Sarnia Sting 2022-23 Season Thread (Part 2)

[StingUpdates]

My opinion hasn't changed on what to do. I respect your guys opinion & completely understand them, and you very well may be right, but for me this is the time. We have the best offensive player in the league in Voit, two premier high-end scorers in Pastujov & Burke, two really solid, upper tier imports on F along with great roll players in MacDonell, Filak, Sikic & an incredibly promising rookie in Martone.

There's no team that's dealt with more injuries than us. Our defence alone has 70 man games lost & we just started December. Burke was leading the league in goals before getting hurt & he's missed 9 games now. Despite that we sit 6 points out of first. I think it's safe to say had Burke, Mast, Dillingham, Romeo not suffered serious injuries we'd probably have at the very least 2or3 more wins if not more.

Unfortunately that's not the world we live in I know, but it tells you the talent this team has. They've had to run with only 3D+1F as the backend for a few games, they ran a Dcore of Fischer, Young (2 rookies they just signed), Daviault (2nd yr player), MacDonald (2nd yr player) & Ritchie for a number of weeks. Not only is it bad because we missed Mast, Romeo, Dillingham, Hoover (3/4 of our top-4..) but our chemistry has gone thru the ringer due to it.

There are very few teams in the league this year that had that happened to them they wouldn't of completely fallen apart. It's been an onslaught of garbage luck & the fact they've managed to stay this close to the top of the conference to me says a ton about the potential of this roster. There's a chance it never improves & this team is just a giant "what if, had only, if they were" team but I'd like to think no team could be that unlucky all season.

Now I'm right there with the goaltending concerns. If Gaudreau doesn't figure it out we are toast. Unfortunately the WJCs end like 3 days before the trade deadline. So we won't see Gaudreau again (unless he's cut) until after we've made trades which is definitely scary & is why I want to get a legit backup who if need be takes starts away.

 

[StingUpdates]

Unfortunately I think this will probably be an ugly weekend. Potentially no Mast, Hoover, MacDonell (not sure his status), Vilmanis (not sure if he's left yet), Lantz, Burke, Gaudreau (imagine had Voit, Pastujov got invited...) against FLT FLT PBO.

So frustrating that outside the first meeting or two we haven't been able to come close to icing a full lineup vs FLT. Was shaping up to be such an intense rivalry this year & these points are huge for later in the year but they are to good to be missing as much as we have/are. Just hope we don't see another 10-0 this weekend although poor Grover might get the game in Flint & it might get real ugly again lol.

 

[Ferda11]

My opinion hasn't changed on what to do. I respect your guys opinion & completely understand them, and you very well may be right, but for me this is the time. We have the best offensive player in the league in Voit, two premier high-end scorers in Pastujov & Burke, two really solid, upper tier imports on F along with great roll players in MacDonell, Filak, Sikic & an incredibly promising rookie in Martone.

There's no team that's dealt with more injuries than us. Our defence alone has 70 man games lost & we just started December. Burke was leading the league in goals before getting hurt & he's missed 9 games now. Despite that we sit 6 points out of first. I think it's safe to say had Burke, Mast, Dillingham, Romeo not suffered serious injuries we'd probably have at the very least 2or3 more wins if not more.

Unfortunately that's not the world we live in I know, but it tells you the talent this team has. They've had to run with only 3D+1F as the backend for a few games, they ran a Dcore of Fischer, Young (2 rookies they just signed), Daviault (2nd yr player), MacDonald (2nd yr player) & Ritchie for a number of weeks. Not only is it bad because we missed Mast, Romeo, Dillingham, Hoover (3/4 of our top-4..) but our chemistry has gone thru the ringer due to it.

There are very few teams in the league this year that had that happened to them they wouldn't of completely fallen apart. It's been an onslaught of garbage luck & the fact they've managed to stay this close to the top of the conference to me says a ton about the potential of this roster. There's a chance it never improves & this team is just a giant "what if, had only, if they were" team but I'd like to think no team could be that unlucky all season.

