GDT: October 11 | Dnb-Mdv | DMn-Spk | DRg-Nft | Slv-SYu | Lev-Trk

[ficohok*]

You did a number of posts in derogatory form of The Bears, Croats (and their NA offshoots)..

But if I'm mistaken, i appologise.

I think CSKA was one of the few who said that Medvescak will do fine (not that good like winning 8 in a row, but fine) in KHL...

 

[bobbeaver]

Crohabitat read what was said in this thread. Noone was over blowing this win or the streak. It was definitively an unexpected win from my corner (i hoped but..), but this pokeing each other wasnt about the win. So your advice is kinda void bro.

 

[billy piton]

depht wins hockey games. cheecho, vesce and brust are great, but biggest medvescak's strenght is the fact that they have 25 well schooled, experienced players. i mean, today they played without montador, popovic, linglet, klubertanz, walker and jessiman, but you can't see the difference.

they are insanely deep team.

 

[SledgeHammer]

depht wins hockey games. cheecho, vesce and brust are great, but biggest medvescak's strenght is the fact that they have 25 well schooled, experienced players. i mean, today they played without montador, popovic, linglet, klubertanz, walker and jessiman, but you can't see the difference.

they are insanely deep team.

They are so deep they are philosophers of the game

 

[cave troll]

Yes. These are really crippling injuries.
Complete first defense line, first line winger and key PK player+ best skater in the team.
Still, our depth is outstanding and it wins games.

Also, my opinion is that Willsie is better player than Ryan or Ellison.
They can't replace his physical presence and grit.
Damn TPS Turku.

 

[Latgale_fan]

I certainly didn't expect the team to do so well this season. I thought they'd need a hell lot more time to adjust to the league and to big ice, but seems that although the start was rough, it took less time than I though and then their performance just skyrocketed.

Then again, still remains to be seen if the winning streak can be extended, with the injuries and well, in general- still far East trip ahead, tough away games vs Eastern giants... a lot of games to be played. But seems that the first test has been passed and along with LEV (and perhaps my homr team, Dinamo Riga), as well as Barys in the East it will be interesting to follow foreign teams performances this year.

 

[FreshFruit]

"Look to the West" post was a sarcasm.
Now in the more serious tone.

If we look at the Western conference standings we see that 3rd Medvescak and 10th Lokomotiv are only 6 points away, with regard that Medvescak has one game more than any other team from 3rd to 10th place( excluding CSKA that has same game ratio as Medvescak).

It also must be noticed that Medvescak played only 16th game of the total 54 games of regular season, a little bit more of 1/4 of all games.

Medvescak's game is steadily raising since theirs return in Zagreb 3 weeks ago. No doubt that they look good and play solid.

Also must be noticed that in almost all games Medvescak has been outshooted and that quite few of their wins are goalies work, most notably Barry Brust. It is clear that Barry Brust can't keep his stellar form through whole season.

IMO teams like Atlant, Lokomotiv, Slovan, CSKA are underpreforming and we should see raise of their competitivness through season resulting fall of Medvescak's high place.

I still believe that Medvescak is a team for 7-10th place and that they'll fight dire battle with Spartak, Slovan and Riga for last playoff spots.

 

[cave troll]

Medvescak outshotted their opponents 6 times, and were outshotted 9 times (some games with really narrow margin). VS Barys SOG were equal.
Great stats for team with real short preseason training and at least 7-8 games spent with finding chemistry since roster is 90% new.

 

[bobbeaver]

See i dont think so. Yes the west is extremely competitive, unlike the east where you can see already who is way down and who is not. But only a few times was there any real notable difference in SOG, and games like Avangard those shots were snowballs. Not to mention the offense doesnt relay on any one player, only Cheechoo has 9 goals and is high on the scoring list but we made 4th most goals till now in both conferences put together, so there is diversity in the scorers. Only the 4th line is a bit slow on scoring currently.
and i have noticed historically how Medvescak plays. We relay on the goalies alot. if there is an opening for shots it is never in the middle but the sides which are statistically easier to save.
Also yes ofc Brusty wount be able to hold this form for whole season, but thats why we have 2 great goalies, as there is a rule a foreign goalie can goal tend 66% of games in mind. Slovan i agree will get better, Atlant can maybe get better as they played some good hockey, CSKA i dont see them playing any better any time soon as they are not a team (they should be 1-2 place lookin at the roster) nor Lokomotiv. But even if it happens Medvescak still can keep a decent spot looking at how deep the roster is (as seen today) and a style of play that most teams are not used to. they can get info and watch movies, but its not the same untill you play vs the style a couple times. So i think we gona be 6th - 5th place in the end with donbass above and riga or lev aswell.
But lets be honest here this is pure bull****ing lol we can think or hope what we like, but what will happen only god knows.

