Post-Game Talk: GM15 | Canucks lose to Islanders | 2-5 (Lekkerimaki & Myers) | No Effort, No Win

[Rick Rocket]

We didn't try it at all until now...

Ya true, there was just such a long period of time where he would hesitate and shift position laterally... stop the one timer pass and just pass it back. Was nice to see he was firing them off confidently

 

[Bleach Clean]

the canucks were bad but the reffing tonight was absolutely atrocious. they actually played well up until the softer than baby shit call on lekk, which seemed to take the wind out of their sails. this effort is still probably a one-off and better teams don't let nonsense like that affect them, but it's still frustrating.

if this system keeps falling flat, tocchet needs to revert to last year. whatever it was is the identity of the team and the players they signed (forbort, desharnais, myers, soucy) probably excel there.

They probably do, but it could cost them their ceiling. Tocchet made a necessary decision to alter the system to allow for more rush chances, and now they're caught in the middle between styles. It's ugly.

IMO, best to stay the course and get the team to adjust in full. Go through the growing pains now. And if they find that the personnel on the back end don't facilitate this new style of game, change them out.

I think the forwards haven't figured out the balance between helping their defense and rushing forward. It's made more complex by the defenders that can't move the puck anyway.

 

[Rick Rocket]

Concerning game. This is now 3 really poor efforts in the last 7 games. Just looked totally unprepared, all kinds of mental mistakes, zero intensity until the 3rd period. Awful performance.

Lekkerimaki was good and is one of the few guys to escape criticism.

Entire blueline was terrible except for maybe Brannstrom. About as bad as you'll see Hughes play. Hronek with his worst game of the year and holy f*** does he need to do a better job of getting the puck to the net in shooting positions.

Myers-Souray was a disaster. I thought they had been better in the last 3-4 games but they got eviscerated tonight. Myers was just f***ing terrible all game, terrible decisions, terrible positioning, terrible compete ... and then ironically of course he scores. We need another quality D like, yesterday.

JT Miller had zero legs tonight and was awful tracking the play back. Not good enough.

Pettersson was a ghost in the first 40 minutes but to his credit he was one of the guys who did show up in the 3rd.

Even the Sherwood-Blueger-Heinen line wasn't very good tonight for the first time all year.

Hoglander is going to be traded, unless his awful-looking new contract has destroyed his value. Another poor defensive game. If he isn't competing at 110% of the guys around him, he isn't very good.

Joshua was about as expected. A couple good moments, legs did not look in mid-season form.

Lankinen was fine and this game could have been worse without him,

Can you imagine if we didn't end up with Brannstrom? Jesus Christ

 

[the big nobody]

Of course Tyler Myers of all people scored a pointless last-minute goal. Who else would it be?

 

[VintageBure]

If you told me before the game that lekkermaki would score and that we would get blown out on home ice I would have actually believed you

 

[DFAC]

Anybody blaming Rick right now is completely out to lunch, he’s one of the big reasons this team even has high expectations, he’s one of the best coaches in the NHL

Tocchet has to shoulder some of the blame though - time out shouldve been called today after the 3rd NY goal. He consistently puts the lines in a blender at the first sign of trouble. And although the PP isn’t directly under his control, it’s been so bad and they’ve barely changed anything. There’s no way our PP should be THIS bad with our personnel

I feel like last year he pushed all the right buttons and this year it’s more of the opposite.

(I don’t know what the answers are to fix this team)

 

[Leif Rohlin]

They probably do, but it could cost them their ceiling. Tocchet made a necessary decision to alter the system to allow for more rush chances, and now they're caught in the middle between styles. It's ugly.

IMO, best to stay the course and get the team to adjust in full. Go through the growing pains now. And if they find that the personnel on the back end don't facilitate this new style of game, change them out.

I think the forwards haven't figured out the balance between helping their defense and rushing forward. It's made more complex by the defenders that can't move the puck anyway.

I think this is pretty accurate. It's frustrating to watch (I turned this one off at 3-1) but could be a good thing to have some ugly losses early so the issues can be corrected.

Even last game, it was a decent bounce-back and a big positive for Petey, but I didn't like our game that much overall and thought it easily could have been a loss against a better opponent. Was mildly concerned with how positive Tocchet sounded after the game, and now here we are lol.

We're definitely not alone here if you look around the league. The Oilers have looked awful in a bunch of their games, Avs have been inconsistent and are giving up a ton of goals, and the Bruins are just a mess.

I'm pretty confident in this team overall but there are some concerning signs, even going back to the playoffs where the whole team seemed to just completely lack intensity and focus for long stretches of play.

 

[David71]

Anybody blaming Rick right now is completely out to lunch, he’s one of the big reasons this team even has high expectations, he’s one of the best coaches in the NHL

but his decisions are still baffling. what happened between this years team and last years was night/day. they came out of october winning at least 10-15games to get a good cushion in terms of points. everyone firing on all cylinders. this years team lots of depth defense got weaker. no demko. lankien is keeping them in the games. silovs cannot be trusted as backup yet therefore you see lanks starting every 2 games. SO What is wrong?

 

[Chairman Maouth]

 

[VanJack]

As the old saying goes, you can't make chicken salad out of chicken feathers. They can try to pretend that Soucy and Myers are a 3-4 d-pairing. But they're whistling past the graveyard.

They aren't, and never will be. But they're stuck with Hughes-Hronek as their No. 1 d-pairing, with a lot of other 5-6-7 guys to mix and match. And you can't play Hughes and Hronek 25-30 minutes a night.

So no easy fixes for Allvin. They're going to have to stumble along during the regular season and hope they can plug the gaping holes at the TDL.

 

[BenningHurtsMySoul]

They're two defencemen (ideally three), a top 6 forward, and a starting goaltender away from contending. I don't think that is a gap that can be overcome this season.

Can you imagine if we didn't end up with Brannstrom? Jesus Christ

They essentially stumbled around piss drunk and fell backwards into found money with that one.

 

[F A N]

They probably do, but it could cost them their ceiling. Tocchet made a necessary decision to alter the system to allow for more rush chances, and now they're caught in the middle between styles. It's ugly.

IMO, best to stay the course and get the team to adjust in full. Go through the growing pains now. And if they find that the personnel on the back end don't facilitate this new style of game, change them out.

I think the forwards haven't figured out the balance between helping their defense and rushing forward. It's made more complex by the defenders that can't move the puck anyway.

I think pretty much all of us here thought that our D got worse especially in the puck moving department. I think in terms of generating rush chances, there’s not much a coach can do aside without the right personnel aside from having the forwards cheat all the time.

Personally I think the team is better off catering to the talents we have on the back rather than force a system that they can’t execute. Of course if we can upgrade our D that’s great but it’s hard performing surgery in season.

 

[rypper]

I suspect the team looks exponentially better with another top 4 defender. Top 4 but a player to would really define as top 3.

Gives you the option to minimize Soucy and/or Myers. The second pairing has been dragging the team down all season, and I was I fan of it in the playoffs but what the hell happened?

It'll have an effect up and down the lineup. Push guys into more appropriate roles. Take some minutes off the top pair. Help Lankinen. Hopefully give the forwards a quick up option over ringing it around the boards or whatever anyone not named Hughes or Hronek are doing.

But it's basically Christmas season and top 4 defenders are turbo-man, or whatever the hot toy of the season is. That 25' first is already sold.