lightsout

Well that was depressing

Remember what I said about us not being so predictable on the PP as "work it deep, up to point, looking for right circle shot into traffic"? Here we are.

I think Raanta being in will benefit our dmen, particularly Orlov who knows he needs to ingratiate himself to all of our goalies. Plus Raanta has a chance to prove he can split more of the load which would obviously benefit Freddie and the team as a whole. Keep out of the box, stop letting the opponent have great chances in transition and we'll be fine.

Nonsense. We had Julius Peppers who....left and went elsewhere. But we also had Steve Smith who...left and played somewhere else. And we had Double Trouble, and THEY...each left and played somewhere else. And then we did have Luke who...retired early but absolutely could've played somewhere else. And then DJ Moore and CMC....who.... y'know I see a pattern.

That being said our PP is small and weak and until we find some Blue Chew or Hims, we're going to suffer from dysfunction and ultimately be dissatisfying.

The main board has needed a cleaning for a long time. Tbh, axe the tinderbox, axe the personal insults over sports posters, and set it up so that we can actually talk sports and not just overreactions at every post.

@Zodsaw us having too much fun in here, enjoying a good team that is starting the season strong. He will have none of that joy here.

I just want to see Bryce hit over the top once.

Would be great except my kids really hate going to bed suddenly because toddlers are absolute maniacs at bed time so I'll be able to sit and watch around midway in the third lol

I think we just get way too focused on trying to create rebounds in front. We need to try to displace some of the bodies in the slot so we can get something cross crease more often. Nearly every chance we do get comes from working in deep, kicking it up the boards, getting it center blue line, back to right circle for a one timer or having them skate it in looking for a dirty rebound. It hasn't worked. Teams know what we like to do and force us into it while parking three in front of the net and one in the slot to keep pressure on the blue line/take away the circle to circle pass.

I am all for another big road win. This will be tougher but I think we get it done as long as the boys rested. Can't recommend working on 4 hours of sleep btw. This day sucks already lol

Anything to divert attention from shitty play calls

So here's the deal. We have to find ways of not shooting ourselves in the foot. We keep making careless mistakes. It's going to bite us every time.

Opening night slow start. Not panicking. Rod is about to get in that ass. Now if we continue the way we started into the second, I'll be concerned

Also, my son is a hockey fan at 3. So help me God if I have to drive to Pineville and buy hockey gear in the coming years I'll be both proud and broke

If the kid will take them. Both of my kids abhor having anything on their heads (my 3 year old keeping his hat on during tee ball is a mystery but he does it).

Ok I support bringing kids to games but maybe not a newborn to an arena. I mean it can get loud as fug.

I'm absolutely sick that I have to pay Bally money so I can watch the season. Paying monthly just in case something switches mid season

And I forgot to add, you have 60 minutes of regulation time. Your line minutes will be something like this 1st line: 15-22 min 2nd line: 15-18 min 3rd line: 14-17 min 4th line: 13-17 min Usually anyway. I mean changes happen every 45 ish seconds, depending on stoppages and the other teams change and whether you're filling a top guy on a bottom line for more minutes out of him or not. It's an art for sure to get it right. You want your top 6 guys on those first two lines to get as much time on ice as possible but you have a long season and don't need to wear them out.

So the short answer is that you want your talent spread but not so spread that they're having to single handedly carry their line. So your top line is generally where you want you star power. The most deadly guy you have paired with two great support pieces that work well together and play off of each other. A lot of free styling is common with first liners, less set up and more flow. Your second line is your first line but how it changes will depend on your personnel. Maybe these are grindy guys, maybe this is a mix and match of some physicality and some great individual stick skills. Still some freedom here, but will play the role of maintaining the puck in the other teams end for as long as possible. 3rd liners are your savvy tweeners. They're good defensively but can score too. They're there to fill and not screw up. You're not depending on them to be goal scorers, but you expect them to be good +/- guys. 4th liners are grinders/new guys/don't fit in the other three lines neatly. Usually just get ice time so everybody can rest, but there can be some heroes here. None of the above is hard line truth, but it's a decent starting point of understanding. Teams generally want will start with first or second line, or even a combination of the two depending on the team they're playing and matchups. But as the game progresses, you want to time your changes where your top 6 is out there with their bottom 6. Your strongest talent vs their weakest. D pairings (as each team will have two defensemen on the ice at a time) run 3 each team. So a top pair, mid pair and bottom pair. +/- as I mentioned above is basically a measure of contribution. Your team score while you're on the ice? You get one point in the +. Your team gives up a goal while you're on the ice? You get one point in the -. Guys with crazy low +/- tend to be bottom 6 players so if you got a top 6 guy with like -15, you have problems as a team.

Also, most importantly, we used to have a thing called the Storm Squad and that is no more. But seriously, this team is amazing. Well ran (Dundon is the kind of owner Tepper wishes he was) and well coached (Brindy is the coach half the league would kill for). Players are all team-first guys who don't make excuses. If we can just get the breaks to fall our way come playoff time, we will have a Cup. Roster is too good not to.

Absolutely spot on. Reich needs to let Brown do the play calling while Frazier gives input and assists Reich with personnel and management of the game. Absolutely zero reason to have this cluster fug

I love women. I would never disparage a woman in sports due to her being a woman because that's stupid. But fug Nicole Tepper. I said what I said.

You know, im taking it as a sign from God that my Hulu account for some reason is giving me Indy locals. I can watch a good game.

I'm not. My TV Hulu is apparently being weird. Got it on my phone. Lol