Observations Part XIII

[NSH615]

Wade, Wilson's value comes from the playoff success he's had in the last 2 years. We wouldn't have gone anywhere against Chicago if it weren't for Wilson. Same goes for last year, easily our best player in both of those runs. Wilson is also more of a playmaker than a goal scorer. Arvy has replaced Smith by miles on the right side and we can't afford to have 4.250M player on the 3rd line. For me it's as clear as day that we protect Wilson over Smith, all you have to do is look at their respective numbers from the playoffs.

33, is that really a thing that we can give them like a 2nd and Aberg to not take Wilson? If so, do that. Keeping Smith over Wilson would be a stupid thing to do, it would make us very weak on the left wing having just Fiala and Forsberg there.

V82, yes.

Yes, and probably every team will be looking at doing so.

 

[Pred303]

impossible to not be overjoyed with saros so far.

..amazingly quick post to post.
..positionally he has been square to virtually every shot he has seen.
..really taking away the bottom of the goal which you have to be able to do is you're a smaller goalie.
..while he tends to leave a few rebounds, his ability to punch the rebound to good areas has been excellent
..he plays a very upright butterfly which allows him to stay taller in net, whcih really helps his lack of height
..his quickness allows him to commit to the butterfly later than bigger, slower goalies. that in turn allows him to stay up longer, which again helps overcome his smallness.

teams will refocus on how to attack saros best. generally small goalies have more trouble seeing around screeners and have to peek more to one side or the other. so teams generally will try to screen small goalies even more aggressively. obviously teams will focus more on trying to shoot high as well to try to hit the 1 and 2 holes over the shoulders more. how he handles that will determine his ultimate success long term at this level.

but. one has to think at this point he will be up to it.

i'm also of the opinion it would be best at this point to keep him up here full time and give him every third game starts for awhile and see how that goes for both him and rinne. rinne won't necessarily like it i expect, but i think that might be best for both saros, and rinne as far as both rest and pushing him to play well.

 

[Scoresberg]

Yes, and probably every team will be looking at doing so.

So, probably the prices are gonna be sky high.

 

[Gh24]

Atm, I'd protect Arvy and let Vegas take one of the ~4M contracts off our hands. If I had a stronger opinion between Smith and Wilson I'd probably give Vegas a pick to choose to my liking, but right now I'd rather keep the pick and let them take who they want.

 

[Scoresberg]

Atm, I'd protect Arvy and let Vegas take one of the ~4M contracts off our hands. If I had a stronger opinion between Smith and Wilson I'd probably give Vegas a pick to choose to my liking, but right now I'd rather keep the pick and let them take who they want.

And fail in the playoffs because we lost our most dominant playoff performer? The 4M doesn't matter to us, Wilson has something money can't buy.

 

[Gh24]

And fail in the playoffs because we lost our most dominant playoff performer?

I'm not overly confident Wilson is going to have another godlike playoff performance. I'm not going to rely on that. That's why I don't have such a strong opinion one way or another between the two.

Right now Wilson is playing a little better overall, while Smith's consistent 20 goals sounds tempting as well...

 

[NSH615]

And fail in the playoffs because we lost our most dominant playoff performer? The 4M doesn't matter to us, Wilson has something money can't buy.

you first have to make the playoffs before that can happen. Wilson seems to play the regular season like it is preseason far too often.

 

[Scoresberg]

you first have to make the playoffs before that can happen. Wilson seems to play the regular season like it is preseason far too often.

I haven't watched a lot of games this season but it sure seems like here in these boards that Wilson has been our top-3 forward this season with consistent performances.

 

[PredsV82]

impossible to not be overjoyed with saros so far.

..amazingly quick post to post.
..positionally he has been square to virtually every shot he has seen.
..really taking away the bottom of the goal which you have to be able to do is you're a smaller goalie.
..while he tends to leave a few rebounds, his ability to punch the rebound to good areas has been excellent
..he plays a very upright butterfly which allows him to stay taller in net, whcih really helps his lack of height
..his quickness allows him to commit to the butterfly later than bigger, slower goalies. that in turn allows him to stay up longer, which again helps overcome his smallness.

teams will refocus on how to attack saros best. generally small goalies have more trouble seeing around screeners and have to peek more to one side or the other. so teams generally will try to screen small goalies even more aggressively. obviously teams will focus more on trying to shoot high as well to try to hit the 1 and 2 holes over the shoulders more. how he handles that will determine his ultimate success long term at this level.

but. one has to think at this point he will be up to it.

i'm also of the opinion it would be best at this point to keep him up here full time and give him every third game starts for awhile and see how that goes for both him and rinne. rinne won't necessarily like it i expect, but i think that might be best for both saros, and rinne as far as both rest and pushing him to play well.

