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Post by Penguins23® on Jan 25, 2016 9:27:40 GMT -4
What the heck is going on with the Cats? They were previously really good on the road and they just gave up 22 goals in 3 games. They are allowing an average of over 5 goals per game in January, only once did they allow less than 4 goals(3). I was away this past week but yesterday I watched the highlights of each game and my goodness was there a lot of bad plays by everyone. Holwell and Kosack who have been pretty solid looked terrible one the first Sherbrooke goal and pretty bad on others. There's one where Holwell is skating back and kind of pauses at the blue line and the guy just kept skating past him. Very bizarre brain farts. Some suggested that losing Fabian Joseph who was in charge of the D has played a big role in our D taking a step back but that's tough to say. Our D wasn't perfect before King came in.The last few years we were very fortunate because a lot of our D mistakes were being overshadowed by Dubeau's strong play. This year, big saves have been few and far between with some stinkers thrown in there to boot. I'm disappointed because when I looked at our D at the start of the season I expected us to improve. We only lost Talbot-Tassi(Who we replaced with Kosack) and Johnston(Who we should have held on to in the first place). With an extra season under everyone's belt I expected our D to take a step forward but the only one who seemed to have improved is Holwell. I can't tell if that's a coaching issue or an off-season issue. Sweeney and Malatesta to me have been the most disappointing. Sweeney was one of the best in the Q last year and Malatesta showed amazing improvement throughout last season. In hindsight, maybe we shouldn't have traded Klebanskyj. Donaghey has been underwhelming from what I've seen and Tesink seems lost lately but it's to be expected for a rookie. The goaltending, well that issue has been beaten to death. I haven't met a single Cats fan(other than Roger Shannon) that liked the Bouchard trade. Way over priced, has never shown signs of being a capable QMJHL goalie and we paid two 2nd round picks for him. If the Oilers hadn't wasted a pick on him he might not even be in the league. I won't fault BMD for anything, he was supposed to be our 3rd string goalie and he's come in and played above the level of my expectations for a third string goalie. My expectations for a 3rd stringer are very low, he can thank Jordan Kennedy for that. Offense has been mostly consistent thanks to Garland but without him this is a pretty bad team. I'm really glad we have him but part of me wishes he wasn't doing so well so not only could we have saved some assets but we could have gained some by selling off some veterans instead of buying when we should be selling(again) and flopping in the playoffs.
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Post by SteveUL on Jan 25, 2016 10:48:51 GMT -4
I blame Charlottetown and CB for this mess ... and to a lesser extent SJ. They brutally underachieved in the first half and allowed us to get to the top of the division ... same as last year. Then that "forced" Shannon to have to make additions to get better. If they had beat us as much as we had beat them, then we'd be closer to mid-pack in the Q than the top. We aren't a top team even though we rank up there in the standings.
I don't think we had a choice on Johnston. They went with Fortin and made a deal with Chic that if Sweeney returned then we'd deal him. By the time Sweeeney returned though, it was clear (to me) that Fortin was not good enough, and keeping Johnston would have been preferred. When they made the deal with Chic ... it was a good move ... but when Sweeney came back, it was no longer a good move. But even then, there was no good option to replace Fortin unless you dealt for a 20 YO ... all other options were either not tradable right away or not any better. Although it could be argued that BMD and Dupre were a better pair than Fortin and Dupre, and were better than the pair we have now.
But clearly Shannon dropped the ball on goaltending. He tried to do it on the cheap with unproven Fortin (although a 4th isn't peanuts) ... and then extremely overpaid for a guy that is no better than Fortin. This might cost Shannon his job.
