Had a feeling this wasn't a playoff team after the pre-season. It's worse than I thought. AV might not make it past November. Staal, Smith and DeAngelo suck ass compared to Graves. Signing Smith was a mistake after they signed Shattenkirk. It was one or the other. Gorton fucked up.
On top of that hank is just a decent goalie now at this stage of his career. Grossly overpaid for what goalie he is now. Maybe he was worth all the money a few years ago but not now.
Shattenkirk is trash defensively who is not worth more than 5 million. Just PP specialist. Another softie d-men brought on platter for this assclown coach.
I didn't like the Smith signing the second they signed Shattenkirk. It was moronic after that. Shattenkirk is not trash defensively. He's average. However, he's amazing on the PP. 5 times better than Yandle and our PP is a huge reason they team lost in the playoffs year after year. Can't wait for Fast to get back. You can really see this team needs a player like Andersson badly up front.
Shattenkirk plays on a top pair so he should be better than just average defensively. Thats why he is getting paid lots of money. Not just be great at PP from time to time.
Chytil will be going back in a few weeks so they will probably call up Nieves. Not big on Desharnais already so they have to get the C spot under control.
If you are going to take this team seriously, you will need a large supply of suppressants and aspirin......... and you better keep a monthly flow of beer on hand to wash it down!
5-6 chances to pull ahead and couldn't get over the hump, then it usually comes back to haunt them. The offense looks ok though Hayes, Vesey and Buch are a bit sluggish early on.
I think you have to play Miller at C. Vesey is a top 9 guy and moving Miller to C gives you your best top 9. Kreider/Ziban/Buch Nash/Miller/Zucc Vesey/Hayes/Grabner Chytil/Deshar/Carey Then Chytil goes back after his 9 games are up and Fast comes in. That is the most balanced lineup. Miller needs to be a C right now. On D they need to wake the F up and cover someone. A lot of what happened last night was a total embarrassment. The Leafs are very talented as we know, but our D let them skate right to the net all alone many times. Same old story with guys wide open in front. Watching the Leafs players split our D and get all alone in front many times was truly disgusting. These Dmen better wake up fast. Not ready to go crazy over 2 games, but they need to raise their level big time. And tonight is a big game against a Montreal team that was also whipped last night. Need to right the ship at home tonight.
They have to stop with the stretch pass bullshit. It doesn't work anymore. Can AV adjust? Looks like more experienced coaches that play against Rangers shutdown the stretch pass. AV needs to go. I disagree on Stall, he played better than other Ds against leafs.
The D in front of him has been pretty bad to be kind, but HL does not look all that sharp to begin the year, which i guess he never really is.
