Observations, Part VI

[Pred303]

Would have been nice to have had this in Colorado once upon a time:

lol, it damn sure would have.

 

[Byrddog]

We talk about the failings of the pp a lot, deservedly so. but one area we absolutely need to improve this year is the pk numbers. For a team as good defensively and in net as we are it is inexcusable to finish 18th in the league on the pk as we did last year.

Jackman should help here on the backend, when Weber wasn't out there we didn't do a very good job clearing the creasde on the pk.

i thought last year much of the problem was our forwards. especially nystrom and gaustad's lack of quickness, which allowed too many open point shots off reversing the puck from d to d. those point shots were compounded by the lack of doing a good job clearing the front.

really hope hodgson can help out here, even though i don't know his pk ability.

I have watched Cody since he was traded to Buffalo he is not good defensively
he was not on the PK much. Like you I don't think the PK numbers last year are acceptable. Im hoping it was the change of system that caused this. If not our defense is not as good as we think. IMO it started with moving Klein for MDZ really. And I do think Jackman will improve the PK if he does not in fact turn into Gill-2. For me there is still far too much importance placed on defensive scoring. Im not saying that its not important but a team needs the Kleins and Eatons.

You have said it many times and it held true last season when the PK and PP are less than 100 its is a good indicator of special teams issues and the 97 from last year cost this team. And I am not expect much change since the forward situation has not changed all that much the mindset of the defense will again be get by on defense and score as much as you can.


Wanted to come back and add These first three games are critical I the team does not win 2 of the 3 things will get ugly quick.

 

[Pred303]

lol byrd, you worry entirely too much. it's an 82 game season, this group should be fine.

 

[Pred303]

opening week. finally. honestly one never knows how things will ultimately work out, i've been doing this closely for over 40 years and what i know is that there is absolutely no telling what actually happens.

but. i am optomistic about our chances. i am optomistic about our team. we are in better shape than we were heading into last year when our secondary scoring hope was three old guys could somehow make comebacks (roy-jokinen-cullen)... and between them they scored 10 goals total... i feel very comfortable in our defense and rinne, and i feel pretty comfortable in the goals we're going to get from our top 6 forwards (barring major injury). so many things come down to this year's new third line. hodgson and arvidsson just by themselves should produce more than those three did last year.

what i really like though is this year we have legitimate options with the talent in fiala, moses, arvidsson that we didn't have last year to fall back on if people ahead of them struggle.

i think we'll be fine.

 

[FossilFndr]

lol byrd, you worry entirely too much. it's an 82 game season, this group should be fine.

Someone has to be the first on the all-is-doomed band wagon. He ought to know that there is a permanent seat there with Reserved for Byrddog engraved. I think that engraving is on the drivers seat.


After only being able to read about the games in pre season, I was looking forward to the first televised game ... till I realized I'l be out of town and will miss the first two Preds telecasts. But I will be in Charlotte viewing area so will see the Preds from Hurricanes perspective for game 1.

 

[jlsg]

Would have been nice to have had this in Colorado once upon a time:

Probably wouldn't have mattered there. If you remember the ruling was that a Preds player put the puck in. Now there could be a discussion on if the player controlled the puck etc, however this play probably would have stood as called.

 

[nomorekids]

Yeah, I think that wasn't so much a blown offsides as it was a failing to understand the rules. If a Predators player shoots the puck back into his own end, offsides basically goes out the window.

 

[Pred303]

the strangest part of the new 'offside challenge' is that after review if an offsides was missed that no goal counts if the puck goes in the net before the puck goes back out of the zone, no matter how the puck went in the net later or how long it took, just so long as there was no stoppage of play or the puck came back across the blueline. could lead to some interesting rulings (this whole challenge and reversal will be very rarely a factor admittedly).

 

[Pred303]

two days guys. two days.

 

[BigFatCat999]

two days guys. two days.

You wanna pop some of my anti anxiety pills to chill out? I know the season is coming, I know there are questions to answer, I know there are high expectations...

Oh **** it! 2 days!

 

[wadesworld]

You wanna pop some of my anti anxiety pills to chill out? I know the season is coming, I know there are questions to answer, I know there are high expectations...

Oh **** it! 2 days!

And what do I get to do on opening night? Attend the rescheduled Aretha Franklin concert at the Symphony Center. So I'll be downtown watching all of you head to the Preds game.

Don't get me wrong, Aretha will be a great show, but I'd rather slip my jersey on, sneak out and go watch the puck drop.

 

[PredsV82]

this one is close to 1000, so went ahead and made a new Observations thread for the new season...

New Thread here

 

[Pred303]

i have to admit i'm a little worried about our pk forward options, as bad as our pp was, we probably have better personnel choices to make it better than we do for the pk.

i'm guessing;
PK1
gaustad-nystrom (a pk forward pair which i think sucks together/not quick enough)
weber-josi
PK2
fisher-bourque/watson
jones-jackman

i hope we pair a quicker winger with gaustad and split nystrom and him up.

the more i look at our pk forward options the less i like them to be honest. hopefully arvidsson and hodgson can help here. it's hard to be a defensive oriented team when your pk is only 18th best. this is sort of new territory for us, as we've always had plenty of two way/defensive forwards. right now i'm not seeing it.

 

[NSH615]

i have to admit i'm a little worried about our pk forward options, as bad as our pp was, we probably have better personnel choices to make it better than we do for the pk.

i'm guessing;
PK1
gaustad-nystrom (a pk forward pair which i think sucks together/not quick enough)
weber-josi
PK2
fisher-bourque/watson
jones-jackman

i hope we pair a quicker winger with gaustad and split nystrom and him up.

the more i look at our pk forward options the less i like them to be honest. hopefully arvidsson and hodgson can help here. it's hard to be a defensive oriented team when your pk is only 18th best. this is sort of new territory for us, as we've always had plenty of two way/defensive forwards. right now i'm not seeing it.

I see Jarnkrok on the PK. He was there last year and is praised by coaches for his defensive play. The Milwaukee coach even had him play as a defensive player for a brief period for a game.

"[He] played a little defense there at the end just to see if he could do everything for us," said Dean Evason. "He's a real good player, both ends of the rink. He'll kill penalties, win faceoffs, play on the PP, [and] 5-on-5 he's sound."

http://www.ontheforecheck.com/2014/...s-kevin-henderson-texas-stars-francis-wathier

 

[Pred303]

I see Jarnkrok on the PK. He was there last year and is praised by coaches for his defensive play. The Milwaukee coach even had him play as a defensive player for a brief period for a game.

ops, forgot him, lol. yeah you're right, he has to be on the pk. he could be one of our main pieces to help here.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

New one up.