Now I'm right there with the goaltending concerns. If Gaudreau doesn't figure it out we are toast. Unfortunately the WJCs end like 3 days before the trade deadline. So we won't see Gaudreau again (unless he's cut) until after we've made trades which is definitely scary & is why I want to get a legit backup who if need be takes starts away.

I agree. As frustrating as this year has been so far, they are still right in the thick of things. I still don't think any one team has done anything to show they are the "true contender" of the west this year. It's still wide open in my opinion. The injuries plus unexpected poor start from Gaudreau have been what's blindsided everyone. We have not seen this team remotely close to being fully healthy for more than 1 or 2 games. It is just extremely unfortunate luck that we won't get to see that healthy team before the trade deadline.

We still need to add, no doubt about it. I think there is a way to do it without giving up Martone or Angus. With the signing of Fischer and how well he has done, that could open things up for a potential Daviault trade. I think he would garner just as much interest, especially with all the minutes he has played in his first 2 seasons so far. Really believe he is going to be a top point producer on the blueline as a 19/20 year old. Toss in the picks we have available and look at making a guy like Wainwright available as well, and this team can definitely add enough to make the run. We cannot keep wasting opportunities when we have players like Voit and Pastujov who will likely be 1 & 2 in league scoring by Christmas. The time is now.

 

[Texcanuck]

I agree. As frustrating as this year has been so far, they are still right in the thick of things. I still don't think any one team has done anything to show they are the "true contender" of the west this year. It's still wide open in my opinion. The injuries plus unexpected poor start from Gaudreau have been what's blindsided everyone. We have not seen this team remotely close to being fully healthy for more than 1 or 2 games. It is just extremely unfortunate luck that we won't get to see that healthy team before the trade deadline.

We still need to add, no doubt about it. I think there is a way to do it without giving up Martone or Angus. With the signing of Fischer and how well he has done, that could open things up for a potential Daviault trade. I think he would garner just as much interest, especially with all the minutes he has played in his first 2 seasons so far. Really believe he is going to be a top point producer on the blueline as a 19/20 year old. Toss in the picks we have available and look at making a guy like Wainwright available as well, and this team can definitely add enough to make the run. We cannot keep wasting opportunities when we have players like Voit and Pastujov who will likely be 1 & 2 in league scoring by Christmas. The time is now.

You can fiddle with the pieces all you want but unless Gaudreau gets the save percentage up over .910 or so for the remaining games, there’s nowhere to go. Goals against has to be less than 3.
Hate to put it all on one guy, but that’s what goaltending is. You have to want to be “The Man” and then you have to be “The Man”. Not a team game between the pipes - it’s all about you.

 

[Savard18]

You can fiddle with the pieces all you want but unless Gaudreau gets the save percentage up over .910 or so for the remaining games, there’s nowhere to go. Goals against has to be less than 3.
Hate to put it all on one guy, but that’s what goaltending is. You have to want to be “The Man” and then you have to be “The Man”. Not a team game between the pipes - it’s all about you.

It’s Benjamin Gaudreau. You just have to roll the dice and assume he’ll return to form. That’s my concern in Flint and something I think the fans in other cities and the Eastern Conference might be overlooking….if Brochu and Gaudreau return to form and Chenard maintains his form…..you’re gonna have to get past at least one badass goaltender, probably two or even three to make the Finals. Hell, Lennox and Cranley have been pretty solid recently too. A healthy Sting roster with Ben performing will be as formidable as anything in the West with just a little tinkering. The problem might be they take a sec to get healthy and gel and have to come from a 3-4-5 seed with a tougher road.

 

[JAMER]

I agree. As frustrating as this year has been so far, they are still right in the thick of things. I still don't think any one team has done anything to show they are the "true contender" of the west this year. It's still wide open in my opinion. The injuries plus unexpected poor start from Gaudreau have been what's blindsided everyone. We have not seen this team remotely close to being fully healthy for more than 1 or 2 games. It is just extremely unfortunate luck that we won't get to see that healthy team before the trade deadline.