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Post by bois on Jan 25, 2016 10:50:38 GMT -4
I blame Charlottetown and CB for this mess ... and to a lesser extent SJ. They brutally underachieved in the first half and allowed us to get to the top of the division ... same as last year. Then that "forced" Shannon to have to make additions to get better. If they had beat us as much as we had beat them, then we'd be closer to mid-pack in the Q than the top. We aren't a top team even though we rank up there in the standings. I don't think we had a choice on Johnston. They went with Fortin and made a deal with Chic that if Sweeney returned then we'd deal him. By the time Sweeeney returned though, it was clear (to me) that Fortin was not good enough, and keeping Johnston would have been preferred. When they made the deal with Chic ... it was a good move ... but when Sweeney came back, it was no longer a good move. But even then, there was no good option to replace Fortin unless you dealt for a 20 YO ... all other options were either not tradable right away or not any better. Although it could be argued that BMD and Dupre were a better pair than Fortin and Dupre, and were better than the pair we have now. But clearly Shannon dropped the ball on goaltending. He tried to do it on the cheap with unproven Fortin (although a 4th isn't peanuts) ... and then extremely overpaid for a guy that is no better than Fortin. This might cost Shannon his job. You should blame Garland without his unreal play you're a mid ranked team...... sell him at Christmas to the highest bidder and voila
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Post by SteveUL on Jan 25, 2016 10:55:46 GMT -4
I blame Charlottetown and CB for this mess ... and to a lesser extent SJ. They brutally underachieved in the first half and allowed us to get to the top of the division ... same as last year. Then that "forced" Shannon to have to make additions to get better. If they had beat us as much as we had beat them, then we'd be closer to mid-pack in the Q than the top. We aren't a top team even though we rank up there in the standings. I don't think we had a choice on Johnston. They went with Fortin and made a deal with Chic that if Sweeney returned then we'd deal him. By the time Sweeeney returned though, it was clear (to me) that Fortin was not good enough, and keeping Johnston would have been preferred. When they made the deal with Chic ... it was a good move ... but when Sweeney came back, it was no longer a good move. But even then, there was no good option to replace Fortin unless you dealt for a 20 YO ... all other options were either not tradable right away or not any better. Although it could be argued that BMD and Dupre were a better pair than Fortin and Dupre, and were better than the pair we have now. But clearly Shannon dropped the ball on goaltending. He tried to do it on the cheap with unproven Fortin (although a 4th isn't peanuts) ... and then extremely overpaid for a guy that is no better than Fortin. This might cost Shannon his job. You should blame Garland without his unreal play you're a mid ranked team...... sell him at Christmas to the highest bidder and voila Nope ... if you guys and CB play better then Garland is somewhat nullified. Garland was this good last year so he was always part of the equation.
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Post by hal on Jan 25, 2016 11:03:22 GMT -4
So your in 1st Place because we sucked...............and that's a Bad Thing ? Otay !
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Post by bois on Jan 25, 2016 12:14:34 GMT -4
You should blame Garland without his unreal play you're a mid ranked team...... sell him at Christmas to the highest bidder and voila Nope ... if you guys and CB play better then Garland is somewhat nullified. Garland was this good last year so he was always part of the equation. and you guys were better last year than expected as a result you don't win as many games without Garland..... no matter how much we underachieved but as long as you have Irving at the helm looking for a memorial Cup title... you'll never truly rebuild.....
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Post by SteveUL on Jan 25, 2016 12:54:22 GMT -4
So your in 1st Place because we sucked...............and that's a Bad Thing ? Otay ! It made Shannon want to add instead of selling ... we aren't a contender but spent good assets anyway to get "better" ... actually seem to have become worse.
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Post by SteveUL on Jan 25, 2016 12:59:42 GMT -4
Nope ... if you guys and CB play better then Garland is somewhat nullified. Garland was this good last year so he was always part of the equation. and you guys were better last year than expected as a result you don't win as many games without Garland..... no matter how much we underachieved but as long as you have Irving at the helm looking for a memorial Cup title... you'll never truly rebuild..... Last year was the same ... CB Char and SJ (to a lesser extent) underachieved and made everybody think we were a better team. We were good ... but not a contender. We were just better than the rest of our division ... which was weak. Our division has been weak again this year and we have excelled because of it ... but we aren't a contender even though we had point totals that ranked us 2nd or 3rd at different times. Unbalanced schedules hide the truth.
