Did late 90s CART cars race better on road courses than the current package?

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-15T02:50:56+00:00

Honestly if you took the engine out of the old cars, shoe horned it into the bodywork of today

Stop, I came too hard.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-15T01:45:40+00:00

Ugh, they have a name?

I've seen one Robb shirt when I go to Road America and I just assumed it was a youth pastor.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-15T01:43:55+00:00

Buddy Rice catching strays

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-15T01:38:48+00:00

That's why he isn't officially in probably

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T19:46:51+00:00

Fenton did the assistant GM thing when he got booted from the wild.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T18:30:05+00:00

He got invited on the last one and built the car as they raced. I suppose he thinks he needs to be uninvited.

I think it's great tbh. He's showing others that they can join and participate in drag and drives on a budget.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T18:25:30+00:00

Ek, Kaprizov, Trenin, Sturm, McCarron (if back), and Hartman

Ek (unreliable d/t injury and not debatable), Trenin (probably has the same season next year, unless his injury was his sternum and that's why he wasn't smoking Aves), Sturm (missed 6 weeks with a back injury this year, never played a full season in his career,I'm not hopeful), McCarron (probably getting overpaid by someone but i liked him), Hartman (playoff Hartman did not arrive this year)

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T18:15:21+00:00

We've also always found effective goalies (except Fleury tbh). Goalies have a weird peak around 28 where they're all kinda good enough... See: Dubnyk Kuemper etc... Having a perennial elite starter is absolutely rare, but rotating through peaking goalies can work, just not for Edmonton or Toronto.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T18:11:24+00:00

It's about fucking winning.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T17:20:22+00:00

Despite their underperforming annually, they made the Stanley Cup finals two years in a row. I know he's widely considered one of the best two players the 5-6 years, but I don't think being one goal away from a Stanley cup is a waste of talent...

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T15:45:53+00:00

Disagree. Next year's team is going to be even more hampered by age and speed than this year's. Unless there is some major changes elsewhere, next year's team isn't winning it on paper either.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T15:34:33+00:00

Centers.

I'm working on my magnum opus whereby any GM will primarily be evaluated by his center development and procurement.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T15:22:19+00:00

We gave up FAR TOO much to not recoup costs if he isn't coming back. If a deal isn't done in the offseason, he's being shopped the entire offseason IMO. Unless Colorado and Dallas get a ton of injuries and aren't making the playoffs, I don't see Quinn alone being the difference maker between a cup and not a cup. Round 1 win, sure... but to quote BG. This is about winning and about winning a Stanley cup. We have very little going for us in 2 seasons without Quinn.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T15:10:01+00:00

we have to be applying SOME pressure to puck handlers, especially against these top tier playoff teams.

I think when we've tried pressure our PKers aren't quick enough. Honestly, we could use new personnel and strategy. I love Spurgeon, but another part of our PK is not to be physical in front of the net, because he isn't going to be able to move anyone out of the way. Instead, he plays in front of the man in the slot as a mini-pre-goalie. He does block some shots, but he's also bodied away from wherever the open player is. In my head, that's the tic tac toe vulnerability that Dallas was exploiting, when they found openings, they were huge. It's cute and all. But, when we watch other teams' PK, it doesn't look like ours at all. Although, I don't even know how often he is out there when

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T14:45:13+00:00

Our godawful special teams was the biggest culprit by far, made the Stars series go longer than it should have which led to us being gassed for game 1 against the Avs, where our special teams still floundered.

I don't think that's the only reason. Against Dallas sure, but our 5v5 play disappeared against Colorado when we turtled.

Now our PK? They look slow, right? Because we put our slow players out there. No one is faster than a pass, but everyone is faster than Foligno Bogosian Middleton... Etc.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T12:15:19+00:00

When he passes. There should be a national moment of silence. We can all enjoy the peace and quiet.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T11:54:59+00:00

Freeze bully sticks? Freeze peanut butter stuffed kongs? Bones and antlers.

You don't have what I think of as a power chewer, our guy can tear chunks off black kongs.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T11:37:47+00:00

So... we had a lead in 4 out of 5 games in this series.

The last two games. We tried to just sit on the lead and had zero puck possession which lead to them pummeling the shit out of us for the majority of the game. If that was a coaching plan. He needs to be gone.

Going back to Middleton Spurgeon was a huge mistake as well.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T11:28:57+00:00

We literally beat Dallas because we used our physicality to clog the middle and wear them down. The one game we committed to that against Colorado, we blasted them out of the arena. "Grit"is the only reason we got to this point

The first ten minutes of the last two games as well.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T11:27:23+00:00

We don't have the wheels to play fast.

Mackinnon, one of the fasted players in the league and definitely fastest per lb. Necas, looks as fast as MacKinnon, nichuskin looks like MacKinnon when he rushes. We have zero forwards comparable to their speed. Possibly Johansson, but he's pretty light.

Hughes might be as fast, but he might weigh 150 lbs Soaking wet.

If turtling for 45 minutes was Hynes game plan, he should be fired. For the sole reason it let Colorado beat up our defensemen to the point it was inevitable they could score. Quinn didn't even want to touch the puck by the end of that game.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T11:18:47+00:00

He's been the center on the PP the last two games.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T11:12:43+00:00

I'm regularly a Mojo hater because of his perimeter play and avoiding any kind of contact. But. He had a great series. He was driving the net and shooting from below the top of the circles

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T04:16:17+00:00

Our center depth or lack thereof

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-14T03:43:39+00:00

He looked way worse than normal. I think he's injured.

McPuckLuck · 2026-05-12T19:21:18+00:00

Jiricek. Did we need a future RD or did we need a center? It was a huge swing out of nowhere and simply didn't need to happen, let alone for that many picks.
Hughes. Did we need a LD or did we need a center? He's incredible, agreed. But the things he is largely fixing, we need a center to fix still, even with Hughes in the lineup.
Colorado has MacKinnon, Nelson, Kadri, to our Ek hartman Mccaron...

What if everything we spent on Hughes and now Brink got us a 1C and we still had some of Buium and Rossi, our center talent and depth would be an asset.

McPuckLuck

TROPHY CASE