These guys stink.
Embarrassment is probably the most prevalent feeling I have right now. Basically from puck drop we got bullied out of the building against the Avs with a few minor glimpses in the 2nd period, Jake Allen held on as long as he could, but to full on no-show to a man is fucking embarrasssing. I don't know how many more of these types of losses we can see until changes are made, but something needs to happen.
We got flat out dummied in the 1st, that was some absolutely awful hockey - the Avs were faster, bigger, smarter, bigger dicks, better looking girlfriends and wives. They were just kicking our ass. They got 3-4 golden chances in the first 5 minutes and if it weren't for Jake in goal and the stellar defense of checks notes Dougie Hamilton, we would've been down 2-0 super early. The shots were 8-1 after 5 minutes, and I honestly think my beer league team would've put up more fight. I'm completely serious when I say this, that Palat turnover on the second shift really led to this period: we were on our way to a nice zone entry and he fumbled the puck to Makar, who turned it around and we were a disjointed mess for a good 10 minutes. Changes were sloppy, they were walking all over us in the D-zone... Is there anything further back than your heels? Because that is what we were on.The Avs finally cashed in on an absolute clusterfuck of a goal, 4 guys behind the net and Bastian lost in front caught between 2 guys.
What's also remarkable is how we killed a 5-on-3 PK in the middle of this mess. Watching that was kinda like taking mushrooms and going to six flags, but having a bad time. Several good chances to finish, and we were back on our bullshit again, sending shots wide, over the net, or right into Blackwood's chest. What a mess, but somehow we escaped down only 1-0 with the scoring chances battle 21-9, and shot attempt battle 29-16.
OK, regroup, lick your wounds and wake the fuck up, right? LOL, nope. The second was a little better until they decided to stop playing with a few minutes left in the period. We had some marginally good Ozone time, but we couldn't finish AGAIN. Jack missed a breakaway, Cotter hit the crossbar, Luke clipped Blackwood's armpit. Blackwood definitely hired a witch becasue how can we not score on this fucking guy? The last couple of minutes were like the first, just bent over letting our cellmate have his way with us like little bitches.
Still only 1-0 though, right? We could still steal this one right? Wrong. I had no confidence we were going to make any semblance of a comeback -we have seen this script too many times. Mackinnon finished a PP goal from the goal line on a broken rebound.. he had time to whiff and reset, nice job guys. Jack got us our patented meaningless 3rd period fake comeback goal on a nice FO win/play from Luke. That didn't do shit though - Jack gets tripped by Blackwood and Luke takes a penalty on the other end in a chaotic sequence. Mackinnon with some sort of wizardry on the PP (still processing that one) and it's over. The wheels fell off after that leading to Allen storming off the ice. Not really a fan of him doing that, and Keefe covered for him saying "cramps" but he was pissssssseddddddd. But you still can't do that. Skate over to the bench and lay into them, don't just run off the ice. Plenty of goalies have been left out to dry as badly or worse and didn't run off the ice.
Can we find someone else to contribute here? Jack has 9 goals in the last 10 games, the problem is the rest of the team only has 16. We have 3 shutouts during that span, but all against bad teams (Philly, Montreal, Nashville). The three good teams we have played, we only showed for the Dallas game - but still lost that. Against the Knights and Colorado we could only muster 1 goal and got bullied out of the building. We barely got by Buffalo and PIttsburgh. We haven't won more than 2 straight games since 1/22-1/25, and have alternated wins and losses since then (going 4-5).
We cannot keep going down this path, this team has significant holes up and down the forward group:
Palat is an active drain on Jack's line, he doesn't contribute anything and had a nice little bookend game - the aforementioned turnover led to us getting dummied, and his 3rd period trip led to the nail in the coffin PP goal.
Tatar on Nico's line is a choice. This guy is about as NPC as you can get.
Timo.. what the fuck man, put it in the net. You are our highest paid forward - yeah, you're playing well (he is) but you need to score man.
Mercer had one of his worst games in his career. He lost multiple battles, flubbed multiple Dzone entries, actively sabotaged 2 zone entries, and a flash screen gone wrong - he blocked one of our best 3rd period chances.
Cotter was ok, but that 4th line is below replacement level as constructed.
Haula has lost a significant step: he is down about 3/4 of a MPH on top skating speed, his shooting % is 6%, down from 10%.
Dowling is an AHL plug, and is only valuable as a forechecker and not much else.
Fitz needs to make some changes. I see people getting on his ass, and frankly I agree to an extent. We have the assets to spend. However, I think the problem lies on the "seller" side of the marketplace - multiple teams seem to think they still have a chance and the guys that are totally out of it don't seem to have the guys we need available (Tuch, O'Reilly, Rakell, Boeser, McCann). I am going to lose my mind when we hear "I didn't like the prices" and "getting Markstrom back is a good TDL deal" when our one and only move is Jake Evans.
Fitz needs to push his chips in, we are not going to have this combo of D Corps and Goaltending again, and that's what wins in the playoffs. Spend some assets. Get some balls buddy, The East is wide open, Carolina is a mess, Florida is missing Tkachuk, Toronto is Toronto. The Caps are frauds.
You know who doesn't have a chance? Valiquette's boys.
Ugh, onto Utah.
LGD
