Observations XIX

[David Singleton]

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?

I'll add a couple.

• I don't like the pairing of Emelin and Subban. While there might be a level of familiarity, Emelin is very slow and Subban isn't fleet of foot.
• I'd much rather see Josi-Subban and Ekholm-Girard. Josi-Subban have some familiarity even if it has been on the PP and Ekholm-Girard have proven effective.
• Speaking of Girard, he needs to play. He is a solid level above Weber, Bitetto, Irwin, and Emelin. He'll make mistakes. Weber, Bitetto, Irwin, and Emelin make plenty of mistakes themselves. At least Girard's can mostly be considered "experience" mistakes that he can outgrow and his ceiling (right now) is so much higher.
• Speaking of Girard, part II, he's skating with Josi in practice today.
• I was seemingly hard on Weber above. Truthfully, I think that he's been pretty good and he has some wheels. Try Weber and Emelin on the third pair.
• Irwin has had a miserable year to this point.
• We all knew that the issue with a real 2nd line center was going to be a problem. It is.
• We say that Fiala and Aberg haven't stepped up, and perhaps not. But it's unfair to desperately need them both to step up and then not have them with a C that can help. As great as Poile has been, he could have addressed both and didn't. Tough gamble on his part.
• Poile still has time to address it.

Back to Girard, this is an interesting tidbit from Elliotte Friedman's 31 thoughts about rookies in general:

1. As rookies approach their nine-game marks, recognize that most teams worry more about the next threshold much more than this one. Although a 10th appearance erodes one season on the contract, players do not gain credit towards free agency or salary arbitration until they are past the 40-game threshold. (They do not have to play, just have to be on the roster.) In fact, there are teams/agents who think keeping a rookie past nine (but not 40) benefits the club when it comes to a second contract, because stats are lower.

 

[PredsV82]

Was wondering if they have been announcing sellouts every game like they did last year? I'm dubious because I get a "golden ticket"offer to buy cheap tickets the day before every game. Usually it's an upper bowl ticket for 30 dollars, today it was club level for $49.

 

[TitansVolsPreds615]

Was wondering if they have been announcing sellouts every game like they did last year? I'm dubious because I get a "golden ticket"offer to buy cheap tickets the day before every game. Usually it's an upper bowl ticket for 30 dollars, today it was club level for $49.

I think every game this year has been announced a sellout. I don't think there were more than 15.5k at the game on Tuesday.

 

[drwpreds]

Random observation- going to be weird having no game tonight- a rare Thursday off day.....

 

[Armourboy]

Which stinks because I'm on vacation this week, go figure.

 

[NightowlPred]

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.

I mostly agree with you except for the comment that it was shortsighted. If anything GMDP thought too much about Season 2018/2019 and the possibility (very high possibility to be fair) to lose Neal in addition to Krok for nothing.

And in all fairness, I think Krok is awesome on the PK.

But as probably most people here I am all in favour of moving him to wing while bringing up Kamenev. His defensive play may be ideal to provide some sheltering for the young lad.

 

[bdub24]

Are the Aberg and Girard scratches cagey moves to deny the Avs proper scouting on assets we put up for Duchene? That's been eating at me.

On the Forsberg/Jarnkrok front I remember some video from the team (maybe BTI) in 2015 that If they weren't roommates they certainly were constantly hanging out. You know those companion horses that the racing horses bond with and helps them settle down and focus? I think that's Jarnkroks actual role...

 

[Roman Yoshi]

No one is really going to want Aberg. I do t think he has that much value.

Huge game tonight. We win, we keep pace in a tight central race and prove we can win on the road. Lose, and I don't feel good about our next five games.

 

[token grinder]

Zone exit data for the NYR\NSH game:

View attachment 81283

Is that saying Irwin and Weber were our best D for getting the puck out of the zone with possession? I know quality of comp influences that but yeesh

 

[nomorekids]

Is that saying Irwin and Weber were our best D for getting the puck out of the zone with possession? I know quality of comp influences that but yeesh

yeah, a lot of it is competition. Ekholm had the worst numbers, but also played the toughest comp.

