Posted this in the GDT but added some slight tweaks:
We have no identity. We aren't fast anymore, we aren't a rush team anymore (we don't create hardly any chances off the rush anymore because we can't break out very well and/or are too slow), we aren't a defense-first team, we aren't an offense-first team, we aren't a skill team anymore, we aren't physical, we don't play with any energy, we aren't a volume shooting team from everywhere and up top, we don't generate any quality looks in the o zone. We are just a perimeter team that can't really generate any good looks almost anywhere in the ice unless it's a perfect passing play which is the only thing we try to do. We can't get any shots through, we can't shoot from distance, we don't change the angle of any of our shots and offer zero deception when shooting (been a problem for years). We are the worst skilled shooting team in the league bar none and it's been like this for years, which is why nobody ever bothers to shoot anymore.
As much as I blame a lot of this on the players, I worry that we are being coached to disregard physicality (knobby confirmed this during the playoffs), which obviously bleeds into the ability to play with intensity and passion. We aren't being coached on how to shoot properly (evidenced by our constant inability to get shots through traffic or have any deception on our shots). As much as the players need to get their heads out of their asses, it feels like, for another year, it seems the makeup of the staff that help prepare this team is two steps behind other orgs as well,
That being said, there's no excuse for what players like Pooshart are doing out there. I don't care if you are an ice-in-your veins player and need to look even keel in order to play your game; you look like you just dont give a shit out there, and that's a bad look considering that's your m.o. RNH talks to the media and proclaims that he's playing well and getting his looks. In what realm? You are the Bouchard of forwards. Zero intensity, losing every puck battle you get into, incapable of doing anything and looking like zero effort. When was the last time we got a chance that hanafin got in the third to take the lead? I can't honestly recall more than a handful all season long where we get a point blank shot like that. We are just held to the outside with zero will/ability to drive the middle of the ice.
It's time to start culling half of this lineup and bringing in energy players like Garland types...etc, because, I'm sorry, but they are better than 75% of our players and actually provide energy while being able to not be a complete black hole in transition and in the o zone.
That, or f***ing call up a couple of guys (rip Savoie who got hurt last night) from Bakersfield and start sitting some of these lazy ass vets.
