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I'm not happy with Roy

Something I wrote last year as soon as Roy stopped yelling, and joined the country club, knowing this is his last call as a coach, and better go along if he ever wants a phone to ring again in a league where Rick Bowness is a winning head coach.
Lambert had his team eight over before he was fired at four over, sure shots against are down dramatically even if Pens loss was a very rare forty shot against effort.
I completely get those who write they don't have the talent as I write about the same eight players who should not be here at all. But that does not excuse using Pageau on any penalty kill or Palmieri who set records for allowing goals short-handed off their mistakes like Bossy/Trottier. Go look at the Pens goal on the powerplay, first Pageau turned over the puck, then fell asleep as his man got behind him who finished off the goal as he was drifting behind him. Go all in with Holmstrom, get some speed on the PK, Horvat also struggles. Cizikas is usually beaten or their system is just that horrendous. I like this teams six man unit, and Hogberg was great in goal, the forwards are not NHL-level.
Frankly I'm annoyed because a sub par Pens team raised their game, while New York barely showed up and it took 53 minutes to score against the Pens after pulling the goalie with seven miunutes left against awful goaltending after both teams had six shots in the first. That was a points on the table game, not a no show win or loss by the other team. Where was Roy kicking them in the pants do more, and I know they had 15 shots in the second, he was the one who played the belief card, and both teams had equal rest.
It was nice to see Roy apologize to the smattering of fans at the season ticket holder practice about the teams play, but this is a country club filled with players who don't belong here (or in the NHL) giving them nothing, while Lee is healthy, and having his best season in years.
They should have been better against Pens, go make their goalie be first star. If they are going to lose give Barzal, Horvat, Nelson, Lee every big moment with Duclair. Never Pageau, never Palmieri. How fast did Tsyplakov find himself on the 4th line? How come Pageau was not benched for that effort on Pens powerplay goal, how many more times do we have to watch Palmieri not back-check, he seems to be back in his slump with no open-net scrambles to tap in others hard work.
Yes, Patrick Roy should be better, he's on the hook, even with the shots against down.

New York's Last Stand?

Duclair-Nelson-Palmieri Lee-Barzal-Pageau Tsyplakov-Horvat-Holmstrom Maclean-Cizikas-Fasching E: Engvall, Martin Romanov-Dobson Pelech-Pulock George-Mayfield E: Cholowski Sorokin
Given standings/even with everyone healthy far too much dead weight that can't backcheck in forwards, kill penalties, hold leads, or score. We don't know if the returning players will even produce the very competitive low-shot against games they have had which is very note-worthy vs last season but not discussed because the pk is setting league records for failure.

Roy Update On Changes:

- Pelech will play tomorrow - Barzal is a game-time decision - Duclair won’t play but will travel - Horvat will travel, considered day-to-day - Varlamov won’t travel - Called putting Wahlstrom on waivers a tough call. Says him and Lou talk through every roster decision
Clearly all it took was one game for George to lose his spot when the smart play is dress seven defenders, and bench the dead weight all over the forward group.

Engvall/Wahlstrom Waivers (#26 claimed by Boston)

We need to keep Martin, Cizikas, Pageau, Palmieri, MacLean in the NHL and risk losing Wahlstrom who's had an season with so many badly flawed players, he's had no chance to produce. It would hardly shock me if Wahlstrom was claimed.

Barzal, Duclair, Pelech skating=Fools gold

They were struggling with the team completely healthy, don't buy into their return changing things. Pageau was awful on first line as expected, then he got hurt, Holmstrom had three goals in two games, looked great, the ping pong returned, ahd Holmstrom's reward was back to third line and moved to left wing as Ping Pong does nothing again, and #10 got beat on a goal vs Kings. This all equals bad coaching despite shots against down by 152 but that's been silding back to 30+ for two straight games. Sorokin gets another start with the schedule getting light.

2023-24 vs 2024-24/152 fewer shots against vs last season after 26 games...BUT Part II

I did this after 19 games when the shots against were down 99 from 2023-24, before Seattle game it was down 152.
The special teams numbers tell part of the story but they are hardly dramatic. The allow less goals they score a few less goals but all the close, low-scoring games are far different then the constant barrage of forty shot against games they faced last season.

Varlamov out/Hogberg recalled/Pelech skating

The goals/shots against remain down but the ping pong player returned against Montreal, and of course the pk failed with him on it, despite Sorokin playing excellent.
Now the plan is shuffle the lines to shake Horvat into finally giving them some offense as ping pong returns to third line center, while Cizikas, MacLean and the usual suspects give them nothing as Seattle comes to the failed Belmont experiment.

Varlamov Misses Practice