Observations XIX

[Bringer of Jollity]

I think Girard will be OK. He made two poor choices from the point that led to rushes the other way and his decision-making changed after that. He's talented enough that if he learns from his mistakes like that, he'll be very successful.

 

[Preds Partisan]

I was watching the Bonino injury a couple of times today and it didn't look like much with minimal contact on the wall behind the net with a Blackhawk, but he went down like it was significant. I couldn't tell for sure from watching on my phone if it was a knee or ankle, but I'm thinking it was the knee. Anybody else rewatch it?

 

[jlsg]

The pros and cons of the triangle defense on 3x3 can be debated, but that's not why we were scored on. It was because Saad with fresh legs came down the middle and Forsberg with tired legs didn't pick him up. He saw him coming and made a bad play on it, very slow to react to him. Even if we were playing man on man, Saad would have beaten Forsberg to the net, he was spent.

 

[Pred303]

i like to break down trends and possible concerns/strengths in 5 and 10 game segments. Generally one can begin to see things in these type of groupings that one cann't in a single game or two.

So after 5 games now (1/16th of the season);

..forsberg now has 4 PP goals in the first 5 games. last season he had 3 in 82 games. While some of this is artificial (the 6 on 3's and 5 on 3's that have come up), if Forsberg can add a decent number of PP goals this year he's capable of putting up 40 odd goals instead of the low 30's we/ve seen the past two years. very encouraging.
..obviously between Josi/Ellis being out we are finally pushing our PP offense more down low to the forwards. Something we have really never done, but have needed to. 7 PP goals now by our forwards versus only 32 from them all last year. also very encouraging.
..hartnell is the secret ingredient here i think. finally gives us inside presense on the PP that we have been lacking since Hornqvist left.

..girard. impossible to know how this will work out this year. typical with a young talented kid you see great plays and great games followed by mistakes and bad games. you know if he stays we will get both.
..rinne has a .913 save percentage but has generally looked pretty good in his 4 games. he's somewhere in the ballpark of where you expect him to be (maybe a .918ish level)
..note that despite a save percentage right around where one expects his goals allowed (2.76) is higher than one needs to see. of course what this shows is we are simply allowing far too many shots per game. on average we are giving up about 34 shots per game, about 5 shots more per game than we want.
..defensively we are a question mark obviously without josi and ellis. there seems to be a misunderstanding among many about whether we are a 'great' defensive team or just a good one (with everyone healthy). In general even with ellis/josi i feel we are simply average in our defensive zone in coverage. What has given us the appearance of being a great defensive team at times has been more from our puck possession i feel. So the offensive abilities of our defensemen is more what tends to make us look better in our own defensive end. without Ellis and Josi obviously that really gets demonstrated more.
..it's concerning without ellis for these first 30 to be honest.

..ekholm is our best defensive d-man. followed by subban.

..we all know offensively we need fiala and aberg to be 15-20 goal scorers. it's too small a sample to extrapolate of course. but zero goals and very little offense from either in 5 games is not what we wanted to see.
..we 'expected' sissons and watson to help provide secondary scoring based on what we saw in the playoffs. nothing from either so far.

..arvy is gonna shoot the puck. his speed means he will get chances to shoot the puck. not sure he needs johansen/forsberg's playmaking near as much as others do because of his ability to generate his own chances. (which is why i thought neal should have been on that top line all year last year). aberg or fiala might benefit far more than arvy lined with those two.
..forsberg isn't gonna score 82 goals this year, nor hartnell probably 32 (their current paces lol). we need secondary scoring. we have to get something going other than the top line/PP.

..johansen just doesn't have the hunger to score goals you wish he had.
..bonino looks better in the corners and hard areas than he does in open ice to me. don't really know what to legit expect out of him offensively yet.

will be interesting to look at the 10 and 20 game marks to see what works itself out.

