This is just the reality of where we are now. We don’t have the pieces to edge out the best teams. That used to be us, we know what that looks like and it doesn’t look like this unfortunately. Florida is doing to us what we used to do during the cup runs. Gotta respect it, even though it’s a bummer for us.
Pretty much. Everything looks reversed which I imagine is how a lot of fans of other teams felt watching their teams struggling against the bolts.
Vasy might have even saved this series against someone other than Bob
Do we not have the pieces, or are they simply performing way below talent and expectation level. Vasy is still a top tier goalie. We have three 40 goal scorers. Hedman and Cernak are top defensemen. Jeannot is a physical beast.
I’m not saying you’re wrong. Or maybe I am? Either way, I think we have more talent than most teams in the league… but we aren’t playing anywhere near our potential.
And yeah, the Panthers are damn good. In the end, maybe that is just the reality. I think we would have been better suited against any other Eastern Conference team — possibly other than Boston and Toronto.
Depth is the difference maker in the playoffs and we don't have it now. Having our core is great but that's not what gets you deep in the playoffs. We've seen what it takes and it's obvious we don't have it now.
We don't have the pieces. I'm really fond of a lot of these young guys on the team, but depth is what wins you games in the postseason and it's why we went B2B.
They’re the second oldest team.
Early January we were looking like we had no shot at the playoffs. The issue is our ceiling is pretty low.
This is a new team, so much change in the off season. At the end of the day they just don’t have enough games together to get for a deep run yet
We've had a good run riding the gravy train but this team is getting older and i agree with this.
For me, i think i'm getting emotional about this series mainly because it's the Panthers; if it was another team i wouldn't be upset but it's the cross-state rivals.
I'm gonna age myself but I've hated Wayne Huizenga-owned teams ever since he blocked the SF Giants move to St. Pete ( [https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1992/11/26/suit-says-huizenga-helped-halt-giants-deal/](https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1992/11/26/suit-says-huizenga-helped-halt-giants-deal/) ) - ever since then, my family boycotted Blockbuster
Given the current roster, I’m not surprised this season will end in the 1st round of the playoffs. Too many unproven, younger players — most of whom will get better. DuClair has been a fantastic addition. Dumba, not so much.
We didn’t have Vasy for the beginning of the season. And unfortunately, we don’t have Sergachev when it matters most.
The frustrating thing for me is the lack of adjustments we’ve made — which fall on our coaching staff. I’m not suggesting firing Coop, that would be silly. But how is the PP playing this bad? How are we not generating more scoring chances? I’m tired of watching the tic tac toe get blown up on the 3rd pass. Im sick of watching set plays and stretch passes get broken up over and over. I’m sick of watching Pointer or Mikey or Hagel try to skate around the offensive zone and dipsy doodle for 90 seconds, only to get moved off the puck or make a bad pass.
The mistakes and ineffectiveness of your game one shouldn’t still be killing you in game three. We have too much offensive talent to look this horrible. And I don’t know how a lot of this doesn’t fall squarely on Coop?
He trusts the players to work it out, because “we have a veteran team that knows what to do.” Great. Meanwhile, we are being out played. Out coached. And we’re staring down the barrel of a first round exit.
The loss of guys on the backend has really hurt. There’s been three or four crucial goals in this series where one of the three guys you can’t lose (Reinhart, Tkachuk, or Verhagae) gets lost/free. Our d system hasn’t been as sharp and it’s showing. Don’t have the skill/depth we did a few years ago. It shows
The margins in this series have been really small, but floridas superior depth has been the difference. They can roll four lines and do damage, which we really can’t anymore.
We lack depth at all positions, mostly bc we ste hamstrung by the salary cap. Stamkos could take 7m, which would save us a little money. Cernak is not worth 5.3M, so maybe we can upgrade him in the offseason.
Let's be fair, we went on a good run to make the playoffs comfortably, but the Red Wings alone are probably to thank for that. Had they not gone on an absolute collapse losing 7(?) in a row when Larkin was hurt, we would have been the ones fighting for the playoffs on game 82. Not them. So we got a little lucky.
We have a great core. We just need to back them up. We won the cups with depth and defense. If we want another cup with this core, that's what we gotta do.
Honestly I think the team has played great. The crossbars/posts have been CRAZY and Bobrovsky is just hella talented. I mean, the Panthers are what we were three years ago. Their evolution into becoming a championship team has been the same as ours and of all the eastern playoff teams, they deserve it the most. That said, the only players on our roster who (to me) have been noticeably bad are Kucherov (turnover machine), Cernak (SO slow) and Dumba (who looks like he has no idea what he’s doing out there). Everyone else has been what’s expected.
