive as is status quo with this team and thus far we are kind of seeing the same kind of issues happening on our pk. Ultimately some of our PK woes are also due to guys needing to gel a bit more and get their reps in to figure out timing as well. Anyways I'm sure you're aware of all of this as you are one of the more educated posters on this forum but that is me in long form overly describing what I'm trying to infer lol.
  18. I disagree. I think he's a great PK guy, the problem is he's doing the right things while the others aren't supporting him and doing the wrong things. The best PK's in the league have aggression in their kill. If you have one guy committed to doing the successful thing and being aggressive, you're sending one guy to attack while the other 3 keep passing options open because they're being passive so you're essentially putting the guy doing the right thing out of position because he's not in sync with his teammates. That incompatibility is what's murdering our PK, not the guy that's doing the right plays with the wrong group of line mates.
  19. Had more so to do with the 3 other players not named Motte on the PK.
  20. Bruce is off his F%x+ING meds with some of these lineup decisions. Wowwww I thought he was injured. What an absolutely moronic decision to bench one of the few players busting their ass every game this season thus far. Makes zero sense.
  21. No just the damn boards flickering through bodies and pucks every damn 3 seconds. They're brutal tonight.
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