bbb Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 3 hours ago, K-9 said: Perhaps they've been reading their press clippings and just thought they could coast after going up 2-0? I turned it on with this score and wanted to watch them coast, myself.............At that point, the goal was scored and called back. Only to be scored again, and they got dominated. I heard the 18 minutes I missed were good, though! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big C Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Can't win em all. Not a great 2/3 but let's see how they respond. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 I only saw the first two periods. What was evident is that the Ducks are a physically stronger team. They had plenty of net presence and were difficult to move. We just didn't have the strength throughout the lineup to match them. The only way to counter that imbalance in muscle is to use your speed and get out of your zone as fast as possible. From what I watched I was impressed with Anaheim. More and more I am coming to the conclusion that this teams Risto on the roster because he adds size and toughness to our defensive corps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PromoTheRobot Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 5 hours ago, bbb said: I turned it on with this score and wanted to watch them coast, myself.............At that point, the goal was scored and called back. Only to be scored again, and they got dominated. I heard the 18 minutes I missed were good, though! It looked like the Sabres were going to skate the Ducks off the ice. Then someone flipped a switch. The Ducks started to pressure the Sabres, moving the forecheck further up ice and the Sabres couldn't adjust, especially when Buffalo was on the power play. They cut off their passing lanes and forced more turnovers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 7 minutes ago, JohnC said: I only saw the first two periods. What was evident is that the Ducks are a physically stronger team. They had plenty of net presence and were difficult to move. We just didn't have the strength throughout the lineup to match them. The only way to counter that imbalance in muscle is to use your speed and get out of your zone as fast as possible. From what I watched I was impressed with Anaheim. More and more I am coming to the conclusion that this teams Risto on the roster because he adds size and toughness to our defensive corps. Yep, the Ducks, like Columbus, imposed their strength once they found their legs late in the first. Before that, we were skating circles around them, but they wore us down physically and that led to all those bad passes and giveaways. Ullmark was hung out to dry much of the evening. Speaking of giveaways, Risto made several mind numbingly stupid plays last night. But I’m actually more concerned with Dahlin at this point. He hasn’t had a good, clean defensive game all season and he sucked again defensively last night. Another big team tonight. While I don’t think the Kings are as good, they are similar to the Ducks in the size department. I suspect they will borrow a page from Anaheim and seek to muscle us off the puck and jump on our D to force mistakes down low. Looking forward to seeing their response. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plenzmd1 Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 48 minutes ago, K-9 said: But I’m actually more concerned with Dahlin at this point. He hasn’t had a good, clean defensive game all season and he sucked again defensively last night. He looks like he has lost some confidence, and that has to be worrisome. Mistakes I can live with, and attribute to youth etc. Loss of confidence though is a whole nother thing..lets hope he pays himself out of it 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 56 minutes ago, K-9 said: Yep, the Ducks, like Columbus, imposed their strength once they found their legs late in the first. Before that, we were skating circles around them, but they wore us down physically and that led to all those bad passes and giveaways. Ullmark was hung out to dry much of the evening. Speaking of giveaways, Risto made several mind numbingly stupid plays last night. But I’m actually more concerned with Dahlin at this point. He hasn’t had a good, clean defensive game all season and he sucked again defensively last night. Another big team tonight. While I don’t think the Kings are as good, they are similar to the Ducks in the size department. I suspect they will borrow a page from Anaheim and seek to muscle us off the puck and jump on our D to force mistakes down low. Looking forward to seeing their response. If there is a flow to the game Dahlin stands out because his instincts and skating are at an elite level. However, when it is a grind out game and he is defending man on man around the net he struggles. He's simply not strong enough at this point. Eventually, he will physically mature and have a more rounded game. In general, this same criticism applies to the team. When there is a flow to the game this team thrives. When it slows down and they are stuck in their zone the defense (including forwards) gets out muscled and bogged down. That physical inferiority was evident in this game. (The Okposo line is the best line that can deal with the bigger and tougher constructed teams.) So what is the solution? When the opposition starts abusing us and gets penalized we need to capitalize on the PP and make them pay. Until to this game we have done it. I'm hoping that in tonight's game the Sabres will respond by skating and quickly moving the puck. If being outmuscled is the strategy to beating us more teams will be following that strategy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 35 minutes ago, JohnC said: If there is a flow to the game Dahlin stands out because his instincts and skating are at an elite level. However, when it is a grind out game and he is defending man on man around the net he struggles. He's simply not strong enough at this point. Eventually, he will physically mature and have a more rounded game. In general, this same criticism applies to the team. When there is a flow to the game this team thrives. When it slows down and they are stuck in their zone the defense (including forwards) gets out muscled and bogged down. That physical inferiority was evident in this game. (The Okposo line is the best line that can deal with the bigger and tougher constructed teams.) So what is the solution? When the opposition starts abusing us and gets penalized we need to capitalize on the PP and make them pay. Until to this game we have done it. I'm hoping that in tonight's game the Sabres will respond by skating and quickly moving the puck. If being outmuscled is the strategy to beating us more teams will be following that strategy. Good points all, but I’m not referring to the mistakes Dahlin makes when he gets outmuscled. That’s gonna happen from time to time and we have to wait until he acquires “man strength” when he matures physically. I’m looking more at his unforced errors. He appears to be pressing too much at the moment. And I hope, as @plenzmd1 mentioned above, that his confidence hasn’t been shaken. But he looks almost timid at times, afraid to make a mistake. But unlike recent previous head coaches, I have full confidence that Kreuger knows what he’s doing. