Theoretical Off Season Changes If We Had A Real GM

[PatrickShart]

Nashville had the top PP in the regular season, and only 2 in the series vs DET



Pitt has a shitload of PP goals..and are home



The weak goals have to stop. They happened all year, not just the 2 back breakers. Crawford better see someone to gain some mental toughness/sharpness. His mental makeup is weak.



Goalies job is to stop the puck. It's always someone else's fault when it comes to defending him...the PP, the Defence, etc. He played well at times..but those soft goals are back breakers. Kill your team way more than a PP that doesn't score.

 

[Ton]

Nashville had the top PP in the regular season, and only 2 in the series vs DET



Pitt has a shitload of PP goals..and are home



The weak goals have to stop. They happened all year, not just the 2 back breakers. Crawford better see someone to gain some mental toughness/sharpness. His mental makeup is weak.



Goalies job is to stop the puck. It's always someone else's fault when it comes to defending him...the PP, the Defence, etc. He played well at times..but those soft goals are back breakers. Kill your team way more than a PP that doesn't score.

There's no OT if the Hawks snipers show up, period. Did he need to stop those pucks? Yes, but it shouldn't have even gotten to that point... the back breaker is the Hawks killing all their momentum on the PP. I've never seen a team lose so much momentum on a man-advantage. I'm more concerned about that than the "average" goaltending. Much easier to fix the special teams with all this so called talent compared to finding the next Jonathan Quick or Pekka Rinne.



Don't make the same mistake Vancouver made last year by wanting grit so bad after getting shelled by Boston that they traded a 2nd line C for a healthy scratch just to fill their imaginary need. To get a goaltender better than Crawford it's going to hurt the team more than help IMO.

 

[Larmer83]

[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]This lineup leaves over 7mil in cap space. With Montador...not knowing his status if he'd be ready to go day 1?...may start on IR?They could target 2 Dmen. Or, go hard for Suter...give him 6+ Mil?[/font]



[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]Sign someone like Wideman (29yrs old...will help the PP, RH shot) and guy like Brett Clark? May get them for about 6mil combined. Or and combination 2 of Matt Carle, Greg Zanon, Kurtis Foster (PP/Shot)[/font]





[font=arial,helvetica,sans-serif]The PP lacked a guy at the point that can 1-demand coverage and 2-hit the net. If a guy like Foster...or Souray (who I don't like..but can shoot) was at the point ripping one timers, players would have to respect their shots and not be so quick to go down[/font].

As far as any cap money is available to play with, knock off about 2 million. There's going to be a 500K cap hit to buy out Olesz and the obligatory 1.5 million to save for in-season trades.

 

[Rex]

I love how people seem to think franchise goalies are just floating around out there.



They're not.



Also, if you look at the top goaltenders in the west right now (the 4 starters in the playoffs) Teams gave up on 2 of them. The other 2 were drafted and developed by their teams.

 

[PatrickShart]

Well...hopefully the PP gets better then.



That will eliminate all soft goals allowed and the Crawfordians can go on to blame something else for his weaknesses



I never realized the PP had anything at all to do with pucks pushed towards the net being stopped

 

[Ton]

Well...hopefully the PP gets better then.



That will eliminate all soft goals allowed and the Crawfordians can go on to blame something else for his weaknesses



I never realized the PP had anything at all to do with pucks pushed towards the net being stopped

Glad to know your reading comprehension skills are up to par! Ask Boston why they lost their series. I'm sure Tim Thomas is to blame since he was obviously outplayed by Holtby.

 

[PatrickShart]

Never once said they were going to get an imaginary new goaltender.



I said he had to stop the routine pucks - which he failed all year to do and was as magnified in the playoffs as the PP.



But not scoring on the PP isn't as deflating as giving up a painfully weak goal, no matter how bad a PP is. You can even apply pressure while not scoring and gain territorial advantage. But giving up a weak goal after outshooting a team 4 to 1...is draining.

 

[Rex]

Never once said they were going to get an imaginary new goaltender.



I said he had to stop the routine pucks - which he failed all year to do and was as magnified in the playoffs as the PP.



But not scoring on the PP isn't as deflating as giving up a painfully weak goal, no matter how bad a PP is. You can even apply pressure while not scoring and gain territorial advantage. But giving up a weak goal after outshooting a team 4 to 1...is draining.

by that logic, it's a good thing those two weak goals ended the game so the team didn't get deflated.



Also, while you're at it, find me a team that can win while scoring 10 regulation goals in a 6 game series.

 

[Shantz My Pants]

So far in the NHL Kane hasn't really been a "big numbers" goal scorer. He got 30 one year, But it wouldnt surprise me if he never gets out of the 20-30 G range, in my opinion hes always been more of a playmaker, the problem is giving him someone thats a great finisher.

I don't expect Kane to be more than a 25-30 goal guy. I see him as a playmaker and he is. He has great hands and vision. Putting him at center is going to slow down his production IMO. In today's NHL the center has to be dependable for the most part in his own zone, and playing defensively as a Center in the NHL is different that a winger. I don't think Kane was able to get enough time out there to gain that knowledge or experience. Keep him on the wing where he has free reign offensively as it is.



There are some 2nd line C's that could be available. Brad Boyes came up as a center and with him being a decent scorer in his career might be okay as our 2nd line center. Stoll might be a decent option for a year or so until McNeill or Pirri are ready (I think Pirri should get a shot).



