Observations V

[predfan24]

Jones has been worse than Franson.

Santorelli......Yeah he has been super disappointing. Toronto fans swore he was a cycling beast. Not.even.close. He looks like the same player he was before he left.

 

[Montross]

Jones has been worse than Franson.

The Jones hate on this board is so hilarious.

 

[predfan24]

The Jones hate on this board is so hilarious.

Are you watching him? He is a mess with his decisions with the puck right now and has been for awhile. Turnover machine. I only got to see about half the game tonight and saw several boneheaded plays and lost coverages that were lucky to not result in a goal against. I like Jones and I see his immense potential but right now he is hurting the team and isn't compensating offensively. That's the cold hard truth.

 

[Softball99]

Jones has been worse than Franson.

The Jones hate... The fact they're giving him a bobble head over Forsberg... They're scared of his Freakin momma... I am really hoping more and more they trade him for a #1 center... Nuge or Hall so she takes her Texas butt to Edmonton... I found out tonight his contract with his "manager" states... He must live at "home" the first 3 years after he turns Pro...

BTW anyone else at the mtg with Jeff Cogen tonight?

 

[wadesworld]

Are you watching him? He is a mess with his decisions with the puck right now and has been for awhile. Turnover machine. I only got to see about half the game tonight and saw several boneheaded plays and lost coverages that were lucky to not result in a goal against. I like Jones and I see his immense potential but right now he is hurting the team and isn't compensating offensively. That's the cold hard truth.

Agreed. More often than not his gaffes are resulting in not just loss of possession, but need-a-miracle-to-prevent-a-goal situations.

He's got tons of potential and deserves to be playing, but he needs to recognize the severity of his mistakes and get them fixed.

 

[Pred303]

well, well. had almost forgotten what a big win against a good team felt like. this one reminded me of things past. probably the best game we've played in the past six weeks. maybe there's still some fight left in this old dog yet. a few thoughts;

..fiala. the kid wasn't intimidated. the kid has talent. a couple of the plays he made didn't work not because he wasn't ready for the big time, but because smith and fisher weren't quite ready for him.
..having said that. he is the one that blew coverage on the guy wide open in front of rinne on their 2nd one. rookie mistakes.
..arvidsson wasn't bad. he wasn't as strong as his first game, but he didn't embarrass himself or us.
..our defensemen offense once again saved our bacon. has many times this year. when jones is your worst offensive defenseman, well you have a pretty good group of offensive d-men.
..can't say enough about the eckholm goal from his knees. probably our toughest goal this year.
..on the other hand, ellis slow hopper goal was probably our luckiest, lol. sort of balanced the cosmos out for us.
..what a jug screw on the first goal allowed. jones with a good mid-air deflection on net. unfortunately it was our net. the kid is snakebit, in that so many of his mistakes wind up in our net. or maybe that's because so many of his mistakes are in our end.
..fisher, smith and Wilson. thought to win this one we would have to get offense from these guys. wrong.
..ribs played an absolutely bad game... right up until the game winning pass.
..rinne was sharp. very sharp. at least 5 difficult saves with us trailing by one or tied late.
..great to see Forsberg finally get one, maybe this breaks him out of trying to do everything himself. still stickhandling far too much.
..when you're playing for your first ever division title, you don't have patience for 'potential' from young players. it's what can you do for me right now, this minute. when wins aren't as critical is when you can 'live with' mistakes that cost you points. it's why I have no patience with jones. I could last year, not right now.
..gaustad. an absolute black hole of offense. that 2 on 1 with beck wide open and the d-man not taking the pass away. the stone hands on a wide open tap in on the far post off a good pass.
..bourque with his once a game obligatory wide open mid-low slot shot. if Forsberg got the same shot each game he gets he would have 40 goals by now.

..we played ourselves a heck of a game tonight. was great to see the jump. the first goal. the comeback. the great goaltending. the timely scoring. the pp win one. now don't get cocky and go play like that the next 8 games.

 

[sparkle twin]

I'm feeling good about tonight for some reason. Partly because I have good seats tonight (http://www.seats3d.com/nhl/nashville_predators/#/p_102_6/) and partly because my back is better after almost falling on the ice during the ice storm that aggravated my sciatic nerve. The team has gone into the tank since I hurt my back so the karma around my injury must be to blame! I'm better which should mean the team is all better!! I'm sorry for the distress I've caused!

The team must have had some major mojo today... I heard "Don't Stop Believing" on the way to the game. Made me believe we were going to win!

 

[Armourboy]

The team must have had some major mojo today... I heard "Don't Stop Believing" on the way to the game. Made me believe we were going to win!

They've won probably 90% of their games this year when I work. Needless to say, I was at work for this one.

 

[AtlantaWhaler]

I honestly don't think it's any coincidence that the team has played much better the last 2 games while having a total of 5 days off in between. I think that rest did them good. Pekka included. Glad to see we get one more 3-day stretch in another week.

