darksabre

It's clearly a coaching failure. That much seems to be obvious. They have the talent. They should be able to execute a plan if they know what that plan is and they practice it. But they don't look like they know what the plan is.

Think about it like this. If Jack is the one they want shooting on the power play then he's the guy who should be handling the puck the least. The most important guys are the RW and RD. The power play should flow through them to Jack. But it's not working like that. Instead Jack and the LD (Dahlin) are doing most of the work, which basically forces the play through Reinhart/Skinner. But those guys aren't shooting because they think the PP is about Jack. It looks like no one has any idea who the focus of the PP is. Which is the difference between our usage of Jack on the LW versus Ovechkin. Ovechkin just does little circles and tries to lose coverage while his teammates work to set him up. Washington knows who the PP is trying to set up. Buffalo doesn't seem too sure.

I think if Eichel isn't going to actually shoot from the half wall then he shouldn't be there. He needs to shoot. That's the biggest problem right now. He's too patient. He gets the puck, decides he doesn't have a lane, and then ends up passing it back to his point man. If Eichel is so worried about having a lane then they need to move more to shake the coverage up on him to give him the open space he thinks he needs. Eichel drives that power play in theory, but not in practice.

"liberal media"

Losing last night makes me feel better about our odds tonight. I would have preferred to win last night though for the sake of the playoffs. Oh well. Got my coffee and a good night's sleep.

I would even give it a try again tomorrow. I think Jack needing to shake the rust off was maybe something we should have accounted for in the experiment. Either way, it was worth trying. I actually liked Okposo's game tonight and would be willing to try him on Jack's wing again. Really just need Reinhart to have his own line.

Not happy about that loss. Carolina, like Boston, is a team you have to attack. You have to attack them to neutralize the forecheck. But that strategy just doesn't seem to be in the "gameplan". Sometimes you can point to talent as the issue. But I thought this game was well within reach in that respect. So I'm going to officially gripe about coaching for the first time this season. I think our useless PP is a big problem and I think the fact that we keep losing to teams that forecheck us to death is a big problem. Bad bounces killed us, but they killed us because of the bigger issues. Which are, in part, coaching related.

Yay! Puck luck for us!

I don't think there was anything to figure out. They really weren't even that good during the streak. That said, I think there is something to questioning the coaching.

I'm starting to wonder about coaching...

They've really struggled to overcome Carolina's forechecking tonight. There hasn't been much room to move. Another game where you really need the PP to come up big but we still have no idea how to do those.

The first PP unit is infuriating

Let Pommers take a PP shift

Yup. Desperation mode.

I think Thompson needs to move around a little more in the o zone. It seemed like he wasn't really where Skinner or Jack needed him to be, but I think it's because he's not used to playing with them. Reinhart knows that you have to help Skinner when he's getting double teamed but Tage was just kinda watching.

Gotta simplify things in the third with this puck bouncing so much. First line has been pretty neutralized. I'd like Okposo on the first line to start the third. I've liked his effort carrying the puck in on zone entries tonight.

I'll take a PP goal please I can't believe how much the puck is bouncing.

McCabe. Bud.

That last goal against Hutton was my beer league bread and butter. I love shooting at defenders skates. It makes goalies so mad at their teammates.

Another flukey goal.

Rodrigues continues to be underrated

Pommers!

Williams schooled Thompson

Started a little slow, picked things up as it went along. I thought it was an even period. Carolina has good speed.

I'm not really faulting anyone there. Sometimes it's just a bad bounce. The Sabres score goals and it's all good ?