GDT: S1G3 - Stars @ Avs - Low-Effort Gangstalking edition

[aiuie]

The warning signs were definately there in G1 already, and even in last season's series against the Stars, if you go further back in time.

The Avs are getting owned 1) on an individual level regarding top players 2) tactically and systemically regarding teamplay. I feel 1) is the result of 2) more than the other way around, and as the coaching staff hasn't shown any ability to adjust, I think this is a huge concern already.

 

[MacKaRtin]

Here’s an image to haunt your dreams tonight.

Lehkonen in overtime.

View attachment 1021452

Yeah, this was the exact moment for me that I figured it just wasn't going to happen tonight. Such a clutch player, but he's been in an awful slump. Just lift hands and put in center of the net, and there isn't 20 pages of HFAvs saying team is cooked and instead 20 pages of HFAvs saying we'll beat them in 5

 

[MacKaRtin]

NEB's wife is safe until Saturday.

Or bored until Saturday?

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I watched it before they took it down. Some guy off camera was asking who aj was and aj got up to go behind the camera and talk to this guy but the guy walked over to aj and slapped the glasses off his face. Rudo shot up, bear hugged him and ran him off set. Then you could hear screaming and cussing from the guy what sounded like "choking my girlfriend "

I know it’s not right, but I’m laughing envisioning this whole thing.

Somebody comes looking for AJ who has certainly never been in a fight his entire life.

AJ gets slapped.

Rudo goes nuts and manhandles the guy and then chokes out his girlfriend to boot.

f***ing lol

Holy Shit... Morton Downy Jr. show vibes going on here.

 

[AvsCOL]

Going to see what the Avs are made of on Saturday. Lose that game and it’s probably over. Doesn’t seem like Bednar has an answer for the DeBoer type of system.

Also, Makar has been god awful this series. Can’t have that. He can’t hit the net at all.

 

[McMetal]

What's a bit infuriating is what you say is correct...yet...Stars did the exact SAME damn thing last year too. Avs have already been through this, so why is history repeating itself? Why haven't the Avs - both coaches and players - not done something about it? It's not that hard to know what's going on and try something different. I'm not saying it will work, but at least do something new.

That entire second period, Avs were trying to do the stretch pass to open the game up, either 90% of the passes resulted in icings or giveaways to the first Stars player in the neutral zone. Just awful stuff to watch. I feel Avs need to make baby passes with close positioning and get into Stars zone as a five man unit instead of doing this "give it to MacKinnon to break through the neutral zone with speed" nonsense as it only works with him and only 5% of the time.

I don't think MacKinnon going through the neutral zone with speed was the problem. The problem was that he was always 1 on 3 while the rest of his team ambled down the ice like it was a nature hike. At least send one other guy in with him to make it dangerous for them to all swarm him at once, but nobody was ever in a big hurry to be up in the rush.

 

[Grigowski]

DeBoer beating Bednar with his Trick No. 1 for 2 years in a row is embarrassing. More embarassing because he doesnt have his own No. 1 D-Man and one of his best forwards on board.....

 

[Grackle Party]

PTSD watching the Avs player enter the zone get forced to outside to the boards by the D. Second Dallas player comes to support. Turn over, zone exit rinse and repeat.

Bennett has to go. The PP is so bad. Cost the team both games

Finally Nate, such dumb a penalty. That was game right there.

 

[flyfysher]

1. It’s Bednar’s job to have the players motivated and ready to play when the puck drops (play has been highly inconsistent and lackluster) - FAIL
2. It’s Bednar’s job to put the players in a position to succeed (putting 88 alongside 29 doesn’t work. In fact it screws up the first and second lines and has negative cascading effects. Bednar needs to stop trying to make Necas into Rants) - FAIL
3. It’s Bednar’s job to have assembled four effective lines (otherwise the team will certainly lose in the POs) - FAIL

Bednar says this is a production based business. Well it’s not working. Effectively in three games the Avs have scored one goal (yes, I know the score of the first game). They have been snake-bit and Otter is playing out of his mind. There should at least be two players down low in front of Otter. Why is Bednar neutering the first and second lines?

Bednar should go back to the ECHL. He can’t adjust in game and doesn’t know how to cope with DeBoer’s tactics and strategy.

Here are some obvious moves. Drop Drouin to the third line. He has been butter soft. Put Necas with Nelson and Lehkonen. Landy is clearly capable of playing the second if not first line. Don’t be starting EJ over Big Sam.

Stop overpassing. Learn to shoot with accuracy. That means at the net. Not consistently over it.

Fix the GD PP!

 

[Tralfamadore]

Thought they looked ok at times but honestly just more of the same neutered 5 on 5 play except this time they didn't have the bounces, luck and PP scoring to make up for it. To me it was clear even since the 5-1 "pounding" that the series was trending in this direction.

