FrenchConnection44

Tage Thompson!!! That was insane! That reception and shot! Holy cow. Man if he can get going, he’s unstoppable.

Lukko. Keep it going! Power absolutely needs to add 15-20 lbs of muscle. Organization needs to push that. He has the frame to play at 230-235 easy and be strong and powerful - even faster - and his skill set is there as long as he keeps developing that along with the strength training.

So was our offensive output a fluke last year? Good grief. Our offense this year has been so spotty and often poor. Bad skating. Average puck skills. Skinner we know. Solid sniper. And Peterka seems to have life here and there. But the rest are sloppy offensively. Power play is inept!

Good discussion from Baker here on Savoie (also discusses Kulich, Rosen, Kisakov, and Rousek mainly with a few others) with some highlights.

Putting together a complete game with a big W would be a real positive. Gotta bring it.

For me, Benson lacks speed and strength to be a consistent and exceptional competitor. Sending him down may actually benefit him. Humbled. Get stronger. More physical (Get into the 180 range). Build up his legs and do some speed training. In fact that’s the case for several of these players. They need to get stronger, speedier, tougher. They don’t need a goon or fighter or enforcer per se, nor to add more size, but they need to be more hard nosed. A Brad Marchand type. I actually could see Benson being more like that in the future but he’s a lot nicer than Marchand, lol. Still has that pesky, annoying style. Relatively speaking, I think we are a soft team. And often lacking discipline on the ice. And a general physicality. Not the only issues. But some of them.

I agree. Some are saying talent. But Clifton certainly performed better in Boston with their system. Funny how you get criticism from some simply because they think the problem lies elsewhere. The fact is, it’s a problem and it’s undeniable. If we had better defense, a better defensive system, or greater emphasis on positioning (by defensemen and forwards), we’d do better and I think our goaltending would also improve. We don’t have to become a defensive system itself as some teams are, but still room for much improved coaching

What does this say about Granato? At some point he has to actually coach. Do we even have a system to which the players can actually “commit” to playing? Most of the goals I see it looks like the offense and defense are playing on one of those old hockey games where the defenders are in slots and can’t move side to side. Far too often they just stand there and watch the opponent move, get open, and score.

23 shots doesn’t tell the story of shots that missed the goal. Levi was fantastic, imo, and actually caused several of those wide shots imo because he had closed off the angle. Still problems with not checking guys in front of the net. Both goals were a result of that failure. Krebs gave up on his guy and he scored. GgThen the final goal … We did better on face offs this game. I think we were actually 50%, which is good for us. Much improved over the first two games But Casey needs to stop taking face offs. He has won 5 of 30!!

I think the most central issue is defensive effort a) for the forwards on back checking and b) understanding of how to play defense for certain of our defensive players. Have to pick up players in the offensive zone instead of standing there watching the puck. Look at the Islanders. Even on the Greenway goal they were still fighting to back check. We need that effort. obviously gave up a bad goal when Clifton fell. Just got to be stronger there. But our first line has to start to play tougher and start to score. Tage doesn’t look near as locked in as he did last year. Hopefully he has his head on straight.

How was that not goalie interference by the Islanders on goal 2? Ridiculous. How do the replay people miss that? come on! Totally kicked Levi’s leg in the crease and screened him from moving after the rebound. Also prevented Levi from kicking the puck further away.

Apparently the Sabres themselves got the countdown wrong. They are still waiting for their season to begin.

I get the whole one game thing. So it’s not panic time. But … The same impoverished D is showing up. Poor back checking. Sometimes a complete lack of D awareness. What is Jokiharu doing on that first goal? Are there no defensive coaches on this team? He’s just gliding down the ice on the left side, completely unaware of where the Rangers forwards are, watching the guy with the puck. Just pure, unequivocally bad defense. Maybe we should have traded him?! He looked exactly like last year. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Or hired a specialist defensive assistant. The defense has not improved from last year. I don’t blame Levi. Two goals scored in wide open nets because there was no backside defending. One goal scored on the power play screen, and there was no defenseman checking the guy out of the way. And a fourth goal given up from wide-open shooter dead center in the slot. He might should’ve stopped that, but it’s still something the defense gave away. And teams (at least the Rangers) appear to have figured out our offense, especially the power play. And sometimes it feels like our offensive players get a shot, and they just fire straight at the goalie. Cozens made a great move on the one back hand chance, but then he just flipped it right into the gut of the goalie. What does he expect to happen there? The fact is, last night, one team came ready to play and another didn’t. Either we turn things around in ice awareness and develop some intensity, or Granato is not going to be here in January. I really like the guy and the way he has handled the young players. But they are going to have to step up, and so is he, with some serious intensity. Maybe he needs to bust some chops and let these young guys know this kind of play won’t be tolerated. And teach some better defending. Just normal defensive awareness and it’s a 2-1 game going down the end of the 3rd period. if we are going to be a Cup contending team, we should be winning games like this 5 to 1. A playoff team and we should be getting a tie out of this game. I still love the young talent on the team, and we are still the youngest team in the NHL on average. So not pessimistic. But I think both tactically, and emotionally, this team needs to get a fire lit under them by somebody.

