Observations XIX

[FossilFndr]

I'll be honest if Jarnkrok doesn't get it together I hope he isn't in our long term plans either. I'm a guy that rooted and supported him last season and I've about grown tired of it.

I really hope the best for the kid, have wanted him to succeed since he has been many posters favorite whipping boy for a long time. I don't see him on a wing because he has not shown an ability to finish a play, not great at center because he can't get the puck to an attacking player in a position for a good scoring opportunity. Not exactly a beast at the dot (Sissons killed it last night with 82%) and does not have body strength to knock anyone off the puck. Don't know who we could get in a trade to replace him or who at Milwaukee is better and could come in and replace what skill he does have.

Got to be some intangible that keeps him on the team. But for this fan I want something tangible.

 

[Scoresberg]

I'll be honest if Jarnkrok doesn't get it together I hope he isn't in our long term plans either. I'm a guy that rooted and supported him last season and I've about grown tired of it.

Our bottom lines have all been garbage not just Jarnkrok.

 

[Armourboy]

Our bottom lines have all been garbage not just Jarnkrok.

Agreed but when you are the Center and your play is almost always to go back to the point you sure aren't helping your wingers be better. In fact I would argue his wingers are often in places to make a play but he never even takes a look, it just goes back to the Dmen.

He has zero offensive creativity and that's not a good thing for a center. I think his ability to play " smart " is actually hindering his game in that regard.

 

[Scoresberg]

Yeah true the only time he's produced has been with a lot better linemates and we don't have to offer that anymore. Move him to wing or 4C where he belongs. Scratch McLeod for Salomaki and Irwin for Girard. Call up Kamenev and try these lines while Bonino is out:

Forsberg - Johansen - Arvidsson
Fiala - Sissons - Smith
Hartnell - Kamenev - Jarnkrok
Salomaki - Gaudreau - Watson

Josi - Ekholm
Emelin - Subban
Girard - Weber/Bitetto

And when Bonino returns:

Forsberg - Johansen - Arvidsson
Fiala - Bonino - Smith
Hartnell - Sissons - Kamenev
Salomaki - Jarnkrok - Watson

If Kamenev doesn't work out put Aberg there or someone else from the AHL or Jarny on the wing. I'm thinking we gotta break up JOFA for at least a while to get the other lines going. Anything to jumpstart the offense, do you hear me Lavy!!

 

[NoNecksCurse]

jarnkrok has 1 point in 9 games. an assist in the first game against boston on the PP where forsberg banked it off the goalie in the last minute with the net empty. jarnkrok's offensive production is anemic. but as was stated before, anyone not on the top line has been bad. if it weren't for forsberg and josi coming back, im not sure if there would even be goals scored by us at this point.

little side note.. but fiala pulled the "hold my beer and watch this" when he missed the net. it was nowhere near as bad as smith though as he had the puck on his stick and just roofed it. fiala missed because the puck was bouncing. i sure hope that doesn't get in his head. i don't think smith has been the same since his mishap for whatever reason. fiala's shootout attempt was just... awkward and bad.

 

[triggrman]

We have one scoring line and 3 grinding lines at this point. If the JOFA line isn't out there, we have to have defensemen driving the offense.

 

[Pred303]

I want to like and believe in this team, I really do. Obviously a second straight highly frustrating game. This one even more so than the Ranger game. You cann't not get two points leading by 2 heading into the third, you just cann't. And you certainly cann't blow a two goal lead halfway thru the third. A few thoughts;

..sloppy, sloppy, sloppy. turnovers, bad decisions, poor puckhandling.
..this game could easily have been a 7-2 win if we had simply finished half our great chances.
..this game could also have easily been a 7-2 loss without Rinne playing his best game of the year honestly and covering our mistakes.
..ironic. the only defensive pair that hadn't allowed a ton of high danger chances because of mistakes, Ekholm and Josi, get burned in two minutes for the only goals we actually allowed.
..goal one allowed a direct result of the new no timeout rule. Ekholm was simply lead legged.
..goal one also was bad luck because Josi making a good cover for Ekholm deflected the puck in.
..Josi is human, he makes physical mistakes. But he doesn't make mental ones hardly ever. A horrible pinch at the wrong time of the game cost us the odd man rush goal to tie it. You simply have to play extra conservative as a d-man with a one goal lead and less than 10 to go. He didn't.

..honestly we are a 6 man team right now. Forsberg, Arvy, Josi, Rinne, Subban and Ekholm. With some sporatic help from Sissons, Johansen, and Hartnell. Everyone else has been a lead weight for the first 9 games.
..both teams last night are considered by many outsiders in the NHL to be the top two defensive teams in the league. a glance at the scoresheet with the 2-2 score, the relatively modest shot total number would seem to support that. Yet both were actually horrible defensively almost all game.
..i'm not sure we lost because we 'went into a protective shell' with a two goal lead late. in fact i'm pretty sure we didn't change our game at all, they just took us to the woodshed the last 25-30 minutes.
..the fiala swing and miss was an epic fail without a doubt. as if this kid needs anymore pressure on himself.
..we simply don't have enough offensive talent depth 5 on 5. and that really shows in OT and shootouts as well.
..we are currently on pace to lose 18 OT/SO games this year now. and we were upset with last year.

