lightsout

That was purely a faceoff circle decision I think

We will see tomorrow night if Rod and the team received the message. If we're heavily out shot again and not getting pucks on net, I can promise you this series is over. We're not in a spot to win 4 straight

The problem is it works against most of the league. It's hard as hell to justify poo canning the guy who brought you into relevance year in and year out because he fails to win cups. If we hire a guy to replace Rba and he fails to make the playoffs, we lose the culture built entirely. That's the risk. RBA needs to be able to switch it up. We need to be setting up Aho and Svech and Jarvis every game. We aren't. Telling them to go find their space and shoot when they can isn't working. We need some set plays so we can free up space for some cross crease. Florida can, why can't we?

Slavin and Burns are fuging toast right now. They're exhausted as hell. Ghost is literally just trying to not let guys behind him because he doesn't have the legs right now. Orlov is Orlov. Let Niki bomb. Teach Nikishin "off" and let him fuging try to run a normal shift.

So our system is free wheeling with offensive zone circle cycling to get shots top half of circle or high slot. It's what we do. Blue line has green light to blast as long as somebody is low. Simple hustle play style, allows us to put work in on teams who don't have the speed and endurance. Well, yet again we face a team that can hang and now we can't buy shots. Everybody looking for the pass to wear down teams and nobody trying to strike fear. The system needs to adapt. Not change. Just adjust. Get some set plays. Crash the fuging net. Morrow didn't need to see the ice. Put Niki with Orlov and call it a day. Jarvis is likely fuging concussed. Shocked if he isn't. So now we need to replace his impact (give Blake the minutes. He's earned it). Run Koochie for the next two games. Freddie is exhausted. Marty needs to scrap with anybody not named Marchand. We're needing goals and we spend the entire pp passing and I just don't fuging get it

I mean they're from the same place I think but idk if they're friends. If they are, then it's literally a "fug you bud" shot. Lol. It wasn't a forceful shot. I don't like it if it's not that, but the league has already kinda ruled that these kinda shots are fine as long as it's not disrupting play directly or overly forceful.

That thought crossed my mind. Could be desperation, could also just be Svech trying to play mind games with Bob. Get him less focused and shake him up a bit.

As long as Morrow isn't on the ice, we are neck and neck with them, at worst. So please God tell me Nikishin or Chatty are going tonight

He's that offensive d man we love to grab to pair with a more defensive partner. If that's the mold we're gonna go after, fug it, keep him. He does well enough IMO. If we're looking for Slavin light, then be sure to find that or we just have a massive hole to fill on top of the others

Idk why I thought we had Orlov until '27 and burns until '26 but here we are

Ehhh. He's a kid. Doubt that they hold it against him THAT hard unless he really can be big trade bait. I think the plan was to run him in the ahl next year and call him up if somebody goes down and get him ready to come up permanently once Orlov's contract comes up. Kinda hard to play at ECF level at 22 when you haven't been up much Burns is likely getting traded in the off season for something to fix the second line and to make more room for Nikishin to slot in. No way we hold him at his pay for his production, not with Slavin getting paid eventually. I miss Fast

Ghost definitely made the most of a bad situation. He can't be everywhere at once

Oh I know, but the first period and a half showed us the glaring issue schematically. They executed more consistently because they didn't have the issues in their depth that we did. Fourth line couldn't matchup well, bottom pair was atrocious. Need to do some half switches with the second and third lines. Staal line steals an extra 5 minutes per game and maybe we can mitigate it?

Agreed. He shouldn't have to break into the league in the playoffs against the two most physical teams we'll play, but here we are. I think Nikishin is just Russian enough to deal with it. Let the boy go. Have Orlov and Svech shouting at him all night. It'll be fine.

Morrow isn't ready for the big time yet. We know this now. Nikishin either can go or he can't. Run him again if Chatty is out. If Nikishin blows it, oh well. Morrow is just too much of a liability right now. The team shouldn't have to carry the dead weight. Nikishin wasn't a world beater in his debut but he was present and didn't actively hurt the team with his minutes.

Like any sport, we see what happens when you come out flat and make mistakes. You give up good scoring chances and struggle. If we don't change our zone approach with the puck, we will lose this series. They're soft like we are in the same spots. We need to be cycling to the high slot and shooting more so we can work the dirty rebounds. It's how you beat Bob and it's how we have to score

We're finding what happens when you have a team TOO encouraged to play selflessly and together. Nobody wants to big dog the game when you need it, except for Svech in spots. We need somebody to step up and decide "yeah I'm just gonna take this entire shift over" occasionally. I love that the boys are all role playing and doing their individual jobs for each other's success, but goddamn somebody pick spots to be selfish. We need to create lanes to abuse. What did Florida do? They leaked a man streaking in high slot and had great scoring chances repeatedly. They literally flipped out strategy and found the weakness if you aren't taking pucks away at the blue line on entry, you don't have numbers to cover high slot.

Fewer games, less need to have a late start, more time for people to finish dinner and catch the game (though I am going to miss the first period every time because my kids go down at 8 so bedtime routine is either flexing to 730 or I just miss puck drops lol)

Chatty

We need to come out like this series belongs to us. Take all pressure off the road trip, just fuging take this game and go to DC ready to close it. We can win this in 5, and looking at Florida in their war with Toronto, we need to do it in 5 because they're likely going 7 and getting the extra rest could be huge for our legs.

This entire album for the foreseeable future

Ghosty slander will not stand. But sit Orlov. Tired of seeing him lazily trot back to wild pucks in the neutral zone and then lazily flinging the puck into danger.

What I know after game 2 - Tom Wilson is a fuging bitch - Ghosty is a grinder - Blake and Stanky deserve to be here. - Orlov is entirely replaceable - we are taking this in 5

Absolutely perfect timing. Question is if he's gonna miss the first two. I know athletes tend to just bounce and go handle business but man, you hate it for him if he has to hop on a plane immediately after his kid is born.

I think the difference is that The Golden Calf of Bristol and Cam were just big personalities with big time talent (The Golden Calf of Bristol just lacked any consistency, leading to most of us hating him because it felt like he pulled big plays out of his ass). Sanders is a good talent who is completely full of himself and the ego feels unearned. You should WANT to change the bad culture of the losing franchise you expect to go to as a top pick...but that's a thing you keep to yourself or articulate well enough that it doesn't come off as "we're doing poo my way, if you don't like that, don't draft me". You don't create an entire room touting yourself as legendary when you did absolutely nothing legendary at the collegiate level. Nobody is going to be fondly remembering Shadeur Sanders the college QB. Johnny Football is there, Cam is there, Vince Young is there, RGIII is there, The Golden Calf of Bristol is there. Sanders needs humility and to pry himself away from his father. His father is going to tank his career before it is even started. Sanders may bounce around the league as a backup for a few years, he'll play in select games and look like a backup but he'll have that one game where he pops off and that game will be used to say "see?! He's great!" and then he'll get the start and never live up to that game again.