It is so damn obvious we need to shuffle our forward lines. We have a soft ass first line and a 2nd line of hard nosed guys. Brouwer up. Versteeg down. Consider Bennett with Gaudreau. Monahan with Tkachuk.
Wideman is an embarrassment. He has this constant look of confusion.
The coach is seriously in trouble if we give up another 5+ goals to Vancouver. Not that he will be fired if that happens, but he will be on a really short leash.
Giordano looks terrible.
The first line and the power play rely way too much on Johnny. To the point everyone is standing still and hoping he will make some magic happen. The d-men cant hold the puck in the zone or even be in position to receive simple back passes. Frolik and Engelland have been our best players. Tkachuk has been fine.
Monahan is insanely soft for a guy his size. Hardly ever checks. His skating has hardly improved since he was drafted he still looks barely average in that department.
Hamilton looks completely lost in this system. I like the bit of snarl hes shown but he isnt playing the way you would expect him to play.
I think Hartleys strength is Glens weakness. Hartley studied our team and players and tried to put them in a position to play to their strengths, while sacrificing strategy.
Glen is all about strategy and doesnt pay much mind to the strengths and weaknesses of the players.
I see soo much Dallas Eakins in our coach its really scary. A young coach who thinks he knows something nobody else does, smartest guy in the league trying to revolutionize coaching. I really hope I'm wrong about him but if this keeps going the way it has been and he chooses to be hard headed, refuses to change it up...I can see him fired very early. His style asks way too much of our defencemen and forces our forwards to exhaust themselves.
On paper we have the best forward group, best goaltending, best defensive core we've had in recent memory. There is no excuse for this. People need to drop the whole its Johnny missing camp, Monahan being injured, or its Elliott, or its just Wideman/Grossman. Sure those things factor in - but shouldnt result in 12 goals against in 2 games. Johnny played a month of hockey already in a system and role he claimed was very similar to the one he is being asked to play by GG. Monahan didnt break his back - it was a small injury and it was precautionary rest. Elliott has probably the best goalie stats in the past 5 years out of anyone in the league. Wideman and Grossmann are slow, stupid d-men who shouldnt play more than 10 mins a night including PP time, or be sat in favor of Kulak (grossmann shouldnt play at all).
I cant stand all the excuses people are making for this. Its been a #### show and the coaching is the biggest factor. We hired a special teams players coach with little experience - after he wowed Conroy on a hiking trip. Lets be honest with ourselves. I'm not saying its all doom and gloom but we shouldnt sugar coat this or blame it on 1 or 2 whipping boys / excuses. What does the fact we've beaten Edmonton a lot in the past few seasons have to do with how bad we've been ? Are we that desperate to console ourselves?
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