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Malinski (who I really like a lot) is a major ? mark when we hit playoffs. He hasn't been tested there and could simply melt under the pressure. We will see.

Middleton needs to be locked out of the playoff roster entirely. Manson is needed desperately. Same for Girard.

Lindgrahm is gonna produce a few brain farts as well. Get ready.
I agree that Middleton will struggle in the playoffs when every team steps up. But... he's actually been playing a pretty safe, conservative game and more or less makes the right move when given a chance. As the other teams ramp up, I'm just not convinced he would be able to do the same.

Regardless, he's a tool and one that should be used... but used, um... judiciously.
 
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Malinski (who I really like a lot) is a major ? mark when we hit playoffs. He hasn't been tested there and could simply melt under the pressure. We will see.

Middleton needs to be locked out of the playoff roster entirely. Manson is needed desperately. Same for Girard.

Lindgrahm is gonna produce a few brain farts as well. Get ready.

Yeah I was nervous about hte D core in the playoffs before the deadline and now Im even more so.

Masnon - injury prone and may be rushing back from an injury again
Malsinki - unproven and doesn't like contact
EJ - 37 and hasn't skated the same after his lower body injury, especially on his first shift, before he loosens up whatever it is.

I'm not saying anything playoff teams won't pick up on in their pre scout either.

Middleton I actually haven't hated in a limited role lately. Skates well and passes ok. He has to be behind the other guys though.

Lindgren hasn't played as well the last few games as he did before. He's been hammered with hits lately though. He may not be 100%.

Girard's got a nagging injury. Hopefully it's ok by the playoffs.

Lvoe that EJ is back, but they really needed to find another top 4D at the deadline IMO. Hope it doesn't burn them.
 
I agree that Middleton will struggle in the playoffs when every team steps up. But... he's actually been playing a pretty safe, conservative game and more or less makes the right move when given a chance. As the other teams ramp up, I'm just not convinced he would be able to do the same.

Regardless, he's a tool and one that should be used... but used, um... judiciously.
Fine. But you can't play Middleton against opponents 1st or 2nd lines now in the regular season. So he can't be seeing a lot of minutes in the playoffs given how difficult it is to match D pairs to other teams 4 line ice time. Esp on the road.

IF one of the top 4 goes down or doesn't come back strong, Middleton, EJ and Ski worry me if they have to be looked to take on more minutes.
 
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Fine. But you can't play Middleton against opponents 1st or 2nd lines now in the regular season. So he can't be seeing a lot of minutes in the playoffs given how difficult it is to match D pairs to other teams 4 line ice time. Esp on the road.

IF one of the top 4 goes down or doesn't come back strong, Middleton, EJ and Ski worry me if they have to be looked to take on more minutes.
Pretty much the exact same situation as every other team in the league. You take a way a top 4 dman or two and they start to suck. There's nothing to be done but hope for health here. There's nothing that CMac could have or should have done either beyond what he did with Lindgren.
 
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30 goals, 90+ points for Cale Makar.

Norris is a lock. The buzz for the Hart trophy should also be picking up steam. Unlike Karlsson’s 100 point season and Hughes this year, Makar has also logged heavy PK minutes.

Very impressive season, and he continues to cement himself as an all-time great defenceman.
 
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30 goals, 90+ points for Cale Makar.

Norris is a lock. The buzz for the Hart trophy should also be picking up steam. Unlike Karlsson’s 100 point season and Hughes this year, Makar has also logged heavy PK minutes.

Very impressive season, and he continues to cement himself as an all-time great defenceman.

Wrong thread!
 
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I could be wrong, but I'm pretty well convinced that it's mostly a byproduct of Bednar's hard skating system.

They exert so much energy on the forecheck, backcheck, and to generate great chances, that by the time they go to shoot, they've done all the hard work at that point, and naturally just let up a bit sometimes, instead of maintaining their focus, and bearing down on their shots.

There's positives and negatives to everything. Bedsy's system has so many postiives and won them a Cup.

Some of the downsides though might be this shooting accuracy issue, as well as players who aren't natural athletes getting gassed and struggling, and spending so much time in practice on 5v5, they don't always practice other situations like face-offs, and 4 on 4, and 5 on 3. Though they've gotten better at 4 on 4.

Regarding faceoffs, I have a feeling Nate got better at them after the 4 Nations, because Sid went to him and was like, "If you're gonna play center you have to get better on draws" so they practiced them, and he got better at them.
I think it’s a byproduct of the lack of depth. Too few guys are able to actually put it in the net, so they think they gotta get the shot perfect. They have much better depth now but old habits die hard.

Normally when your shooting luck is bad, the solution is to just get it on net however you can and try to get those greasy goals close-up. The Kings game was an example of them doing just that. They didn’t do that nearly enough the following three games.
 

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