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Back to backs usually don’t concern me, except when the second game of the back to back is also the third game in four nights. I get that these guys are all young athletes in amazing physical condition, but still. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bbb Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 5 hours ago, PromoTheRobot said: It looked like the Sabres were going to skate the Ducks off the ice. Then someone flipped a switch. The Ducks started to pressure the Sabres, moving the forecheck further up ice and the Sabres couldn't adjust, especially when Buffalo was on the power play. They cut off their passing lanes and forced more turnovers. Yeah. I flipped the switch to turn the TV on - and that's what blew it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 55 minutes ago, K-9 said: Back to backs usually don’t concern me, except when the second game of the back to back is also the third game in four nights. I get that these guys are all young athletes in amazing physical condition, but still. I wonder how much the early start on monday might help with that. There's at least a little extra time between the games. But then again, there's added travel time here. It's an odd set of circumstances that has to mess with their internal clocks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman was on WGR's The Instigator show today. This is a 21 min. segment. The biggest rumor he put out is that defensemen other than Risto are being offered on the market. My guess is that McCabe may be offered in addition to other considerations for a forward. Montour may be a couple to a few weeks before he is ready to return to the lineup so there is still plenty of time to scan the market. https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/10-17-sportsnets-elliotte-friedman-instigators Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 14 minutes ago, JohnC said: Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman was on WGR's The Instigator show today. This is a 21 min. segment. The biggest rumor he put out is that defensemen other than Risto are being offered on the market. My guess is that McCabe may be offered in addition to other considerations for a forward. Montour may be a couple to a few weeks before he is ready to return to the lineup so there is still plenty of time to scan the market. https://wgr550.radio.com/media/audio-channel/10-17-sportsnets-elliotte-friedman-instigators It has to be Scandella. McCabe will have move value, but having just given him the A, you'd think he's a guy they want to keep around. He's also getting top pair minutes right now. It doesn't seem like they want Dahlin to fill that role just yet, so I don't think you really have a good option to fill those minutes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnC Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 4 minutes ago, shrader said: It has to be Scandella. McCabe will have move value, but having just given him the A, you'd think he's a guy they want to keep around. He's also getting top pair minutes right now. It doesn't seem like they want Dahlin to fill that role just yet, so I don't think you really have a good option to fill those minutes. Scandella is playing well for us so far. But the problem with your Scandella conjecture is that there wouldn't be much of a return. The only way I see a Scandella trade for a forward who can help us on the second or third line is if a high end prospect such as Pilot or Borgen is included. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shrader Posted October 17, 2019 Share Posted October 17, 2019 43 minutes ago, JohnC said: Scandella is playing well for us so far. But the problem with your Scandella conjecture is that there wouldn't be much of a return. The only way I see a Scandella trade for a forward who can help us on the second or third line is if a high end prospect such as Pilot or Borgen is included. There's only one piece that is going to get that return and it's Ristolainen. Even then, I'm not so sure you get it with a one-for-one deal anyway. So I don't think the possibility of additional pieces in any deal was ever out of the picture. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 This team is totally exhausted; skating in mud, no legs. It's a miracle we are up 3-0 and it will be a bigger miracle if they can hold on. LA with a 5 on 3 to start the third doesn't help. This team needs a break from hockey. The NHL schedule makers did us no favors with the schedule. If I'm Kreuger, they have the day off tomorrow. No practice, no meetings. Just get the hell away from hockey. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
K-9 Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 Gritty effort from a spent team. Carter Hutton with back to back goose eggs. Get some rest. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillsFan4 Posted October 18, 2019 Author Share Posted October 18, 2019 1 hour ago, K-9 said: This team is totally exhausted; skating in mud, no legs. It's a miracle we are up 3-0 and it will be a bigger miracle if they can hold on. LA with a 5 on 3 to start the third doesn't help. This team needs a break from hockey. The NHL schedule makers did us no favors with the schedule. If I'm Kreuger, they have the day off tomorrow. No practice, no meetings. Just get the hell away from hockey. Pits because of the global series games in November. Because they’re traveling to Sweden, the NHL gave them 5 days off before those 2 Sweden games, and 4 days off after. So our schedule is condensed to make up for those days off. Glad they got the win! They definitely looked exhausted by the end of the game. But they got 2 points after a rough loss. I’ll take it. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EmotionallyUnstable Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 These west coast games are killers. Past my bed time! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eball Posted October 18, 2019 Share Posted October 18, 2019 That was the strangest game last night. Got our asses kicked much of the game and still skated away with a 3-0 shutout. Kudos to Hutts for another great game, and welcome to the party, Mitts! I'll say one thing: Sheary > Rodrigues. Particularly in the 2nd, I can't believe how many wide open shots the Kings had that just missed the net entirely. That was terrible (and lucky for us). I wanted to see how they'd rebound from a tough game and even though LA controlled much of the play they jumped to an early lead and were able to hang on. That builds mental toughness. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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