These boards are way too hard on Labanc. You guys might not see it yet, but if Hertl is the new Jumbo Joe, then Labanc is our future Pavelski. The fact that he put up 40 points and a full season at 22 is insane. I promise you, he is gonna work with the same trainer Tierney did, and have a monster season next year. Watching him on the PP, you see just how good a player he can be. 1v1, in the corners, he doesn’t have the size yet. He will lose those battles until he adds some mass. I have no doubt that the organization makes that their top priority for him over the summer.
These boards are way too hard on Labanc. You guys might not see it yet, but if Hertl is the new Jumbo Joe, then Labanc is our future Pavelski. The fact that he put up 40 points and a full season at 22 is insane. I promise you, he is gonna work with the same trainer Tierney did, and have a monster season next year. Watching him on the PP, you see just how good a player he can be. 1v1, in the corners, he doesn’t have the size yet. He will lose those battles until he adds some mass. I have no doubt that the organization makes that their top priority for him over the summer.
I really don't know what people were expecting from Labanc. The PP worked at near 20% during the VGK series, and 30% during the Anaheim series. He made two cross ice assists to Couture that were things of beauty. He scored a goal, and took 1 penalty the entire playoffs. He had 5 points, and was on the ice for exactly 3 goals against the whole of the playoffs, one of those on the PK.
He fumbled the puck and made poor decisions at even strength, but nothing that was catastrophic.
Doesn't matter though. If he gets top 6/top 9 minutes next year he'll score north of 40 points and people will still complain about him not doing enough. Or he'll get bottom 6 minutes and score 20-30 points and people will say he's **** and needs to be traded.
Tierney gets put on academic probation for not even showing up to games. That's two years in a row where he's done nothing. Time to move on from him.
Hertl probably just earned himself a huge pay increase from those play-offs.
Their first line might be no fluke, but neither is Crosby, neither is McDavid, etc.; Vlasic gets paid far more than any other defenseman of his scoring ability and he gets paid that because of his ability to shut down top players. Had Vlasic been able to shut down William Karlsson’s line the way that he has historically been able to shut down the NHL’s true elites, we probably win games 2-4, giving us a 3-1 lead going into game 5.
If he really dies after 6 games of being leaned on then he sure as hell isnt worth his contract.
The Smith-Karlsson-Marchessault line had 9 goals. Just those 3 players. If you consider goals where a different player scored but two players from that line had an assist, they had 13. That accounts for more than half of Vegas’ scoring. Without those guys scoring goals, Vegas would have had 13 goals in this entire series. Without goals that were directly assisted by two thirds of that line, Vegas would have had 9 goals in this entire series.
That is unacceptable for one line to completely torch us like that when we spend >$7M on Vlasic and almost $7M on Jones. Vlasic and Jones cost us this series. You pay those guys that much money and you expect to be able to deploy them in a certain manner that doesn’t allow this to happen.
Vlasic was on the ice for 2 goals for and 9 goals against. Burns was on the ice for 8 goals for and 12 goals against. Jones got pulled as many times as he had a save percentage that was equal to 90% or higher. The Sharks scored over 2 goals per game in this series. The Sharks never lost a series in the Nabokov era where they averaged over 2 goals per game. The defense and goaltending is a problem. Neither of these guys deserve a B or better.
Yeah, I agree with the majority of this. The defense completely fell apart late in the season.
Realistically, this team peaked as a fringe Cup Contender around game 30. Joe Thornton had just begun to find his game on a line with Meier and Pavelski and with some improvements from those players, we could have been looking at another elite first line; all of them were scoring close to that rate. We were at the very bottom of the NHL in goals against, despite Jones, Burns, and Vlasic not playing up to their standards or their contracts. Dillon, Heed, and Ryan were all fantastic for those 25 games and were a big part of why we did so well defensively.
We traded for Kane, went on a tear against a bunch of non-playoff teams, and suddenly everybody thought that we looked the best we had all season. We really didn’t. I felt more confident in this team around game 25 of the regular season than I did in the playoffs. We all got caught up in the excitement of the Sharks dominating all of those non-playoff teams and then the excitement of the Sharks dominating a Ducks team that didn’t deserve to make the playoffs.
Dumbass DeBoer got caught up in the same excitement too when Burns looked marginally better with Paul Martin on his left flank in a game against Vancouver and decided that Burns needed Paul Martin. Yes, we all said that maybe Burns is best with Martin, but we are also HFBoards posters; if an NHL coach made the same dumb, inexcusable mistake as we did, it’s a lot more of a problem.
However, with all of that said...Burns, Vlasic, and Jones all get paid a lot. They make over $20M combined and when you spend over 1/4 of the cap on 2 defenseman and a goalie, they need to be better than they were in this series; regardless of deployment. None of those players deserve better than a C for their performance in the playoffs.
