Tampa Blueprint

I think we played well yesterday, but missing Hedman and Kuch sucks.

Agree on Joseph. He is fast, thats all.

I wouldn't say "well" but not bad. VERY few scoring chances .. and Vaz god awful .. but as I have been saying for awhile .. Tampa's supposed "talent" highly over rated after top few guys. Point Palat and Shatterkirk have been very good this year but after that you struggle to see anyone

I would like to know what is wrong with Kuch tho. But I hope its just a matter of time before he starts driving the offense again. Hopefully...

I tried to think about Kuch lately:
I noticed this year: Players are playing physical vs him + getting close(less seperation) + not letting him pass the puck at all...(they rather focus on disrupting his passes then defend vs his shoots)
When you're the MVP of the league, everyone knows: Just stop that guy to score( to assist) and you probably win the game...
In other cases when your name is:
McDavid, He is flying = impossible to stop.
Crosby = way above everyone's skill level for 15 years... You just can't stop crosby, his hockey IQ = off the charts...
Kucherov is just a small winger, with no defensive skillz and many other shortcomings. He had his best career year, that's for sure. Only can go down from 128 points... so not really a surprise... If he reaches 80-90 points, i will be happy... just hope we make the playoffs with a bad kuch too

Other thing is : He is not trying( not worth to try in regular season when u can lose 1st round that easily)
Why not just tank reg season and fool everyone, so they don't prepare for him that much. Then try to crush everyone in playoffs. I'm not sure if this strat will work if that's the case and not the other explanations i have written above. We will see come playoff time or later in the season though He is still a good player just not top 50 NHL player right now. But what happend with Edmonton over last few years with a top1 player? Nothing... RIP all those Edmonton's seasons... So it's not always a bad thing if your best player is not that much better then the others in points:
128 vs 100(stamkos or point) = huge diff
90 vs 85(stamkos or point) = small diff
Remember Kucherov's suspension, that game was done... the moment he was suspended(+ hedman out with injury)... You are better as a team if all your players are close in skill level...
That is the patriots WAY(from NFL). NEXT MAN UP. Until we rely on 1-2 players, no stanley cup for us, need whole team effort, especially when KUCH or HEDM injured. In games like last 20, opposite happend, everyone just played worse... When McAvoy injured last year for Boston or had 5 injured players, other players stepped up and produced big time... same thing needs to happen here: a good structure to replace injured players...

There are some exceptions, but in general, i hope last season we learned to not rely on Hedman in playoffs... he already injured this year... we should prepare for a "hedmanless" D core for the playoffs or we doomed... 4.0 GAA and under 0.910 SV% ain't gonna cut it... with the added 70% PK rate... we just hard rip again then vs any solid physical D-minded team... like this Islanders... remember those washington games in the playoffs game 6+7... ouch.... ofc it was barry trotz who figured us out...laviolette,trotz,tortorella we should avoid in playoffs, fingers crossed...
Thank god Columbus misses this year's playoffs, so we don't have to worry about him... Nashville only in finals so thats ok... they also can have injuries by then...i dont think we can beat those teams in playoffs... but we should be good vs boston or toronto... so i still can't really see too many teams, who can stop us...like Carolina has goaltending issues(they are doomed) we have too much talent... whatever BOLTLOVER1 says, most other teams have much worse players... or young guys... who has no playoff experience... yes Ethan Bear for Edmonton or Marino for pittsburgh now looks good... but without experience... it's not gonna be fun for those young defenders... lots of teams rely on those guys... see Cernak... sure i liked him in reg season... but he ain't helped nothing when Hedman was injured... we out 0-4 1st round...

All in all, if we can add a guy like Toffoli and a good RHD, we should have the most complete roster in the whole NHL with the most experience, so we should make a good run this year. If not, Cooper should be fired ASAP. Like if we miss the playoffs, that would be epic fail... I think that's under 1% probability right now... So all we need to focus is: playoff hockey... 5v5... pk... solving chemistry after injuries... Toffoli + (Brodie or Savard) my 2 preferred option, if they are available... with retention to fit under the cap...

Islanders game rating :7/10 - we actually played good... i liked a lot of things. except not shooting the puck... too much passing as usual...
i'm fine when the opponent are scoring from every big chance they have almost. Like they had only 20 shots... 15 of those 20 are low-med danger...... but it's ok... next time we beat this team hopefully...1wins - 2losses vs any good metro defensive team like them also not that bad...
We will crush offensive teams... so thats ok... we only need 45 wins around... no need to go over 50... who needs 60... what about 62... hahahaa...useless... yes it was fun... but they don't give extra wins for it in the playoffs...

BOLTLOVER1, it's good that you stopped with all the Gourde nonsense trading, but please stop with trading away Joseph, he stays
He is actually good... for under 1 mill caphit... if you think he is bad... he can't demand more than 2.5 mill... which is fine... so he stays...
young players = worth gold in long run... Toffoli should be traded for older players or like ABB+picks... or aging players who declined hard like Coburn(if we can replace him with younger version) Like Girardi... i feel like Coburn is on the Girardi's footsteps. Declining super fast... = needs to be traded sooner or later... i think he just lost a step this year...
I have an idea Coburn+5th round to : for Namestnikov
2nd round pick + ABB to : for Toffoli
1st round pick : (for Brodie or Savard ) + 5th round back