I think Rinne has made his money and unless he thinks it will threaten his starting job he may be pretty accepting especially if we keep winning with both of them playing well.

 

[NSH615]

I haven't watched a lot of games this season but it sure seems like here in these boards that Wilson has been our top-3 forward this season with consistent performances.

This season he's had a few big moments, but historically he's kind of coasted a bit. Then you look at Smith. He's having the same syndrome that Forsberg has had. He's been trying too hard.

 

[wadesworld]

I haven't watched a lot of games this season but it sure seems like here in these boards that Wilson has been our top-3 forward this season with consistent performances.

I'd disagree. He's shown flashes of being better, but most of the time, he's his normal regular-season invisible self. Difference is he was invisible for ALL of last year. This year, he's done some good things. His positive reviews are more the failings of Forseberg and Joey than any incredible play on his part.

Smith doesn't escape blame either. After a solid start he's done his typical MO of going ice cold. He's still working hard and winning battles (some of which setup the good things Wilson does), but he's more invisible than not.

It will be interesting to see which one lives up to their MO (20-goal scorer vs playoff MVP) this year.

 

[Pred303]

comparisons from game 32 mark this year to last;

this year we are 15-12-5 (.546), last year at this time we were 15-11-6 (.562)
this year we have scored 93 goals (2.90 per game), last year we had scored 80 (2.50)
this year we have allowed 87 goals (2.72), last year 79 (2.47)
this year our team save percentage is .925, last year at this time it was .906
(the difference being we are allowing 30 shots per game versus 26.5 last year)(and 5 more empty net goals than this time last year)

individually here's how numbers compare this year to last for players here for both;
arvidsson 9/14, 23 pts (3/1, 4 pts)
neal 14/6, 20 pts (12/8, 20 pts)
forsberg 5/14, 19 pts (6/14, 20 pts)
josi 5/14, 19 pts (8/15, 23 pts)
ribeiro 4/14, 18 pts (3/13, 16 pts)
fisher 9/9, 18 pts (2/7, 9 pts)
wilson 5/10, 15 pts (1/8, 9 pts)
smith 6/6, 12 pts (7/4, 11 pts)
ellis 4/7, 11 pts (2/11, 13 pts)
ekholm 1/10, 11 pts (3/7, 10 pts)
jarnkrok 5/2, 7 pts (5/4, 9 pts)
watson 1/5, 6 pts (2/3, 5 pts)
sissons 2/1, 3 pts (1/1, 2 pts)

some surprisingly similiar numbers among a lot of people, with several much stronger (arvidsson, fisher, wilson) and only a few slightly weaker in terms of points.

 

[NSH615]

I thought this was pretty funny for some of the players.

 

[Adz]

That segment really shows the guys' personalities. Good job to whomever did it.

Who is the interviewer? She's very easygoing and elicits good responses.

 

[nomorekids]

I like what I've seen from Adam Pardy...kind of gives us a little bit of something we don't otherwise have. I would probably rotate him with Weber situationally, giving preference to his size and experience.

 

[NSH615]

And fail in the playoffs because we lost our most dominant playoff performer? The 4M doesn't matter to us, Wilson has something money can't buy.

I also wanted to comment on the fact I'm more worried about losing Jarnkrok to the draft than I am Wilson/Smith. Jarnkrok is cheap and can play anywhere and not look too out of place. And also yes that 4M does matter to us moving forward with Neal and Johansen to re-sign in the next 2 seasons.

 

[nomorekids]

Pretty exciting as well that James Neal may actually have a legit shot at 40 goals

 

[drwpreds]

I really don't have a problem protecting either one, but without Smith's hot streak at the end of last year, we don't even make the playoffs.

Smith certainly helped down the stretch, but not sure that is true at all about missing the playoffs- we were 14 points ahead of the last team out.

 

[Soundgarden]

We're going to have to be prepared to lose a good player. Expose Jarnkrok, Wilson and Smith and hope Vegas takes on the bigger contract.

Yes, it will suck to lose either Wilson or Smith, but let's not act like they are game changers. When it comes down to it both Smith and Wilson, (and Jarnkrok) are 2nd line tweeners who straddle the line between being really good and hair pullingly frustrating.