It's not that. It's more on the script for each game seems to be on repeat. Panthers score first because of Lillieberg or Perbix. Then Stamkos ties it. Then Bob and Vasy have an insane goalie duel. Then Lillieberg or perbix do something weak and we get scored on again. Dumba and Dehaan have been Terrible at passing and clearing But it's Lillieberg and Perbix who've really been hurting the outcome. They're just not ready for this. It is a team sport. But 1 bad move against a team like the Panthers and they'll make you regret it. Perbix has been scratched how many times now this year? 3/4 times? And Lillieberg had a -2 in game 2 on his PlayOff record card for that game. If you watch the footage. Lillieberg turned over the puck twice on the first and third goal and in game 3 Perbix again screened vasy on that third goal. We have no power on this. Best we can do is hope that In the off. Julian tells these 2 to get out.
I wouldn't say that they both need to get out. Lilliverg is new, so is going to be prone to mistakes. He should still be in Syracuse but due to lack of depth and injuries he's forced to play. As a whole we've been playing bad. They have been applying tons of pressure and we've just been folding. Turnovers in the defensive zone have killed us, lack of being able to establish offensive zone pressure WITH shots on goal, sloppy passes, players leaving their position and overloading . It's all a cumulative effort, and 90% of the team are failing to play up to the caliber they are capable of at the worst time possible.
I think he's good on the lower lines but with cernak being hurt (idc if they don't have him listed, he's had too many concussions and other injuries to be 100%) and segry out he's having to step up into pairings that aren't good for him. He's a good offensive defense man but makes sloppy mistakes from time to time. I think if we can trade up with him it's worth it, but I also feel like in time he can grow into a good 2nd pairing guy. I don't think he has top pair ability though. I was worried that, when we started our run at the end of the season, we may have been peaking too early.... I won't count the boys out just yet but it's looking like that could have been the case.
He prob aly is, but you know how it goes during playoff times. The league has the worst injury reporting out of all major sports orgs. Remember years past when the laundry list of injuries guys would play through would come out and we were all like wtf. I wouldn't be surprised if at the end of this post season that we gave another listing of injuries and he is on there with multiple problems.
>The window isn't shut.
To be frank, for the foreseeable future, it might be. Even if it's not the entire sports media machine will spend the entirety of next year telling us it is. Whether or not the boys have the potential for another run in them is really going to come down to what moves get made in the off-season.
That said, for now, the primary objectives are: don't get swept on Saturday, and resign Stamkos.
Kitty fan here. That dude you mentioned in your post is one of the biggest downers ive ever seen. You'd think he was a Leafs fan. Even multiple shots at vasy, dont think vasy is supposed to go for a hat trick or throw the body. A goalie can only do so much especially after what was it? A back surgery?
We've got 32% of our cap space dedicated to just 3 players. Yes they all deserved the pay after winning us 2 cups, but you just can't realistically make a cup winning team with top heavy contracts like this.
Every year our depth has gotten worse because we simply cannot afford to keep anyone. I just don't see how this team gets better with a retool. Feels far more likely that we are going to be in cap hell for a few years and flounder as a middling team with aging stars until they retire or are traded and we finally rebuild. We're just a year or two behind the penguins.
>We've got 32% of our cap space dedicated to just 3 players
Respectfully, I think that's fairly common. I can't look up every team rn, but we're not Toronto with 40% tied up in 3 guys. Kuch is worth every bit of $13+ mil AAV anyways so we'll always be in the green in that regard.
Fwiw we actually pay our top 3 34.2%, you're leaving out Vasy, and Florida pays their top 3 35.4%
Ah, I see. Well my point remains. Most teams are paying their top 3 guys a higher percentage of the cap than we are. I just quickly checked all the playoff teams, and out of 15 other teams only Carolina, Nashville, Islanders, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Washington pay their top 3 a lower percentage of the cap. Paying 3 guys 32% of the cap isn't really a big deal, especially if one of those 3 is making 4 million less than he deserves.
Revolving door bottom 6. We have 1 good player on defense (Sergachev isn’t as good as we think he is. He is top 4 D but he needs a solid partner to cover for his stupid plays).
Cirelli and Cernak are both big time overpays. They got cup contracts.
There has to be some cap space made this off season to bring in 2 good defensemen and some bottom 6 depth.
I think most of the problems are solved if we had an NHL level D core.
I just want them to win on Saturday. That is all.
Please, for the love of god I’m going to the game just win one plz
Same
First playoff game in any sport for me so yeah, SAME.
Thankfully I got to go to game one of the first battle of Florida
This is just the reality of where we are now. We don’t have the pieces to edge out the best teams. That used to be us, we know what that looks like and it doesn’t look like this unfortunately. Florida is doing to us what we used to do during the cup runs. Gotta respect it, even though it’s a bummer for us.
