GDT: 11-6-2014 | "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia" | Panthers @ Flyers

[Android 16]

You should apply for a scouting position with the Panthers.... clearly you can predict the future and are wasting your talents on this board

When I say that Bjugstad lacks skill, I mean he lacks elite level skill. The kid definitely has some good hockey genes, but I don't see enough evidence of skill of the elite genre. Huberdeau, on the other hand, has elite level skill, but lacks in the shooting department. It's too bad we can't merge both players into one super player, ha. Tarasenko is that merger, though. Size, strength, elite level skill, little to no weaknesses, he's the whole package and those are definitely all traits of the usual suspects in the top scorers of the NHL. Remember, he was robbed of the Calder due to a concussion and had a pretty proactive year in STL last year as well.

 

[barkovcanfinnish]

Annnnnnd thats enough internet for tonight, folks.

you and me both, brotha.

 

[Android 16]

Annnnnnd thats enough internet for tonight, folks.

Funny how that little icon rolling his eyes is most definitely the same look you have when watching the Panthers. It's the same look that most people have when watching a team score one to no goals per game.

 

[Android 16]

I hope Dale is furious and feeling the pressure tomorrow morning before he heads off to the links.

 

[kopecky82]

Funny how that little icon rolling his eyes is most definitely the same look you have when watching the Panthers. It's the same look that most people have when watching a team score one to no goals per game.

I agree with you on the fact that Tarasenko has more skill than Bjugstad, and it may have been a better pick now that we can look back to that year. However, just think about this. Prospects develop better or worse depending on all of the variables that lay in front of them. Tarasenko is in St. Louis, a playoff, well-rounded team. Meanwhile, Bjugstad doesn't have the greatest linemates around him like Tarasenko does.

That and the coaching staff. Coaches help develop the prospects, some better than others. But yes, I agree that there's a huge problem on this team that needs to be addressed, and that's scoring.

 

[Android 16]

I agree with you on the fact that Tarasenko has more skill than Bjugstad, and it may have been a better pick now that we can look back to that year. However, just think about this. Prospects develop better or worse depending on all of the variables that lay in front of them. Tarasenko is in St. Louis, a playoff, well-rounded team. Meanwhile, Bjugstad doesn't have the greatest linemates around him like Tarasenko does.

That and the coaching staff. Coaches help develop the prospects, some better than others. But yes, I agree that there's a huge problem on this team that needs to be addressed, and that's scoring.

Yes, finally. It's becoming increasingly clear that our high-end offensive prospects aren't as elite as once though. The top three, Bjugstad, Huberdeau and Barkov are each missing something. That's why we haven't seen any of the three take a step forward. This season is going to open up a lot of eyes I believe and the result might not be pretty.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

When I say that Bjugstad lacks skill, I mean he lacks elite level skill. The kid definitely has some good hockey genes, but I don't see enough evidence of skill of the elite genre. Huberdeau, on the other hand, has elite level skill, but lacks in the shooting department. It's too bad we can't merge both players into one super player, ha. Tarasenko is that merger, though. Size, strength, elite level skill, little to no weaknesses, he's the whole package and those are definitely all traits of the usual suspects in the top scorers of the NHL. Remember, he was robbed of the Calder due to a concussion and had a pretty proactive year in STL last year as well.

And at pick #19 you want elite skill?

 

[Android 16]

And at pick #19 you want elite skill?

I want something that tells me that this kid could be a superstar one day. Not sure people saw a lot of evidence in Bjugstad.

 

[jrockett1096]

Well I thought we just didn't bring it in this game from the start with some defensive breakdowns, bad luck with referees getting in the way and well the flyers playing probably played there best game this season in front of there crowd and them wanting to avenge what im sure they felt was an embarrassing loss against us.

As for the topic of the night being Barkov's play this year, I think a lot of his struggles has to do with our ultra conservative way we go about playing offense (dump and chase) which for the most part this season has cut down on the turnovers and odd man rushes but it also has robbed Barkov of his strengths with his puck possession and east west game. My criticism of him early in his career would be, and this goes for our other so called "stud prospects", is that he seems to have chemistry with ONLY Bergy and Boyes and if he's not with those guys he plays offense horribly and looks lost. Same goes with Huberdeau who I have seen play his best ONLY playing with Drew Shore and looks terrible if he plays with Barkov on the top line and very below average beside Bjugstad but call up Drew freaking Shore to the team and Huby is flying around! Put all 3 of our supposed most talented players on the PP for example and they probably will run into each other on the ice and this to me is very strange.

I am starting to think even a star sniper added to the team would have a hard time meshing with our supposed "studs" who play well with there favorite plumber but cant seem to mesh with anything else. Its funny but Pirri has all the strengths you would want to see in all 3 of these guys to have and yet has none of there weaknesses and meshes and seems to elevate the game of anybody he plays with. I guarantee you play Pirri with a star player and he would explode. I don't feel the same about these other 3 yet.

