Fairburn gets it. That’s the best thing I’ve heard all week. Dahlin and Thompson keep looking for each other and there’s not enough urgency in the power play. Print it. Frame it.

UPL struggles on Saturday and the home opener will be remembered for the crowd chanting “we want Helle”.  Followed swiftly by “Fire Jarmo”

Totally agree with your take on Ellis.

Can’t believe they let olivier off the hook for that 5v3. Inexcusable

Morning Guys

Sammy had a rough night, Columbus also got some incredible tip plays

We had a rough time against them last season.

The pp doesn't move the puck fast enough, they just hold it

Leggio did the same thing in Europe as well. If my memory serves me well, both leagues made rule changes because of him. On Kulich and Zucker’s chemistry, we can’t forget all the 2 on 1’s created with Zucker and Helenius. So maybe we can get Kulich centering Helly and Zucks in the future.

Glad that power play analysis report showed some good results!

Seriously though, I know he had a nice assist on the Helenius goal, but Ryan McLeod's unwillingness to shoot the puck (Power is like this sometimes too) when they have a strong opportunity to is so frustrating. Remember a specific play where McLeod got a feed above the circle, had no one near him and traffic in front - instead of shooting he passed it into the skates of a winger who had someone backchecking right behind them. Real annoying to still see happening.

I still say the issue on the PP is Dahlin. Probably Thompson too.

Ostlund and Norris had great chemistry last year. I’d put Benson up with Doan and Tage

Order of (very mild) concern:
1) PP: I think Tage should be on the second unit (or not on the PP at all for a little while). 1st unit is too stationary. 2nd unit looked better.

2) UPL: you can’t survive on 2-3 goals against above expected. He settled in a bit as the game went along, but you know what he is at this point. I think they need to go to another goalie (Ellis?) in the home opener and commit to the rotation.

3) Crevier: Ruff is going to want to use him as the Byram/#4 dman replacement because he views him as more defensively responsible than Zellweger. The thing is, he has to actually be defensively responsible for that to matter. Last night he was bad and looked a bit lost.

I really think it's a matter of expectations. This is actually a bit of a mini rebuild. Bigger veterans who played valuable roles that didn't always show up in the stat sheet are gone and replaced by a number of smaller kids who are in their first full season. They didn't add to this team. So now the kids are going to have to learn the hard way and there is going to be significant regression and inconsistency until they figure out. And management is clearly going to wait to see what they have. We're back to a development year with about a 90 point season. Hopefully they develop enough that management makes the off-season moves to fill in the gaps and put a real contender on the ice next season. But this season, be prepared to see a lot of learning the hard way. Put away the expectations that this is a playoff team.

Im missing greenwsy already

I think one of Devon Levi’s rebounds ended up in Columbus last night…😊  I am happy he is off the table.

Krebs really needs to be back on the fourth line and Kulich needs to replace him or be sent to Rochester to get up to speed.

My only major concern is special teams (mostly PP).

Faceoffs killed them yet again. Can't have a decent pp when you're chasing the puck down the ice.

I agree that a couple of deflections can't be blamed on UPL, but his problem is for a large frame, he plays small allowing him to get beat on goals he should have by not covering his angles.

Sammy was the guy in the box twice. He's your top pk d man. Of course it looked bad BECAUSE HE WAS IN THE BOX.