Post-Game Talk: Preseason Game #9 wasn’t a very good one

[Lay Z Boy GM]

Ekholm needs to come back man. Bouchard and Nurse was never a good pairing, always been terrible together. Bouchard was great with Ekholm and alright with Keith, Nurse isn’t good enough defensively to elevate Bouchard (or anyone really).

 

[CycloneSweep]

I’d like to see one more game but I actually don’t know if I like the top two lines. Not exactly sure what I would do, but I do wonder if we need more balance through all 3 lines.

We need to be way stronger 5v5 for the talent we have. Can’t just be pp gods. Push the game when it’s even strength

We aren't strong 5v5 because we have guys who refuse to play defense well. People harp on McDavid for his d play but Draisaitls goals against are worse than McDavids away from eachother by a lot. He really needs to figure out his shit in the d zone. The issue with them together is it seems to infect McDavid to do the same. Both are too skilled to sit back and cherry pick. Both are MORE than capable at being a factor defensively but they simply choose not to. And when you see your leaders like that, it sets a massively bad example. Sure the bottom 6 can be better defensively but they aren't the ones playing against the stars. Our top guys produce the most offense but allow the most goals against and it often sets the tone. When you captain is doing a fly by and trying to cheat for offense it really is shit to see.

 

[TheNumber4]

Unless you condider that Lavoie is not assured an NHL career. This year on a one-way deal at almost $900K USD is a mini lottery win in the short term. His agent probably advised that as long as Raph plays well in the A, injuries will happen and he will get an NHL shot. If he does well, great. If not, at least he has that short term cash and the skill to play a long time for decent $ in Europe - just not in the $900k USD territory.

But yet here we are in a situation where an injury to Holloway would have seen a possibility to inject Lavoie into the line up… but he’s 20K over the allowed emergency call up Cap hit of 875K.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Why is it that this shit always happens in Vancouver? Win and you beat up opposing fans. Lose and you destroy your city.

jk aide happens more and more in all NHL rinks but given the ferocity of our appeal with hockey here its maybe more prevalent, in this sport, in Canada. We got all emotionally jammed with hockey and doesn't take much to light a fuse.

That said its stuff like this that causes me not to want to go to games anymore. Its not just the fight. What kind of grown ass clowns support the fighting of adult males in a hockey arena. Listen to all of the people egging this on or just wanting it to continue. Thats a whole kind of bar atmosphere I want no part of. Stopped going to bars for the same reason and I didn't have to pay cover charge to be in those bars. It was free and the extracurricular stuff itself kept me away.

 

[RegDunlop]

I feel for him. I puked watching this game too and I don’t even have the flu.

Post winner!!!!

 

[CycloneSweep]

Thats kind the problem with the way they play. They love to pass the puck into the net and score on fancy goals. They kind of need the most talent in the top 2 lines for that to be effective. If they try and spread the wealth around to make 3 lines (with 2 key forwards on each line), its tougher to score with the way they play. With the forwards we have, it would of been nice to at least try and run a more balanced top 9. But I think theres a lot of stubborness going on.

I think we might have to run the lineup like this just to freaking smarten our stars up.

Holloway - McDavid - Kane
McLeod - Draisaitl - Brown
Foegele - Nuge - Hyman

 

[TopShelfGloveSide]

Lavoie f***ed himself out of being eligible to be this player by taking the extra money, didn't he?

I think he’s just below that.

 

[CycloneSweep]

But yet here we are in a situation where an injury to Holloway would have seen a possibility to inject Lavoie into the line up… but he’s 20K over the allowed emergency call up Cap hit of 875K.

 

[TheNumber4]

View attachment 751815

Oh Nvm. Thought he was 895K.

 

[Drivesaitl]

I’d like to see one more game but I actually don’t know if I like the top two lines. Not exactly sure what I would do, but I do wonder if we need more balance through all 3 lines.

We need to be way stronger 5v5 for the talent we have. Can’t just be pp gods. Push the game when it’s even strength

I kinda got off the script when the teams big add this offseason was another friend of Connor McDavid. NHL isn't a summercamp. McD needs to be surrounded by different people, and a team needs to have disagreement. Just something off to me about Captain just sounding off on the players he wants here and the team doing that. So last night Connor had Brown on his line and immediately proceeded to go down 2 goals and haul in a -2. Most of it being because they were up too much, and really poor back pressure.