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Post by Penguins23® on Jan 25, 2016 14:55:48 GMT -4
Woops, I just read Hodge's article and I realized that we have "only" allowed 45 goals in the last 9 games. I thought it was 46 because I included a goal for Bathurst getting a shootout win. Hodge finally gets on the board to bring the score to about 98527 for Penguins23 and 1 for him. Other interesting things that he pointed out: -The Cats made 4 goalie changes in the past 4 games. -Cats are 3-10-2 when scoring 3 goals or less As expected, Rumble didn't sugar coat it and said he hopes at least one of the goalies can start playing well and run with the starters job because just like us, he has no idea who his starter is.
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Post by Captain Obvious on Jan 25, 2016 15:38:39 GMT -4
What the heck is going on with the Cats? They were previously really good on the road and they just gave up 22 goals in 3 games. They are allowing an average of over 5 goals per game in January, only once did they allow less than 4 goals(3). I was away this past week but yesterday I watched the highlights of each game and my goodness was there a lot of bad plays by everyone. Holwell and Kosack who have been pretty solid looked terrible one the first Sherbrooke goal and pretty bad on others. There's one where Holwell is skating back and kind of pauses at the blue line and the guy just kept skating past him. Very bizarre brain farts. Some suggested that losing Fabian Joseph who was in charge of the D has played a big role in our D taking a step back but that's tough to say. Our D wasn't perfect before King came in.The last few years we were very fortunate because a lot of our D mistakes were being overshadowed by Dubeau's strong play. This year, big saves have been few and far between with some stinkers thrown in there to boot. I'm disappointed because when I looked at our D at the start of the season I expected us to improve. We only lost Talbot-Tassi(Who we replaced with Kosack) and Johnston(Who we should have held on to in the first place). With an extra season under everyone's belt I expected our D to take a step forward but the only one who seemed to have improved is Holwell. I can't tell if that's a coaching issue or an off-season issue. Sweeney and Malatesta to me have been the most disappointing. Sweeney was one of the best in the Q last year and Malatesta showed amazing improvement throughout last season. In hindsight, maybe we shouldn't have traded Klebanskyj. Donaghey has been underwhelming from what I've seen and Tesink seems lost lately but it's to be expected for a rookie. The goaltending, well that issue has been beaten to death. I haven't met a single Cats fan(other than Roger Shannon) that liked the Bouchard trade. Way over priced, has never shown signs of being a capable QMJHL goalie and we paid two 2nd round picks for him. If the Oilers hadn't wasted a pick on him he might not even be in the league. I won't fault BMD for anything, he was supposed to be our 3rd string goalie and he's come in and played above the level of my expectations for a third string goalie. My expectations for a 3rd stringer are very low, he can thank Jordan Kennedy for that. Offense has been mostly consistent thanks to Garland but without him this is a pretty bad team. I'm really glad we have him but part of me wishes he wasn't doing so well so not only could we have saved some assets but we could have gained some by selling off some veterans instead of buying when we should be selling(again) and flopping in the playoffs. Maybe the porous goaltending is affecting the play of the d-men? When you don't trust your goalie, you don't play with the same assurace than if you trust him/them. Another factor is that when we face PEI and CB lately they have a full team plus some strong additions, both definitely added offense. THe Sherbrooke and Drummondville games are hard to explain though...
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Post by Captain Obvious on Jan 25, 2016 15:41:10 GMT -4
and you guys were better last year than expected as a result you don't win as many games without Garland..... no matter how much we underachieved but as long as you have Irving at the helm looking for a memorial Cup title... you'll never truly rebuild..... Last year was the same ... CB Char and SJ (to a lesser extent) underachieved and made everybody think we were a better team. We were good ... but not a contender. We were just better than the rest of our division ... which was weak. Our division has been weak again this year and we have excelled because of it ... but we aren't a contender even though we had point totals that ranked us 2nd or 3rd at different times. Unbalanced schedules hide the truth. What is funny is that I have been saying this stuff for over a year...and a bunch of you said I was negative...
