What happend with this Datsyuk?
I know it's 6 years ago, but still.. do you really get that much slower in 6 years?
Not that much happened, but 6 years at the wrong side of 30 can make a big difference in terms of speed. Still he looks like he's just getting back up to speed this season, he hasn't quite got his legs yet. He probably hasn't gotten that much slower in reality, but the league has also gotten faster.
Kindl hasn't been bad but it is so obvious this team is missing a difference maker on the backend.
We are missing anyone who doesn't think they can shoot the puck through 5 players. I'm sick of this D having the puck on the blueline and looking like they're picking their spot with a slapshot and they fire it into the closest player. Only time they hit the net is when the goalie is completely unscreened. This is hurting our offense big time.
Is anyone else going to show up on the scoresheet or are we going to keep relying on a kid? Something has to be done with that useless line of Miller-AA-Pulks. If Miller isn't going to be used in a checking role I don't see the point in him even playing.
Well one idea would be to play that line a little bit more. Athanasiou and Pulkkinen have shown an ability to create offense, but AA had 6 minutes of icetime and Pulkkinen 9.
Z looks no different than the 2nd half of last season. I'll be pleasantly surprised if he hits 50 points this season.
We should really work on decreasing his ice time.
Dats will be fine as long as he isn't injured
Neither of them should be playing 20 minutes per game. We should be playing them at least 1 minute less per game or so. Nyquist, Larkin, Tatar, AA, Pulkkinen, Sheahan can all pick up 1 or 2 extra shifts per game.
Age doesn't affect your ability to control the puck.
Puck control is the only thing that matters in 3 on 3 hockey.
If you're retrieving pucks, you're not doing it right.
3-on-3 is completely different from 5-on-5 or even 4-on-4. It's all about man-on-man play. You win 1 footrace and you have a scoring chance. Sending out 3 players that can't win a footrace against anyone is a recipe for disaster. I understand your point, we should have the puck 100% of the time. But it doesn't work that way in reality. And the most dangerous chances in 3-on-3 are ALWAYS created through rushes that happen after broken plays or a missed opportunity on one end.
We have enough speed in our lineup that we can always have 1 or 2 fast players on the ice. It's not like Nyquist, Tatar or Larkin are terrible possession players. Z+Nyquist, Dats+Tatar, Larkin+Pulkkinen or something like that is perfect. Don't have to act like we're advocating an approach of Helm+AA+Glendening just because we want speed on the ice.