K-9

Housley needs to come right back with Hutton tonight.

I don’t feel sorry for them in the least. I think they’ve spent enough time feeling sorry for themselves already, which is one of the things I can’t stand about Housley. His post game pressers in games like this are always a litany of things that didn’t just didn’t go our way. I don’t need him to tell me we hit posts, we missed wide open opportunities, we had bad bounces, etc. There are no moral victories. We lost. End of story. That said, they played a defensively deficient Toronto team very well. It was a fun game to watch.

Oh well. Bad puck luck. We are just not ready for prime time. I don’t think the Leafs are either. As great as they are offensively (and they are a fricken juggernaut), they are that much worse on the back end. Not built for a long cup run.

Is it still so cliquish over there? Haven’t been there in a long long time.

Good points. This team has far worse problems than goaltending to be sure.

I think he pulled Hutton to light a fire under his lifeless, clueless team. I don’t think it was dissatisfaction with Hutton so much as sending a message to the rest of the team. Third period will tell us a lot.

You’d think we’d make an adjustment on defending the long stretch pass, but no answer seems to be forthcoming. Why is that? Eichel got his head out of his ass just in time for everyone else to screw the pooch. This team is Charmin soft.

Head up his ass Eichel showed up so far. He needs to bear down and join rest of the team in a good effort to this point. Our PP is a momentum killer and the Leafs PK got their crowd into it. Like I was saying...

His Kracken?

No emails, but I have hundreds of messages chiseled in stone and hundreds more on papyrus scrolls. I am impressed with how important you folks are. I’ll betcha you were the first to get pagers back in the day.

Can you imagine Eichel paired with Hall and Skinner? I hope Risto isn’t traded as he is one of our few players with any amount of “jam” in his game. Granted, he’s a middle pair D man at best, but if he is traded it better be for what you said and no less. I trust Botterill will get a commensurate return.

Good article. He’s not the first prospect Edmonton has rushed and ruined in recent years. Given his defensive shortcomings, I can see why Hitchcock won’t give him meaningful minutes and a change of scenery is needed. I’m not sure he’s what we need at this time though as we have a similar prospect in Tage Thompson, imo.

Mitts belongs in this league. You’ll be singing a different tune in a couple years.

One of their best in a long, long while. Having November Hutton really helped.

That’s all anyone needs to know about Skinner. I have to change my choice to him over Panarin. Can’t coach what has got.

Love Skinner, but I’d rather have Panarin for his better playmaking ability.

We need 33 out of the remaining 44 points to equal Bylsma’s two year point total of 159. A .750 clip (stifled laughter). I’m gonna go out on a limb and predict Phil and the boys can’t do that.

Guess they aren’t happy with Mahomes.

Agree entirely. But Housley won’t be held accountable for anything by his boss. Because he “communicates with the players” and they “give effort” and they are “in games until the end.” But most of all it’s because they are “progressing.” Not sure how being the third worst team in the league since the streak adds up to “progress”, but that’s where we are. Seems to me that the players have bought into the front office idea that losing is ok as long as they try hard. I’ll just leave it at this: if anyone in that locker room, ANYONE, was happy with last night’s game, they should be cut immediately. Players like Drury wouldn’t tolerate that for a second. The losing culture is deeply ingrained in this team. Confusing effort with results is a disease.

Yep, they are pleased as punch, because they’ve established two low bar criteria for success: playing hard and staying in it to the end; the BARE Fing minimum for expectations. And losing. Again. Continuing to confuse effort with results. Not what a winning organization should espouse.

I’m sure Botterill and Housely are quite pleased with tonight’s game. It checked all their boxes for success: they gave effort, they were in it to the very end, and...well, that’s about it. Moral victories are for losers.

I agree about expecting turd sandwiches. Doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be called out when they do offer it up, though. Some turd sandwiches are more revealing than others. As such, I’m concerned about what Botterill considers progress and success.

I fully understand the position Botterill is in and I'd never suggest he throw Housley under the bus. I'd find that unprofessional and unacceptable. But I also cannot accept the turd sandwich he threw out there for our consumption yesterday. I had hoped he was smarter than that. Worse, he may actually believe that giving effort and playing hard is some sort of achievement, when it's the bare minimum requirement. No great shakes in that department and I give Housley no credit for that. Every team in the league plays hard most nights. Like I said, it sounds like Botterill and Co. are confusing effort with results. This team has been treading water, nothing more. And if Housley needs "his players" to implement "his system" and we need to wait years for that or we have to wait for a team full of All Stars before we can say he's a good coach or not is a crock, imo. Good coaches can exhibit good traits, regardless of the talent level on their team. They especially need show good coaching ability when the talent level isn't optimal. I've seen precious little of that from him so far. But I'm sure he'll be a great coach when he has that team of All Stars at his disposal.

OK, not only did Housley come close to replicating Bylsma's post All Star game pace of 96 points, he smashed it! In the first six weeks of the season. Because of a 10 game win streak. Isn't there an old sports adage about not where you start, but how you finish? Housley's been on a 67 point pace since December, and falling. And, even though they sit at one point better than last year's 62 points, they will be hard pressed to equal Bylsma's season worst of 78 points. Should have kept Rolston! Botterill can support his coach publicly without insulting the intelligence of long suffering fans by offering platitudes and cliches about effort. Or, maybe not.