Also both games they had golden opportunities on the powerplay to end it in OT and they blow it. So frustrating.

 

[BaconNater]

You would think atleast one time they could atleast accidentally beat the Stars. Very frustrating. It was a bit worrisome when the Avs started to get all the hype with all of the Stars injuries

 

[Forceberg]

You can have a bad phase and still win. Just say 3:20 minutes of power play in OT!!!

 

[Richard88]

I’m just floored that he has no f***ing answer after all those serie losses

The Avs did adjust after period 1. The Stars were forcing the Avs puckcarrier to choose one side of the ice before the red line, then had two or more guys compressing the space to force weak dump-ins. In the 2nd the Avs countered by sending a pass east-west prior to the red line to hit a guy in stride on the opposite side of the ice. That allowed their transition game to improve dramatically.

Then in the third period with the lead they simplified their game even more by putting less emphasis on transitioning the puck into the OZ with possession, and instead got it deep over and over again. They were in total control for the first half of the third period until the Lehkonen holding penalty and ensuing Dallas PP goal.

The narrative that Bednar doesn't adjust is just silly. He did adjust, and at 5v5 things seemed to work better in the last two periods.

That said, perhaps those adjustments weren't the right ones, or enough, in hindsight. Maybe they should have been more gung-ho in the third to get the second goal instead of playing the clock. But chance-wise they controlled the last two periods at 5v5 so the adjustments did work to an extent.

I also think the choice of lines set the team up to fail and Bednar did little to change that so I'm not absolving Bednar of that. Nelson needs Necas in a big way; he simply isn't a driver and needs someone to feed him the puck in shooting positions to be effective.

 

[The Pwnerer]

This team is complete paper tigers. How infuriating. Can't hold leads going into the third. The Dallas top six has completely outplayed ours. Top to bottom they are dismantling our identity as a transition team. The most infuriating part is we knew this was coming and it's still happening. History is repeating itself.

Special teams inexcusable. We simply will not win if we lose this battle. Coaching should get well deserved blame as do the top guys. The skill guys have been god awful. Scared to get pucks deep, scared to go in the slot and scared to drive to the net.

The worst part of all this is that in a span of a week you just gave a ton of belief to a Dallas team that was reeling coming into the playoffs. The Landeskog return at home was supposed to be our biggest punch back after a loss and that showing has so many red flags. Fans have every reason to start raising the panic meter unless things change fast.

The stakes are just so high this year. We went all in. It's pisses me off that Bednar might be the one to fall and gets fired if we end up losing this series. I'm not ready for sweeping changes but that types of dialongue may just have to happen.

 

[The Shermanator]

So…

The Avs should be up 3-0. I don’t care who is playing for Dallas. Back to back blown third period leads. Back to back failed OT PPs.

Colorado has been the better team but two shitty OT goals have them down.

Exactly this. Don't understand people saying we shouldn't be up 3-0 because we are playing like shit. We had leads in both games and multiple missed glorious scoring chances to extend the lead or win in both games. Not saying Dallas didn't, but we had way more from the eye test.

Really too bad because it feels like guys like Rantanen and Johnston will have to factor in soon here, and it doesn't feel like guys like Necas, Nelson, or Drouin will.

 

[Slowdive]

The Avs did adjust after period 1. The Stars were forcing the Avs puckcarrier to choose one side of the ice before the red line, then had two or more guys compressing the space to force weak dump-ins. In the 2nd the Avs countered by sending a pass east-west prior to the red line to hit a guy in stride on the opposite side of the ice. That allowed their transition game to improve dramatically.

Then in the third period with the lead they simplified their game even more by putting less emphasis on transitioning the puck into the OZ with possession, and instead got it deep over and over again. They were in total control for the first half of the third period until the Lehkonen holding penalty and ensuing Dallas PP goal.

The narrative that Bednar doesn't adjust is just silly. He did adjust, and at 5v5 things seemed to work better in the last two periods.

That said, perhaps those adjustments weren't the right ones, or enough, in hindsight. Maybe they should have been more gung-ho in the third to get the second goal instead of playing the clock. But chance-wise they controlled the last two periods at 5v5 so the adjustments did work to an extent.

I also think the choice of lines set the team up to fail and Bednar did little to change that so I'm not absolving Bednar of that. Nelson needs Necas in a big way; he simply isn't a driver and needs someone to feed him the puck in shooting positions to be effective.

Alot of this. Thanks for pointing out Bednar DOES adjust. Thanks.