We still need to add, no doubt about it. I think there is a way to do it without giving up Martone or Angus. With the signing of Fischer and how well he has done, that could open things up for a potential Daviault trade. I think he would garner just as much interest, especially with all the minutes he has played in his first 2 seasons so far. Really believe he is going to be a top point producer on the blueline as a 19/20 year old. Toss in the picks we have available and look at making a guy like Wainwright available as well, and this team can definitely add enough to make the run. We cannot keep wasting opportunities when we have players like Voit and Pastujov who will likely be 1 & 2 in league scoring by Christmas. The time is now.

I wouldn't mind a Davi

I agree. As frustrating as this year has been so far, they are still right in the thick of things. I still don't think any one team has done anything to show they are the "true contender" of the west this year. It's still wide open in my opinion. The injuries plus unexpected poor start from Gaudreau have been what's blindsided everyone. We have not seen this team remotely close to being fully healthy for more than 1 or 2 games. It is just extremely unfortunate luck that we won't get to see that healthy team before the trade deadline.

We still need to add, no doubt about it. I think there is a way to do it without giving up Martone or Angus. With the signing of Fischer and how well he has done, that could open things up for a potential Daviault trade. I think he would garner just as much interest, especially with all the minutes he has played in his first 2 seasons so far. Really believe he is going to be a top point producer on the blueline as a 19/20 year old. Toss in the picks we have available and look at making a guy like Wainwright available as well, and this team can definitely add enough to make the run. We cannot keep wasting opportunities when we have players like Voit and Pastujov who will likely be 1 & 2 in league scoring by Christmas. The time is now.

I wouldn't mind a Daviault trade originally I would have been against it but with Fischer here now I could see it and I think we would get a decent return something like

2x 2nds and a 3rd or a 2nd and 2x 3rds


Which would give us 4-5 2nds and 2x 3rds or 4x 2nds and 3x 3rds which would help a lot at the deadline

 

[jink1187]

You can fiddle with the pieces all you want but unless Gaudreau gets the save percentage up over .910 or so for the remaining games, there’s nowhere to go. Goals against has to be less than 3.















Hate to put it all on one guy, but that’s what goaltending is. You have to want to be “The Man” and then you have to be “The Man”. Not a team game between the pipes - it’s all about you.

 

[JAMER]

Burke back on his birthday should see him out there flying tonight

 

[StingUpdates]

Finally some good news on the injury front. Didn't think it was possible with this team lol. Missed Burke in every aspect of the game

Gigantic boost. See if MacDonell, Vilmanis are in or not.

 

[Ferda11]

Hate to put it all on one guy, but that’s what goaltending is. You have to want to be “The Man” and then you have to be “The Man”. Not a team game between the pipes - it’s all about you.

I agree 100%. Gaudreau has certainly been frustrating. Let’s see what happens with the world jr stuff. We’ve seen how good he is. Not sure what the issue is but he still was a #7 overall pick, NHL 3rd round pick and has won gold at the u-18’s…hard to dismiss those things after only 22 starts so far this season. It’s also not like all 22 have been bad games either. Either way, something has gotta give. He needs to be better, a lot better. No doubt. I think he returns to form upon his return.

We are getting our shitty luck out of the way at the start of the season this year instead of the end….I’m telling ya! Lol

 

[Ferda11]

Why is Pastujov not playing??????

 

[StingUpdates]

Why is Pastujov not playing??????

No Pastujov, Lantz, MacDonell hahahahahahaha. As well as Mast, Gaudreau, Hoover, & coach Letang.

This is unbelievable. Honestly. What the actual f*ck.

Presumably he's out from the hit from behind Sunday which didn't warrant a suspension btw.

Unbelievable. Truly.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

No Pastujov, Lantz, MacDonell hahahahahahaha. As well as Mast, Gaudreau, Hoover, & coach Letang.

This is unbelievable. Honestly. What the actual f*ck.

Presumably he's out from the hit from behind Sunday which didn't warrant a suspension btw.

Unbelievable. Truly.

This is actually insane. I think the big question of tonight is not do we win but do we lose any more players?

 

[StingUpdates]

Honestly played pretty solid but 2 horrid giveaways for goals. Our 4th line can not get out of their own end which isn't overly surprising but still a problem

 

[Ferda11]

2 turnovers, 2 goals against. The boys are playing pretty good otherwise. Vilmanis line looking good. Good pace. Those turnovers are ball breakers man….

