November can best be characterised by the word OUCH! ok,
DAMMMITTTALLLTOHELLLL!!!!! probably fits the scenario better but… I was trying to
be nice.
Joker has fallen into a wicked trough of invisibility more nights than
not. The rookies have provided a few happy moments but those are
overshadowed by the vets not tallying enough markers during those spots. It
keeps being one or the other… the vets have a decent night but the
rookies contribute nuthin OR the rookies blast off and the vets post a fat
goose egg. Hale continues to look like something from the side of the
road. Mueller looks like WG is wrong about the sophmore slump. Rhino
has cooled off to the point of giving new meaning to the word ‘chill’ and
Jovo? I have no words… seriously…I friggin have no words to
describe the pain that is Ed Jovanovski right now. (I can’t begin to imagine
what he must feel like at this point but he ’should’ be feelin like
major crap). If the big guy doesn’t get on track soon we will continue to
have major issues (1G 3A and -11 is just ugly, even Hale w/ 5 less
games has 1A and is only sportin a -4).
But wait! one guy can’t be shouldering ALL the blame.
For the first time since early 2007 we have a 6 game losing streak
rolling. What is happening to our identity? We were once upon a time (umm
last season even) one of THE hardest working teams in the NHL. Every
single game there were bits or pieces of the game we could pick out and be
proud of… and hey! every month we got more and more solid. The
growth of the players AND the TEAM as a whole was incremental but it was
there. This season? meh.. not so much.
Not only are we losing our identity, we are having a coaching crisis of
some sort. WG is not responding to the challenges of other coaches during
games,(see Wild game in which Lemaire pulled out an oldie but goodie PP
strategy, that Wayne had actually seen b4…and couldn’t come up w/ a
counter for it) TGO can’t seem to convince any of our players to head
for the opposition’s crease and screen their goalie/collect garbage
(which would be a huge boost to our offense) Daniel Carcillo would be awesome at this,
Fridge would be awesome at this (c’mon he has no teeth anyway), Murray
would be awesome at this (hard to bully, will pop a cap in anyone who
gets too pushy) and of course there is always MacG (the guy was built to
do this (and by the time he gets into position we should have the cycle
working pretty well… unless JV gets his pocket picked b4 McG can get
into position)but still, hard to see over/around and hard as hell to
move out of the way. If he has to be out there on a shift, this should be
his only mission, get to the front of the net and park. The man crushes,
the funky PP units, the Jovo love on the 1st PP unit… shall I go on?
Defined roles? I know many,(including Gretzky, at least it appears that
way from how he swaps players around the lines) think that a forward
is a forward and whether a player is assigned as a center or a winger is
irrelevant, they can perform the task. I don’t happen to agree. The
center has to be your best player, the one with the best vision who can
assess the situations on the fly and use his wings accordingly. The
wings have to be able to focus on scoring opportunities, they need to be,
nose to net first, individuals who can pass or shoot at will AND have
the will to shoot. While the 2 are not mutually exclusive you can tell
the ones who have that ‘killer instinct’ from those who do not.
example of a winger: A player like Boedker should not be used as a
center (sure he can probably do it but that doesn’t mean he ’should’). He
is as close to a complete player as we have in the newbies (including
Mules and Hanzal).He has killer instinct, he has defensive awareness, he
has ice vision, he has speed and soft hands. Thats a hell of a set of
tools. Bods needs to be aligned w/ a center who can use him as a weapon
and a partner wing who can keep up with him (there’s not a whole lotta
of talent that can match him, step for step) but at least complement
his speed.
***wouldn’t you just love to see what a line of Lisin/Turris/Boedker
could do together? Of course they’d have to have a nasty Dman on their
back end for when some poor frustrated opponent decides to clock one of
them for makin him look like a sack of shit*** but I digress
Without defined roles and at least some modicum of consistent linemates
no team can develop that all important chemistry that can make or
break a game. By playing together, in assigned roles players learn each
others habits, preferences and tendencies and are able to play to those
that are strengths or take steps to minimize the weaknesses. Look at
TBL… throwin a buncha talented, big dollar guys on the ice together does not make a
team. The day in and day out working together, drills, games, traveling
creates chemistry.I can’t see anyway around the fact that, if a guy
always has the same clear and concise role/responsibilities, he has no excuse for
failing to carry them out, there is no confusion point, no reason for not
executing… unless he has no talent.. and that ain’t this team’s problem at
all…
Consistency/Chemistry? 4 set lines… after I took away JVs spot on the top PP to get his
fraggin attention… then I would sit Peter down and tell him I would be
watching his feet and if he stopped moving even once! he’d be next in the
box where he could be as still as he wanted for the whole 60 frickin
minutes
After the whole team got the message that absolutely no one was safe
**regardless of their $$ ..(JV)..or their former point production..(PM)**
If I’m TGO,the next thing would be to designate 4 centers, Joker on line 1, Rhino line 2,
Hanzal line 3 and Murray (or whichever center is leftover and no at this point KT is not in the plan because he will be headin to WJC as soon as possible) bringing up line 4
line 1 wings Mueller/Doan (if Doan and Joker can figure out how to
share puck possession time there is no reason on earth that this line
couldn’t start payin off HUGE dividends)
line 2 wings Boedker/Carcillo (speed and tenacity w/ a lil nasty on the
side, combined w/ a wily veteran who knows how to get the most from his
partners)
line 3 wings Winnik/Tikhnov (playin against the likes of
Crosby/Malkin/Ovechkin/Nash… and still held their own and got some chances, they’ve
earned the right to stay together and try to get some offense goin)
line 4 wings Fedoruk/Porter (not expecting great things from them just
hold their own and be dangerous in the opposition’s crease as much as
possible).
These lines can have the *minor* player switched off w/ the spares at will but always
leaving the core duo intact. (i.e. Doaner/Mueller or Rhino/Boedker) the addition of Lisin throws some interesting curves into the *minor* player swapping but the core stays the same no matter which bit players are up w/ the big team.
Telly needs more starts. IDK if Bryz needs fewer games between rest periods or a swift kick in the keister every now and then but playing Telly more often will provide both, Without someone nipping at his heels, Bryz doesn’t seem to be able to sustain goalie head space. Without him gettin into the right mental groove we see way too many soft goals. Bryz is one of the most dynamic and athletic goalies in the NHL… but some shifts, he looks like Clouthier’s less coordinated brother.
We miss The Beast. I think Winnie shamed them all into working harder by giving 500% nearly every shift.
We miss DMo and our blueline is suffering mightily in his absence.
There are still bright spots sprinkled through November. Yandle is being mentored by his very own Yoda in Ken Klee and is actually thriving as a real offensive defenseman. Z and Sauer are still shuttin teams down and PK’ing like madmen (too bad they can’t play more minutes with out killing them, wish we could clone them). Joker and Doan have been puttin up numbers, just not consistently. We managed to put together a small winning streak of 3 games in the month of November (I know… hard to remember cuz its been a long 2 weeks without a win).
Don’t lose faith… there is still a LOT of hockey to be played. The boys will find their feet any day now and all this woe is us stuff can be shelved for awhile. I think we all have the same hopes… stay close to .500, stay ahead of the Ducks/Kings and Stars so that we can squeak into a play off berth in 08. All we really want at this point in the season is a competitive team that works hard for our entertainment dollar. We’ve got a looong way to go before expecting playoffs in 08. Hopefully we can finish November strong at home (after polishing off the Jackets on the road) and usher in December w/ a bang.(whew! was hard to generate a positive ending for this one) LOL