..Forsberg with 5 PP goals leads the league. One more than he had in 82 games last year.
..Josi is an offensive dynamo. Thank God.
..So many chances we had inside 10 feet.
..I see some say smith has good hands. I am not one of those guys.
..Irwin has offensive desire but no offensive vision or talent.
..Subban has now been on ice for 9 PP goals. Admittedly most of his assists are simply passing the puck from wing to wing on the PP.

..Things we said needed to happen for this team to be better than last year;
1)rinne had to be playoff Rinne. Check so far
2)Hartnell needed to help our PP. Check.
3)hartnell needed to be a 20 goal socrer. 3 in 9 makes it look likely
4)Fiala needed to be a 20 goals scorer. 0 in 9
5)Aberg needed to be a 15 goal type scorer. 0 in 9
6)Bonino needed to be a 15-20 goal type guy. 1 point in our first 9
7)Johansen needed to be around a 20 goal scorer. 0 in 9.
8)Arvy needed to continue to be at least a 25-30 type guy. 3 in 9 makes it look likely.
9) Saros needed to be effective backup in 20 odd starts. 0-2, .854, 3.53
10)the PP needed to be better. Looks great.
11)the PK needed to improve. Looks great so far.
12)Sissons/Watson needed to provide the type of scoring potential we saw in playoffs. Sissons has, Watson hasn't been bad.

Obviously the secondary scoring is where we are failing here. That, defensively, and 5 on 5. All continue to haunt us.

 

[Scoresberg]

All our problems can be traced back to our lack of skill in our bottom lines and to our bottom pairing to a degree.

 

[drwpreds]

In the past 3 years we have played 5 games with Calgary that have gone into overtime……….
Anyone want to guess our record???

0-5

3 OT losses and 2 shootout losses.

Of course……………

 

[Mortiest Morty]

I think Smith's scoring total is going to decrease for a 5th straight year, which would be quite an accomplishment after only 29 last year. And he's averaging over 2 minutes per game on the PP so far...

 

[JustaFinnishGuy]

It's pretty apparent that we didn't really do anything in the offseason. No real needs were answered, and we relied too much on maybe's.
Hindsight 20/20 aside, there are legitimate problems in this team.

Bonino has been underachieving, but that was to be expected. He hasn't been a point producer in his career.
Hartnell has done his job well. He's on this team to screen the goalie on the power play and be a net-front presence. He is too slow to create chances himself, which surprised me initially.
Fiala. Well, he's frustrated. He's constantly driving up the play while he's not on a line with Jarnkrok, but he cannot finish a play for the life of him.
WIBE. Our 4 third pairing defensemen are all worse than Girard, but Girard won't probably get a 2nd look on the team for whatever reason Lavy has.
We have too many mediocre players in too challenging roles.

 

[Scoresberg]

Too early to say that Bonino is underachieving. Plus, he has produced like a low-end 2C in his career, like 20-20 player. He's had a rough start but he'll be a decent player.

 

[Pred303]

a few more completely random thoughts;

..obviously lack of goal scoring for us has to be a concern at this point.
..in 5 of our 9 games we have scored two or less goals. you aren't gonna win many of those (we're 1-2-2 in those 5)
..we have really only scored nine true 5 on 5 goals. (one 6 on 5, one empty netter, two 4 on 4's). about half of what you expect and hope to see.
..if Rinne simply had a league average save percentage or what we 'expect' him to have (around a .918), we would probably only be 4-5 or 3-6 right now.
..of everyone with more than 4 starts Rinne has the best gaa in the league.
..Carter Hutton is 2-0 with a .946 and 2.00..lol, proving anything can happen in hockey.
..COL has a team plus/minus total of +28...while our team total is a -22...once again proving anything can happen in hockey, lol.
..Mike Smith will always be in my hockey nightmares thanks to the 2011-12 PHO series.
..We remain mong the most penalized teams in the league. and we shouldn't be. in only 2 of our 9 games have we had more PP chances than our opponents.
..emelin can sure hit, now if he could actually clear the puck he would be a decent hockey player
..i cann't remember a stretch in years we have had more defensemen cleaned walked than this stretch.
..it was actually encouraging to see johansen actually look to shoot the puck some.
..josi still averaging more than 4 shots a game.
..you do have to be impressed with our special team play so far. unfortuantely that's only about 15-20 minutes per game.
..the only reason we didn't see the dreaded triangle last night i believe is we have possession of the puck the entire OT. bet we haven't changed a thing.
..another thing that doesn't work is trying to play the stall offense to force defenders to tire while we change out. i hate that strategy, and we appear to be the only team trying to ever do it. coincidence?