 

[FreshFruit]

Medvescak outshotted their opponents 6 times, and were outshotted 9 times (some games with really narrow margin). VS Barys SOG were equal.
Great stats for team with real short preseason training and at least 7-8 games spent with finding chemistry since roster is 90% new.

IMO Meds are winning games primarily because of a goalie.
If we analize all 16 games Mds goalies played I think that only in 1 or 2 their SV% was worser than the opponents( think those games were Cherepovets and Riga), plus they had 3 shutouts.

In todays games Barry Brust had 38 saves and 2 goals allowed, while Donbass goalie had 23 saves and 5 goals allowed. Difference is pretty big. If Barry Brust isn't stellar last 4-5 games Medvescak wouldn't have 8th consecutive wins strike. Vs Avangard Meds had 16(not 100% sure) shots and 4 goals.

Sooner or later fall in form well occur goalies and when that happens I think that whole team will struggle to win.

 

[bobbeaver]

read the post above lol. I think you are underestimating Dekanich here. he was the one that started this winning streak vs SKA. Basically you could have the goalies alternating each night n u wouldnt see the difference as they are both incredible. and ur not giving the credit to the D. Most of the shots taken by opponents were weaker shots due to pressure and active D (no not today, today was different n Barry had some great saves) compared to more solid chances made by medvescak in general. Besides if u want a competitive team you need 2 great goalies you can relay n lean on and Trust so u can take risks to win.

 

[FreshFruit]

See i dont think so. Yes the west is extremely competitive, unlike the east where you can see already who is way down and who is not. But only a few times was there any real notable difference in SOG, and games like Avangard those shots were snowballs. Not to mention the offense doesnt relay on any one player, only Cheechoo has 9 goals and is high on the scoring list but we made 4th most goals till now in both conferences put together, so there is diversity in the scorers. Only the 4th line is a bit slow on scoring currently.
and i have noticed historically how Medvescak plays. We relay on the goalies alot. if there is an opening for shots it is never in the middle but the sides which are statistically easier to save.
Also yes ofc Brusty wount be able to hold this form for whole season, but thats why we have 2 great goalies, as there is a rule a foreign goalie can goal tend 66% of games in mind. Slovan i agree will get better, Atlant can maybe get better as they played some good hockey, CSKA i dont see them playing any better any time soon as they are not a team (they should be 1-2 place lookin at the roster) nor Lokomotiv. But even if it happens Medvescak still can keep a decent spot looking at how deep the roster is (as seen today) and a style of play that most teams are not used to. they can get info and watch movies, but its not the same untill you play vs the style a couple times. So i think we gona be 6th - 5th place in the end with donbass above and riga or lev aswell.
But lets be honest here this is pure bull****ing lol we can think or hope what we like, but what will happen only god knows.

Agree with most of it.
I can see Medvescak on 5-6th place only if Atlant, Loko, Slovan and CSKA keep underperforming 'till Christmas, IMO that's a stretch.

Edit. Look at the stats of the previous Medvescak's games, in almost all of them opponents D and goalies failed (28 shots 5 goals vs Donbass, 16 shots 4 gorals vs Avangard etc.). Medvescak's forwards are currently exploiting bad play of opponents defence and goalies. Not whole season will opponents defence play that bad vs Medvescak, they'll adapt sooner than later because they must if they want playoff spots.
Yes, Med has two good goalies and they've been pretty stellar in whole 16 games. I feel reluctant to see that will last whole season, expecially in the next couple of months when we should see last standings before Olympics.

 

[cave troll]

Sure. Wins against Ugra, Avtomobilist, Neftekhimik or Minsk are pure goalies win. We were totally outplayed. Dominated.
And at least 30 Avangard shots in desperation from blue line straight on Brust chest on 0-2, 0-3 and 0-4 were Brust miracle.

 

[NJDevilsZG]

What you've been obviously not watching but stat-reading is a good, structured, active and agresive D versus ... well, the opposite. It's not question of playing better in your implemening system. You are predicting that our boys will decline while playing longer in their set gameplay, all while bunch of other teams will upgrade/adapt/full-blown-change their basic gameplay structures, implement it and manage to play better in same time-frame. Good luck with that.

P.S. As soon as we make anyone step away from their game, while we're playing our way, it's pretty much "game over".

