Yeah, I mean it's a topic we talk about often but people are really running out of excuses for Ballard. You can talk about how the coach doesn't use him right and blah blah but what it boils down to, is that Ballard is an NHL veteran. He is not just making system mistakes or bad reads based on his style of play (although he does that too). He is making rookie type mistakes and sometimes getting badly burned by them. Ballard just simply is not the defenseman we thought he was. He just is not very good...
I had high hopes for Ballard and have patiently waited for him to turn it around for a couple of years now, but it seems like the more I defend him the more his play regresses. The guy seems to have fallen off a Wade Redden sized cliff. He can still skate like the wind, but his confidence with the puck has utterly evaporated, he plays like it's a bomb on his stick. It's actually kind of amazing that a young kid with a few dozen games under his belt is the steadying influence on that pairing. I imagine him sighing deeply as he cleans up yet another of Ballard's gaffes.
Pity, really. He seems like a good guy and a good teammate. If he can't put it together here, I hope he can turn it around somewhere else with a fresh start.
At least Schultz and Yakupov did absolutely nothing.
Speaking of: why wasn't Schultz booed out of the building every time he touched the puck last night?
A few of a guys in my section tried last night, but it didn't catch on
Speaking of: why wasn't Schultz booed out of the building every time he touched the puck last night?
Speaking of: why wasn't Schultz booed out of the building every time he touched the puck last night?
Speaking of: why wasn't Schultz booed out of the building every time he touched the puck last night?
To be honest, I'd rather Kassian just lay big hits rather than fight. That way he can actually stay on the ice so his other tools will be useful to us (what good is his passing or being strong along the boards if he's in the box?), and still give the team/crowd an energy boost with a devastating hit.
Obviously the shorter season is going to make the start a little more important, but even then it's importance is going to be overstated. No one bats an eye when a crappy team goes on a 4-1-0 run or a good team goes 1-3-1 in the middle of the season, so they really shouldn't just because it's at the start of the year either.
After the Oilers tied it up though, it was Sedin time again – the faceoff at centre ice had the Sedins lining up against the Oilers fourth line. Curiously, this was the time that Eager decided that he needed to take some retribution from Kassian. Kassian claimed after the game that he was the one looking for the fight, which didn’t really seem to be backed up by the tape. The guys on the broadcast were talking about Eager taking retribution for a hit that Kassian had thrown on Taylor Hall, which seems odd too – that hit was in the second period and, as I’ve shown before, fighting goes way down in the third period of close games, with about 1400 minutes being required per fight in a tie game – it’s basically the playoffs.
What that fight did do though was prevent the Sedins from getting a shot at Edmonton’s fourth line in the last six minutes of a tied hockey game. When the puck dropped again, they were still on the ice, with Dale Weise replacing Kassian. Belanger and Petrell were gone though, replaced by Hall, Eberle and Nugent-Hopkins. Was this a coincidence? Possibly. It sure worked out well for Edmonton as far as matchups go though. Better that Ben Eager gets his face punched in then the Sedins spend a shift in the Oilers end of the ice.
http://www.mc79hockey.com/?p=5210
because true Canuck fans have class and only those who are the stereotypes that other boards have built up about us would boo
Why? because he didn't come here?
I bet you half the suits at GM place dont even know who he is.
because true Canuck fans have class and only those who are the stereotypes that other boards have built up about us would boo
Speaking of: why wasn't Schultz booed out of the building every time he touched the puck last night?
I can't find it now but there's post in the "Rangers are unbeatable" thread on the main boards which shows how the best playoff teams, including the Cup-winning Devils, did last time this happened in 94-95. Pretty much all of them started the season really poorly.
Who cares? Get some emotion into that building FFS. Don't care if it has to come from booing some kid playing in his first game. Out of all the games I've watched, our building has been by far the quietest.
How about they just cheer for their own team? Like I said, the suits at the game probably didn't even know who the guy was.