 

[Howboutthempanthers]

I want something that tells me that this kid could be a superstar one day. Not sure people saw a lot of evidence in Bjugstad.

Why does he have to be a superstar? Even picks at the top of the draft people only hope they become superstars.

 

[Android 16]

Tallon hired on May 17, 2010

It's now November 7, 2014. Year 4 of the 5 year plan and this is what HIS draft picks have done to help the team offensively. Defense/goaltending appears to be well improved. But, stats don't lie and this graphic is quite scary. Either we can't even score by accident our luck is so bad or these players are just simply overrated.

 

[I am not exposed]

It was one bad game, no reason to lose our minds. They played a poor game against New Jersey and got their act together after the game and went on their streak that just ended (after Ottawa, of course). Teams play poorly every now and then, even the good ones. Are we really going to flip our **** when the team is 4-3-4, down four top-9 forwards, and still competing for a playoff spot? They clearly need help on offense, we all can see that. But Huberdeau, Bolland, Pirri, and Bergenheim are still out. Huberdeau and Pirri especially will help contribute offensively. I'm confident that Tallon will make the necessary moves to get a scorer on this team to keep them in contention. Let's just take a deep breath and get ready for Saturday.

Well said.

 

[I am not exposed]

Well I thought we just didn't bring it in this game from the start with some defensive breakdowns, bad luck with referees getting in the way and well the flyers playing probably played there best game this season in front of there crowd and them wanting to avenge what im sure they felt was an embarrassing loss against us.

As for the topic of the night being Barkov's play this year, I think a lot of his struggles has to do with our ultra conservative way we go about playing offense (dump and chase) which for the most part this season has cut down on the turnovers and odd man rushes but it also has robbed Barkov of his strengths with his puck possession and east west game. My criticism of him early in his career would be, and this goes for our other so called "stud prospects", is that he seems to have chemistry with ONLY Bergy and Boyes and if he's not with those guys he plays offense horribly and looks lost. Same goes with Huberdeau who I have seen play his best ONLY playing with Drew Shore and looks terrible if he plays with Barkov on the top line and very below average beside Bjugstad but call up Drew freaking Shore to the team and Huby is flying around! Put all 3 of our supposed most talented players on the PP for example and they probably will run into each other on the ice and this to me is very strange.

I am starting to think even a star sniper added to the team would have a hard time meshing with our supposed "studs" who play well with there favorite plumber but cant seem to mesh with anything else. Its funny but Pirri has all the strengths you would want to see in all 3 of these guys to have and yet has none of there weaknesses and meshes and seems to elevate the game of anybody he plays with. I guarantee you play Pirri with a star player and he would explode. I don't feel the same about these other 3 yet.

Don't forget Peter Mueller!

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

As for the topic of the night being Barkov's play this year, I think a lot of his struggles has to do with our ultra conservative way we go about playing offense (dump and chase) which for the most part this season has cut down on the turnovers and odd man rushes but it also has robbed Barkov of his strengths with his puck possession and east west game. My criticism of him early in his career would be, and this goes for our other so called "stud prospects", is that he seems to have chemistry with ONLY Bergy and Boyes and if he's not with those guys he plays offense horribly and looks lost. Same goes with Huberdeau who I have seen play his best ONLY playing with Drew Shore and looks terrible if he plays with Barkov on the top line and very below average beside Bjugstad but call up Drew freaking Shore to the team and Huby is flying around! Put all 3 of our supposed most talented players on the PP for example and they probably will run into each other on the ice and this to me is very strange.

I am starting to think even a star sniper added to the team would have a hard time meshing with our supposed "studs" who play well with there favorite plumber but cant seem to mesh with anything else. Its funny but Pirri has all the strengths you would want to see in all 3 of these guys to have and yet has none of there weaknesses and meshes and seems to elevate the game of anybody he plays with. I guarantee you play Pirri with a star player and he would explode. I don't feel the same about these other 3 yet.

Agreed. The entire team isn't creative enough, the speed isn't there (only Grim can challenge defensemen on a regular basis), players aren't creating chances to receive the puck because most of plays occur in the boards. Atm they can't even enter the off.zone during PP without a hassle (i.e. players colliding the blue line, can't get to the puck first/losing the board battle cleanly, sloppy passes (especially the breakout passes), etc) not to mention how to keep the play going on and not to suffocate it into the board battles in the off.zone. Barkov is totally money when he has time and space to work his magic but there none of those to his game atm. Gallant gotta coach the team not to use dump 'n chase a primary M.O. The lines can be shuffled and players can be traded, but they still have to use the same system that is in place now.

