Taro T

He is. But, do you not believe that if he were actual fast that he would've gone higher? Personally believe, as stated in the post you quoted, that the lack of size had teams wary but the lack of top end speed in combination with the lack of size is how the Sabres lucked into him. Give him 1 more inch or make him faster and he doesn't come close to Buffalo's pick. And it also would've had people not insisting that he NEEDS to go back to the W. Sometimes 18 yos are ready to play against the best adults in the world. We seem to have lucked into one of those 18 yos. And again, he IS a good skater. But he's not the prototypical lightning quick race past everyone small player that teams look for when they are drafting at the very top of the draft.

Before this season started, expected they'd see ~3 - 3 game losing streaks and 3 or 4 - 4 game+ winning streaks. IF they can make that reality, they really can get back into this. Like they said back in '80 - the best is yet to come. (Hopefully.)

Disagree with the bolded.

Is it because at present with all the F injuries and with 8 D already up on the roster there is no compelling reason to have 1 less goalie on the team (practice time not being compelling IMHO, YMMV) and the last time they solved the 3 headed monster issue the team went 0-4-0? Should the team get healthy, the 3 headed monster goes away. But right now there is nobody on the farm that would get into the lineup over the 12 F's that are healthy (maybe somebody would play instead of Murray, but it's easy enough to send him down if they want to not play him here, they don't need to heathy scratch him) and nobody is going to carry 9 healthy D.

100% it was size. (Particularly when combined with the attitude that small guys have to be lightning quick waterbugs to keep from getting killed. So maybe 85% size, 15% skating if one looks at those as separate issues, but personally see them as sides of the same coin. His skating is fine, it just isn't as good as what we expect to see in a smaller player that makes it to this level.)

MAYBE on a certain level. Right now they still have the new system down and they probably do have to give more of a playoff level effort to make things happen that a regular season effort level SHOULD be effective enough at. But you can't sustain 82 games at a playoff level. Though am focusing on them being uncertain about whether their goalies will be good enough as a key to the inconsistent play. By no means is that the ONLY issue. The Detroit game was horrible (3rd period not withstanding) and the Avs game was horrible. (Both of which either had Tuch out of the lineup or 1st game back from injury incidentally.) But, it can't simply be a case of lack of effort. NOBODY runs hot and cold literally every other game on effort alone. (The stretch where the 3 headed monster having been slayed being a notable exception to the on again off again play/results.) A big part of WHY my focus is on their belief in the goaltending is, IMHO when they get above average GTing (and both UPL and Levi have provided that at times) they have 1 less thing to be distracting them from trying to understand their new roles. (This probably won't be explained exactly the way it's meant, but don't feel like writing a disertation nor editing for 20 minutes; so with that in mind ...) And they ALMOST get to a point where they just play the way they're supposed to for most of the game. Granato talks about having them play fearless, and most people take that to mean play without accountability. But personally believe what he's getting at is they ARE going to make mistakes (all 19 of them) and they don't have to worry about getting flogged for A mistake. Particularly if they afterwards understand what the mistake was and more importantly WHY the mistake was made. If they get that, then they can fix them. They clearly do not have the new system down to muscle memory. They ARE thinking often on the ice (and NOT in the "how do I make the next play" kind of way but in the "am I where I need to be and understand what I do if the puck goes there or there" kind of way. Throwing on the "if I don't do this right, my goalie won't bail me out" thoughts make that thinking even more pronounced. Especially when they're supposed to be thinking about making the next right play not the last play good or bad. If it was JUST effort, they'd have more back to back bad games. The losing would breed more losing than it has. MHO, YMMV.

UPL started the Avs game very strong. But he misplayed the wraparound and things snowballed from there. Not saying his teammates (cough, cough, E Johnson, cough, cough Krebs) couldn't have helped more or even bailed him out nor that with a ref in a different vantage point the play might've been blown dead before Nickushkin even got behind the net; but he overplayed the initial rush. He should play better tonight and it SHOULD be a good "get his mojo back" game. Here's to hoping he does. This team needs 27 AND 1 both playing near their current peaks to make this the year they finally rejoin the dance or even have a shot at it.

Really don't see it as a lack of effort or a belief that they'll just roll over the next opponent after getting a W. Expect it's more often a case of giving up a bad early goal putting them on their heels for too long to work their way out of it.

True, but the value of his was entirely superficial. Thompson's when on are functional.

Nobody here is a bigger backer of Levi than this kid, but they should play UPL tonight. They'll need 2 good goalies these last 51 games. Time to get UPL's game back.

