GDT: Rocket Vs Volts-Thursday

[mboyan]

murph said:

Look at it this way..... you guys will battle with Bathurst and Moncton for the last playoff spot..... so against Drummondville, those are two points you need to pick up.... so you start Gelinas if he is your #1. Is there a better chance Lafleur gets his confidence back against a team like Drummondville? Sure. But there's also a better chance Drummondville wins, if he plays. For the teams at the top.... they'll usually start their backups vs the weaker teams.... but for the teams in the lower half, it tends to work in reverse in the 2nd half.

hockeydog said:

i agree. this is not the time to try to get lafleur's confidence back, it is time to win. he had lots of chances to show he is back to where he was and blew it. gelinas has earned the #1 starters job, and should be there to stay from here on in.

I have no issue with Gelinas being #1.....but, if you don't start your backup against the worst teams, when do you start him?

Are you suggesting that Gelinas should play every night?

You guys all talk about rookies "hitting the wall" at some point in the 2nd half....what makes you think Gelinas is any different than any other rookie? If that happens, we'd then have a #1 that tanks, and a backup with no confidence....that would go a long way towards getting us into the playoffs

Lafleur has to get some starts at some point. Starting him against a team like the Volts (or Val d'Or, on Saturday), and giving him at least every 3rd or 4th start is imperative, IMO

[hockeydog]

im sure he will get his starts. im just saying now is niot the time to try to build his confidence. i expect him to start tomoorow night, but if it was me i go with gelinas all 3 games. he is hot right now and the way he isp playing can carry this team a long way. but i realize he cannot play everynight. that was not an easy game for gelinas last night, he made alot of big saves. the way lafleur has been playing, i doubt he wins that game.

[Murph]

mboyan said:

murph said:

Look at it this way..... you guys will battle with Bathurst and Moncton for the last playoff spot..... so against Drummondville, those are two points you need to pick up.... so you start Gelinas if he is your #1. Is there a better chance Lafleur gets his confidence back against a team like Drummondville? Sure. But there's also a better chance Drummondville wins, if he plays. For the teams at the top.... they'll usually start their backups vs the weaker teams.... but for the teams in the lower half, it tends to work in reverse in the 2nd half.

hockeydog said:

i agree. this is not the time to try to get lafleur's confidence back, it is time to win. he had lots of chances to show he is back to where he was and blew it. gelinas has earned the #1 starters job, and should be there to stay from here on in.

I have no issue with Gelinas being #1.....but, if you don't start your backup against the worst teams, when do you start him?

Are you suggesting that Gelinas should play every night?

You guys all talk about rookies "hitting the wall" at some point in the 2nd half....what makes you think Gelinas is any different than any other rookie? If that happens, we'd then have a #1 that tanks, and a backup with no confidence....that would go a long way towards getting us into the playoffs

Lafleur has to get some starts at some point. Starting him against a team like the Volts (or Val d'Or, on Saturday), and giving him at least every 3rd or 4th start is imperative, IMO

VDO would be a better start than Drummondville. Drummondville is a game you needed to win to make the playoffs. You don't let those points get away. VDO, isn't the best team offensively, so their chances against Lafleur would probably be similar to what he would have faced in Drummondville. However, VDO does have an advantage over PEI in nets, and on D, plus with them being at home, that's a game PEI probably shouldn't win, unlike Drummondville.

If you start Lafleur vs Dru and lose, then come back with Gelinas vs VDO and lose, that could be the playoffs right there.

You're still putting Lafleur in an easy spot to get some confidence, and you did everything possible to get the 2pts out of the Volts.

[SteveUL]

murph said:

If you start Lafleur vs Dru and lose, then come back with Gelinas vs VDO and lose, that could be the playoffs right there.

Bottom teams usually have difficulties with consistency. I agree that those games against other bottom teams are points that you will let get away if you lose those games ... but I don't think it can be considered as "the playoffs". Bottom teams ... especially teams like Bat, Mon, PEI and SJ's can beat anybody in the Q on any given night ... and so even though they might waste a game vs Drum ... they probably already have a few wins vs top teams ... and will have a few more along the way. All of those teams battling for 7th (or better) will have games that should win ... but don't ... and games that they shouldn't win ... but do. It all evens out in the end ... the team that gets the least amount of points (plus tiebreakers) misses the playoffs.

You can't look back at one game in the season and say that cost the playoffs ... because trading away two of your best players probably has a little bit to with that ... a choice that was made knowing that risk. There have probably already been games this year ... at home ... where the home team stunk it out against a team they should beat ... or they let a big lead slip away by falling aslseep in the 3rd ... etc. One game does not a season make. Its 70 games long and they all play a part in the end.

[bois]

I find it rather amusing that so many people think we're a "bottom feeder" now

I think we could have started JF Bernard in net on this road trip and come back with 3 points

We have a large advantage over Drummondville in every area .. we have a large advantage over VD in every area (except in goal where they are slightly ahead if they start D'orso.. however using your methodology of starting your backups against bottom teams and lumping us in as one.. they may start Dorsey in which case we have a huge advantage there as well

I fully expect to lose to Rouyn however

[mboyan]

Both Lewiston and Cape Breton are very catchable.....their win percentages are not much higher than the Rocket, and the Rocket have games in hand over both. I'm not saying they'll catch them, but finishing third (for PEI, Bathurst, SNL, and Moncton) is not out of the question yet.