But as I mentioned the wingers for Connor and Leon are older than I would prefer they have.

 

[FlameChampion]

We aren't strong 5v5 because we have guys who refuse to play defense well. People harp on McDavid for his d play but Draisaitls goals against are worse than McDavids away from eachother by a lot. He really needs to figure out his shit in the d zone. The issue with them together is it seems to infect McDavid to do the same. Both are too skilled to sit back and cherry pick. Both are MORE than capable at being a factor defensively but they simply choose not to. And when you see your leaders like that, it sets a massively bad example. Sure the bottom 6 can be better defensively but they aren't the ones playing against the stars. Our top guys produce the most offense but allow the most goals against and it often sets the tone. When you captain is doing a fly by and trying to cheat for offense it really is shit to see.

I know plus/minus is an ancient stat and all but I just think when you have players like McDavid and Draisaitl, if they are the two top players in the world, they should be large plus players. They have good wingers, so you cant really use that excuse. The reality is that they just havent shown this to be the case (yes the defense and goaltending play a part - but their defensive game also plays a part). The bottom 6 on the team had similar plus/minus to the top 6 players. We will see how it goes this year. But rough start to say the least.

 

[oXo Cube]

Ekholm needs to come back man. Bouchard and Nurse was never a good pairing, always been terrible together. Bouchard was great with Ekholm and alright with Keith, Nurse isn’t good enough defensively to elevate Bouchard (or anyone really).

The defense this preseason was a petty obvious case of the coaching staff outsmarting themselves.

Nurse - Ceci
Ekholm - Bouchard
Kulak - Broberg
Desharnais

Should be the locked and loaded pairings until/if we bring in an upgrade for Ceci

 

[nally]

Nurse is so cringe to watch. Like he should be our third pairing tools guy that has no brain. "Hey Nurse, get out there and get the puck out off the boards, that's your job. Don't do anything else" Is what he should be doing.
To go from allstar dman garnering a massive contract to being a barely passible NHLer is just so confusing.

I may be exaggerating (through my frustration) but not by much. I can't stand him, even if he didn't have an albatross/boat anchor of a contract

 

[JeffSkinner53]

Imagine what we could do with nurses cap hit off the team

Nurse is so cringe to watch. Like he should be our third pairing tools guy that has no brain. "Hey Nurse, get out there and get the puck out off the boards, that's your job. Don't do anything else" Is what he should be doing.
To go from allstar dman garnering a massive contract to being a barely passible NHLer is just so confusing.

I may be exaggerating (through my frustration) but not by much. I can't stand him, even if he didn't have an albatross/boat anchor of a contract

The problem with nurse is he eats up minutes. He's not a particularily good defenseman, he's average in anything, but he can continuously play and eat up minutes. That's why he's so valuable, though extremely frustrating.

 

[oXo Cube]

Nurse despite his reputation is really not a defense first player. Bouchard was always a bad choice to pair with him.

He needs to play with a more stable partner to let him do what he's actually good at which is play in transition.

 

[Drivesaitl]

Connor knows one gear. The same Connor that has the team assembled again for preseason skates 5weeks before season is out there jacked, flying like he's shot out of a cannon before gamestart. He's doing laps around other players on the ice. What Connor understands more than anything is harder faster. It often strikes me with him that he doesn't know how to cloak or time his energy rushes in games. He's just like hype energy and it cost the team a couple times last night.

Connors biggest problem is possibly ow to relax, how to repair, how to take time off and get the most rest in offseasons. Connor strikes me as this kind of always on, on fire type of guy. He seems to be uber type A. I actually think he works on that and tries to find the calm, I think its been a challenge for him and that his nature is mercurial and on the edge.

I wish Connor rested better, paced better, and found some peace, because I think those are some of his challenges. Peak sustained performance requires rest and repair. Connor seems super human and can do this all, somehow, I don't know how but mere mortals like Kane, Hyman, Nuge I can't imagine all this ferocious work rate from Connor is always the best thing. This team expends a lot of energy in a season and playoffs. It has to be a bit overwhelming knowing you have to do it all again. Think about Drai playing injured for 3mths including playoffs that one season. Then having another hard work banner year last season. Now having to dial up and be that yet again. We come to expect it like a spring loaded clock, that it will just run the same time all the time but there comes a time when it won't. I'm not saying now is that time but its gonna be in the mail at somepoint.

