letsgrowcactus
Registered User
- Jan 21, 2017
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No direct Boughner quotes in the article.Team gave up 34 shot per game. You can chalk that up to the run and gun style employed by Mr. Boo against everyone but the top shelf teams the last 10 games. Defenders were told to stop joining the rush on the breakout against playoff teams and the Cats were able to stay in many games and win most ala the Bruins.
If Boo thinks that by acquiring a shut down defenseman the teams problem of giving up 34 shots per game will go away, he is sadly mistaken. He just needs to do what he did and tweak the system against the better teams and keep two defenders back......thus preventing the odd man breaks for easy scoring chances.
Handing two slots in the top 9 to Borgstrom and Tippett is a mistake. Let them earn it in camp or the beginning of the season. If they face plant, then ship them to the AHL either at the beginning or 10 games into the season. I find it hard to believe that either of these guys based on last years exposure will have any type of meaningful affect on the team.........unless their off-season programs take them to the next level.
Re: the 34 shots against per game - yes it's bad (3rd worst in the league) , though I wonder what the statistic is since January/February when the team finally started clicking. Also, other teams who gave up a lot of shots include Toronto (4th worst), Colorado (5th), Anaheim (7th) and Tampa (9-10th). Tampa actually allowed 32.7 shots per game same as Buffalo. On the other side of the equation, the five best teams (who gave up least shots per game) are Carolina, Boston, St.Louis, Dallas and Philly. That's only two playoff teams and only one that could be legitimely considered a contender.
Obviously Tampa had some of the best goaltending in the league while Carolina's goaltending was absolutely horrible. I'm not saying it doesn't matter - 34.6 shots per game is awful and it absolutely needs to improve next year. But if you add a good top4 Dman and knowledge of the system, we can probably get closer to the middle of the pack, where having a good offence and decent goaltending can bail you out.
(FWIW we're also tied with Pittsburgh for 1st in "shots for per game".)
While we're looking at "single number stats" - the stats that actually do reasonably correlate with making playoffs are PK% and PP%. Out of the top15 PK teams, only three didn't make the playoffs (6th Flames, 10th Rangers, 14th Dallas). This is where our abominable PK to start the season killed us (we actually finished 16th, which is pretty good given how we started out). With the PP it's similar - 11 of the top 15 teams made playoffs (7th Islanders, 9th Canucks, 12th Canadiens and 13th Rangers didn't make it). Our PK should be okay next year; the PP worries me.
(End numbers ramble)
Re: Tippett and Borgstrom:
Tippett isn't AHL eligible - it's NHL or back to juniors. However, even if you put Borgstrom in the AHL to start the season (and sure, why not), he still affects the Panthers when he's the first/second injury call-up. Wouldn't you rather call up Borgstrom than play Brickley or Balisy?