It seems as if the K's special teams practice only got it half right this week. Scoring three power play goals and a shorthanded goal should equal a win every time. Giving up four power play goals and a shorthanded goal is real, real, ugly. This is a game they should have won, two points they should have had. They had a five on three man advantage for one minute and thirty-seven seconds and it sounded that only one shot found its way on goal. Changes need to be made on special teams. Again, too many penalties. It is killing them. The penalty kill has for the most part been non-existant this year. Way too many experienced players to let that happen. I'll bet Al Sims is real unhappy and David Franke is keeping a close watch on it. Not a good thing with the eventual roster changes coming.
Hit Somebody!!!
Sat, 10/31/2009 - 10:02am
Hukalo coming back will help....O'Connor is a great PK guy too. I think you have seen alot of rotation of players playing in certain situations early this season just to see what they can and can't do...Al will get this thing tightened up. Last night's game was odd all around. The Ref didn't let these guys play....someone fell down, and he would automatically call a penalty....it was awful. It is hard to play when you don't know what a penalty is from this ex-linesman now converted into a Ref.....he was bad. But I agree, the 5 on 3 was poorly executed. A couple of the Powerplay Pieces need to be tweaked. I think, and this is just me, that PC and Guy need to be separated. PC's shot has been off the mark, he takes a shot and it misses the net by alot, I am sure he will get into game shape sometime before Christmas, and he might start playing like the PC we knew last year...but right now, we need to find some new combinations. Shafronov is not playing his best right now either, but he is capable of taking over a game like he did last year several times. I want to see the lines take a different shape, we could use a different combination. Let's put Chaulk in the middle of a line that has 2 talented youngsters. When Hukalo comes back I am sure that will pump life into the 2nd line. We'll see, the season is still young. Guys still are finding their ways on the ice.
This league is loaded this year too. No easy road.
Alan
Sat, 10/31/2009 - 10:45am
Of course Hukalo will help. I agree that O'Conner is probably good on the penalty kill too. Two problems, though. One, they are taking so many penalties this year that their penalty kill gets wore out and two, they lose most of the faceoffs also. On the power play I would like to see the forwards (especially Chaulk and Shafranov) shoot more and the other forwards crash the net. Traditionally the K's never seem to play thier best hockey until around Christmas. I'm a little concerned about the game tonight because Muskegon is not the team you want to face if your penalty kill is below par.
Comments
It seems as if the K's special teams practice only got it half right this week. Scoring three power play goals and a shorthanded goal should equal a win every time. Giving up four power play goals and a shorthanded goal is real, real, ugly. This is a game they should have won, two points they should have had. They had a five on three man advantage for one minute and thirty-seven seconds and it sounded that only one shot found its way on goal. Changes need to be made on special teams. Again, too many penalties. It is killing them. The penalty kill has for the most part been non-existant this year. Way too many experienced players to let that happen. I'll bet Al Sims is real unhappy and David Franke is keeping a close watch on it. Not a good thing with the eventual roster changes coming.
Hukalo coming back will help....O'Connor is a great PK guy too. I think you have seen alot of rotation of players playing in certain situations early this season just to see what they can and can't do...Al will get this thing tightened up. Last night's game was odd all around. The Ref didn't let these guys play....someone fell down, and he would automatically call a penalty....it was awful. It is hard to play when you don't know what a penalty is from this ex-linesman now converted into a Ref.....he was bad. But I agree, the 5 on 3 was poorly executed. A couple of the Powerplay Pieces need to be tweaked. I think, and this is just me, that PC and Guy need to be separated. PC's shot has been off the mark, he takes a shot and it misses the net by alot, I am sure he will get into game shape sometime before Christmas, and he might start playing like the PC we knew last year...but right now, we need to find some new combinations. Shafronov is not playing his best right now either, but he is capable of taking over a game like he did last year several times. I want to see the lines take a different shape, we could use a different combination. Let's put Chaulk in the middle of a line that has 2 talented youngsters. When Hukalo comes back I am sure that will pump life into the 2nd line. We'll see, the season is still young. Guys still are finding their ways on the ice.
This league is loaded this year too. No easy road.
Of course Hukalo will help. I agree that O'Conner is probably good on the penalty kill too. Two problems, though. One, they are taking so many penalties this year that their penalty kill gets wore out and two, they lose most of the faceoffs also. On the power play I would like to see the forwards (especially Chaulk and Shafranov) shoot more and the other forwards crash the net. Traditionally the K's never seem to play thier best hockey until around Christmas. I'm a little concerned about the game tonight because Muskegon is not the team you want to face if your penalty kill is below par.