tomh009

Or before the season started? Or a year ago? No matter who you fire, or when, or for what reason, someone will always ask "why didn't you do that before?"

Four full years at Western Michigan University. He was never the top scorer but seems to have been very consistent, and was the captain in his final year.

At the age of 23, I would say that McNiven's chances of becoming an NHL (backup) goalie are probably somewhat better than those of Lindgren, who is already 27. The odds are pretty long for both, though.

Lindgren sent to Laval, and McNiven takes over on the taxi squad.

Lehkonen may be in yet if Drouin ends up not playing. Some tweets are claiming Drouin is questionable but I don't know whether this is reliable. https://twitter.com/freeplays/status/1364276566017134597?s=20

Demchenko 22/24 saves (not counting Ylonen’s own goal). Laval outshot the Moose 41-25 but couldn’t score (sound familiar?). Heinola, who got credited with that for his first AHL goal, scored the winner with the first shot of OT.

Wait, I forgot a key variable: the reverse retro sweaters. So, here it is, classic sweaters vs reverse retro sweaters: Scoring for (per game): 3.8 vs 1.3 -- need I say more? Scoring against (per game): 2.7 vs 3.0 Shooting percentage for: 11.3% vs 3.7% -- can it really get worse than this? Shooting percentage against: 9.5% vs 9.8% PP percentage: 22.7% vs 0.0% -- this parrot wouldn't go voom if I put four thousand volts through it! On a more serious note, the blue sweater games account for three of the five losses during the current slump, so the correlation is definitely going to be there. But ... ugh.

Still the same problem. I did vote, but I have no idea whether the votes are counting.

OK, so let's look at the difference before/after (first 10 games vs last seven games): Scoring for (per game): 4.4 vs 1.9 -- woah, Nelly, is that a cliff or what? Scoring against (per game): 2.7 vs 2.9 -- almost the same, given the small sample size Shooting for (per game): 34 vs 33 -- the shots are down, but only barely Shooting against (per game): 29 vs 29 -- no more shots being given up Shooting percentage for: 12.8% vs 5.6% -- 12.8% was surely unsustainable. But surely 5.6% isn't normal, either? Shooting percentage against: 9.3% vs 10.0% -- This explains the somewhat increased goals against PP percentage: 23.7% vs 7.1% -- This is another drastic drop. What explains this? PK percentage: 79.5% vs 75.0% -- Yes, it's down, but it's not a cliff SHG percentage: 13.6% vs 4.2% -- It's true that we scored three on the Canucks, but there were three more, too Net PK (opponent PPG less our SHG) percentage: 93.2% vs 79.2% -- Those SHG are very nice indeed PP per game: 3.8 vs 2.0 -- Not only is our PP inept, we are only getting half the chances PK per game: 4.4 vs 3.4 -- Fewer penalty kills so the number of penalties is not up recently Corsi average: 55.1% vs 54.0% Fenwick average: 54.0% vs 53.0% So, possession (Corsi/Fenwick) is more or less the same, as is the number of shots. PK is not great but not much worse than the first 10 games. Opponent shooting percentage (our save percentage) is up a bit. But, really, the regression in the results comes down to three things: 3. We really miss those short-handed goals. Were we just lucky on those? I think Byron, Lehkonen and Toffoli are still capable of scoring those. What's holding them back? 2. The power play has completely collapsed. 7.1% is roughly half of some of our worst seasons. Yes, seven games is a small sample, but a single goal in 14 attempts is pretty pitiful. A still-miserable 14% PP might have at least won us one of the two Ottawa losses. 1. The shooting percentage is down by more than half. 12.8% surely wasn't sustainable, no team can keep scoring at that pace, not in today's NHL. But 5.6% is also super low, and outside the normal range -- and outside the normal percentage for our forwards. Are we experiencing some bad shooting luck (to make up for the good shooting luck in the first 10 games). in addition to our other problems? And, really, it's the PP and the shooting percentage. Can Julien address those?

Thanks. Agree on the small sample size, this was just an eyeball impression. I expect Julien will be feeling the pressure now, too. Will he stick with the current lines (and, maybe more importantly, defence pairings) for the next game or will he take a step towards the Therrien blender model?

Demchenko! OK, this will be interesting to see (well, follow).

There is a significant risk that Allen will be lost, but I don't think it's a done deal. Seattle is going to try to optimize the entire team, and that means that they won't necessarily pick "the best player available" from any given team. And, unlike an entry draft, I don't think there is any realistic way to simulate and predict their picks.

Tatar has not delivered so far this season, in general. But what did you think of him next to Kotkaniemi and Armia? To me, it seemed like he had some newfound energy. Or am I imagining things?

Yes -- we did not instantly turn into a Cup contender. And the early season did flatter us. But, I do believe that with the players we have today, we should be a solid playoff team, not a bubble one (which we were last year). And it's disheartening to see that Julien hasn't been able to adjust the lineup and/or the game plan after the other teams figured out how to play us. Ottawa is the new Detroit.

I'm not expecting Lindgren to be our future -- but I would rather play him than sign another Kinkaid. My preference is keeping Allen for the duration of his contract extension, assuming Seattle doesn't take him. .908 in 2017-18 was mid-pack for goalies who played at least half a dozen games. Better than Halak, Talbot, Holtby -- and Allen. 🙂

Allen stood on his head ... but if you can't get control of the puck, eventually you will be scored on.

Why on earth does Julien get Suzuki to take the faceoff in OT, when it is so critical?

He looked crossly at Stepan's stick. 😬 If your sweater has the wrong colours, they'll call you for just cross-looking ... 😢

Another chance for that, that's four already tonight for Ottawa. Mind you, today's penalties seem less undisciplined than the ones against the Leafs.

Maybe yes. But so will Evans. I love his progress. He's a late bloomer, but he's coming along beautifully now.

The official roster claims 1.75m and 83 kg, same as Gallagher. But this play was just a bad choice. As it was for Romanov.

That's really it. Conceptually, I like Bernier, Mrazek or Raanta, but there is risk in switching goalies. And if the new one doesn't come any cheaper, why take tha risk?

Ugh ... Mete and Romanov this time.

Winnipeg, Vancouver and Edmonton. I would really like to win at least one of those!

OK, so I agree that the Leafs have better top forwards at least. And their goalie was better on this night. But I would argue that we should have been able to win with the players we have. This loss is not on Bergevin, it's on the players and on Julien. The lack of defensive discipline -- including unnecessary penalties -- was atrocious. (No, I don't blame Mete for that tripping call, though.) Yes, better finishing would have helped, and might have made a difference. Armia had an A-1 chance on the (singular!) power play but Andersen snagged it. Evans took a great shot in front of the goal, but Andersen slid his pad across and just managed to catch the shot -- if Evans had taken the shot 10 cm further away from the goal, it would have likely been over the pad. The roster is what it is. It's absolutely better than last year. And we are maxed out to the cap anyway so there is no room to add more talent, even if it were available. Julien needs to make this work now. If the opposition has figured out our game plan, he needs to adjust it. If they have figured out that Suzuki needs extra attention, he needs to rearrange the lines to avoid that. He needs to instill disciple to stay out of the penalty box. He needs to get the PK to deal with elite forwards like the Leafs have. And he needs to get Suzuki working on his faceoffs. Julien, are you up for it?