After sleeping on it, there a few things concerning Colorado's game three performance that are worrisome.
1) I cant remember, and someone help me if they do, Mack and Cale being this bad at the same time in their playoff career. It was hard to watch Mack with the dumb passes and Cale bobbling pucks and his shot no where near the net. It's difficult to win playoff games let alone when two of the best players on the planet go this bad.
2) The energy from the team was lackluster. I would have thought with Gabe back there energy would be off the charts and it really wasn't.
3) While Cale and Mack were awful, no one else really stood out as really good, save Blackwood. Girard and Malinski and others were all right, but no one really stood out.
4) Nelson was pretty invisible and Drouin was close to Mack and Cale bad.

On to game 4.......

 

[flyfysher]

The Avs did adjust after period 1. The Stars were forcing the Avs puckcarrier to choose one side of the ice before the red line, then had two or more guys compressing the space to force weak dump-ins. In the 2nd the Avs countered by sending a pass east-west prior to the red line to hit a guy in stride on the opposite side of the ice. That allowed their transition game to improve dramatically.

Then in the third period with the lead they simplified their game even more by putting less emphasis on transitioning the puck into the OZ with possession, and instead got it deep over and over again. They were in total control for the first half of the third period until the Lehkonen holding penalty and ensuing Dallas PP goal.

The narrative that Bednar doesn't adjust is just silly. He did adjust, and at 5v5 things seemed to work better in the last two periods.

That said, perhaps those adjustments weren't the right ones, or enough, in hindsight. Maybe they should have been more gung-ho in the third to get the second goal instead of playing the clock. But chance-wise they controlled the last two periods at 5v5 so the adjustments did work to an extent.

I also think the choice of lines set the team up to fail and Bednar did little to change that so I'm not absolving Bednar of that. Nelson needs Necas in a big way; he simply isn't a driver and needs someone to feed him the puck in shooting positions to be effective.

And what adjustments did Bednar make with respect to the PP?

 

[LOFIN]

God damn I'm still pissed, and wasn't even able to watch.

Reportedly Landy looked great. Should be great news, except it really isn't if he's one of your best players in his first game in 3 years.

 

[flyfysher]

God damn I'm still pissed, and wasn't even able to watch.

You were lucky that you didn’t get to watch it. It was way, way beyond major butt ugly. It would be appropriate to wear paper bags over are heads. It was that bad.

 

[MarkT]

I don't think I want to watch hockey any more. Every game so far, the Stars have got a power play because one of their players fell despite the Avs player doing nothing to cause it. In this game, without that power play, the score would have been 1-0. I don't have a f*** that the Avs went 0-6 or whatever. After it went 1-1, the refs missed several obvious penalties. I'm still so angry I can barely think. I keep loving this stupid sport but the refs are trying their best to make me not want to watch another game. I'm sick of it. I'll probably check in later to see that the Avs lost in the first round, and the refs never called the Stars for diving, even though they do it every f***ing game.

Bye everyone. I have better things to do than this shit.

 

[The Shermanator]

I agree with the talk that we probably need to move on from Bednar if we piss away this series. But is Bednar really to blame for LOC and Drouin shooting over the net on glorious chances? Is he to blame for Nelson getting robbed on a open net? Is he to blame for Lehkonen somehow missing the open net in OT? If we score on some of our chances we win that game handily.

 

[flyfysher]

I agree with the talk that we probably need to move on from Bednar if we piss away this series. But is Bednar really to blame for LOC and Drouin shooting over the net on glorious chances? Is he to blame for Nelson getting robbed on a open net? Is he to blame for Lehkonen somehow missing the open net in OT? If we score on some of our chances we win that game handily.

Think about the first minute and a half in OT where the Avs had a tough time even entering the zone and setting up the PP.

 

[Richard88]

And what adjustments did Bednar make with respect to the PP?

The PP is Bennett's remit so that falls more on him than Bednar. A lot of the problems were caused by players executing poorly as well.

Coaches rarely change up their powerplay unit within a game, usually that's something that only happens game to game. That said I'd really have liked to have seen Landeskog getting an opportunity on PP1, especially on the 3:20 to start OT where Bednar could have drawn up a few plays. Or simply instructed the guys to cycle low and throw everything at the net to create some chaos.

 

[hawk30]

Feels like they're putting too much pressure on the themselves and then crumbling. Dallas's gameplan of waiting for mistakes exacerbates it.

 

[Hennessy]

You'll be hard-pressed to find a more frustrating loss.
That PP to end regulation and begin OT. The Lehkonen shot at the open net where he may not have realized he had a bit more time than to just sling it immediately (deflecting it off a glove and wide). MacKinnon's giveaway that resulted in the GWG by Seguin, because of course it did).
They had plenty of opportunities to seal the deal and just could not get it done. That it was Landeskog's first game back makes it all the more bitter. I was really hoping the team would have come out on absolute fire with him back in the line-up.