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Post by SteveUL on Jan 25, 2016 15:48:00 GMT -4
Last year was the same ... CB Char and SJ (to a lesser extent) underachieved and made everybody think we were a better team. We were good ... but not a contender. We were just better than the rest of our division ... which was weak. Our division has been weak again this year and we have excelled because of it ... but we aren't a contender even though we had point totals that ranked us 2nd or 3rd at different times. Unbalanced schedules hide the truth. What is funny is that I have been saying this stuff for over a year...and a bunch of you said I was negative... No ... we said you were always negative ... you only comment when you have something negative to say and never comment when there are positives. If we beat a team 7-1, and the lone goal against was a bad one, you'd comment on that only and how it was ultimately Shannon's fault ... and then mention we should have grabbed that Russian goaltender 6 yrs ago. That is still the truth ... you only bring negative discussion ... never positive. Right now there isn't much positive to discuss so you can fill your boots ... you'll blend in.
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Post by Captain Obvious on Jan 26, 2016 8:00:57 GMT -4
What is funny is that I have been saying this stuff for over a year...and a bunch of you said I was negative... No ... we said you were always negative ... you only comment when you have something negative to say and never comment when there are positives. If we beat a team 7-1, and the lone goal against was a bad one, you'd comment on that only and how it was ultimately Shannon's fault ... and then mention we should have grabbed that Russian goaltender 6 yrs ago. That is still the truth ... you only bring negative discussion ... never positive. Right now there isn't much positive to discuss so you can fill your boots ... you'll blend in. I was positive enough to say that if they added the right pieces they could compete with anybody...instead they threw away a bunch of assets to make the team not much better than it was 6 weeks ago. They could have probably added a better goalie just by getting a Jr.A free agent. Donaghey is the only clear upgrade from what they had before. He's a lot better than Malatesta or Klebanskyj in the top 4.
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Post by jimmy on Jan 26, 2016 8:44:37 GMT -4
No ... we said you were always negative ... you only comment when you have something negative to say and never comment when there are positives. If we beat a team 7-1, and the lone goal against was a bad one, you'd comment on that only and how it was ultimately Shannon's fault ... and then mention we should have grabbed that Russian goaltender 6 yrs ago. That is still the truth ... you only bring negative discussion ... never positive. Right now there isn't much positive to discuss so you can fill your boots ... you'll blend in. I was positive enough to say that if they added the right pieces they could compete with anybody...instead they threw away a bunch of assets to make the team not much better than it was 6 weeks ago. They could have probably added a better goalie just by getting a Jr.A free agent. Donaghey is the only clear upgrade from what they had before. He's a lot better than Malatesta or Klebanskyj in the top 4. I am OK with adding Karabacek considering the price ... he came pretty cheap ... is clearly more of an impact than Glassl, and if nothing else gives us depth ... I can live with the additions of Richard and Pickard - minor moves to add depth. The Bouchard deal is looking like the disaster most of us predicted it would be ... I would say overall Shannon has done a decent job as GM, but you have to wonder, if we go down in flames and poor goaltending is the main culprit, will the Bouchard move cost him his job? He traded two 2nd rounders for a guy who has not been able to establish himself as our #1 guy - and not because the #2 has been playing well ... brutal ...
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Post by CrazyJoeDavola on Jan 26, 2016 9:25:20 GMT -4
I was positive enough to say that if they added the right pieces they could compete with anybody...instead they threw away a bunch of assets to make the team not much better than it was 6 weeks ago. They could have probably added a better goalie just by getting a Jr.A free agent. Donaghey is the only clear upgrade from what they had before. He's a lot better than Malatesta or Klebanskyj in the top 4. I am OK with adding Karabacek considering the price ... he came pretty cheap ... is clearly more of an impact than Glassl, and if nothing else gives us depth ... I can live with the additions of Richard and Pickard - minor moves to add depth. The Bouchard deal is looking like the disaster most of us predicted it would be ... I would say overall Shannon has done a decent job as GM, but you have to wonder, if we go down in flames and poor goaltending is the main culprit, will the Bouchard move cost him his job? He traded two 2nd rounders for a guy who has not been able to establish himself as our #1 guy - and not because the #2 has been playing well ... brutal ... I think everyone was waiting for a "part 2" of that deal, that would have cleared that price up. Bizarre move... seems like he was swinging for a homerun that would have made him look like a genious....but he traded for Munenori Kawasaki to hit that homerun
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