Predators' dive extends to five in late loss to Ducks

i wish the preds had some. the Red wings were able to help their u=injury problems last year by signing a free agent, or two (i can’t remember how many). i wish the preds could get a away with that.

Good observation, Dirk, on the blocked shots. It seems like they were blocking a lot of shots during the win streak at the beginning of the year. Now, very few. That’s something the entire team needs to focus on. You’re right, O’Brien is getting exposed a lot the past few games. Ryan Suter…we need you.

I do not want to get a trend started but a few things that I have noticed:

Last season near last in PK – This season near last in PK
Last season near last in PP – This season near last in PP
Last season 6 game losing streak at beginning of season – ummm you do see who we play next right?

Now I sat in the Skate of the Union and heard Trotz and everyone tell us that the special team were going to be the focus this offseason. “It will improve” we were told. We were told that they were going to tear it all the way down and rebuild it. I do not see any difference.

If Ryan Suter is the cog that holds this team together then maybe we need to work on his contract before Shea’s. Just a thought.

O’Reilly: I mean, wow. This kid is looking great now. Injuries are always bad, but it definitely separates the men from the boys.

I hope that the team can figure out a way for better coverage – the D coverage last night sucked. I also hope they finally learned that every second counts, and they can lose a game in the last few seconds (didn’t they figure this out from last Post season ??) Seems that a few of the guys on ice already told themselves that the game was going into overtime. The passes for the most part were sloppy, and it seemed all too often in the last few games, that attackers coming into the Pred’s zone just skated through. I keep telling myself it’s still early in the season, but that statement will only remain true for so long …

My frustration lies with how this team is being ran. So SK is starting to step up and we scratch him for Belak, only for Belak to just play about 2 min. ??? So we were actually playing short a forward. I see no rationality behind this. Isn’t that what we have SOB for and Toots from time to time is security? I am still baffled by us calling Klasen up and then not playing him but a few seconds.

I mean some of the decisions have me thinking that Trotz it channeling Les Miles.

He will probably always be dressed for a ducks game. They have too many players that take liberties with opponents. Simply having Belak dressed keeps them in check more than if he were scratched. I would wait till the blues game to see who plays before getting too riled up over it.

I’ll go:

HornQ
O’Reilly
Tootoo (can’t argue with his results given the limited playing time)
Goc
Dumont (makes things happen but Trotz hates him)
Wilson
Legwand (hot start, nothing since…shut down center? who exactly has he shut down?)
Sully (can’t finish last year or this year…should have 70 pts based on his opportunities)
Spaling
SK (shows the odd flash)
Ward (has done nothing so far…penalty killer? nice penalty kill)
Smithson
Erat (completely insignificant)
Belak
Lombardi (who?)

He missed a team meeting. You miss a meeting, you sit. Happened to Kovalchuk in NJ this season and happens in every respectable locker room across the league.

I don’t care about his history or why he missed the meeting. Facts are he broke a team rule and Trotz punished him for it. Unlike with Fisher/Britt, it’s over and done with. Case closed. If it happens again, then he’s got bigger issues to worry about than the fans because this organization doesn’t tolerate players that can’t follow team rules…

As I said earlier, I don’t care why he missed the meeting. Fact is that he did and obviously it wasn’t an excused absence so the bottom line is that he failed to live up to his professional obligations. Trotz would be interested in a reason why so that he can weigh that going forward, but for our purposes missing one meeting doesn’t equal anything than a player making a mistake.

I’ve also said I don’t care about his history and I stand by that. Every time a player is acquired via trade, signing, waivers, draft, etc the team does their homework on the player both on and off the ice and makes a determination that the player is worthy to wear the uniform. You store away that info, but the bottom line is you give the player a clean slate and tell them that it’s up to them to keep it clean. This is obviously a black mark on his slate, but by punishing him Trotz reduced it to a smudge.

Obviously, due to SK’s history, Trotz won’t let the slate get dark with smudge after smudge, but a single smudge is just that and it fades over time. One incident does not make a pattern, nor should it be enough to bury a player. Obviously we’ll see if SK is back in the lineup and/or doing extra work tomorrow (scratches from previous game usually do extra skating for conditioning purposes at next practice), but as soon as Trotz is satisfied, I’m satisfied.

The Fisher/Britt ongoing episode IMO is simply not the way to do things. You don’t mete out a punishment a quarter at a time then go on saying further discipline might be forthcoming. You get it done like Trotz did and move beyond the incident.

is a game against Columbus! But it’s not until the 22nd, doh!

I’ve read your posts before, and you’re a knowledgeable hockey fan with good ideas and a healthy love for the Preds.

But you’re a lamb being led to slaughter. And you’re blindly following a dude who has never been anything but mediocre. To address your comments:

Dumont does have a problem passing too much, and he may have given up a couple of opportunities in the defensive zone…but don’t exaggerate to make your point…it wasn’t to the tune of 71 goals…and Dumont was a +8 last year which was good for 4th on the team. You’re wrong about that point. The biggest point about Dumont, is that Trotz wants him to be a mucker and grinder, which he IS NOT! But instead of being creative and finding a way to use Dumont’s skills, he sits him on the bench. Because Trotz is too inflexible.

Arnott was our best offensive center? He scored 19 goals last year and was by far our laziest player on the team…by far! If you watched the games last year, you can’t deny this. Furthermore, he was called a cancer in the locker room…all the more reason to bench him, But not Trotz cause he’s too inflexible. I can give Legwand somewhat of a pass cause of his checking role…but he did only score 11 goals last year which is not up to anybody’s standard…except for yours. Spaling could’ve done that job just as well, but we’ll never know cause Trotz is too inflexible to try something like that. And keeping Klein and Hamhuis together prepared Klein for this year? How does being -13 help anyone to do anything but lose games? Oh and remember the Datsyuk play? Far worse than any five bad plays Dumont ever made coming out of the defensive zone, and in fact I’ll cut you a pass because you were probably talking about him rather than Dumont. If Klein doesn’t have Frankie the Bull to babysit him he’s worthless…but Trotz and Poile wouldn’t wanna look stupid with that $1.3 million per that they’re paying him.

Trotz has his young guys playing on lower lines for a reason? To acclimate them? Like how Matt Duchene and Stamkos needed acclimating? Like how Jeff Skinner needs acclimating? He does it to turn them into muckers and grinders. Defense first, and forget about the offensive…to break the spirit. It pays off in the long run? Give me an example of who it has paid off with? Who is an offensive talent we’ve had that’s been allowed to score? Exactly, and that’s why Radulov bolted for the USSR. Peverley doesn’t play defense? That’s all he did here and now he’s one of the better penalty killers for Atlanta. Yeah, with 7 pts in 37-odd games all he did was play offense, right? That was a colossal blunder by the management.

Low PP and PK can be almost completely summed up in one word: SUTER.

Really? Then how come BOTH our PP and PK were at the bottom of the league last year when Suter played all 82 games? Maybe it’s cause Trotz puts Joel Ward on the PP instead of Colin Wilson? No way right? Yeah, I guess Colin is paying his dues which will “pay off in the long run” right?

I do think that injuries have hurt us this year. But one would think that at least the coach would maybe do something intelligent to try and put his finger in the dyke, right? But Trotz is too inflexible. He was last year and the year before and always will be. He will never get us to the next round…cause we’ll never have anything more than a buncha muckersa dn grinders around here. And in the playoffs, everybody becomes a mucker and grinder which is why it’d be a good idea to improve “other areas of our game”.