[JJ1532]

Hamilton sits on Friday. Don't care who gets upset by people ragging on him, he was playing top minutes in Boston. This isn't a situation he should be overawed by. Gio has been pretty poor, but thats still a decent calibre of D man to pair Dougie with. The lad is softer than Raymond, its embarrassing and shameful to watch. He has to sit. Only way he'll learn. Call up Nakladal and give him bottom pairing minutes with Kulak. Move Engelland up alongside Gio and drop those 2 to the 2nd pairing.

Oh and I think people are kidding themselves if they think dropping Hamilton to the 2nd pairing once Brodie is back will solve his issues. He might feel less pressure to perform, but he'll be paired up with Wideman/Russell, who are both lesser d men than Gio/Brodie. If he can't figure it out with Gio, I don't hold much faith that he can figure it out with the other 2. Plus he'll still be facing some top forwards and still be getting well over 20 minutes of ice time a night. I don't see that solving anything.

Upfront, god knows. Only positive here is that they are contributions from the top line, whoever it may be. Johnny has 7 points, Monahan has 3. Another point for Frolik, Gio off the mark. But the big issues are Backlund(invisible yet again), Ferland(needs to just start hitting, forget making plays and the like). Bollig is just awful, the guy can't play hockey. Great in the room, yeah, wonderful, so was McGrattan, doesn't mean he needs to be dressed for every game. What we need to see though is greater intensity. We saw it up until they potted the 5th in the 3rd period. The players looked engaged, grabbed a goal and I did wonder whether we'd see a comeback. But the 5th killed it stone dead.

Thing is, I don't even think a win would solve anything. Win or lose last season, we were in most of the games we played. Other than the Vancouver(road) and Winnipeg games this season, we've been battered in all the others. Not even been close. Season over? Probably not, but it's extremely worrying.