hockeytherapy13

We haven't played on the road in a really long time so hopefully we can shake off the road rust quickly. Might be especially tough since we will be on the Olympic sheet but our team speed should make up for that as long as the forwards go hard through the neutral zone both directions. Seems like a weekend where James and Strinden are both going to shine.

I actually don't mind losing. But losing games where we have 2-goal leads is frustrating, especially in our own barn. The Friday game against Omaha we lost 3 separate leads and one of them was a 2-goal lead. On home ice. Also having a 2-goal lead go down our legs against CC at home is a tough way to lead to a loss. I thought Saturday against Omaha we did an excellent job of locking things down defensively (with the exception of maybe 1 of the forwards ). We were able to lock it down with Zmolek out of the lineup, which made it even more impressive. So if we can consistently play that well defensively with a lead, then we can do some good things. But if we show flashes of last year where we lose leads repeatedly, then the hopes for this team go down drastically.

I agree but he’s playing himself into a spot where he shouldn’t be on the ice in a later 1-goal game and should be mostly utilized when on the power play or when scraping our way back into a game. I was terrified with his line on the ice with a little over 2 mins to go because he hasn’t shown ability to change yet. If Blake hadn’t played last night or if he and Perron were switched on lines we night have gotten a shutout because yet again, one of his mistakes led to a goal. I really do want him on our team, badly. But for having played 1.5 years, he should be better on both ends of the puck now. Bumping him to a line with Jammer and Johannes would still be enough fire to get him going but also give him 2 line mates who play the game the right way.

I like this a lot. But I would be nit picky and have jammer at center and strinden on the wing because Jammer is more consistent on faceoffs and Strinden can use his speed and size well on the wing. Other than that I like this. Although I’m still in favor of something changing with Blake to get him with 2 guys that are really good defensively because he’s got a loooong ways to go

Can we at least get a stick tap for Hedquist? The confidence we have in him has to be notably higher than 2 weeks ago. Win or lose tonight he has done his job

No way but if he can’t see that Blake is more of a problem than a solution then he needs a strong cup of coffee

I’d like to see Perron and James swap for a while. At least they are both right handed shots but getting Perron’s speed together with James’ speed could be fun. Plus then Blake gets a little demotion and would be playing with 2 very defensively reliable guys in Jammer and schmaltz. As an aside, it seems like Jammer has been really good this weekend, love the leadership he’s bringing when he’s on the ice.

Time for a serious demotion for Blake. He’s been more of a liability than an asset. Strinden or even Kunz would be better on that line where he’s at.

Giving this a self bump. Ness needs more reps on that 4th line

It’s at least 4, maybe 5

It’s not an energy thing. We are getting outsmarted with structure. They figured out how to kill us in the neutral zone and how to trap us in our own zone

This is a much better D pairing for our top 4 with Zmolek out sick. Would like to see Ness getting more ice than the usual extra skater because he brings more to the table than what his ice time shows. Plays 200 feet really well and knows when to push the offensive side. Sorry to say it but he’s a better all-around player than Albrecht, and I’m in no way trashing Albrecht. Ness just has a more rounded game.

Guessing it was somewhat painful for Adam Wodon to do that

This team has started to defend the same ways we did last year. Blown coverage left and right. Hedquist has gotten the Drew DeRidder treatment this weekend in that he hasn’t gotten the proper D zone assistance that we were providing in October and November

1 SOG during 3 power plays. Thank goodness it went in

With Perron on the 3rd line it’s almost like having a guy with a killer shot out there 3/4 of the game. Love that gaber is away from Omac and Blake and I love that James is in the top 6 where he belongs. Consider me concerned with us not having Persson in. This is bound to be a tight game and every save and shot will count . Let’s commit to some super strong D in our own end please

Yeah we have to get Gaber on a different line altogether because his offensive weapons are not getting properly utilized. We all know what he's capable of and if he gets on a line where he can be popping as a senior, this team could be scary.

Big props to Berry in his press conference today. He sounds like he's holding guys accountable and is making sure that the boys don't take this series lightly. You can tell he's fired up and really wants to make a run in the 2nd half. He also alluded to there being some changes to lines this coming weekend now that all bodies are ready to go. Going to be a heck of a physical series.

Yeah with how tight and physical Alaska plays, it seems very likely that one game gets to OT. I'm guessing we struggle to score in at least one of these games if we haven't made some tweaks.

I actually thought of that season last night after the game. Lost to a couple of nobodies in exhibition, Adam Tambellini left halfway through and then a 4-seed UND team beats Sconnie in Wisconsin and then Ferris double OT. Outplayed the gophs who were more talented in the frozen 4 and still lost on the flukey 0.6 goal. Weird season but man it displayed how incredible of a coach Hakstol was. This years team will be good if we can get offense at tough times in the 2nd half

The bad news is that 5x5 we aren’t generating offense much at all in our last 4 games (being 3 and the exhibition). One of our 2 5x5 goals tonight was an absolute fluke. Worried about playing Alaska next week, I don’t see a sweep coming for us unless we tweak the forward lines a bit to get Gaber going with someone else.

Time to make some changes to these forward libes. We have regressed since november. Looking past the guys who were out tonight doesn’t matter because our Top 6 isn’t creating much at even strength. Trying the same thing repeatedly and expecting different results is insanity.

I know we had illness and injuries but it seems like making some slight changes to the top 9 would have been wise after losing 3 in a row. We have to find a way to get Gaber rolling and James deserves a more offensive role. I realize Berry wanted to allow chemistry to build and didn’t want to flip flop as often as last year, but if we keep those top 2 lines intact, they will continue to struggle.

I kind of wonder if he will go back to juniors for the rest of the year or if the team just has him keep practicing and getting the grades back up. Will Duluth bring in Zam Plante now if he can get signed up for classes quickly?

He mentioned on the ECH podcast (I think it was that one) that he's going to be done after this year. I think you're right that he could use another year here but it seems like he's going to go find a pro paycheck somewhere. He's built for Europe so I'm guessing he makes it there eventually.