Very well said. I am a little surprised at the high grades Vlasic is receiving. He made his share of mistakes, and as he frequently is, was negligible offensively. All this to a defenseman getting paid 7 million with term.
Jones at least had the stellar Anaheim series, and Burns had a handful of dominant games (though overall, I am happy with neither's performance).
The first part I think is you being a little reactionarily pessimistic. You are being too uncharitable and harsh with your evaluations.
The bolded part I mostly agree with, and it has been my complaint regarding the Sharks's star players for a long time.
One thing I was thinking about was how we've all criticized Nabokov, yet Nabokov never lost a series where the Sharks averaged more than 2 goals/game. The same can't be said about Niemi or now Jones.
I was saying the same thing about Nabokov, maybe it was in a different thread. Technically, we scored 14 goals in 6 games against Edmonton last year, but half of those came in one game, so I'd hardly blame Jones for that series. The Oilers actually only averaged 2 goals per game and won that series.
I recall you and I talking, around game 30, about how this team might be a fringe contender. You agreed and cited the fact that it felt like they had been playing better every game. Do you not feel like the team was likely at its best around the 30 game mark when they had Tim Heed and Joakim Ryan in the lineup? I'm not saying that last night's team sucked. I'm saying that the team around the 30 game mark with Tim Heed and Joakim Ryan in the lineup was a little bit better. The advanced stats would agree with that.
Vlasic and Jones cost us this series
We got shut out in 2 out of 6 games. So we had to win 4 of the remaining 5 game series. It's not entirely on the defense.
And we had at least 3 goals in every other game. The team could have won games 2-5 easily if those guys played at their 2016 standard and they are paid to play at that standard.
It’s wild how many excuses Vlasic gets for poor play. I don’t think he was any better than Burns, but Burns is evicerated and Vlasic gets a B across the board.
I’d much, much rather trade Vlasic than Burns.
These grades take into account the entire playoffs, but the Vegas series is weighed more heavily because my god Anaheim was awful.
Hertl A+ He was great
Couture A- Played pretty well, benefited from playing with Hertl though.
Boedker B Like Couture, he benefited from playing with Hertl, but he was moving his feet, and did a pretty good job.
Vlasic C (because JTR says so) Mostly for surviving insane deployment and being overextended
Sorensen B Did a lot of good things, but disappeared for games
Ryan B (inc) Was the Sharks best defenseman in game 6 and played the least.
Meier B- Did some good things, but also is prone to some awful turnovers. Lots of potential, just needs to keep developing.
Donskoi B- Injured, but still has so much ability
Fehr - C Really a non factor in the Vegas series
Pavelski - C Too slow, didn't bring much to the games. He's not even deflecting pucks anymore. It's all attempted high tips
Braun - C Overmatched and worn to shreds
Dillon - C Dragged down by his partner, but was still decent
Kane - C Injured, was rendered ineffective by his body
Jones - C So bad against Vegas
Labanc - C- Total non factor, looked scared on the power play, takes too long to shoot. All correctable, he's just gotta get quicker.
Karlsson C- He played, I think.
Burns - D Sloppy in ever aspect, and too worn out from overuse to have any energy on the PP or defensively
Demelo - F Not good enough for the NHL, may not be good enough for the AHL. His passes and shots are weak, he can't break the puck out, he gets pushed around defensively, has minimal offensive abilities. He needs to go.
Martin - F Should have never received a grade, the NHL game has passed him by, and it was sad to watch him be exposed time and time again.
Tierney - F He managed two assists, both on the powerplay, one of which was on the last goal of the game, in garbage time, of an 8-1 victory. I do not think he's the answer at 3C, and I think he should be traded.
Hah, no. He’s just not very good.Did DeMelo chirp you on Twitter or something?
Hah, no. He’s just not very good.
Is 20 points in 62 games and playing the least amount out of any of the d not very good? Is leading the team in plus minus for the playoffs not very good?
Vlasic was fine given that he had to babysit Braun, who went full pylon and kept losing his man on many occasions which led to a handful of goals against.
Vlasic was on the ice for 2 goals for and 9 goals against. Burns was on the ice for 8 goals for and 12 goals against. Jones got pulled as many times as he had a save percentage that was equal to 90% or higher. The Sharks scored over 2 goals per game in this series. The Sharks never lost a series in the Nabokov era where they averaged over 2 goals per game. The defense and goaltending is a problem. Neither of these guys deserve a B or better.
It’s wild how many excuses Vlasic gets for poor play. I don’t think he was any better than Burns, but Burns is evicerated and Vlasic gets a B across the board.
I’d much, much rather trade Vlasic than Burns.