 

[triggrman]

I wonder if Emil Patterson gets a call soon? He has great stats with the Ads so far.

 

[nomorekids]

I wonder if Emil Patterson gets a call soon? He has great stats with the Ads so far.

Going on years past, I doubt it. Lavy\Evason seem to reward those that have "paid their dues" more so than players that are statistically producing. Evidenced by how long it took for Kamenev to get a shot last year, or even Aberg. If I had to guess, the next call up will be Zolnierczyk again.

 

[triggrman]

Going on years past, I doubt it. Lavy\Evason seem to reward those that have "paid their dues" more so than players that are statistically producing. Evidenced by how lo, ng it took for Kamenev to get a shot last year, or even Aberg. If I had to guess, the next call up will be Zolnierczyk again.

sadly you're likely correct but Petterson is 23.

 

[glenngineer]

If Sissons, Fiala and Smith weren't producing chances and driving the play like they do, I'd be more concerned about our offense. These guys are having a hard time finding the back of the net. It sucks to see but they are getting their chances.

Hartnell and Aberg were getting chances with Bonino between them but since the Krok has joined them, they are not as effective.

People keep saying, we couldn't keep Neal beyond this year. That's probably true but he would've given guys like Fiala and Aberg more time to develop and provide an offensive cushion until they matured.

Keeping a borderline 3rd center to lose a guaranteed 20 goal scorer was short sighted and a poor job of asset management. This team was two games away from winning the Cup. If had kept Neal and signed Bonino and Hartnell like we did, while moving Wilson, we would've been just fine. Bonino would replace Fisher and Hartnell would replace Wilson and we'd have the depth needed on the wings to roll 3 solid lines.

I thought we would've been fine with the moves we did make because I thought Fiala and Aberg could step up. They haven't to this point. Fiala needed to get hit a few times to make sure he was comfortable after his injury. He seems to be skating harder and faster than the first few games he played. I think he comes around. Smith can't find the back of the net and must be the unluckiest player I've ever seen because he's got a good shot, goalies just seem to make saves on him for whatever reason.

If we had kept Neal, our top 3 centers would've been Joey, Bonino and Sissons which would've been fine. We could've slotted Gaudreau into the 4 slot and no one would notice that Krok was gone. Even with the Bonino injury, we have the ability to call up Kamenev and play him on the 3rd line and we still wouldn't miss Krok.

While it would've sucked to lose Neal this coming offseason I don't think anyone would've complained with the results this team could've had with him but instead we kept a guy on a good contract that if he wasn't in the lineup for an extended period of time, no one would miss.

 

[bdub24]

Forsberg would notice his buddy Krok was gone. I'm convinced he pleaded with DP to protect his pal. I don't know why he wasn't exposed otherwise. It ain't about the contract.

 

[token grinder]

i keep seeing 'updates' on bonino's status from non-team sources as saying he is expected to be out "for multiple weeks". don't know where this info comes from but i don't like it.

The sportsplex had the travel kids practice early Sunday so that injured Preds players could practice. Don;t know what it means other than maybe evaluating to see where they are at, but there is that.

 

[TitansVolsPreds615]

The sportsplex had the travel kids practice early Sunday so that injured Preds players could practice. Don;t know what it means other than maybe evaluating to see where they are at, but there is that.

From someone whose kids practiced Sunday morning, Ellis was skating and looked pretty good.

 

[NSH615]

Forsberg would notice his buddy Krok was gone. I'm convinced he pleaded with DP to protect his pal. I don't know why he wasn't exposed otherwise. It ain't about the contract.

Maybe that was part of Forsberg's deal with his contract. He likely could have gotten 1M more.

 

[Legionnaire11]

Forsberg would notice his buddy Krok was gone. I'm convinced he pleaded with DP to protect his pal. I don't know why he wasn't exposed otherwise. It ain't about the contract.

This definitely happens. Jordie Benn was with the Stars when it was clear that he wasn't ready for the NHL, he only recently developed into an okay third pair guy. And in Buffalo everyone knows that while it's unspoken, that the reason Evan Rodrigues ever had a chance and still gets playing time is because Eichel insisted. I'm sure there are other cases that I'm unaware of as well.

 

[FossilFndr]

Always thought there was an off ice intangible involved, vaguely remember a photo where I think Ekholm, Forsberg and Jarnkrok were together doing an off ice thing, maybe cooking???? Make me think of Three Musketeers. Now with 2 more Swedes Arvidsson and Aberg makes more sense.

What team would not want that package of 5 players on the roster?

 

[NoNecksCurse]

Always thought there was an off ice intangible involved, vaguely remember a photo where I think Ekholm, Forsberg and Jarnkrok were together doing an off ice thing, maybe cooking???? Make me think of Three Musketeers. Now with 2 more Swedes Arvidsson and Aberg makes more sense.

What team would not want that package of 5 players on the roster?

3 players, yes. jarnkrok and aberg can kick rocks

 

[nomorekids]

Zone exit data for the NYR\NSH game: