james acheson <[log in to unmask]> writes:
>is there really something wrong when someone says ... "I cannot believe that someone beat Todd Jackson to a loose puck when Todd had a huge lead in the foot race... gee there must be something wrong with Todd's will to hustle"...?

I have no problems when you say "Todd didn't get to a puck he usually gets too", I DO have a problem however when you suggest that it was him holding something back or just not trying when it may have been any number of other reasons.  Also,
comparing this situation to what Niko did or Shields does, is unfair to Todd.  You quoted one incident not examples of it happening repeatedly.  I will never argue that Niko didn't go as hard as he could have all the time and that he could have been
even better if he put in the effort.
>
>Is there really anything wrong with asking what is up with a team that knows it is this close to the playoffs and they are not playing tier best?  I remember a team that was this close to the playoffs last year that did not seem to hustle and when
>the playoffs rolled around that team got out hustled and out trapped by an inferior team AT HOME and lost two in a row to that inferior team.

See this is where I think a lot of LIST-ers disagree with you.  I don't think we see the same team we saw last year on the ice like you do.  This team loses one game AT lowell 3-2 and you say "Uh-oh they are setting themselves up to be out in the
first round."  Last year the team was losing badly, playing sloppy, every weekend after christmas (pretty much) and they paid for it.  They deserved to be criticized.  This team is not above criticism (such as their bad habit of taking bad penalties
at inopportune times), but I don't think the sky is falling because Todd Jackson didn't win a foot race to a loose puck.

-Jake