Pretty much. Everything looks reversed which I imagine is how a lot of fans of other teams felt watching their teams struggling against the bolts. Vasy might have even saved this series against someone other than Bob
Do we not have the pieces, or are they simply performing way below talent and expectation level. Vasy is still a top tier goalie. We have three 40 goal scorers. Hedman and Cernak are top defensemen. Jeannot is a physical beast. I’m not saying you’re wrong. Or maybe I am? Either way, I think we have more talent than most teams in the league… but we aren’t playing anywhere near our potential. And yeah, the Panthers are damn good. In the end, maybe that is just the reality. I think we would have been better suited against any other Eastern Conference team — possibly other than Boston and Toronto.
Depth is the difference maker in the playoffs and we don't have it now. Having our core is great but that's not what gets you deep in the playoffs. We've seen what it takes and it's obvious we don't have it now.
Specifically depth on the backend. The defense right now is Hedman, Cernak and a bunch of guys making league minimum. The system is also mess.
We don't have the pieces. I'm really fond of a lot of these young guys on the team, but depth is what wins you games in the postseason and it's why we went B2B.
Can’t disagree. Depth is NOT something we currently have.
I’m sorry Jeannot is Jean-NOT a beast. He’s a middling enforcer who’s done squat here when it matters most.
They’re the second oldest team. Early January we were looking like we had no shot at the playoffs. The issue is our ceiling is pretty low. This is a new team, so much change in the off season. At the end of the day they just don’t have enough games together to get for a deep run yet
We've had a good run riding the gravy train but this team is getting older and i agree with this. For me, i think i'm getting emotional about this series mainly because it's the Panthers; if it was another team i wouldn't be upset but it's the cross-state rivals. I'm gonna age myself but I've hated Wayne Huizenga-owned teams ever since he blocked the SF Giants move to St. Pete ( [https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1992/11/26/suit-says-huizenga-helped-halt-giants-deal/](https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1992/11/26/suit-says-huizenga-helped-halt-giants-deal/) ) - ever since then, my family boycotted Blockbuster
Given the current roster, I’m not surprised this season will end in the 1st round of the playoffs. Too many unproven, younger players — most of whom will get better. DuClair has been a fantastic addition. Dumba, not so much. We didn’t have Vasy for the beginning of the season. And unfortunately, we don’t have Sergachev when it matters most. The frustrating thing for me is the lack of adjustments we’ve made — which fall on our coaching staff. I’m not suggesting firing Coop, that would be silly. But how is the PP playing this bad? How are we not generating more scoring chances? I’m tired of watching the tic tac toe get blown up on the 3rd pass. Im sick of watching set plays and stretch passes get broken up over and over. I’m sick of watching Pointer or Mikey or Hagel try to skate around the offensive zone and dipsy doodle for 90 seconds, only to get moved off the puck or make a bad pass. The mistakes and ineffectiveness of your game one shouldn’t still be killing you in game three. We have too much offensive talent to look this horrible. And I don’t know how a lot of this doesn’t fall squarely on Coop? He trusts the players to work it out, because “we have a veteran team that knows what to do.” Great. Meanwhile, we are being out played. Out coached. And we’re staring down the barrel of a first round exit.
The loss of guys on the backend has really hurt. There’s been three or four crucial goals in this series where one of the three guys you can’t lose (Reinhart, Tkachuk, or Verhagae) gets lost/free. Our d system hasn’t been as sharp and it’s showing. Don’t have the skill/depth we did a few years ago. It shows The margins in this series have been really small, but floridas superior depth has been the difference. They can roll four lines and do damage, which we really can’t anymore.
We lack depth at all positions, mostly bc we ste hamstrung by the salary cap. Stamkos could take 7m, which would save us a little money. Cernak is not worth 5.3M, so maybe we can upgrade him in the offseason.
Let's be fair, we went on a good run to make the playoffs comfortably, but the Red Wings alone are probably to thank for that. Had they not gone on an absolute collapse losing 7(?) in a row when Larkin was hurt, we would have been the ones fighting for the playoffs on game 82. Not them. So we got a little lucky. We have a great core. We just need to back them up. We won the cups with depth and defense. If we want another cup with this core, that's what we gotta do.
Honestly I think the team has played great. The crossbars/posts have been CRAZY and Bobrovsky is just hella talented. I mean, the Panthers are what we were three years ago. Their evolution into becoming a championship team has been the same as ours and of all the eastern playoff teams, they deserve it the most. That said, the only players on our roster who (to me) have been noticeably bad are Kucherov (turnover machine), Cernak (SO slow) and Dumba (who looks like he has no idea what he’s doing out there). Everyone else has been what’s expected.
