JoeSchmoe

Anyone else find the game dark and a little too far out?

I know this is going to be an unpopular opinion, but Skinner is just being miscast. If you put Skinner on a line with good players, he's going to score. He'll clean up the garbage and knock home bad angle one-timers that not a lot of other players can. He absolutely can not drive a line, so if you put him with 3rd liners that don't generate chances, he's going to suck just like he did with Krueger. If he were here playing on our 1st line, he'd for sure be a downgrade from Peterka. BUT, if Peterka were on our 2nd line, I think that line would actually be good and we'd be stronger as a team. Unpopular, I know... But we've seen Skinner play lower in the lineup to the exact same result.

I was still mad until I looked at the standings today. Everybody sucks.

It really is crazy how tight and mediocre things are.

I'm only interested in the game and being in the worst seat in the arena is still better than sitting at home. I don't need a shiny new toy. Just improve what's on the central 85x200 part of the the arena and I'll be happily fork over my $$$ for tickets.

My brother is 6'4 and has never mentioned it being an issue. Would a new arena actually fix this?

The arena is fine by me. If you can't enjoy a good hockey game at Key Bank, maybe you just don't really like hockey. Still, it's the hockey team we gotta worry about.

Really encouraging seeing the coaching play to win instead of not to lose.

They have to be able to play hockey too. Gilbert "plays the right way" but has one shot attempt in 6 games. It's only a matter of luck when we win with him in the lineup.

We need scoring... Who'd have thought?!?!?! On that note, can we end the Dennis Gilbert experiment now?!??

True, but they're getting better. With the eye test, it's easy to see who's really good and who's really bad. What the eye test isn't as good at is seeing which players consistently make the seemingly innocuous plays that lead to scoring chances either for or against. That said, as the sample size increases.... actual GF% is much more important.

Update and some thoughts... Tage is far and away the class of the team. Keep in mind a player with his shooting skill is going to far outperform his expected goals, which is the best on the team by a good amount. After some good games Cozens, Byram, and Quinn are improving greatly. They are still at the bottom, but their relative numbers have improved closer to the mean. Byram was -15% when I started this. I kept the minimum minutes at 50min so he's not on here, but Gilbert is -24.9% relative to the team. I know people like that he plays tough but we can do better with other guys on the roster.

I'd still rather have Mitts, but you can't deny he's gotten better. We've all seen what he can do on offence, and he's starting to bring his high danger chances against numbers down. More on him (and others) in the advanced stats thread later today.

No

I just tuned in. Are they saying boo or boo-urns?

Maybe I missed something and this was already stated, but was Thompson skating?

All the best teams have multiple really good players that weren't top 10s. And the best teams high draft picks actually live up to their draft positions. Dahlins not a #1... Maybe a #3 or #4 level player from a good draft year. Power is maybe a #8 or worse. It boils my blood that anyone that big could be that damn soft. Unless something drastically changes, he'll always be the guy hugging JT Miller's leg.

Trades and FA acquisitions get all the attention, but in a cap world it's the draft that makes or breaks a team. Getting so-so #1's in Power and Dahlin, along with not a lot beyond that ever since the drought started has been our biggest downfall by far. Losing Eichel and Reinhart of course sucks too, but Peterka has been our only major win over all these years.

He announced in his meeting with the media. I saw it on X.

Being in front of reporters in a position where you have to say something, even though you're ticked off is pretty hard. Its a bunch of verbal diarrhea... And not worth thinking about.

Here are the latest stats. A couple of strong games by Cozens have improved his stats. Byram is still down there, but his numbers are improving a bit. As well as Byram's done offensively, he is still giving up the most high danger chances against defensively. Maybe he's young enough that he can learn to play better defense and his offensive upside will offset this. I'd still rather have Mitts and give Bryson a full time spot in the lineup.

Checking my history, here's the teams I looked at. Most teams don't have a 2006. Those few that do are are all drafted or about to be. 2005's are also few and far between. As such, a tiny % of kids in NCAA are 18. And 19 year olds are rare too. 1999-2002's on the other hand are very well represented. Denver Niagara Ohio State Mercyhurst Penn State RPI RIT Canisius Boston College Boston University UMass Minn Minn St St Cloud Maine

Maybe it was like that in your day, but its not now. I went to 12 different D1 team's elite prospects pages... Half good teams, half lower teams. 2006's don't exist unless they're drafted or going to be drafted (late bday). Undrafted 2005's are few and far between as well. Like I said... Try Google'ing U of Denver Elite Prospects, Mercyhurst Elite Prospects, Ohio State Elite Prospects, etc and see for yourself. Unfortunately it's a man's game now. If you want to play D1 hockey, and you're not eventually playing pro, you better be prepared to take 2 gap years outta high school to do so.

As I said before, only the high end future pros play at 18. Those are the guys you're talking about. 80-90% of the other kids all have to bide their time in a Tier 2 junior league until they age out. Kids like my son's friend will now choose the CHL route instead. If you don't believe me... Pick a team... Any team and look for the 2006's. If they're rostered, you'll also (for the most part) find them on the NHL scouting list or already drafted. https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/606/univ.-of-maine https://www.eliteprospects.com/team/773/st.-cloud-state-univ.

Gilbert's a 7/8 guy at best. He's probably served his purpose and should probably go back upstairs to get some better skill back in there. Hopefully lessons were learned from the press box.