Since they "killed the 3 headed monster", UPL is 0-3-0 with a 4.51 GAA and a 0.833 SV%. Granted he was coming off illness in the last game, but he hasn't been good since having been handed the reins. But, give him this game. He should be able to play well in it. The Q becomes, do they risk him NOT having a good game and playing Comrie as the backup or do they play Levi as the backup. Expecting they'll make Comrie the backup, but there is a risk involved there.

Go UPL. Give Levi the BJ's. (Unless UPL pitches a SO in Desert Dog land. Then think long and hard about who to give the C-Bus game.) And then, if Levi's still playing the way he's been playing (or he didn't get the C-Bus game) give him the Loafs as well. He won in his last outing against them and played well even though the stats don't agree. Whereas UPL got lit up his last game vs TO and that's the game that led to the ridiculous "hometown advantage" ticketing poicy.

Lately, he's turning away from confrontation with the D-man. He has no confidence in his healing wrist at this point. But he's giving the effort and presumably with use his hands will get back to what they were.

He MIGHT've been a steal at 9th overall. It was highway robbery getting him at 13. 😉

Could @pi2000 or a mod please change the title of this thread? At least unless he's sent back down again. Everytime it pops up expect to read that the braintrust down at 1 Seymour H Knox III Plaza did it again.

6 years of having $3MM less cap space than everybody else is a self-imposed penalty would really rather see them avoid.

Even if you include his play post-injury (a 9 game sample) his record is 5-1-2 with a 0.901 SV% and a 2.97 GAA. Which is still darn good for a rook. (The GAA since coming back up is 1.71. They can work with that. 😉 )

They don't. But IF the top 2 lines are working with Cozens on a wing, it doesn't really matter whether Krebs (or even Jost or a callup or a traded for for a 6th rounder) is a middle 6 player or a bottom 6 player. Other teams bottom 6ers and bottom pairing guys will get overcome often just by the 2 wingers that ARE top 6 players. (Once Quinn gets his legs back under him. Expect that might not occur until about a month after he's back.) Get 2 scoring lines working. THEN worry about how to make an effective 3rd scoring line.

Would really suck if getting rid of Skinner is necessary for them to play like this consistently. Because with his NMC he ain't goin' anywhere.

They do, definitely since the 2nd Broons game. But that wasn't the case earlier in the year. But, earlier in the year they were playing that way for UPL and not for the other 2 guys. They played extremely well the last 55 minutes of the 1st Avs game for UPL. Waaaaay better than they played for Levi in his Rags, Aisles, or the 1st Broon game.

Get good goaltending to start the game. Get them believing they'll get the chance to get into a groove. Levi and UPL CAN do that for them. The 83rd game question is will they? You know this kid believes in Levi. Hoping UPL can continue to do his part as well.

Maybe. Levi plays the way he did regardless. But Benson doesn't get to play with Thompson and Tuch and Cozens doesn't get to play with Peterka and Mittelstadt.

A BIG part of it, IMHO is the goaltending. When the goalies are on their game to start, the team seems to feed off it. Earlier in the year UPL was on. Levi's been winning (5-1-2) since coming back from injury and has been ON since coming back up. Really happy with Levi's game tonight. His rebound control for the most part was much better than it's been. That 2nd goal seemed to have a bad bounce off him to the front of the net and in most of his games this year he's let that sort of goal get into his head a bit. It didn't at ALL this time. He also had prior to coming back up let in a late goal in most games. That didn't happen this time either. Absolutely loved the "Toyota big save" play because that had his anticipation, tracking, awareness, and flexibility all on display. Didn't Mittelstadt and Cozens play pretty well together last year in limited opportunities together? (Or is that just misremembering?) Would like to see both the Thompson line and the Mittelstadt line stay together for a bit. If those 2 lines can generate some chemistry, in a couple of weeks they could have a 3rd scoring line with Skinner and Quinn flanking somebody (maybe Krebs?). They still break down too much defensively, but they seemed to be maintaining better gaps through the neutral zone and had quite a few nice breakouts and shutting down scoring chances. Takes all 6 guys working together to do that. Expect they'll give UPL tomorrow's game. If they play the way they did tonight they should be able to get their 1st 2 win streak since early in the year.

Vegas now 6-1-3 their last 10.

Not understanding that one. Wasn't he giving the Avs what they'd expected when they signed him? He's on pace for where he was 2 years ago. (Behind last year's pace, but he's 33. They couldn't have expected last year's guy could they?)