 

[malkinfan]

You got to think that their success vs budget will influence adjusting foreigner rule after the season..

 

[bobbeaver]

Malkin it has been announced by Medvedev that this will change, even before the season started. I think it was that the whole cap will be removed but only for the players from countries that are playing (as they are in KHL view theirs and not foreigners), not the canucks n americans. but will this happen we wount know yet or if this variant or a complete lifting of the foreign players, incluiding NA players, cap will happen.

And to Fruit, why do you think the opponents D failed n goalies? you think its by accident suddenly they fail in mass? and in some games D failed but goalies were the ones who saved the teams from disaster (Yugra, Avtomobilist, even Barys). And Medvescaik if u looked has in general better quality chances, they earlier on didnt score, now they do as they loosened up. Sometimes fewer shots but much more deadly.
As for goalies there is a friendly rivalry between them so they will try to outdoe each other. when one goes down n needs a rest other will step up. That division of time i believe will result in consistant goalkeeping. There is no one consistent pressure on one goalie. If there is one thing i believe will be consistent and thing u can relay on are the goalies. I very much doubt there will be a slump at the same time of both goalies, since one will be fresh always.

 

[malkinfan]

Malkin it has been announced by Medvedev that this will change, even before the season started. I think it was that the whole cap will be removed but only for the players from countries that are playing (as they are in KHL view theirs and not foreigners), not the canucks n americans. but will this happen we wount know yet or if this variant or a complete lifting of the foreign players, incluiding NA players, cap will happen.

Thanks, hoping that the cap is lifted entirely. If a team thinks some NA guys are better for the money than some Russian guys, let them try and find out. Let the best guys available play in the league! Just like Medvescak, you can get some good players for cheep from NA as long as your paying higher than AHL, which isn't that much. Because there is such a separation of pay between NHL/AHL, the KHL can exploit this.

 

[roki977]

Goalies dont win games. Offense do and Meds offense is one of the best in KHL. Defense is better than it was before streak and goalies are on high level. All together is 8 wins streak..

 

[Agramer]

Just like Medvescak, you can get some good players for cheep from NA as long as your paying higher than AHL, which isn't that much.

yeah, but you have to have MedveÅ¡čak's scouting which is excellent, it was in EBEL and it is now, especially with Aaron Fox as Sports manager. they manage to find good players for cheap, trouble is keeping them after they play good for MedveÅ¡čak

 

[bobbeaver]

Malkin well the difference is that most of the AHL-ers (even ex nhl-ers) we got for sometimes less money than they would get in the AHL. Even in EBEL we usually worked like that. I understand we mostly get them because of the league and the human and homey feel to the club.

 

[bobbeaver]

mm yeah keeping them is the problem. Most we kept that were top tier if they felt so good and part of the club and the whole people (croatians) they didnt wanna leave even for the big $, but more usually they left. In EBEL we mostly supplied the league with best scorers or setup men lol

 

[billy piton]

yeah, but you have to have MedveÅ¡čak's scouting which is excellent, it was in EBEL and it is now, especially with Aaron Fox as Sports manager. they manage to find good players for cheap, trouble is keeping them after they play good for MedveÅ¡čak

i don't thhink their scouting is excellent. on contrary, they don't have scouts in north america and fox himself said that they hadn't seen playing most of the players they brought. and even those they saw, it wasn't more than one or two games per player which isn't really serious scouting.

the thing is, you can go to eliteprospects and take randomly some of the top 100 ahl scorers and you'll get players of similar quality they have now. you can't really miss by much.

 

[bobbeaver]

i wouldnt say so. Yeh we dont have the $ for big scouting but hockey world is rather small if u concentrate on a certain market so you can do alot by word of mouth (especially with French just coming frm there). I mean its not a missmatch of player types that a lack of any scouting would produce. I mean they found Bjorkstrand. He was in the second allsvenska league before, not exactly a khl material on paper with a misserable last season, and some players have statisticaly "invisible" play elements that a team needs. This team feels it has anatomy and diversity. The started with older guys like in the EBEL, and they will work up to younger guys n later guys they drafted.

 

[billy piton]

i wouldnt say so. Yeh we dont have the $ for big scouting but hockey world is rather small if u concentrate on a certain market so you can do alot by word of mouth (especially with French just coming frm there). .

sure, but that's not scouting.

 

[bobbeaver]

Depends how you look at it. Asking people who you trust is scouting really. They work just like outsourced scouts as they see the players play and recommend them to you. So you have to know who you ask and what u lookin for.