 

[Flgatorguy87]

Did anyone listen to David Poile on Mid Day 180 yesterday? They have the interview archived, but he is on every Thursday....

I ask because to me, he sounded as frustrated and was as blunt as I have ever heard him. Specifically in regards to our 5v5 scoring and the 3v3 OT period. He talked at length about the changes/attempted changes they have made to the 3v3, video review, strategy change, etc....all of which has been unsuccessful. I know its early, but based on the way he sounded I could see him being aggressive to shake things up if things don't change. He wasn't happy.

 

[Scoresberg]

He's the one who killed our scoring depth so what gives..

 

[NoNecksCurse]

Was wondering if they have been announcing sellouts every game like they did last year? I'm dubious because I get a "golden ticket"offer to buy cheap tickets the day before every game. Usually it's an upper bowl ticket for 30 dollars, today it was club level for $49.

wow send those $30 upper bowl offers to me

 

[Mortiest Morty]

I think we can all agree that Sissons has clearly been the second best center in a very poor group, yes? As his reward, it looks like he'll be bumped to the 4th line so that Jarnkrok can continue to center the 2nd line. Honestly this shit is getting pretty comical at this point. At least Irwin and McLeod are out, but again, I wouldn't expect anything from lines 2-4.

 

[drwpreds]

wow send those $30 upper bowl offers to me

Someone can correct me if I am wrong here but aren't those "golden ticket" offers open to anyone?- just have to go to the app and register.

Again, I could be wrong though.......

 

[NSH615]

Someone can correct me if I am wrong here but aren't those "golden ticket" offers open to anyone?- just have to go to the app and register.

Again, I could be wrong though.......

I haven't heard of these golden tickets. What are they?

 

[Scoresberg]

Our best and worst players by Corsi and Fenwick:

Best:

Salomaki
Josi
Hartnell
Smith
Fiala
JOFA

Worst:

Gaudreau
McLeod
Watson
Emelin
Jarnkrok
Aberg

 

[NoNecksCurse]

Our best and worst players by Corsi and Fenwick:

Best:

Salomaki
Josi
Hartnell
Smith
Fiala
JOFA

Worst:

Gaudreau
McLeod
Watson
Emelin
Jarnkrok
Aberg

nothing really surprising. i don't live and die by these analytics but they usually always have a bit of truth in them. seems to be a lot of truth with this.

 

[drwpreds]

I haven't heard of these golden tickets. What are they?

You go on the Preds app and there is a "Preds Golden Ticket" section- click that and register and they text ticket/upgrade offers to you.

 

[nomorekids]

Our best and worst players by Corsi and Fenwick:

Best:

Salomaki
Josi
Hartnell
Smith
Fiala
JOFA

Worst:

Gaudreau
McLeod
Watson
Emelin
Jarnkrok
Aberg

Not too far off the best\worst by xG (check it out, it's replaced Corsi\Fen alone as a tool to measure player effectiveness)

Arvidsson
Johansen
Smith
Salomaki
Forsberg

Worst:

Weber
Gaudreau
McLeod
Emelin
Irwin

 

[NoNecksCurse]

Not too far off the best\worst by xG (check it out, it's replaced Corsi\Fen alone as a tool to measure player effectiveness)

Arvidsson
Johansen
Smith
Salomaki
Forsberg

Worst:

Weber
Gaudreau
McLeod
Emelin
Irwin

seems about right again. jarnkrok is lucky we have the pile of suck known as WIBE and McLeod or i imagine he would be right there at the bottom. i would have to say he is very near the bottom 5. correct me if im wrong.

 

[PredsV82]

wow send those $30 upper bowl offers to me

I'm not exactly sure how I got signed up for this. It may have been through the NHL app when I signed up to try to get SRO playoff tickets. I'm guessing you can sign up and get them too

 

[NoNecksCurse]

I'm not exactly sure how I got signed up for this. It may have been through the NHL app when I signed up to try to get SRO playoff tickets. I'm guessing you can sign up and get them too

Yep that's it. thanks for the help and DRWpreds

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Where in the Preds App is this golden ticket thing?

 

[PredsV82]

Where in the Preds App is this golden ticket thing?

I think it's the preds section of the NHL app