Anyone know when Neal gets back?

 

[glenngineer]

Moving Ellis to play with Franson made a lot of sense. Something needed to happen and that seemed to even the pairings out a little bit more.

No offense to Weber but when Josi has bigger checks than him during the course of the game, something is wrong. Josi laid a hit on someone in the second period behind our net that was awesome. Weber not doing that for some reason.

 

[bdub24]

Past two games the team has started with the spark I saw earlier in the season. I think we can put to rest the debate on whether or not the schedule was the problem, it looks like the spacing between games is allowing this crew to fully recharge.

 

[darth5]

Moving Ellis to play with Franson made a lot of sense. Something needed to happen and that seemed to even the pairings out a little bit more.

No offense to Weber but when Josi has bigger checks than him during the course of the game, something is wrong. Josi laid a hit on someone in the second period behind our net that was awesome. Weber not doing that for some reason.

Agreed. Weber's play is distinctly different in that he seems to have turned things down about 2 notches in physicality. I am beginning to wonder if he is playing injured as some have speculated here.

 

[Jarnberg]

..having said that. he is the one that blew coverage on the guy wide open in front of rinne on their 2nd one. rookie mistakes.

He got caught watching on that play pretty badly but shouldn't Smith or Fisher have dropped low after Josi left the front and Weber got caught in possession in the corner? That guy snuck in right behind Smith.

 

[Pred303]

He got caught watching on that play pretty badly but shouldn't Smith or Fisher have dropped low after Josi left the front and Weber got caught in possession in the corner? That guy snuck in right behind Smith.

actually it's hard to assign complete blame on this one anywhere. josi got caught down behind the net trying to help weber, while smith was caught between his man on the left point and the guy who scored. fiala needed to rotate down to the net front being the weakside forward. have no idea where fisher even was honestly. just a jumble**** of a play defensively all the way around.

 

[Jarnberg]

actually it's hard to assign complete blame on this one anywhere. josi got caught down behind the net trying to help weber, while smith was caught between his man on the left point and the guy who scored. fiala needed to rotate down to the net front being the weakside forward. have no idea where even was honestly. just a jumble**** of a play defensively all the way around.

I agree, what a weird play. I think a lot of guys were expecting Weber to not cough up the puck do easily. Alot of breakdowns on that play.

 

[FossilFndr]

Fiala made me wonder what Steve Sullivan looked like at that age. Or at least made me think of Sully. That quick pass to Fisher should have been a goal, I too think Fish was surprised the kid put it there for him.

 

[Pred303]

the little between the defenders legs touch pass to smith was a thing of beauty as well. not blaming smith on that one as MTL got a stick in there, but it was still some more attempt.

 

[wadesworld]

Fiala made me wonder what Steve Sullivan looked like at that age. Or at least made me think of Sully. That quick pass to Fisher should have been a goal, I too think Fish was surprised the kid put it there for him.

I don't think Smith had any idea he was going to go there either. Smith was just trying to cross up Price with the quick return and give the kid a chance to score. For Fiala to have the awareness that Fisher was there and make the pass was quite impressive.

That's the difference with Forsberg and Fiala (albeit a one-game body of evidence) is they see it and they execute at the right time. The Fisher's, Smiths, Jarnkroks, Wilsons, Cullens, etc of the world often see it, but either see it an instant too late, or wait an instant too long to pull the trigger, allowing the defender to tie up the stick, get a stick in the lane, etc.

 

[MrJoshua]

I'm not sure that Fiala is completely ready, but man am I ever looking forward to seeing what he looks like as his development continues. Neal is still young. Forsberg, Wilson and Smith are still young. That's probably five of your top six skaters for the next five years right there, if Wilson can move back to center at some point. So as usual the question marks will be at center. Ribeiro has been playing well but he's getting a little long in the tooth to be a long-term solution.

Lots of exciting youth in the organization right now. They won't all pan out, but it's going to be fun to watch to see who develops and who doesn't.

 

[Pred303]

yeah. a few more games will tell if fiala is really ready, one game of course doesn't. but one can certainly see the potential for the near future whether he's ready now or not.

the only worries we have about the future is of course finding rinnes replacement and upgrading at center. well those are big holes, but still defensively and at forward we look good for the foreseeable future.

 

[nomorekids]

The Jones hate on this board is so hilarious.

How is it any more hilarious than Franson hate? Or even Ellis hate?

Jones has been inconsistent to this point. He was promised to be the best defensive prospect in the last 20 years, and he's been pretty uniformly weak in his own zone and hit or miss offensively.

Where i see strength is his ability to carry the puck in, almost like a forward...but I've been disappointed with his play on the power play, and really disappointed with his defensive play at even strength.

