Speculation: - 2018-2019 General Lightning Discussion | HFBoards - NHL Message Board and Forum for National Hockey League
Toggle sidebar

Speculation: 2018-2019 General Lightning Discussion

Status
Not open for further replies.
DFC

DFC

Registered User
Sep 26, 2013
46,978
25,491
NB
Figured it's time to transition from training cap to the season, discussion-wise.
 
The effort worried me briefly but as the game went on we looked much better. It was a sloppy win because of a sloppy start. We could have lost and I still wouldn't have been half as worried as having to wait til Thursday for our next game. Prolonged time off has not been our friend
 
I think people forget how bad we were in the first game last season. I also feel like we always play pretty badly against florida (even though we end up winning a lot of the games).

Also Kucherov missing the preseason is a pretty huge thing. He just looked off. While some people seem to disagree, he is our most important player (and i don't think anyone else is even close) so when he isn't playing well it can have an effect on the entire team.

And can we stop blaming things on effort? it's the most lazy excuse ever. Maybe just maybe we simply got outplayed? If anyone has ever watched an interview of literally any of our players you can see how motivated they are. I especially recommend you guys to watch a kucherov interview. I can't think of a guy who works harder than him.
 
I like to focus on the positives! PK looked really good, sure just one game but can we improve it with 5% from last year then that would be great.
 
Our stars just didn't show up again. But there were some positives. Mainly McDonagh, because of the possibilities it opens up if he can be a legit #2 type.

Hopefully the layoff doesn't hurt us too much. It'll be Vancouver's 4th game.
 
I really haven’t been able to watch much. Is Serge struggling that much? If so, that’s a big potential issue. Hopefully he can find his game soon. Girardi on the top pair does not work.
 
Lightning1995 said:
I really haven’t been able to watch much. Is Serge struggling that much? If so, that’s a big potential issue. Hopefully he can find his game soon. Girardi on the top pair does not work.
Click to expand...

It's only the first regular game, so I'd give Sergachev some time, but he didn't look that solid defensively. I wish they'd put him with McDonagh which would let Strålman move back up with Hedman. Since Mac is showing signs of settling in nicely now, he'd probably be a good mentor/partner for Sergachev. That would move Girardi down to the third pair with Coburn and Koekkoek shifting in. Or move Cernak up from the AHL and pair him with Coburn for some early sheltering/limited minutes to get his feet wet.
 
Lightning1995 said:
I really haven’t been able to watch much. Is Serge struggling that much? If so, that’s a big potential issue. Hopefully he can find his game soon. Girardi on the top pair does not work.
Click to expand...

It was more about his pre-season, where he was underwhelming while a lot of our younger players were impressing. But his first game was a continuation of that trend.
 
Sergachev was given a shift on the PK last night, not sure if that was by design, but with Hedman and McDonagh both getting 22-25 minutes a game they can definitely continue to take their time weening him onto the DZ starts.

I see some obvious benefits of bringing Cernak up and rotating Girardi and Coburn out of the lineup. You don't have to shelter Cernak the same way you need to shelter Sergachev, and I'd prefer Cernak transitions now and gets those minutes so that in February we can up his workload and we aren't having to glue Stralman back together.

One more note from last night, Cirelli had 26 shifts last night, second amongst forwards. He also took the most faceoffs despite only 15 minutes of ice time.
 
  • Like
Reactions: DFC
ccman68 said:
I think people forget how bad we were in the first game last season. I also feel like we always play pretty badly against florida (even though we end up winning a lot of the games).

Also Kucherov missing the preseason is a pretty huge thing. He just looked off. While some people seem to disagree, he is our most important player (and i don't think anyone else is even close) so when he isn't playing well it can have an effect on the entire team.

And can we stop blaming things on effort? it's the most lazy excuse ever. Maybe just maybe we simply got outplayed? If anyone has ever watched an interview of literally any of our players you can see how motivated they are. I especially recommend you guys to watch a kucherov interview. I can't think of a guy who works harder than him.
Click to expand...

Huh? You see that Hedman guy? Vasi? You think Kucherov can win a game singlehandedly if Vasi has a bad night? Where as this past game a prime example of Vasi carrying the team to a win with Kucherov stinking it up.

It's a bit tiring watching him say how much he wants to win then plays games like this on the regular. Fair to say Kucherov could be even better if he cut out numerous bad habits on his game - but it's it's what he is.
 
Rschmitz said:
Sergachev was given a shift on the PK last night, not sure if that was by design, but with Hedman and McDonagh both getting 22-25 minutes a game they can definitely continue to take their time weening him onto the DZ starts.

I see some obvious benefits of bringing Cernak up and rotating Girardi and Coburn out of the lineup. You don't have to shelter Cernak the same way you need to shelter Sergachev, and I'd prefer Cernak transitions now and gets those minutes so that in February we can up his workload and we aren't having to glue Stralman back together.

One more note from last night, Cirelli had 26 shifts last night, second amongst forwards. He also took the most faceoffs despite only 15 minutes of ice time.
Click to expand...

Looking at Even Strength TOI, Hedman and Strålman had only about a 5 second difference which would argue well for their ability to be paired together again as Heddy gets most of his extra Ironman minutes from the PP. Mac had a bit over 1 minute more. So Mac, Heddy and Stråls had about 25, 24 & 23 minutes total TOI respectively. Mac and Stråls had the most shifts at 30 each and the most PK time. Girardi had a little more than 16 minutes TOI so his minutes are still being managed as they were last season. Thank goodness. :phew: Sergy and Coburn had almost identical just-under 15 minutes. So I think that's more minutes for Sergy compared to last season, except for maybe the playoffs.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Rschmitz
Status
Not open for further replies.

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 1 (members: 0, guests: 1)

Latest posts

Ad

Ad

Top Bottom