[Murph]

bois said:

I find it rather amusing that so many people think we're a "bottom feeder" now

I think we could have started JF Bernard in net on this road trip and come back with 3 points

We have a large advantage over Drummondville in every area .. we have a large advantage over VD in every area (except in goal where they are slightly ahead if they start D'orso.. however using your methodology of starting your backups against bottom teams and lumping us in as one.. they may start Dorsey in which case we have a huge advantage there as well

I fully expect to lose to Rouyn however

Your D isn't as good as VDO's. Richard and Legault are better than anybody you can throw at them (Quaille, Garnier) and their young D (Morin, Scandella, Morton, Beaudoin) is just as good as yours (Southorn, Neiderer, Malouin).

And Steve..... yeah, a bottom of the league team can beat anybody any given night...... but if you miss the playoffs by a point or two, you don't look back at the loss to Halifax or Rouyn.... you look back at the loss to Drummondville.

[mboyan]

murph said:

And Steve..... yeah, a bottom of the league team can beat anybody any given night...... but if you miss the playoffs by a point or two, you don't look back at the loss to Halifax or Rouyn.... you look back at the loss to Drummondville.

If Halifax loses out on first overall by one or two points, are you going to look at a loss that occurred to a Telus Division team? You would think that you would be looking at losses incurred in your own division, against teams that you should be beating.

[mboyan]

murph said:

Your D isn't as good as VDO's. Richard and Legault are better than anybody you can throw at them (Quaille, Garnier) and their young D (Morin, Scandella, Morton, Beaudoin) is just as good as yours (Southorn, Neiderer, Malouin).

Is that fact....or just your opinion??

The Rocket and the Foreurs are fairly even,IMO.

www.lhjmq.qc.ca/lang_en/index.php?page=342374&id_partie=14077

Rather even, don't you think........and that was with Lafleur in net....who, according to you guys......wouldn't have won against the Volts!

[bois]

Of course it's his opinion.. people see us struggling out of the gate this year and then dealing a couple of our key veterans and assume we're going to be in tough to make the playoffs and if we happen to get in roll over and die in 5 games

I think they'll be very surprised

VDo may have a better defenseman in Richard (who until last year was on nobody's fucking radar in this league at all but that's fine) but their d as a whole is not ahead of us IMO

and their forwards are way way behind

but go ahead and sell us short.. we like it

[wingman]

I think they should be playing Lafleur especially to try and get his confidence back before the playoffs. Other years we complained that Jean played the shit out of his starter down the stretch to the point where they weren't as effective as they should be come playoff time, so why keep doing it?

If Lafleur is able to return to the form that he showed last season, that would be a benefit come playoff time and that's not going to happen by him sitting on the bench. If he isn't ready in the last couple weeks of the season and Gelinas goes down with an injury or starts to tank, then the Rocket would be in real trouble especially if the Rocket are in a dogfight for the last playoff spot. Gelinas is still a rookie and overplaying him, especially if he hasn't seen this much action before, could affect his game late in the season.

I think that the coaches have to use their head when it comes to playing the goalies, unlike the way it was done in other years as I mentioned before, but I think that Chouinard has been around long enough to know how and when to use his goalies.

[bois]

Chouinard has played both goalies

Not the same as in the past at all

however LaFleurs last start didn't deserve a call last night i think

[wingman]

bois said:

Chouinard has played both goalies

Not the same as in the past at all

however LaFleurs last start didn't deserve a call last night i think

Yes he has played both. He seems like a coach that if someone is playing well, he rewards them with playing time and he seems to be doing the same with Gelinas and Lafleur. The other week when Lafleur played a good game, he came back to him the next two games and has done the same with Gelinas. I noticed that Chouinard does that in the games with the skaters. If a certain player has had a strong game, I've seen Chouinard use him late in a game, an example of that was Paynter back in December. He had a couple of points in one game and late in the game Chouinard was using him and I've noticed him doing that with other players also, MacKinley is another one that comes to mind.

[Murph]

mboyan said:

murph said:

And Steve..... yeah, a bottom of the league team can beat anybody any given night...... but if you miss the playoffs by a point or two, you don't look back at the loss to Halifax or Rouyn.... you look back at the loss to Drummondville.

If Halifax loses out on first overall by one or two points, are you going to look at a loss that occurred to a Telus Division team? You would think that you would be looking at losses incurred in your own division, against teams that you should be beating.

If Halifax loses 1st overall, and suffers a loss in a winable game, in which they started Yetman..... then yeah, I would look back at that game as one of the ones that got away. It makes no difference what division the team is in. 2 points is 2 points.

[Murph]

mboyan said:

murph said:

Your D isn't as good as VDO's. Richard and Legault are better than anybody you can throw at them (Quaille, Garnier) and their young D (Morin, Scandella, Morton, Beaudoin) is just as good as yours (Southorn, Neiderer, Malouin).

Is that fact....or just your opinion??

The Rocket and the Foreurs are fairly even,IMO.

www.lhjmq.qc.ca/lang_en/index.php?page=342374&id_partie=14077

Rather even, don't you think........and that was with Lafleur in net....who, according to you guys......wouldn't have won against the Volts!

Pointing out a November game in which both teams have overhauled their rosters completely does what for your point?

Nobody said Lafleur wouldn't have won against the Volts. It's PEI posters that say he's the #2 and has no confidence. You guys WILL battle for the last playoff spot, that Drummondville game was a must win.