Gusto

Found this in the wingingitinmotown GDT and thought it was interesting.

Justin Bourne did a good write-up about Toronto's screw ups against us, with Gus front and centre in the praise department.

11 SOG between Franzen and Nyquist

Yeah, it's not so much that that line is playing bad tonight, but against NJD Mule dominated then was quiet against the Avs when the Sheahan line was all over the ice and now tonight the Mule line is dominating again.

If the kid line and the Mule line can manage to both play well in the same game then we won't need defense or good goaltending.

Just the 1. He had yesterday's taken away.

The problem is that Kronner, E and DD are NOT fine. It's not like those guys are reliable night in, night out and the other 3 are costing us. Kronwall has gone through a couple weeks of terrible play recently, E was just about the worst defender against Florida and apart from his first game back, has been shaky since his injury, and DD has shown enough times that he's still a rookie since coming back too. What's more Quincey has actually been pretty good over a few games. Every time I see JoesufP or Dabura bemoan the lack of a top defender after a goal against in a GDT, I wonder "how is this magical defender that we can't afford going to be able to be on the ice at the right time to fill in for whichever of our 6 defenders is going to decide to turd it up on any given night?"

Please have the numbers the wrong way around.

Luke. Plays with more of an edge, is faster, and if Helm continues to centre a scoring line, a pure shutdown centre for the 4th line and PK would be great. He played 19mins against the Hawks - super impressed.

Mickey said Ericsson is not far away, Pav not until Wednesday at the earliest and Alf hasn't skated since his back spasms. I think Helm and Franzen are when they 'feel good', so who knows.

What's with the Game of Thrones theme being played on the organ?

Zetterberg plays without Dats in the team and he gets Alfredsson and Nyquist on his wing, Dats gets Abby and Bert.

Are the guys on the Dallas feed talking about how much they have stunk in their own zone?

I don't know what the rule is on that play, but the faceoff was at centre ice too. It should at least be in their end IMO.

It's that new rule - 2 minutes for nullifying a scoring opportunity.

And Smith is playing great with Kronwall. Keep them apart.

Of course Bernier lets in 5 goals in 2 periods.

Of course he is. But he's also our UNLUCKIEST defenseman. If there was any justice in +/-, Jurco would take everyone else's minus except maybe Kronwall, who looked like he was skating with lead boots.

Why even bring that up? Your man 'Diesel' got scored on before and he was actually in the play.

Y'all some sexist dudes. Almost every hockey fight looks as ridiculous as this.

I think he's just the least bad thing of a 2nd PP unit that is pieced together of spare parts. Especially if we're gonna take him off it and leave Eaves or Sammy on the other side just for the LH/RH combination.

This left-handed right-handed point man combination is so over-rated. We don't have Lidstrom and Holmstrom anymore and we can't even generate good offense on the PP from the point with Kronwall and Bertuzzi, so why try it with the second unit too. Just put two good offensive defensemen that can hold the puck in, create movement and let the young, creative forwards we have on that 2nd unit score. Kindl and Smith aren't used on the PK (sometimes Smith is if another D-man is in the box), so put them on the 2nd unit. Screw the handedness - it's bulls***.

He's on the 4th line

It's not like that so-called 4 on 2 was a gimme. He's doing a better job at getting to scoring areas than other defensemen at the moment, he's just a little snake bitten.