Could he improve? Sure, but I'm not going to pretend that he has me drooling at his potential. Anyone that says he's better than Suter or Weber...or even Josi...at the same age...doesn't have a long memory. Suter may have had his struggles, but he was nowhere near this inconsistent--and to boot, Trotz made him sit for it. Jones has deserved to sit at multiple times this year, but never will.

The main item to concern...and I know Pred303 has pointed this out as well...is that his hockey IQ seems to be an issue. You can work at skating to improve it. You can work on your shot. You can't work on things like timing and instinct, and judgment...that's just the nature of hockey sense, and scouts value it above all else for just that reason. You can teach EVERYTHING else, but hockey sense is either something you have or don't, and the evidence to date doesn't look good for Jones.

The funny thing is that I could see him excelling as a wing.

 

[WartracePred]

What were the knocks on Suter at that age? I just can't get why so many folks say he isn't going to grow into an elite Dman. He's very young in the growth cycle of the position at the NHL level. Don't most players hit their stride around 23-25 years old? He's 20-21 in his second NHL year, with zero time in MIL. Look at the improvement Ekholm has made since he was sent back to Europe a few seasons back. Ellis has also improved tremendously over the last 2 years. They've had 3-4 years to work on their game in the NHL. Give Jones 2 more years before throwing him under the bus. Experience will cure many of his shortcomings, including his decision making.

 

[triggrman]

How is it any more hilarious than Franson hate? Or even Ellis hate?

Jones has been inconsistent to this point. He was promised to be the best defensive prospect in the last 20 years, and he's been pretty uniformly weak in his own zone and hit or miss offensively.

Where i see strength is his ability to carry the puck in, almost like a forward...but I've been disappointed with his play on the power play, and really disappointed with his defensive play at even strength.

Could he improve? Sure, but I'm not going to pretend that he has me drooling at his potential. Anyone that says he's better than Suter or Weber...or even Josi...at the same age...doesn't have a long memory. Suter may have had his struggles, but he was nowhere near this inconsistent--and to boot, Trotz made him sit for it. Jones has deserved to sit at multiple times this year, but never will.

The main item to concern...and I know Pred303 has pointed this out as well...is that his hockey IQ seems to be an issue. You can work at skating to improve it. You can work on your shot. You can't work on things like timing and instinct, and judgment...that's just the nature of hockey sense, and scouts value it above all else for just that reason. You can teach EVERYTHING else, but hockey sense is either something you have or don't, and the evidence to date doesn't look good for Jones.

The funny thing is that I could see him excelling as a wing.

Experience has a way of making ones IQ go up dramatically.

You can't teach someone to skate like Jones and his speed is a huge asset.

Answer this. Why is Jones the one to move to the left side? Why not Ellis, or Franson? I know the answer.

Defensively, on a 2-1, I'd take Jones over anyone on the team not named Weber (and it's close). He's one on one skills have improved dramatically and his gaps and pressure are way above Ellis and Franson and pretty close to Ekholm.

His big hang up is making the mistake with the puck, which he does way to often, he needs to learn to trust his first read and make the play. Last night, was a bad bounce, but he was put in bad spot to begin with.

And he does get a bad rap here. Ellis and Josi can make the same bad play and no one says a word, but let Jones make it and it's "here we go again".

Ellis is still our worst defender in the defensive zone. He's so slow he has to give a 10 foot cushion on the forward to keep from getting beat wide, it make zone entries way to easy and allows way to much freedom.

You know what can't be taught, size and elite speed, Jones has both, eventually his mind will catch up and he's going to be great.

 

[Jarnberg]

Experience has a way of making ones IQ go up dramatically.

You can't teach someone to skate like Jones and his speed is a huge asset.

Answer this. Why is Jones the one to move to the left side? Why not Ellis, or Franson? I know the answer.

Defensively, on a 2-1, I'd take Jones over anyone on the team not named Weber (and it's close). He's one on one skills have improved dramatically and his gaps and pressure are way above Ellis and Franson and pretty close to Ekholm.

His big hang up is making the mistake with the puck, which he does way to often, he needs to learn to trust his first read and make the play. Last night, was a bad bounce, but he was put in bad spot to begin with.

And he does get a bad rap here. Ellis and Josi can make the same bad play and no one says a word, but let Jones make it and it's "here we go again".

Ellis is still our worst defender in the defensive zone. He's so slow he has to give a 10 foot cushion on the forward to keep from getting beat wide, it make zone entries way to easy and allows way to much freedom.

You know what can't be taught, size and elite speed, Jones has both, eventually his mind will catch up and he's going to be great.

Spot on.

 

[triggrman]

He got caught watching on that play pretty badly but shouldn't Smith or Fisher have dropped low after Josi left the front and Weber got caught in possession in the corner? That guy snuck in right behind Smith.

Josi should have covered the area between Weber and the short post, he should not have been behind the net period.