 

[Pred303]

The pros and cons of the triangle defense on 3x3 can be debated, but that's not why we were scored on. It was because Saad with fresh legs came down the middle and Forsberg with tired legs didn't pick him up. He saw him coming and made a bad play on it, very slow to react to him. Even if we were playing man on man, Saad would have beaten Forsberg to the net, he was spent.

no argument there jslg. i will say that our 'passive' defense posture is why we tend to get guys stuck out there too long, which means players get blown and even when you do get the puck many times we are forced to try to immediately chage lines.

 

[Scoresberg]

303 hit the nail in the head when saying that every depth scoring we wished to have this year (exclude Hartnell) have failed us so far. We need Fiala, Aberg, Sissons and Watson all the guys who were great in the playoffs last year and who were counted on this year (not making enough moves on offense in the summer, getting rid of Neal and trading a legit scorer in Wilson for nothing) and they have done squat this year.

Obviously, we are without 3 of our top-6 D right now and without our top pair. We're going to improve when we get those guys back and we get more offense in reg. season from there, but I really doubt our offense this year. So far, it does not look good. All the guys we counted on, have failed so far.

 

[TitansVolsPreds615]

303 hit the nail in the head when saying that every depth scoring we wished to have this year (exclude Hartnell) have failed us so far. We need Fiala, Aberg, Sissons and Watson all the guys who were great in the playoffs last year and who were counted on this year (not making enough moves on offense in the summer, getting rid of Neal and trading a legit scorer in Wilson for nothing) and they have done squat this year.

Obviously, we are without 3 of our top-6 D right now and without our top pair. We're going to improve when we get those guys back and we get more offense in reg. season from there, but I really doubt our offense this year. So far, it does not look good. All the guys we counted on, have failed so far.

we basically traded wilson for hartnell

 

[Scoresberg]

Our forward core last year:

Forsberg - Johansen - Arvidsson
Wilson - Fisher - Neal
Fiala - Jarnkrok - Smith
McLeod - Sissons/Fiddler - Watson

Gonna exclude Ribeiro there but he was pretty effective 25p in 46 games. Fish was giving us 2C production, though.

Our forward core this year:

Forsberg - Johansen - Arvidsson
Hartnell - Bonino - Smith
Fiala - Jarnkrok - Aberg
Salomaki/Mcleod - Sissons - Watson

A lot if's were brought to that group, IF Fiala could break out, IF Aberg was a legit top-9 after the postseason, IF Bonino could get back to 2C production where he was 4yrs ago, IF Hartnell and Smith could find themselves after a downyear.

 

[glenngineer]

Holy over reaction after 5 games

 

[NSH615]

303 hit the nail in the head when saying that every depth scoring we wished to have this year (exclude Hartnell) have failed us so far. We need Fiala, Aberg, Sissons and Watson all the guys who were great in the playoffs last year and who were counted on this year (not making enough moves on offense in the summer, getting rid of Neal and trading a legit scorer in Wilson for nothing) and they have done squat this year.

Obviously, we are without 3 of our top-6 D right now and without our top pair. We're going to improve when we get those guys back and we get more offense in reg. season from there, but I really doubt our offense this year. So far, it does not look good. All the guys we counted on, have failed so far.

Legit scorer of 12 goals? We aren't missing Wilson as much as we are Neal.

 

[drwpreds]

Holy over reaction after 5 games

Yep- was going to post that but you beat me to it. It is FIVE games- you cannot make any definitive assessments based on 5 games. Just like you couldn't claim the offseason moves (or lack of them) were a success if all of those guys started the season red hot- it is just too early and too few games.

I am concerned about the offense just like many are, but it is still way too early to panic.

Having said that- I am getting worried about Bonino's health- Preds say he is "undergoing further evaluation". I don't know if it is just me, but that sound ominous to me. Losing him will certainly not help our offensive situation.

If Bonino is injured I am even more convinced that we will be adding a top 6 forward sometime between now and February......

