at least we dont travel much this month. The furthest south we go is Washington and we dont go out west at all. There are 26 points in November. If we can go 8-3-2 thats 18 out of 26 points and considering the 4 back-to-backs I would consider that a good month.

One thing about the 3 games in 4 days thing happening 4 times this month too. I think regardless of who is backing up Miller (Lalime or Enroth), Miller should be playing almost all of these games. Its important to build up points now. and with 3 days off after the 3 games in 4 days I see no reason Miller cant go in almost every game.

And of course no huge injuries…

Honestly, looking at the schedule and knowing our penchant for poor play in the second of back to back games I would be happy with a record just slightly above .500 for the month. As bflo said, 8-3-2 would be a good month, maybe even great. 7-4-2 or 6-3-4 (16 points) might be more reasonable.

However, at the same time, being able to roll four effective lines this year could help alleviate some of the problems in back to back games. Also, Enroth might be able to steal us a game as he’ll surely want to impress on the big stage. I’m certainly optimistic.

I agree that Miller should be able to play in some of these back to back games – maybe not all of them, but I don’t think we’ll run him into the ground having him play 3 games a week once in a while. Of the 13 games this month I’d like to see Miller play in about 10 of them, maybe even 11.

It’s been mentioned before, but I’ll reiterate it anyway: perhaps the most important thing for this month will be for our top line and power play units to start scoring with more regularity. That will go a long way towards sustaining this good start.

… is that the 3 in 4 nights are never really 4 in 6 nights or 5 in 8 nights. If you have to play 3 in 4, at least you know you have 3 days off with which to rest up and get a couple of good practices in for the Wed/Fri games. I actually do not mind this scheduling ‘quirk’ one bit, except for the places where it’s at home on Fri and on the road on Sat.

Getting Miller rest will depend completely on how quickly Lalime’s groin heals/Enroth’s ability to play at this level. I’m more worried about Dec. where they play 17 games in 31 days, frankly, from that perspective. If Lalime doesn’t heal and Enroth isn’t ready, then Regier will have to make a move for a goalie to spell Miller through the Olympics. Biron is the obvious choice, but if he wanted the job this early in the season he would have signed here in August.

Ta,