Also, who knows what teams might be looking to unload or try and get rid of. Hawks have a ton of forward prospects that if packaged right, might bring in a solid 2nd line C.

 

[Rex]

I don't expect Kane to be more than a 25-30 goal guy. I see him as a playmaker and he is. He has great hands and vision. Putting him at center is going to slow down his production IMO. In today's NHL the center has to be dependable for the most part in his own zone, and playing defensively as a Center in the NHL is different that a winger. I don't think Kane was able to get enough time out there to gain that knowledge or experience. Keep him on the wing where he has free reign offensively as it is. There are some 2nd line C's that could be available. Brad Boyes came up as a center and with him being a decent scorer in his career might be okay as our 2nd line center. Stoll might be a decent option for a year or so until McNeill or Pirri are ready (I think Pirri should get a shot). Also, who knows what teams might be looking to unload or try and get rid of. Hawks have a ton of forward prospects that if packaged right, might bring in a solid 2nd line C.

Brad Boyes?



He's averaged 13 goals a season in his last 3 years. Why not sign Jonathan Chechoo while we're at it?



I'd actually prefer Kruger over Brad Fucking Boyes

 

[Ton]

by that logic, it's a good thing those two weak goals ended the game so the team didn't get deflated.



Also, while you're at it, find me a team that can win while scoring 10 regulation goals in a 6 game series.

Perfect post, couldn't agree more!

 

[PatrickShart]

Glad to know your reading comprehension skills are up to par! Ask Boston why they lost their series. I'm sure Tim Thomas is to blame since he was obviously outplayed by Holtby.

Tomas had a .923% and a shutout...2 things Crawford didn't do



But those are just stats, and don't mean anything to the Crawford apologizers.



ButbThomas probably didn't see as tough of shots either that Crawford did, so I guess that needs to be taken into factor. No one saw tougher shots or had a more pathetic defense and power play than poor Corey

 

[PatrickShart]

by that logic, it's a good thing those two weak goals ended the game so the team didn't get deflated.



Also, while you're at it, find me a team that can win while scoring 10 regulation goals in a 6 game series.

Again..,,it's the PP or the offenses fault that Crawford can't make or is expected to make the easy/routine saves



Still don't know where that's tied together or why it's so hard for his apologists to admit he had a piss poor season. If they don't get better goaltending, the PP, coach, marketing dept, gas prices, or anything else they want to blame for the lack of easy saves or average goaltending won't matter

 

[LordKOTL]

Let's not forget about the fact that ever time the team was in the D zone it was a fucking chinese firedrill.



Crawford may not have been able to sniff Glen Hall's jock back there, but he's a freaking Soph. netminder making 2.67M. I think the bigger issue is Guys making 3M+ and 5M+ (and who have hardware and letters to boot) completely blowing coverage like Paris Hilton blows the arresting officers' knobs, and the now-patented Hjalmarsson no-look pass to the attacking forward.



Crawford may have been mediocre at best, but our D-men and defensive forwards have no excuse for their lackluster play.

 

[klemmer]

Tomas had a .923% and a shutout...2 things Crawford didn't do



But those are just stats, and don't mean anything to the Crawford apologizers.



ButbThomas probably didn't see as tough of shots either that Crawford did, so I guess that needs to be taken into factor. No one saw tougher shots or had a more pathetic defense and power play than poor Corey

Save Percentage is a bullshit stat for the reason you state in your second paragraph,



Shutouts mean nothing unless your team scores 1 or no goals. You don't get extra credit (or points) for them.

 

[TSD]

As far as our offense. Was Smith that good, or were our shots that bad?



I just can't believe a team that scored as much as the hawks over the regular season can just forget how to score.



Im hearing 2 arguments we lost because of crawfords weak goals, or we lost because we couldnt score. Technically, Phoenix really couldnt score either, save for game 6, up until then they only scored 1 more goal than we did.



I dont know. I could say they could have made better shooting decisions but Im not an NHL player I dont know what is like to try and take an accurate shot at that speed when you have a fraction of a second. Its assured that Crawford gave up a could of shit goals, then again so did smith, except his werent in over time.



Its probably a combination of the two.

 

[The Count Dante]

Because I cant let it go, I would like to offer a challenge of sorts to the board...



Name the centers that are the size of Kane.



I was able to think of 2: Roy, and M Savard (when he skated).



There is a reason you dont use a guy like Kane at the center.



Ok, I think I am done bitching about 2nd line center since Stan "Coattails Daddy" Bowman has directly said Kane is the center.

 

[PatrickShart]

I just don't understand when it comes to ever discussing/debating the goaltending....its immediately brought up the PP, the offense, or everyone else's faults/problems, etc



And 5 on 5, this pathetic offense was near tops in the league - and the majority of games are spend 5 on 5 - even though facts/stats don't mean much to anyone.



So what is the goaltenders job? When can his play be evaluated?



And Ton...be sure you take your own advice and understand/read what I'm writing. I never once said there is someone else out there to get via FA and I think Bowman will keep these 2 in net (which is the right move, even though people bag Bowman)...but it needs to improve from mediocre to average next year.

 

[klemmer]

All that matters to a goaltender is that he gives up one less goal than the guy as the other end of the ice.



Our job is to give the team a good chance to win the game and to steal one every now and then.

 

[Samurai]

Craw was not the main problem.







End of line.