The Good, The Bad, The ugly and the interesting!

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mattola
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The Good, The Bad, The ugly and the interesting!

Post by mattola »

The Good - Captain Lou's sv% is now at .900 and getting better. Hes coming around. our GF is 3.2 which is what a full goal better than last year :).

The Bad - The Sedins are not the impact players we need in the first 9 games of the season. Kesler seems to be carrying this team for offense and spark and the sedins are not helping their cause (or my damn pool) for a new deal worth more than $5M a season.

The Ugly - Our team does not look anything like a playoff team let alone one that could win a round. Almost every inconsistency in our play is still there from last year. Our injuries are here again but hey its the forwards now. Sure we are scoring goals but apparently we are not keeping the goals out.

The interesting - the NHL has moved the trade deadline back one day to a non scheduled day. while its good as there are no teams playing but it could be more foretelling as some players will probably be removed from their respective lineups the night before so as to not screw a deal by injury.


my question is this. What does Gillis do now if we end up .500 in October? does he tinker? does anyone think that is a good record to have considering our big road trip. I sure dont. I think we should be at least 3 games over .500 and am REALLY worried about the inconsistencies in play.
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the toucan kid
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Re: The Good, The Bad, The ugly and the interesting!

Post by the toucan kid »

I think having a .500 record exiting October would be something of a success, objectively, given the road trip. However, watching the team the performance has been pretty miserable other than two, maybe three games thus far. Is this a playoff team as constructed? Well if the Kesler line continues at pace and the Sedins and Luongo reach their typical levels of performance, I suspect they might be good enough. However, the Sedins look really awful, I don't know if Bernier is the problem, but Pyatt certainly isn't the answer and Krog doesn't impress me, so they have to figure it out alone.

The cap space is a true wild card, I can't be certain that by Christmas some form of move will be made, but Mike Gillis is not going to be plagued with questions this summer about the teams commitment to winning when they don't spend as much as most teams in the league.
dr.dork
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Re: The Good, The Bad, The ugly and the interesting!

Post by dr.dork »

The really ugly: the canadian dollar has dropped 30 cents in the last year. They pay salaries largely (if not 100%) in US dollars while collecting 100% of their revenue in CAN$. I doubt the Aquilini's will want to spend anywhere close to the cap.

I guess we will find out whether they're still willing to spend to the cap or if this whole Sundin saga was nothing more than smoke and mirrors. "We said we would spend to the cap but no deals made sense, and thanks for your money".
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levelheaded
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Re: The Good, The Bad, The ugly and the interesting!

Post by levelheaded »

I've been thoroughly unimpressed with the team so far. They've followed up high energy emotional wins with listless uninspired performances. More than the lack of defence and the shaky offensive support from the Sedins that is the biggest concern for me. At varying points in the year the Sedins will go hot and cold, but they'll invariably end up with 80 points a piece. Louie will turn it around and at the very least look respectable. The problem for me is energy. They just can't seem to ride a high at all. Maybe it's the bizzare schedule we've had so far (back-to-back games during an east-coast swing followed by long periods off), but we've been completely incapable of stepping it up. Playoff teams can do that, hell the team last year could do that (final 2 weeks of the season excluded).

What the team needs right now is a distraction. In 06/07 the team went on a run after the Fitzpatrick thing and a couple other incidents like it. The focus of the fans and media went off hockey for a while and the team was able to settle into a groove without being second guessed constantly. A win was a win regardless of whether we scored 4 goals or 2. The team needs to settle down. For some reason it's not allowing itself the high that comes with a win.

Whatever, I predict better things. That Boston debacle was one of the most emotionless, boring games I have ever been witness too. Hopefully Viggy is kicking their asses into gear as we speak so they're ready for the California swing. A couple of wins there and this season could be totally turned around.

Finally, it's October. While this is of concern, I was a lot more pessimistic about the 06/07 team at this point then and they proved me and everyone else wrong. We seem at least moderately capable of scoring right now. The rest will come with time. Louie is a slow starter and we're lacking our 3rd best offensive player. Things will improve.
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puckhead
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Re: The Good, The Bad, The ugly and the interesting!

Post by puckhead »

levelheaded wrote: What the team needs right now is a distraction.
If you ply fatgoalie with enough beer, he can arrange a streaking incident that will be talked about for months.

Gillis said he'd be looking to get some talent from a team looking for a shake-up after a slow start. that makes Islanders (2-6-0) or maybe Atlanta (2-5-2) ....... Ilya-what? :crazy:

the .500 October is kind of extra frustrating as we haven't picked up any loser points yet, and that usually makes the difference between #8 and #9.
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We got LUONGO!!!!!!!!!!
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