Poor goaltending, a couple of dumb penalties by vets to give the Spits a 5 on 3 put the game out of reach for a lower placed team like 67s. Not that we would of tied it up but this for sure put an end to any hope. We basically doubled them in penalty minutes and you do not want to do this against a high powered offence like the Spits have.
Any chance of competing and making this a game has to be done 5 on 5 as much as possible. Goaltending has not been great even on basic routine saves. Not a recipe to achieve success.
I think we need a full reality check. Good teams draw penalties because they consistently have a half step on the poorer teams. It forces stick fouls and holding penalties. That’s reality.
The 67s defence is not deep enough with experience and the forward group has too many green players. We aren’t strong enough down the middle either.
DC has his team ready to play game one. I’ve been saying this for a couple seasons now. When you have your team ready to play right from game one while other teams are still waiting for NHL prospects to return and for the other coaches to get their teams revved up, it makes it look like the 67s are better than they are.
The big positive in all this is the players individually still play hard and mostly keep games close so even though they are a rebuilding team, it is still relatively entertaining.
I am fine with all this. They had a weak ‘06 draft and it shows on the ice. You cannot have a weak draft like we did and expect there to be support. We have Mews, Marrelli, Brady, and Kelly from the 2022 draft. That isn’t good enough. Those guys will be our 19 year olds next year. That alone suggests next year is also a rebuild year.
The 2021 draft was much better even though Barlas wasn’t a great pick in the mid-1st round. Pinelli, Foster, Gardiner, Dever, Ewles, Horner…. Pretty good draft if Gardiner we’re still here.
Having to move Gardiner really weakened this team. No way around it. The combination of that plus our piss poor 2022 draft is killing us. So be it. You cannot have great drafts every year.
Hopefully we will benefit from the new NCAA rule and we get a player or two added unexpectedly. If not, next year is going to be an adventure!
Thank you for making my point as to why I hate having 4 OA. That is what I have been harping about and taking heat for all year.
Gerrior should have been released when Stonehouse came back, or Stonehouse should have been traded. But they want to play the merry-go-round, LOL, so this is what we get.
I have no issue with Amidovski Whitehead and Ekberg playing together other if tht is going to be your 2nd line and they are getting meaningful ice time.
The challenge has been that Amnidovski has spent the greater part of games 90% shining the bench.
It all comes down to who is being traded and who is not.
I think Kobler is maybe DC, a fair-haired boy, but Yanni could have something to say just from his point of view. I am also not so sure he will be back next year. If Boyd is really trying to make the team better, releasing Korbler is the first thing he should do. We are at worst going to have a top-20 pick in the first round, and that should get us a pretty good player. Better than Korbler. Also, of course, there are the details of what kind of contract Ekberg signed and whether he will be back.
So I have to admit that when it comes to DC and 4th line, past history has left my gun shy. I think it is better not to go by what line they are on but the TOI. That is why I asked how much ice time the players got instead of jumping on the 4th line rant
Yanni has been great IMO. That kid has fire in his belly. Once he gets a little heavier and manages to pick his spots better, I think he will be a good player, probably in the 2nd half.