If we can't succeed without Wilson in the playoffs we are not a good enough team and something needs to be done.

 

[Pred303]

meanwhile more on the game..

..fiala had a really strong game i thought and wasn't rewarded for it. good game forechecking and made a couple nice passes that weren't converted. he did have one really bad turnover, has to learn to not make those dangerous passes to the middle of the slot in his own zone.
..neal is different than our other forwards in that his shot itself never really seems to slump. he can always shoot the puck. it seems when he goes into scoring droughts it usually that he's not getting good chances, not his shot failing him.
..noticed neal wearing a right wrist brace. obviously some type of sprained wirst must have been his recent 'upper body injury'.

..when a team struggles,it's always best to get back to focusing on defense first, goals will take care of themselves when you focus defensively.
..johansen with 14 points in his last 14 games. really looks good lately.
..liked the lines.
..probably our three best consecutive team defensive games.
..did someone say that was our 13th game in a row with over 30 shots on net?

..obviously hated to see the shutout taken away from saros.
..we seem to be playing very confidently in front of saros, not something you always see when you play your backup with 6 games of NHL experience. it's obvious the players trust him already.
..having said that, if the kid had gotten any goal support at all he would be 5-0 right now with 4 starts giving up 1 goal, and one with 3, two of them late.
..of all goalies in the league with 5 or more starts saros now has the lowest gaa and highest save percentage.

..nothing felt better than seeing forsberg ring one in off the pipe. we need him.
..watching ellis triple pump deke and shot off the post felt sort of like it happened in slow motion.
..cann't brag enough on arvidsson's speed leading to three great assists.
..lolol stu does love him some matt irwin.

..one of the quieter games we've had lately from wilson and fisher.
..was good to finally see another pp goal. some great puck possession on the PP last night.
..i cussed a little over ribeiro slowing down and getting the puck taken off his stick on that 2 on 1, overall not a great game from him individually.

 

[Drake744]

meanwhile more on the game..

..fiala had a really strong game i thought and wasn't rewarded for it. good game forechecking and made a couple nice passes that weren't converted. he did have one really bad turnover, has to learn to not make those dangerous passes to the middle of the slot in his own zone.
..neal is different than our other forwards in that his shot itself never really seems to slump. he can always shoot the puck. it seems when he goes into scoring droughts it usually that he's not getting good chances, not his shot failing him.
..noticed neal wearing a right wrist brace. obviously some type of sprained wirst must have been his recent 'upper body injury'.

..when a team struggles,it's always best to get back to focusing on defense first, goals will take care of themselves when you focus defensively.
..johansen with 14 points in his last 14 games. really looks good lately.
..liked the lines.
..probably our three best consecutive team defensive games.
..did someone say that was our 13th game in a row with over 30 shots on net?

..obviously hated to see the shutout taken away from saros.
..we seem to be playing very confidently in front of saros, not something you always see when you play your backup with 6 games of NHL experience. it's obvious the players trust him already.
..having said that, if the kid had gotten any goal support at all he would be 5-0 right now with 4 starts giving up 1 goal, and one with 3, two of them late.
..of all goalies in the league with 5 or more starts saros now has the lowest gaa and highest save percentage.

..nothing felt better than seeing forsberg ring one in off the pipe. we need him.
..watching ellis triple pump deke and shot off the post felt sort of like it happened in slow motion.
..cann't brag enough on arvidsson's speed leading to three great assists.
..lolol stu does love him some matt irwin.

..one of the quieter games we've had lately from wilson and fisher.
..was good to finally see another pp goal. some great puck possession on the PP last night.
..i cussed a little over ribeiro slowing down and getting the puck taken off his stick on that 2 on 1, overall not a great game from him individually.

Wasn't his recent injury getting slashed in the hand/wrist by a Jets player?

 

[Pred303]

Wasn't his recent injury getting slashed in the hand/wrist by a Jets player?

yep drake

 

[FossilFndr]

The way he left the ice I would have bet it was the left had or wrist.

 

[Adz]

Stu really does have a mancrush on Matt IRWIN. Or at the very least he loves how the name sounds sounds rolling off his tongue.

 

[Drake744]

Stu really does have a mancrush on Matt IRWIN. Or at the very least he loves how the name sounds sounds rolling off his tongue.

Did anyone else notice the other night that his dad looks like Bryan Cranston?