PerreaultForever

While I respect the detailed analysis, you are still saying that the goaltending sucked and most of the "core" players sucked. You have varying reasons to explain their sucking but it doesn't really change the fact they collectively sucked. I can accept these various reasons as valid, but I think every year you can come up with a list of reasons/excuses and certainly blaming injuries is the weakest as we are currently better as a team with 2 supposed key players out long term. Everybody has injuries. Vegas had more injuries than we do for example. However you want to boil it down I still say it's on Adams for not getting us a solid veteran goalie and on Granato for poor coaching and preparing this team for the grind in a way it needed to be prepared. lack of veteran leadership can be partially faulted for that as well, but that too is on management.

and the people get what they wanted. Damn that kid is big. https://www.hockeyfights.com/fights/n269116 Never understood allowing fights with visors but whatever.

Not really up on the whole Harry Potter thing so all I can offer as rebuttal is this:

That's fair as I didn't think they ran training camp well either. So if I have it correct you would say Granato is at fault for the season for running a poor training camp and not entering the season in a work hard make the playoffs mode where every game matters. Correct?

Personally I always felt UPL was more of a gamer than a look good in practice guy but he does seem to have found his zone. How long it lasts is anybody's guess.

As I watch Boston it's weird cause it's almost like they've swapped jerseys. 2023 Bruins were as solid as ever and Sabres sucked. 2024 Sabres are playing decent hockey and the Bruins are falling apart. At some point I did expect this, but not in a mid season. Okay but why did they suck so bad then? What's your explanation for this?

So where was this in November and December? If they'd played like this all year we'd be in the playoffs. As enjoyable as this game was, and it was, the frustration for me is how it's too late AGAIN. The only explanation I can come up with is KA botched goaltending. He put all his faith in an instant Levi and when the goaltending was sucking this team basically quit on the season. They felt there was no point as no matter how well they played they couldn't win without a goalie. It took a number of games to "believe" but now they feel they do have a goalie and so they are giving the effort again. That's all I can come up with, but whatever the reason, this is not the team we watched in late 2023. Pity it's too late.

I know what you mean. I thought he'd looked better in the 3C role as well. Not great, but better. Granato seems set on certain ideas and he's going to just stick with them. Performance does not seem to factor in.

This would work imo. Maybe that could be a better rule all season long. Just get rid of LTIR and keep the cap for game day rosters. Then again, cap minimum might be a problem if a team had a lot of injuries so you'd have to get rid of that and that is probably not good.

You are twisting what I said to make your point. Are you a politician??? I didn't "noticeably avoid" that part, I don't agree with that as an assessment and never have. The problem has never been too many passes, it's too many giveaways and a failure to go to high danger areas. Perimeter passing is the problem, not passing in general. The issue for me is taking shots without traffic in front. They have a very low success percentage and that is the problem with the team. Occasionally they go in, but not nearly enough. It's a bad strategy and a weakness. That's it.

Or worse. The body of work isn't nearly enough for a big deal and goalies are super weird. He could come back next season and be lights out superstar, or he could drop back to AHL level play it's impossible to say. There are lots of young goalies who have had big early career breakout years and then become dumpster fires the next season. Some get it together and in a few more years settle into being solid goalies but others disappear and bounce around the AHL for the next decade. Impossible to know. It's a difficult decision.

Maybe. That and their acceptance of a lack of progression. I look at two main things myself. First, is the team improved from the year before? You always want a big improvement so the goal for me (and others) was playoffs this year but the minimum is the team being better, and right now I don't think it is. Second, I compare the rebuild to other teams that have made moves he could have made. If they are doing better I consider Adams a failure. Everything's relative but when teams below you end up ahead of you it has to be viewed as failure.

The difference between Ovi and Tage (one difference anyway) is that Ovi will wait and then take that shot if there's traffic in front or it's the right moment to make it a high danger play. Tage will just take that shot regardless of what else is happening. I have no issue with his shot, he has a good one, but it's about how the TEAM works in and around it and how it all works together to make these chances into actual scoring chances. I've critiqued this team for years on having too much individual play and it's still the same issue.

It's not about "violence" but I don't really want to get into a long argument on the topic. I will just reference this, and say I agree with how these guys view it, and other former players like them.

The Tampa call was legit. Unlike the Florida ones. Benson does take stick fouls as he's still underestimating NHL speed at times (like most rookies) but the Florida calls were ridiculous.

That's fair, and in no way am I saying JBot was a good GM, I just don't see at this point how some people (not you) think KA has in any way proven himself to be better. At this point, I actually think he's worse than Murray and of the three (none being good) JBot was the best - so far. Unlike the other two, KA can still become better.

Well first off, I did say I was happy they won, I just wasn't impressed with how they played. Both things can be true. Now on to Tage, that stat argument means nothing because the thing is it's all about all 5 players on the ice and that there could be (and usually is) a better option or plan than just shooting from that same predictable spot. Broaden that repertoire, drive the net, drop the puck to that mobile D and continue into the front for a tip or just screen, cycle it back to the wing, keep the play moving and create havoc. Just taking that same shot over and over is not going to lead to team success. It generally ends the threat.

Guy they are familiar with. Their D is garbage.

It's not that I want violence in hockey as you make it sound, but the game is a complete package and if you take elements out of it it changes, and I can see that pathway leading to a very dull end product. Boxing was the first sport I ever saw actually. My father was an amateur boxer in his youth and he watched it. So you prefer to watch cars go in a circle rather than boxing or MMA, well to each their own I guess. Enjoy it and all it's environmental destruction, but don't try to take away what others enjoy.

Correct. I only listed the main guys who are important now imo but all of this is correct. You also have to factor in the subtractions each made to gain what they gained. When you subtract a ROR or a Reinhart or Eichel you should be getting a lot back but in all likelihood you didn't actually add. Right now, the core of this team is pretty much a JBot team.

Tampa has been garbage lately. major slump and they looked it tonight as well imo. Philly beat them 6-2 the game before. They are not playing well at all. That's what I saw, very low energy and a very low event game. In a word it was BORING. I'm glad they won, but I didn't see much of anything to get excited about from either team. Clifton threw one grade A hit but that's all I can think of for big plays. Tage's goal was fine, and sometimes he hits those just right, but it was just another one of those many many low danger shots from the same area and most times they get stopped or go off target. I mean they won, but it was not a good game and I definitely don't see this "heart" that was referenced.

Yup, cause our GM is an idiot. Ducks had a body for 2/3 of the year and upgraded for the draft so well done by them. Leafs were in the Hanifin and Tanev rumours so if this is their plan B good luck with all that Toronto.

Was he? UPL, Dahlin, Samuelson, Thompson, Cozens, Mitts, like it or not, this is the team JBot built.

Really? You're serious?

This makes sense. There is a reality that we will never get a veteran who still wants to chase a cup. We can only woo guys who are young enough that they can be convinced this team can build to that, or old guys who have already won one or more and just want a payday. Or I guess guys who don't care about winning but I'd think we don't want them anyway. Or at least we shouldn't want them.