 

[SarniaStingFan]

2 turnovers, 2 goals against. The boys are playing pretty good otherwise. Vilmanis line looking good. Good pace. Those turnovers are ball breakers man….

For sure. Liking the look of the Wainwright-Filak-Vilmanis line so far. Quiet period for Voit. He needs to pick it up in the 2nd

 

[StingUpdates]

For sure. Liking the look of the Wainwright-Filak-Vilmanis line so far. Quiet period for Voit. He needs to pick it up in the 2nd

He & Burke aren't clicking yet. Just missing on some plays.

 

[StingUpdates]

They are still playing decent but the turnovers are KILLING us. Bottom-6 is being eaten alive. Been on for 4 of 5.

Doesn't help the 4th goal happened because their guy utterly fluffed a 1T & it bounced backdoor.

 

[SarniaStingFan]

They are still playing decent but the turnovers are KILLING us. Bottom-6 is being eaten alive. Been on for 4 of 5.

Doesn't help the 4th goal happened because their guy utterly fluffed a 1T & it bounced backdoor.

Not a lot of chemistry out there outside of Wainwright-Filak-Vilmanis. Not surprising considering the amount of injuries and how they've had to mix the lines

 

[Ferda11]

Romeo and Ritchie pair needs to be split up. Not working. They are a step behind all night. Would be nice to find a way to claw back again here. Need that top line to do something…I swear Sikic sucks the offense out of any line he’s on lol. Let’s get a point at least

 

[StingUpdates]

God, this is so f*cking frustrating. We win tonight with any semblance of a healthy roster. Doesn't excuse some of those turnovers cause I mean YIKES on some of those, but without a doubt, the result is different tonight if we even have just 2or3 of our guys.

It's maddening. Unbelievably maddening to keep losing games you know they'd win if remotely healthy. Also LOVE how apparently it's open season to run our guys from behind. Bunch of crap they didn't call that cross check/hit from behind on Burke.

Rough night for Surzcyia. Not terrible goals but he needs to stop at least one of those to give us a chance like Cranley did for FLT at the end. 2nd line was a force tonight. Filak has been awesome since returning from injury, Vilmanis was a beast (be without him after this weekend!) & id say that was Wainwright's best game of the season.

Voit, Burke just weren't clicking like usual. Cut them some slack as Voit's gone thru the blender of line mates because of injuries. Bottom-6 got obliterated (especially line 4) outside Martone's goal which I expected unfortunately, with 3 T6 Fs out.

Fischer continues to be awesome. His composure for a 16 year old is the best I've seen for a Sting dman since Chychrun. You can tell he's really gotten comfortable now. Expectations for tomorrow are pretty low, especially considering it'll be Grover or Chartier in I imagine & who knows how either of them will perform.

 

[Millpond]

My opinion hasn't changed on what to do. I respect your guys opinion & completely understand them, and you very well may be right, but for me this is the time. We have the best offensive player in the league in Voit, two premier high-end scorers in Pastujov & Burke, two really solid, upper tier imports on F along with great roll players in MacDonell, Filak, Sikic & an incredibly promising rookie in Martone.

There's no team that's dealt with more injuries than us. Our defence alone has 70 man games lost & we just started December. Burke was leading the league in goals before getting hurt & he's missed 9 games now. Despite that we sit 6 points out of first. I think it's safe to say had Burke, Mast, Dillingham, Romeo not suffered serious injuries we'd probably have at the very least 2or3 more wins if not more.

Unfortunately that's not the world we live in I know, but it tells you the talent this team has. They've had to run with only 3D+1F as the backend for a few games, they ran a Dcore of Fischer, Young (2 rookies they just signed), Daviault (2nd yr player), MacDonald (2nd yr player) & Ritchie for a number of weeks. Not only is it bad because we missed Mast, Romeo, Dillingham, Hoover (3/4 of our top-4..) but our chemistry has gone thru the ringer due to it.

