Lightning vs Avalanche HOME 7 PM Sat Oct 19

[gphockey]

Go Bolts!!!

[aapbolt]

Going to the game tonight, pray for the best!

[BurnTHalO]

Remember how this was the year killorn was going to hit 20 goals?

[TexasBolt]

Another game where Cooper stands there chewing his gum while his team melts down psychologically and gives up 3 quick goals in a row. Probably have a condescending answer ready when he gets asked about it afterwards.

[Donnie D]

Originally Posted by TexasBolt

Another game where Cooper stands there chewing his gum while his team melts down psychologically and gives up 3 quick goals in a row. Probably have a condescending answer ready when he gets asked about it afterwards.

My God, the team responded fine. They outshot them 2-1. Vasi let in a number of soft goals and nothing of ours went in. Sometimes the team that plays the best doesn’t win.

[BurnTHalO]

Seriously. This team is 2-1 in games they have actually shown up to play in for 60 minutes. Why would you be concerned at all?

[Donnie D]

This wasn’t Ottawa or even Montreal. If it was, I can see piling on.
But tonight the effort was there.
Kuch misses a penalty shot, the goalie misplays the puck and is trapped behind the net and the puck jumps over Maroon’s stick. It was just a weird night.

[Derek28]

Kucherov has just flat out been bad so far. Seems like he throws away a half dozen pucks in the offensive zone every game.

I'm not going to get concerned over play in October as long as we keep winning a healthy amount of the games.

[pete]

Originally Posted by Donnie D

This wasn’t Ottawa or even Montreal. If it was, I can see piling on.
But tonight the effort was there.
Kuch misses a penalty shot, the goalie misplays the puck and is trapped behind the net and the puck jumps over Maroon’s stick. It was just a weird night.

They need to tighten up the mistakes that led to the odd man rushes. They allowed the game to be swung on those. Otherwise, they were in command for large swaths of the night.

[Donnie D]

Originally Posted by pete

They need to tighten up the mistakes that led to the odd man rushes. They allowed the game to be swung on those. Otherwise, they were in command for large swaths of the night.

Against a one line team, like Colorado or Boston, they would do better with McDonagh/ Cernak especially at home when we have last change. But that leaves Hedman / Sergachev or Shattenkirk and that’s not going to work on the road or against a more balanced team.

Cooper is experimenting with different combinations to see if he can find one that will work in the playoffs. That means there are going to be breakdowns as players learn to work with one another and some of the combinations aren’t going to work.

If we are viewing the regular season as an exhibition season for the playoffs, we are all going to have to accept that there is going to be a bit of trial and error. Chad used to be critical of Cooper for not using the regular season to get players, especially young players, experience for later in the season. If you do that, you are accepting short term pain for long term gain. Well we’ve seen a lot more experimentation this season (the big 3 together, more different line pairings, different defense pairings).

I think we have to accept that some of this stuff isn’t going to work and some will take longer to work well and be willing to live with it during the season.