Excited to see what the line up will look like tomorrow night with the anticipated return of Lawrence. His return will be a huge boost. So much depth with his return and the addition of Papais. A full line up is going to be exciting, wondering who will be scratches at this point, a lot of tough calls. Like AttackSound said, 4 of 6 is always good but that performance on Sunday was dismal at best when you are playing a team you should beat that is playing their third game in three nights. I'm going to point out two ongoing issues that I see. One we have been discussing already this year, and one is something a few of us discussed and agreed on last year during the playoffs, and for me they kind of go hand in hand.
The powerplay and player #9's ice time and shift lengths. We had five powerplays in that 3-1 loss game to Eerie when the score was ether tied or within one goal either way. Scoring a pp goal could change the entire outcome of that game. PP is killing this team in close games, last year and already this year. I noticed they are trying a few different things with the exception of player 9 staying on the ice for the entire pp every single pp the last 3-4 games, even if he already had one of his normal two minute shifts prior to the penalty. I don't get how the coaching staff allows this and/or thinks its the answer when it is obviously not working. Some of it is also selfishness of the player I believe, because he will never change on the fly and if there is a whistle late in the PP he he turns and ignores any line change happening to go line up even if a player is coming out to take his spot. I had a clear view of the selfish aspect watching that amazing 7-2 beatdown of London live. Near the end of the game we had a PP and the coaching staff threw Rogers out there to obviously give the kid some experience on the pp in a game that was already in control. However, 9 just popped over the boards as usual as soon as the whistle blew on the penalty and almost pretended like he had no idea what was happening and literally had to be called off so Rogers could stay. Likely wanted to get his hattrick but perhaps could maybe take a page out of Captain Colby's book. If you recall last year, Joey Hishon saying he told Barlow to go out late to try to get the hattrick but Barlow declined and told him to give someone else a chance. That's the sign of a leader. 9 is wearing a letter but not really leading by example in my eyes.
I said the same thing last year in playoffs. 9 is a great player but would be far more effective if the coaching staff gets a handle on his shift lengths. There is no way he should be taking regular 2 mins shifts and even longer when staying on for special teams after just playing an entire shift. The first half of his shifts are generally great but then the bent over resting on his stick on his knees starts and odd man chances or breakaways come at us sometimes resulting in a penalty. Just my opinion and I've watched a few of the games on CHL replay to confirm my observations. There is no doubt that 9 is our D1 guy. I just feel he would be far more effective if shift lengths were shortened.
