Not really sure what's going on with Bedard. Looks like he's just disinterested. The rest of them, playing about as well as can be expected. At least they aren't getting throttled.

I wouldn't say he looks uninterested. To me he looks like someone who has lost his confidence and is now gripping the stick too tight and thinking too much when he has the puck.

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yeah, that's probably a better way to put it. He just looks off. He's not shooting enough (5 shots on goal in the last four games and 9 shots in 5 games). I find it hard to believe he's not getting enough opportunities. Someone else has to step up and take some pressure off him and that someone is not Ryan Donato.

He's being moved to wing tonight and paired with Dickerson which I think is a very smart thing to do. He might think he's a center, but he's a wing. he's not fast enough to play center. Much better to give him less defensive responsibility, let him get a head start on the rush since he's guarding the other team's d man. Not sure about Anderson being on the other wing, but I'm not going to nitpik it.

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I'm enjoying watching this team on ESPN+ even though they lose more than they win. I'm assuming that Anderson is there to go into the corners and dig pucks out for Bedard to make plays. Not sold on that idea but willing to be convinced.

And Rick Ball is a perfectly competent PBP guy, which helps the broadcasts go easier. I just hit mute between periods.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

That’s paid off, Dickinson with 2 goals and Bedard with 2 assists. Great patience and pass on the first goal. Edit: pass on the second goal was equally sweet. Looked off the d.

Another shitty third period. And I've seen enough of BJ Brodie.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

yep, now I'm annoyed it took this long to figure out that maybe pairing your two best forwards together is a good idea.

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Perfect game. Bedard gets a couple nice points and we lose to a fellow lottery team.


This team needs a high end superstar prospect to pair with Bedard. Only way they get that is through the draft.

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Aside from Vlasic, are there any young players who have actually progressed during Luke Richardson's tenure?

Soderblom is playing much better this year although that's more on Jimmy Waite...

Nice win tonight. I missed the first half of the game, but they played much more assertively with the lead in the third period.
Even Bedard was out fore-checking well at the top of the 1-2-2.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

Was it on ESPN tonight? I looked on the antenna and skimmed the YouTube menu and gave up. This is all such fucking bullshit and I won't pay $260 a year to watch it either.

It was exclusive to ESPN+.

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amazing, the difference from last year. so many rebounds...losing his net, swimming in the crease. different goalie, a much better goalie. kaiser has developed well, see him as a puck-carrying d-man. allen, coming along nicely. i've noticed some mistakes from allen that ended up in the back of the net. broadcasters and media giving him the hometown homer pass. no issue with that, seems smooth, comfortable with the puck...will make rookie mistakes. willing to get crushed into the boards and attempt a play against the opponents' forecheck.

don't like how coach luke is handling the bedard slump. if he's going to play bedard on dickinson's line, should prob dump anderson from the line and reunite bedard with kurashev and make that the #1 line, especially on home ice. he's killing his 2 pet birds with 1 stone. weakens 3rd line defensive prowness and doing bedard no attacking favors with attacking stiff anderson on the line.

club is producing at nearly last year's poor levels, but, they are much, much more competitive with a better D and goalie play. with tortorella...you never know when the flyers are flying the japanese flag and playing on the rag. could catch them on a down day. club needs to go from strength to strength and win a second consecutive game.

Allen or Kaiser made an obvious mistake in his own end last night that fortunately didn't hurt them (the delay of game penalty). The guy doing color for ESPN+ pointed it out, but then also said that "but this is why he is playing... In 15 more games he won't make that mistake.". Allen may never progress past a 5th defenseman, but even if that's his ceiling he seems like a good value player.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

yes, i think he's quality (definite upgrade over recent years' 3rd pairing of #5/#6 d-men) and his ceiling is easily a 2nd pair d-man. you can dismiss what i say - my belief is that though he has great size, but, may need more time in the gym. more strength could propel him, he already is a quality skater. more strength for obvious reasons, but also increases endurance/lessens fatigue over a game and over a full season...where fatigue causes mistakes and mistakes end up in the net. will get increased minutes.

the club looks great at D - great, as in 2025-26 and beyond. i'm not the biggest fan of murphy, he'll be gone (along with martinez and maybe brodie) and the homegrown talent shows up most on the salary cap sheet. the homegrown talent allows them more money for quality F/As in other areas.

lucky first period...any other day the flyers get 2-3 goals. what a dumb play by maroon at the end of the period, cost the club some scary moments and a penalty that they'll have to kill at the beginning of the 2nd period. equals out his assist on reichel's goal. mrazek looks good today, most of the others, don't look so hot. may have to goalie the flyers to get at least a point today.

club showed all of us why they are in the bottom echelon. chance for the occasional 'goalied' scenario of getting outshot by 12-15 shots, yet winning the game.

couldn't hold a 2-0 lead midway in the 3rd. the first goal was a ridiculous failure. another face-off loss and connor murphy couldn't get in front of the net, despite given 3-4 seconds, off a face-off loss. i understand not giving brodie more minutes in lieu of jones, but murphy is a below mediocre d-man.

second goal looked like a total screen on mrazek. hard to fathom a goal against there because defensive wizard anderson was on the ice.