There are very few teams in the league this year that had that happened to them they wouldn't of completely fallen apart. It's been an onslaught of garbage luck & the fact they've managed to stay this close to the top of the conference to me says a ton about the potential of this roster. There's a chance it never improves & this team is just a giant "what if, had only, if they were" team but I'd like to think no team could be that unlucky all season.

Now I'm right there with the goaltending concerns. If Gaudreau doesn't figure it out we are toast. Unfortunately the WJCs end like 3 days before the trade deadline. So we won't see Gaudreau again (unless he's cut) until after we've made trades which is definitely scary & is why I want to get a legit backup who if need be takes starts away.

Attack lost 106 man games and counting . All positions

 

[SarniaStingFan]

God, this is so f*cking frustrating. We win tonight with any semblance of a healthy roster. Doesn't excuse some of those turnovers cause I mean YIKES on some of those, but without a doubt, the result is different tonight if we even have just 2or3 of our guys.

It's maddening. Unbelievably maddening to keep losing games you know they'd win if remotely healthy. Also LOVE how apparently it's open season to run our guys from behind. Bunch of crap they didn't call that cross check/hit from behind on Burke.

Rough night for Surzcyia. Not terrible goals but he needs to stop at least one of those to give us a chance like Cranley did for FLT at the end. 2nd line was a force tonight. Filak has been awesome since returning from injury, Vilmanis was a beast (be without him after this weekend!) & id say that was Wainwright's best game of the season.

Voit, Burke just weren't clicking like usual. Cut them some slack as Voit's gone thru the blender of line mates because of injuries. Bottom-6 got obliterated (especially line 4) outside Martone's goal which I expected unfortunately, with 3 T6 Fs out.

Fischer continues to be awesome. His composure for a 16 year old is the best I've seen for a Sting dman since Chychrun. You can tell he's really gotten comfortable now. Expectations for tomorrow are pretty low, especially considering it'll be Grover or Chartier in I imagine & who knows how either of them will perform.

Yeah. This is really frustrating to watch. That was a winnable game tonight. Surzycia looked shaky, didn't look nearly as good as he did on Sunday. We'll see what happens with Grover or Chartier tomorrow but I still have very low expectations for the team this weekend. The main positive from tonight was that they battled hard and didn't give up when they got down.

 

[StingUpdates]

Attack lost 106 man games and counting . All positions

We are right there with you guys. Almost 80 just from our defence. Been our best guys too (outside Ritchie)

OS would be one of the few who could handle it. Great depth. Great roster.

 

[Texcanuck]

God, this is so f*cking frustrating. We win tonight with any semblance of a healthy roster. Doesn't excuse some of those turnovers cause I mean YIKES on some of those, but without a doubt, the result is different tonight if we even have just 2or3 of our guys.

It's maddening. Unbelievably maddening to keep losing games you know they'd win if remotely healthy. Also LOVE how apparently it's open season to run our guys from behind. Bunch of crap they didn't call that cross check/hit from behind on Burke.

Rough night for Surzcyia. Not terrible goals but he needs to stop at least one of those to give us a chance like Cranley did for FLT at the end. 2nd line was a force tonight. Filak has been awesome since returning from injury, Vilmanis was a beast (be without him after this weekend!) & id say that was Wainwright's best game of the season.

Voit, Burke just weren't clicking like usual. Cut them some slack as Voit's gone thru the blender of line mates because of injuries. Bottom-6 got obliterated (especially line 4) outside Martone's goal which I expected unfortunately, with 3 T6 Fs out.

Fischer continues to be awesome. His composure for a 16 year old is the best I've seen for a Sting dman since Chychrun. You can tell he's really gotten comfortable now. Expectations for tomorrow are pretty low, especially considering it'll be Grover or Chartier in I imagine & who knows how either of them will perform.

Have to agree with everything except the Fischer comment. From my seat, this was his worst game. Looked to me that he was responsible for giveaways on 2 of the goals, both a result of being a little weak on the stick. Other than those 2 occasions, he was pretty solid. Good future ahead.
The game itself was typical of the Sting season… fall behind in the first, claw back, then oops…
Feels like they’ve spent the whole season chasing the game.
Strangely enough, I think they will do ok Saturday & Sunday. Just need a couple of showstopper saves to bail out the defensive lapses.