 

[Anemia]

To a man I didn't really like Woodcroft's presser. Seemed to still be in pre-season form.

 

[Drivesaitl]

That contract so obviously in the worst interest of the player. Holland couldn’t convince him to take less?

For all we know he or his agent don't mind the thought of landing somewhere else in a 32 team league. As fans we tend to think its all about here. Thats not always the case. Sometimes a player or agent may feel that there would be better opportunity elsewhere. Not saying its the case..

 

[Louis Cypher]

Any word on Holloway? Looked like when Nuge gloved a shot and broke his hand. God I hope not. The kid needs a break and not on the bone.

 

[bellagiobob]

That contract so obviously in the worst interest of the player. Holland couldn’t convince him to take less?

We offered him less, so I guess the answer is no.

 

[Porkleaker]

The Fire Woody stuff is laughable.

I usually don't expect rational behavior on HFOil but after Game 1 to call for his firing is ridiculous even for HFOil standards.

I say this as somebody who sees some flaws in his approach, like pretty every other coach in the league has that fanbases complain about. Don't believe me? Check the Bruins board 2 years ago in regards to freshly Stanley Cup winner Bruce Cassidy.

HOW ABOUT FIRING THE SCHWARTZ ALREADY? OH MY f***ING GOD, IS THIS GUY BULLETPROOF?

 

[FlameChampion]

For all we know he or his agent don't mind the thought of landing somewhere else in a 32 team league. As fans we tend to think its all about here. Thats not always the case. Sometimes a player or agent may feel that there would be better opportunity elsewhere. Not saying its the case..

I honestly think the whole narrative around Lavoie's contract is way overblown on this board.

I do agree though. I dont think some of the younger players would mind opportunities elsewhere. I am not sure how welcoming this team is to young players, bottom 6 players and fringe players in general. Doesnt seem like they are from an outsiders perspective.

 

[Drivesaitl]

To a man I didn't really like Woodcroft's presser. Seemed to still be in pre-season form.

Repeated one phrase 7 times, another 5 times. The only weird thing is he didn't do this for his full 10mins. Clocking in at 3.5mins this is as close as Woody gets to the "theres gonna be a plane at 11be on it or under it" and then just leave type presser.

We all have eyes. What we saw on the ice was confusion, we didn't see team play, we didn't see a gameplan, we saw a lot of free agent stuff going on. There was one team on the ice last night. The other was making it up on the fly and somehow used to being able to do that in a team sport.

Even a year ago in game 1 we saw the team come back with some sharp PP set plays. Wasn't seeing anything new last night. Neither were the Canucks. They had drilled for everything we do. Tochet had his team well prepared.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

This is the worst coaching and schemes and gameplan I've seen since Eakins.

its not even remotely evident the team knows what to do. Its not evident we even have coaches and work schemes.

That said what a slow ass team. Its like I said for months. You can't just keep getting older players. Suddenly your team is going to be looking old, slow, and not have much jam.

Wheres the energy players? Wheres the jump and speed.

We were the Nucks bitches. Good thing we're not going to miss the likes of Kostin and Bjugstad and haven't replaced either of them.

Can someone tell me what nurse does well?

3 things. Negotiating contracts/hiring the right agent, Cashing checks and playing well under his pay scale.

The Ekholm injury reveals what I've long believed. This defense isn't good enough. They are still a top 4 RD away.

This team was steamrolled last night. The breakdowns and undisciplined penalties we agree would not be fixed by one healthy Ekholm.

You are not alone. Ceci is at best a 3rd pairing guy IMO. Bouchard is a skilled but flawed player that needs a rock beside him. We have 1 rock and 1 offensive defenseman on this team, keep them together when Ekholm returns and let the rest sink on their own until/unless we can add a solid RH defensive D.

I guess they need to get adjusted to this new system.

Maybe we shouldn't have played so many AHL lifers forever when we apparently knew what our opening night roster was going to be anyway? Maybe playing our players and their actual lines together at least 4 games of the preseason would've gotten them more prepared than the abortion that we saw last night?

 

[jeffff]

Obviously I would've preferred a win but there is a part of me that is glad they got embarrassed. I don't really know why but I think an 8-1 blowout is better in the long run than a 3-2 hard fought loss.