OT was more nonsense. more special team failure, just like the PP. bedard with the high risk shot, a vlasic penalty and an easy OT winning goal for philly. the club insists on not pressuring anyone at the point. this is their d-zone coverage style when short-handed.

my money is that kurashev plays the next game and who will sit? lots of good candidates.

foligno? played like he's 37 today. losing face-offs, slow. nah. he's the C and the club has gone to great lengths to feature him for the fans.

bertuzzi? another great candidate. slow, no agility and balance as a hockey player where skating is paramount. falls down all the time on simple turns. nah. too much money invested, exposes davidson's FA mistake.

my guess is defensive wizard anderson.

a bad gas station meal of shrimp and pork is being digested and the GM can take a nice dump in a few years and get this shit out of the roster's system. pissed. no reason to not walk away with 2 points today.

hockey night in canada and nhl network have devoted some talk and analysis about bedard's face-off issue. everything from too long and too flexible & curvy a stick to hunching down/not bending his knees and getting low along with a likely soft bottom hand on his stick. yanic perreault, where are you? i remember keenan on film at playoff time - taking face-offs with blackhawk Cs, hammering home the importance of face-offs.

the long stick, saw adam oates last year say bedard's long stick will eventually get him killed, as he's bobbling and concentrating on impossible pucks that most others can't reach - as happened in new jersey.

got to fix the face-off issue, really poor stats against the flyers. believe foligno was 2 for 9, including the loss on the flyers 1st goal.

Interesting take on the long stick. Kinda makes sense but I haven't played so I don't know how much a shorter stick would improve his faceoffs? And would it decrease the effectiveness of his shot, realizing he had 3 goals on the year and his shot can't get much more ineffective?

I went to the Ducks/Hawks game last week. They were collectively awful on face offs. I think Donato was the only one who could win one.

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That's my purse! I don't know you!

yeah, if blackhawk coaches have determined that his stick is the problem, i'm sure the word quickly got back to them to back off and not make bedard change sticks. disadvantage on face-offs with the stick? ok. work on a different technique. opponent L or R, left dot, right dot...going to take time. no improvement over time? if that's the case, either he goes to wing with an 'established' face-off C, or, he gets 1 winger that can take face-offs - whether he's talented offensively or not. can't have a 35%-40% face-off win guy taking 12-15 face-offs a night. this club frequently ices the puck and there are many defensive zone face-offs every game. the face-off losses will catch up - either goals against or chasing and defending, having no possession to score. sounds like a dilemma.

this club, this year, has shown the importance of face-offs. he can't win a face-off and it shows up on his paltry offensive stats line.

as far as what adam oates said...i think you listen, he was an excellent player, superb play-maker. as far as taking his advice, no dice. don't mess with bedard.

when panger is compelled to make comments on the face-offs, you know it's bad.

latest practice - kurashev in, anderson out. kaiser in, allen out. brodie, at age 34, never needs a maintenance day and crevier gets another game instead of allen. interesting.

again, a tough dallas club. worried that mrazek is due a bad game. celebrini 2 goals/3 points last night, michkov with 8 goals. bedard needs a double espresso, quick.

The Stars' backup goalie is getting torched tonight, and the rest of the Stars just don't want to be there. It is tough to take anything out of an ass-kicking, but it seemed that the Blackhawks' outlet passes have been really good. And I was impressed by Crevier even before he scored the 2-on-1 goal.

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"When people want their version of the truth, they go find it, no matter how baseless their beliefs." -- Ken Rosenthal

great to see...lots of positives. worm had to turn at some time, hopefully, stays on the new side for awhile. another tough game in minnesota tomorrow. not the 1st time this season that bedard has stayed on the ice for an extended shift...cherry-picked and then got his partial breakaway. so what happened? he was out of gas and the play the fizzled. get off the ice if you're that gassed.

I saw Caleb/Justin Bedard finally scored a goal!

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You do not talk to me like that! I work too hard to deal with this stuff! I work too hard! I'm an important member of the CSFMB! I drive a Dodge Stratus!

we'll see who gets the start in G today. i believe soderblom has 4-5 games left to play, before he'll have to clear waivers...if the club ever decides to send him down again. broissoit coming back soon - was supposed to come back the 2nd week of the season. believe soderblom would get claimed in a heartbeat.

thinking that the club may keep 3 goalies for awhile and hoping mrazek keeps up the good work, will/should be traded at the deadline. i say will be, because G is a squirrelly issue for a few clubs with legit cup aspirations - colorado with georgiev, edmonton with skinner come to mind. remember what the chevrier trade did for the club in 88-89...that club was nowhere near the expectations that edmonton and colorado have today. if mrazek stays at this level, could bring a #2 pick if 2 or more clubs want mrazek...would prob settle for a #3.

i say should be traded because i don't believe mrazek will be effective by the time the club has playoff legit roster. broissoit under contract and 1 yr younger/$1 million cheaper than mrazek, soderblom looking promising, a bit of a logjam after with commesso and gajan. adding mrazek to that G roster planner creates more of a logjam.

mrazek in goal. crevier out, allen in. anderson sits again.



- brodie keeps getting wheeled out there. impressive. no maintenance days for him. i'm measuring what i expect from foligno, at 37, can't help but feel they need to watch his minutes after a heavy stretch of games and minutes. tough to do, as the club made him the C, and love to feature him for the fans. was brutal in recent games...slow, losing high % of face-offs. his age is making itself more and more obvious.

looks like the best line combos, would think that line #4 is hot and deserves more minutes at the expense of line #2. line #1, kurashev with bedard, can take a face-off here and there.

not a fan of the D combos, would prob try 2 LD pair of vlasic and allen as the #1 D pairing. their fortes are a good match. kaiser and brodie are a good pairing, though, i wouldn't want to cut kaiser's minutes because he's shackled with brodie. all L d-men, save murphy.

last year, this early game in st. paul had all the signs of a 7-1 loss. we'll see today.