Player Discussion: Victor Hedman

[TheDaysOf 04]

He doesn't do a good job at it tho, he doesn't have the touch. I remember the days of kurtis foster, he had it down to a science feeding stammer.

Edit: and he was a lefty

He was also a righty.

 

[Hoek]

And Foster had a booming shot of his own so teams couldn't cheat too much. That's what made that PP so deadly. Hopefully we can replicate it with DeAngelo in the future.

 

[JFleegs]

Ahh I looked up hockeydb thought I saw lefty, couldn't remember exactly. Yeah that pp was fun to watch that year. I believe it was when we had Adam Oates as the power play coach.

Anyway yeah I would like to see hedman on the first, but that second unit is deadly with him and drouin on it. Today both our unita were on fire though.

 

[Sky04]

Foster is the only other person other than MSL who I've seen give Stamkos those perfect feeds. I've seen a ton of guys just whale it to Stamkos and think he can just blast any type of pass.

Hedman in particular is pretty bad at giving those one-timer passes but probably gives one of the best breakout passes in the league.

 

[TheRealDeal88]

Can't see why they would move Hedman to 1PP. Strålman is much better fit for that set-up. Would even try Nesterov before Hedman for that powerplay if Strålman would be absent.

 

[zeykshade]

My problem with PP2 is no finishers. I'd almost put Kucherov on the left half wall with PP2 so you have someone threatening to actually score from somewhere. PP1 is a right handed PP because of Stralman, TJ and Stamkos. PP2 could be a Left Handed PP if you had a threat to shoot to the goalie's left.

 

[xteesy]

My problem with PP2 is no finishers. I'd almost put Kucherov on the left half wall with PP2 so you have someone threatening to actually score from somewhere. PP1 is a right handed PP because of Stralman, TJ and Stamkos. PP2 could be a Left Handed PP if you had a threat to shoot to the goalie's left.

Stralman has definitely been practicing feeding Stamkos.

Last season he was good at it, this season he's really good at it. I don't know how much of a PP2 threat we'll have this year, but the looks from PP1 unit have been very promising.

They're not consistent yet, but give it 15 games and I wouldn't doubt they'll be terrifiying.

 

[DFC]

Stralman has definitely been practicing feeding Stamkos.

Last season he was good at it, this season he's really good at it. I don't know how much of a PP2 threat we'll have this year, but the looks from PP1 unit have been very promising.

They're not consistent yet, but give it 15 games and I wouldn't doubt they'll be terrifiying.

With the new PP lines, I like the idea of both Stralman and Drouin as threats to get the puck to Stamkos. (Or wait... maybe Garrison was shifted to first unit?)

 

[zeykshade]

Stralman has definitely been practicing feeding Stamkos.

Last season he was good at it, this season he's really good at it. I don't know how much of a PP2 threat we'll have this year, but the looks from PP1 unit have been very promising.

They're not consistent yet, but give it 15 games and I wouldn't doubt they'll be terrifiying.

If they can match how terrifying our PK has been (but in a positive way), I'll be happy.

 

[Nordic*]

The last 40ish games last season, Hedman looked like a superstar - totally dominant all over the ice.

In the playoffs he was perhaps the best defenceman.

Seems like he's not anywhere close to that now, what happened?

 

[Sky04]

Got tired of carrying this team for 25~ games.

 

[dechire]

He started out great and then slowly got dragged down into sucking with the rest of the team

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

He scales with good play from his forwards.

 

[Iceman]

This is a guy I couldn't care less about when 8 out of 10 players completely blows on this team on a game to game basis.


Our least problem when even if he was leading the league in points and defended like a maniac, we would still lose games because our forwards put in 1 or 2 pucks into the net at best (sure he wouldn't be able to lead the league in scoring since that is the case but I hope you get my point).

 

[Volodya Krutov]

He's a part of an underachieving bunch but when Hedman underachieves he's still a legit top pairing dman. I've seen worse.

 

[Nordic*]

He's a part of an underachieving bunch but when Hedman underachieves he's still a legit top pairing dman. I've seen worse.

Sure, the criticism is relative to what he's capable of. Last season, especially in the playoffs, he could simply take the puck just dictate the whole game in a way very few players, even less defencemen, are capable of in today's hockey.

Expected more of him this season.

And how can Tampa be this bad, looking at the offensive talents you have? Is this a coaching issue, or what's up?

 

[Hoek]

It's hard to do too much as a defenseman when everyone else is struggling. You don't want to jump into the play if the game is constantly on a knife's edge and guys won't finish chances anyway. It's just a function of the whole team playing bad and not giving Hedman opportunities to succeed. As for why. It's a combination of everything going wrong. Never ending injuries, players going through the motions, and coaching not dealing with all the adversity well enough.

 

[2020 Cup Champions]

Sure, the criticism is relative to what he's capable of. Last season, especially in the playoffs, he could simply take the puck just dictate the whole game in a way very few players, even less defencemen, are capable of in today's hockey.

Expected more of him this season.

And how can Tampa be this bad, looking at the offensive talents you have? Is this a coaching issue, or what's up?

Health issue, compete level issue. Some mix of those two.

 

[Werewolf]

Hedman has had one bad game ... and its the last one so its the one everyone remembers. Kid is a stud, top 5 defenseman in the league. Third leading scorer on the team even though his S% is ~3% this season and Coop won't put him on first PP.

 

[Leonardo87]

He cut his hair.

 

[Hoek]

He cut his hair.

Only just now. Hasn't played a game with short hair yet. Could be the solution.

 

[Leonardo87]

Only just now. Hasn't played a game with short hair yet. Could be the solution.

Less weight more speed. Lol

 

[The Gongshow]

His defensive play is still tremendous, he just hasn't been clicking with his offence. Even his long cross ice passes aren't getting tape to tape and leading to some icings.

 

[RDTBay4]

If the goalie doesn't make a lucky desperation stick save last night Hedman is has one of the top highlight goals of the season.

Relax.

 

[Nordic*]

Why is Hedman's icetime so low? On most other teams he'd play at least 25-26 min per game?