Lateralous

On one of those NHLN pre-game shows, I saw Mike Rupp call for the Canucks to actually miss the playoffs like 2 weeks ago, before most of this recent slide. He cited similar statistics. I think he had Edmonton eventually catching them to claim the last spot. I think you often see these teams that underachieved the year before come out strong in October with something to prove while other more established teams are still easing into the season. You're right that they usually come back to earth.

Oh, I got you. My best guess is that it's because Seattle's arena is in the middle of the city and I don't think there's much if any parking around Seattle Center. They probably feel they need to give their fans the extra 30 minutes to get to the arena after work. Most Islander home games start at 7:30 EST and I always assumed it was for similar reasons

Expecting the home fans to get to the arena at 4pm PST on a work day isn't ideal either. At least they are accommodating us this weekend by playing both games at 4pm EST

Yeah and they’re all out performing him. One night of Smith to send a message isn’t the worst thing. Agreed. I would give him a Timo Meier wake up call in the press box for a night. At this point I would also give Timo Meier another Timo walk up call. He used to just take sh!t penalties when he wasn’t scoring. Now he legit costs us a goal a night with his crap effort.

Loved the hug from Palat to Vanacek as the horn went off. These goalies need everything they can get these days.

Pulled that out of our ass!!!

Who should be more embarrassed, Meier or Vanacek?

Hey, it looks like Zadorov would have fit right in. Nice turnover.

Oh boy. Here we go.

I think at 3.4 AAV he’s an easily movable contract if it ever comes to it. At his current level of play, he just isn’t the ridiculous bargain we thought we had.

Just got home to watch the third. Listened to Canucks broadcast for second intermission. They were gushing about our speed. how has Nemec looked? just looking at stats and glad to see Bahl and Marino at +3

IMO, the veteran defenders on this team have been the biggest disappointment so far this season. I don't think you can say any one of Hamilton, Siegenthaler, Marino or Smith have consistently played up to their ability. I guess Miller has been good in his role, but he's only been available for 1/3 of the season to date. Edit: Before I get clobbered about the goaltending, I agree they've been bad but I expected a lot more out of the veteran D who, minus Smith, have all proven to be good players at this level. I typically don't get on Smith because we all know he's a placeholder and only in the lineup due to injury, but holy hell, he's been worse than I could have ever imagined.

Now that's a great idea. That place is insane.

I wouldn't complain if Nico put up a few more points than Petterson tonight either.

LGD! Should be a fun one with all three Hughes boys on the ice tonight.

Obviously the train thing isn't the Devils fault but NHL games are too damn expensive anymore to have complete f'ing duds like the night you were there.

Hamilton is also at 2 games going to 40 or 50. Just for comparison, the Rangers lost 51 man games to injury for the entire ‘22-‘23 season.

That shot!

…and Miller and Nosek. I know they’re not the level of the other guys but it’s led to a lot more Smith, tierney, Willman and unbalanced 11/7 lineups than what’s ideal

First impression after one game is that Nemec is probably not ever playing another game in Utica, especially since Hamilton is out long term and the ice time in NJ is available.

Agreed, it’s a sharp jersey minus the logo. Would look good with the USA hockey logo on it. im actually not sure they used the right logo on this. Shield doesn’t look right. Should have gone with Statue of Liberty logo.

No, you actually didn’t say that at all. You literally just posted the comment less than 5 minutes ago. Go re-read it.

If you watched that game and think goaltending is the only issue, I’m not sure what to say.

The goaltending is obviously an issue but: Goal #1 - Meier with a bad turnover and a garbage effort to recover and get his man who scored Goal #2 - Luke, what are you doing? Goal #3 - Jack, what are you doing? Goal #4 - Marino, what are you doing? These guys are playing way too loose and that’s on the coach to fix.

Come on guys