If you read all the comments to my Friday blog - and yes, I did, all 546 of them as of writing this blog - you would think the sky has fallen and there is little hope for this team. Well, far be it from me to argue with my esteemed colleagues, though I may not view the situation as being as dire as they say. However, that said, don't expect me to sit here and say things are good or even going in the right direction when they clearly are not.

Last week, I summed up our play as pathetic. Following the two-game win streak - including what might have been our best game of the year in the shootout win over Florida - troubling signs remained, but things appeared to be looking up. Those two games now look like a mirage and we have fallen back to our bad habits and worse, poor work ethic in a pair of embarrassing defeats.

The word that came to mind to describe our recent play is apathetic, which is described as listless, indifferent etc. Torts spoke after the Tampa Bay loss about how the team appeared to be flat, which is my view has to be a reflection on the coaching staff and failure to get your team prepared. He refused to breakdown the game with the media after the contest and seemed to show more anger for the media than his team but hopefully behind the scenes he ripped the squad.

If Torts did rip the squad privately, it didn't show in the effort put forth Saturday. Poor communication and inconsistent effort were two of the main reasons for the loss Saturday. Much of the discussion on the blog surrounded MDZ's recent play and Matt Cooke's hit. On MDZ, to single him out may not be fair, but his phenomenal start opens him up to more criticism as the bar may have been raised higher than it should be. He is a 19-year old rookie defensemen still learning his way in the NHL. One key point is that the advent of video study means that after his hot start and time on the ice, teams now have a better idea of his strengths and weaknesses, which enable them to put Del Zotto is situations where he can use his strengths.

On the Cooke hit, as was posted by Barry on the blog, the main issues with it are that he that he had Anisimov is his direct site and took several strides lining him up before hitting him. Second and most damaging, he leaps off his feet several inches into the air after getting the momentum of several strides behind a hit where he has Anisimov lined up. Third, he catches him in the jaw. Finally, consider the disregard Cooke has had for other players during his career. The hit by Cooke is endemic of a greater problem in the NHL, which was pointed out by Torts, that the policing that existed in the game in the past has vanished due to the implementation of the instigator role. I am not advocating vigilante and frontier justice, but the number of high hits and total lack of regard by players for their brethren on the ice is staggering. Yes, I have heard the arguments that the better equipment has played a part in players thinking they are fearless, and yes, that is a valid point and probably has contributed to the numbers of cheap hits over the years, but the better equipment has likely prevented as many bad injuries as they have caused. The NHL needs to find a way to crack down on the cheap hits by instituting much more stringent penalties, especially on repeat offenders. On Brain Metzer's comments on the Cooke suspension, yes, we all know there is a double standard, yes, that does have to be cleaned up and penalties made more uniform, and while you state that Cooke should have been suspended don't qualify the comment by stating Anisimov should have had his head up as it defeats your point about the suspension being warranted.

Torts said after the Pittsburgh debacle that Lisin was sat due to his inability to play in his own zone and he would have been scratched if there was someone else available. The same applied to Kotalik, although Kotalik did get off the bench. All I have to say on that is duh. Are you telling us that you didn't know both players had this weakness when you acquired/signed them. All of us on this blog did, it's one of the reasons why many of us felt that the moves were questionable knowing they lacked a main component to play in Torts' system. To say they would have been benched if we had anyone else is a damning statement on GM Glen Sather's roster construction and cap management, which are major bones of contention for us on the site. Call up Byers and sit Lisin, at least with Byers you know you will get 100% effort.

To quote Michael Ray Richardson, the ship be sinking and all of us have major concerns as to whether or not it can be bailed out anytime soon before we fall further into oblivion.

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