 

[NSH615]

Yep- was going to post that but you beat me to it. It is FIVE games- you cannot make any definitive assessments based on 5 games. Just like you couldn't claim the offseason moves (or lack of them) were a success if all of those guys started the season red hot- it is just too early and too few games.

I am concerned about the offense just like many are, but it is still way too early to panic.

Having said that- I am getting worried about Bonino's health- Preds say he is "undergoing further evaluation". I don't know if it is just me, but that sound ominous to me. Losing him will certainly not help our offensive situation.

If Bonino is injured I am even more convinced that we will be adding a top 6 forward sometime between now and February......

What even happened to Bonino? I don't recall the broadcast even showing. Also if we lose him, it may be a blessing if Gaudreau or Kamenev can step up.

 

[Scoresberg]

Legit scorer of 12 goals? We aren't missing Wilson as much as we are Neal.

Year before that 20 goals and if he wasn't scoring goals he was driving the play, was good along the boards, stepped up his game in the playoffs and scored 35-45 points in the reg season.

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

You really need to get over this Colin Wilson thing. Neal I understand but Colin Wilson?

 

[Legionnaire11]

Year before that 20 goals and if he wasn't scoring goals he was driving the play, was good along the boards, stepped up his game in the playoffs and scored 35-45 points in the reg season.

So would Wilson's 0 goals and 1 assist in 6 games with the Avs make you feel much better about the Preds secondary scoring? He's also been floating between the 3rd and 4th line when he should have been able to go into that lineup and be challenging for a 2nd line spot. I was hoping to see Wilson go to Colorado and have a bounce back seasons, but it appears that he is going to have a struggle again. Definitely not a loss for the Predators.

 

[TitansVolsPreds615]

Sounds like we are going to be without Bonino for a hot minute.

 

[NSH615]

Year before that 20 goals and if he wasn't scoring goals he was driving the play, was good along the boards, stepped up his game in the playoffs and scored 35-45 points in the reg season.

Actually he had

16-17: 12G
15-16: 6G
14-15: 20G

So he's 3 years removed from what is a career year of 20 goals. He isn't a legit threat. He could be if he applied himself, I just feel he floats and expects things to come to him rather than try to make things happen.

 

[drwpreds]

Legit scorer of 12 goals? We aren't missing Wilson as much as we are Neal.

Yeah its funny to me that when he was here he was awful. Now that he is gone he is suddenly a b

What even happened to Bonino? I don't recall the broadcast even showing. Also if we lose him, it may be a blessing if Gaudreau or Kamenev can step up.

Saw a note somewhere that he appeared to have a brace on his left ankle after the game- and I do believe that is the same foot he broke last year.....

Not good, not good at all. Foot injuries can be tricky, tricky things. Hope this is not something that is going to a long term issue.

Wish Fisher had stuck around one more year.......

 

[NoNecksCurse]

5 games in and injuries are bending us over. expect bonino to be out a while.

 

[Scoresberg]

We have Kamenev and Gaudreau who can come and fill in. It's not like Bonino has looked like a rainmaker but obviously it hurts. Hopefully he's not out for long.

 

[NSH615]

We have Kamenev and Gaudreau who can come and fill in. It's not like Bonino has looked like a rainmaker but obviously it hurts. Hopefully he's not out for long.

Yeah, but Bonino has been equally as good if not better than Wilson was here the last 2 years.

 

[Scoresberg]

Hopefully he can replace Fisher's production. I think he can. But he needs some good linemates.

 

[drwpreds]

We have Kamenev and Gaudreau who can come and fill in. It's not like Bonino has looked like a rainmaker but obviously it hurts. Hopefully he's not out for long.

If it is a short term thing its no big deal. But if not?? Then it becomes a big deal.

 

[Preds Partisan]

If Bonino is "undergoing further evaluation", that's not a short term, day to day type injury.

 

[NSH615]

If it is a short term thing its no big deal. But if not?? Then it becomes a big deal.

I am not worried. I feel both Gaudreau and Kamenev are better than Bonino. The only thing Bonino has on them is experience.