Great discussion here.

So sad. Hard not to love the guy. He was such a gift to hockey as an announcer. His personality was really likable. And he was good at what he does. 🙏 for Barry.

I’m thrilled over this. Any player on any long term contract has to work his butt off to improve for it to be worthwhile. As far as his play, Power clearly proved he is a very good player last year for a 19 year old at the start. But one with tremendous upside. His skill set was clearly on display. He was 6’5+ and 215-218. He eventually (2 yrs) needs to play in the 235ish range. Unless he’s lazy and unethical, he’s going to get there and will be an improved skater with greater strength and balance. When he does fill out physically and with the right coaching he has a chance to become a Victor Hedman type player. Physically dominant on defense with offensive firepower. I think we needed to go this route to lock up our young stars. Can’t wait to see what this team will be two years down the road when these younger prospects are in the league playing mature hockey.

Really need to get this nucleus signed and sealed.

Almost identical thoughts on Clifton re his Bruins stint. The Bruins play a much more disciplined, ‘structured’ as you put it, and physical form of hockey. And Buffalo doesn’t. And one has to wonder if that doesn’t make him struggle to fit. Don’t think they can send Benson down at this point. He will surely get at least 9 games, then see where we are. He’s played his way on the team. Benson’s play makes me even more disappointed in the Savoie injury (to say nothing of Quinn!). Savoie actually looked good and even better - tho different - than Benson this season up until his injury. Not arguing he’d have made the team. But still disappointing we didn’t get to see him against higher NHL level talent. I really like Granato in a lot of ways. He is a players coach. But I’ve been wondering about whether he has any sort of system? Other than, be aggressive on offense and use your talent? Of course, this team is not geared for some sort of grind it out defensive system. But they need to play total hockey, not just go for it offensively. And one wonders whether they will generate the same amount of offense as last year - will teams have figured out how to slightly neutralize some of our talent? Decent breakdown here:

Whenever teams play poorly there is a tendency to say, “it’s just preseason.” The outcome is not the issue. It’s how the team plays. Last preseason game you want starters to play well. But what we are seeing is the same defensive lapses we saw last year on a regular basis. That’s just not a positive. Maybe even more than signing new players to help we needed to hire a defensive assistant coach to help teach better defensive fundamentals for both forwards and Dmen?

But have the other teams had more starters or similar to us?

It is concerning to me that even in preseason, we seem to be lapsing on simple fundamentals, like backchecking. I can’t remember which goal it was, but Mitts was way behind on the play, and just didn’t back check the player that scored because the player was ahead of him on the ice. That seems to me just simple laziness or inattentivness to the game. And it looked like the same level of defense we played last year, both defenseman and forwards spread out, but not bothering to guard anyone, really. There just seems to be very little aggressiveness in taking on players around them. I don’t know that teams can just turn that mental switch on when the season starts, but we will have to hope. By no means, should we panic, as we have a good nucleus of players, but it would be nice to see us playing more aggressive on defense. I was a little surprised we put Kulich at center, and Kris Baker mentioned that. I would’ve thought he would be a winger. Put him at the wing to use his speed and let him be set up for shots by a play making center. That, given his shot, imo, is his best position.

Wow. Amazing. Very cool.

I like the mentality. They know they need to pick it up and mature. All those young guys will be a year older and there are young guys pushing for roster spots. Gotta compete and be tough mentally.

I was going to the 77 concert. It was Plant’s 5 year old son who died. I remember that part like yesterday. But somehow had it in my head that he drowned (probably a rumor), but he had some stomach virus of some sort. The Bonham death was another awful tragedy.

Fascinating with all this young talent. I agree that this is not necessarily an indication of what it will be like come regular season. I think this is the time to experiment with different lines and see what happens. Rather than being staid and getting stale. Plus they always need to switch things around during the year with players struggling or getting nicked so it’s useful to mix and match in camp to develop a comfort level. And, one never knows what kind of chemistry may develop with 2-3 players. So I suspect they want to try these guys with different mates and see what happens. I agree about the young guys in camp. Seems smart to want to see them on some of the big lines and see what happens. And I suspect they want the young guys to get a feel for what it takes to be a top player and playing alongside really good players will be an education for them. Help them perhaps develop faster. One or two may really shine. Hopefully. Tuch not being with Tage would be surprising come the regular season. But if it looks good in the preseason with him on another line I could see it. Defensively, barring some shock, the top 6 seem set. And it could be this current set of pairings is the way they want it to go - or hope. I could see it going that route. But also suspect they may switch around a bit. 🤷🏼‍♂️