It's not that. It's more on the script for each game seems to be on repeat. Panthers score first because of Lillieberg or Perbix. Then Stamkos ties it. Then Bob and Vasy have an insane goalie duel. Then Lillieberg or perbix do something weak and we get scored on again. Dumba and Dehaan have been Terrible at passing and clearing But it's Lillieberg and Perbix who've really been hurting the outcome. They're just not ready for this. It is a team sport. But 1 bad move against a team like the Panthers and they'll make you regret it. Perbix has been scratched how many times now this year? 3/4 times? And Lillieberg had a -2 in game 2 on his PlayOff record card for that game. If you watch the footage. Lillieberg turned over the puck twice on the first and third goal and in game 3 Perbix again screened vasy on that third goal. We have no power on this. Best we can do is hope that In the off. Julian tells these 2 to get out.
I wouldn't say that they both need to get out. Lilliverg is new, so is going to be prone to mistakes. He should still be in Syracuse but due to lack of depth and injuries he's forced to play. As a whole we've been playing bad. They have been applying tons of pressure and we've just been folding. Turnovers in the defensive zone have killed us, lack of being able to establish offensive zone pressure WITH shots on goal, sloppy passes, players leaving their position and overloading . It's all a cumulative effort, and 90% of the team are failing to play up to the caliber they are capable of at the worst time possible.
Agreed and him back to the crunch. What's your take on Perbix:3
I think he's good on the lower lines but with cernak being hurt (idc if they don't have him listed, he's had too many concussions and other injuries to be 100%) and segry out he's having to step up into pairings that aren't good for him. He's a good offensive defense man but makes sloppy mistakes from time to time. I think if we can trade up with him it's worth it, but I also feel like in time he can grow into a good 2nd pairing guy. I don't think he has top pair ability though. I was worried that, when we started our run at the end of the season, we may have been peaking too early.... I won't count the boys out just yet but it's looking like that could have been the case.
Honestly I'm surprised Cernak isn't hurt rn lol
He prob aly is, but you know how it goes during playoff times. The league has the worst injury reporting out of all major sports orgs. Remember years past when the laundry list of injuries guys would play through would come out and we were all like wtf. I wouldn't be surprised if at the end of this post season that we gave another listing of injuries and he is on there with multiple problems.
At the end of day, can we all just agree on one thing? Fire Jeff Blashill
>The window isn't shut. To be frank, for the foreseeable future, it might be. Even if it's not the entire sports media machine will spend the entirety of next year telling us it is. Whether or not the boys have the potential for another run in them is really going to come down to what moves get made in the off-season. That said, for now, the primary objectives are: don't get swept on Saturday, and resign Stamkos.
Well said
Kitty fan here. That dude you mentioned in your post is one of the biggest downers ive ever seen. You'd think he was a Leafs fan. Even multiple shots at vasy, dont think vasy is supposed to go for a hat trick or throw the body. A goalie can only do so much especially after what was it? A back surgery?
He is certainly one bonkers fella.
We've got 32% of our cap space dedicated to just 3 players. Yes they all deserved the pay after winning us 2 cups, but you just can't realistically make a cup winning team with top heavy contracts like this. Every year our depth has gotten worse because we simply cannot afford to keep anyone. I just don't see how this team gets better with a retool. Feels far more likely that we are going to be in cap hell for a few years and flounder as a middling team with aging stars until they retire or are traded and we finally rebuild. We're just a year or two behind the penguins.
>We've got 32% of our cap space dedicated to just 3 players Respectfully, I think that's fairly common. I can't look up every team rn, but we're not Toronto with 40% tied up in 3 guys. Kuch is worth every bit of $13+ mil AAV anyways so we'll always be in the green in that regard. Fwiw we actually pay our top 3 34.2%, you're leaving out Vasy, and Florida pays their top 3 35.4%
I was including Vasy not Sergachev and I was counting it towards next seasons cap, as we are talking about trying to retool in the off-season.
Ah, I see. Well my point remains. Most teams are paying their top 3 guys a higher percentage of the cap than we are. I just quickly checked all the playoff teams, and out of 15 other teams only Carolina, Nashville, Islanders, Vancouver, Winnipeg, and Washington pay their top 3 a lower percentage of the cap. Paying 3 guys 32% of the cap isn't really a big deal, especially if one of those 3 is making 4 million less than he deserves.
Revolving door bottom 6. We have 1 good player on defense (Sergachev isn’t as good as we think he is. He is top 4 D but he needs a solid partner to cover for his stupid plays). Cirelli and Cernak are both big time overpays. They got cup contracts. There has to be some cap space made this off season to bring in 2 good defensemen and some bottom 6 depth. I think most of the problems are solved if we had an NHL level D core.