Our defense is jumping into the rush plenty of times right now, almost to the point where I think they need to reminded to pick their spots wisely.
They had good second and third periods tonight. I think it just comes down to avoiding simple errors, such as bad pinches and trying to force long outlet passes up the ice like in the first period (the forwards are to blame for that, at least one should be near the defensemen and be available for a pass). Other than that, the talent on this team is limited and that is something that can't be fixed overnight.
Call ups are fine, but they let's not view them as a solution for the problems surrounding this team right now. If we call guys up it's because these they are players knocking on the door right now and we want to see whether or not they project to be NHL players. We're looking to see whether or not guys like Ferland, Hanowski, Baertschi, Reinhart, Knight, etc. are finished products. Poirier should stay in the AHL for now.
Overall I would stand pat for the most part, and ride out the rest of the season. If we make playoffs, great. If we don't, another good draft pick will come our way and it'll be another good building block. Try and look to deal guys like Bollig and Glencross along the way as well.
The solutions for this team's problems are in the long term, and can't be done with short term fixes.
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