 

[jrockett1096]

Don't forget Peter Mueller!

I would have mentioned him but since he's not on the team anymore I didn't but you are right.

 

[jrockett1096]

Agreed. The entire team isn't creative enough, the speed isn't there (only Grim can challenge defensemen on a regular basis), players aren't creating chances to receive the puck because most of plays occur in the boards. Atm they can't even enter the off.zone during PP without a hassle (i.e. players colliding the blue line, can't get to the puck first/losing the board battle cleanly, sloppy passes (especially the breakout passes), etc) not to mention how to keep the play going on and not to suffocate it into the board battles in the off.zone. Barkov is totally money when he has time and space to work his magic but there none of those to his game atm. Gallant gotta coach the team not to use dump 'n chase a primary M.O. The lines can be shuffled and players can be traded, but they still have to use the same system that is in place now.

We have conundrum with this team right now. We can't not get away from the dump and chase because this is slowing down the game which is good for a defensive team and constantly doing the D & C leads to little turnovers in the neutral zone and very very few odd man rushes against us. Gallant and his coaches I'm sure looked at tapes of last year of us and was horrified with all the east west passing, turnovers after turnovers and many many odd man rushes against us and he employed this ultra boring dump and chase game to play to the strength of the team which is Luongo and our improving young coached up dmen. Playing any other way and I think we lose and Gallant knows it and we will ride Luongo and the D and try to win 2-1 or get points on ties and shootouts all year. Thats the plan.

The conundrum lies that we will win more this year than last but this style of play kills the development of a Barkov because the system calls for him to do everything he was trained not to do since he was a little kid and that's never giving the puck away ever to your opposition and he's doing it all the time like a good soldier and I'm sure he hates it. I would like to see as more games are played that Barkov picks his spots better and says the hell with dumping it in like I have seen Pirri do many times and be a little selfish and just do his thing. I'm sure this is not an easy thing to do for Barkov because he looks like a nice kid and all but he has to be himself and when he sees the opportunity to play to his strengths he needs to do it! Right now he's playing like a checking line center doing a job and there and i see no joy in his game out there right now.

 

[Jean Luc Discard]

We have conundrum with this team right now. We can't not get away from the dump and chase because this is slowing down the game which is good for a defensive team and constantly doing the D & C leads to little turnovers in the neutral zone and very very few odd man rushes against us. Gallant and his coaches I'm sure looked at tapes of last year of us and was horrified with all the east west passing, turnovers after turnovers and many many odd man rushes against us and he employed this ultra boring dump and chase game to play to the strength of the team which is Luongo and our improving young coached up dmen. Playing any other way and I think we lose and Gallant knows it and we will ride Luongo and the D and try to win 2-1 or get points on ties and shootouts all year. Thats the plan.

The conundrum lies that we will win more this year than last but this style of play kills the development of a Barkov because the system calls for him to do everything he was trained not to do since he was a little kid and that's never giving the puck away ever to your opposition and he's doing it all the time like a good soldier and I'm sure he hates it. I would like to see as more games are played that Barkov picks his spots better and says the hell with dumping it in like I have seen Pirri do many times and be a little selfish and just do his thing. I'm sure this is not an easy thing to do for Barkov because he looks like a nice kid and all but he has to be himself and when he sees the opportunity to play to his strengths he needs to do it! Right now he's playing like a checking line center doing a job and there and i see no joy in his game out there right now.

Yeah, D'nC is a lot safer option strategy-wise, but they gotta figure out how to inject creativity into the playbook. Relying on Lu and solid defense wears them out by Christmas. Yep, Barkov definitely loathes giving up the puck in order to enter the zone. However, he's still 19yo and doesn't want to take chances going against what Gallant tells his troop: a team player in every sense to the bone. I think that people tend to see Barkov as a maestro at board battles because he is a big dude. In my opinion, he is "fragile", in a lack of a better word, as e.g. Semin. Barkov can take an occasional beating e.g. in front of the goal during PP, but he still isn't designed for battles on the ice. Would love to see Pirri-Barkov-Trocheck-line to get Barkov going. Although, Gallant should know that the best defense is to keep the puck longer in the off.zone. Now they lose the puck first in the dump and then they lose the chase as well, and there we go again with defense mode.

 

[ProjectPanthers]

Bjugstad I am not concerned about as others have said. He's playing well (for the most part) and creating chances not only for himself but for his inept linemates as well.

Barkov isn't doing anything out there. If I wasn't specifically watching for him I wouldn't even notice him. I mean, Kopecky is more noticeable than he is. Barkov doesn't do anything on the ice to for you to spot him. That's fine if he's cerebral, but he's not. He just doesn't do anything. Last year he was completely different.

He constantly dumps the puck in and is always passing it off. He looks like **** out there. He needs to snap out of this soon because he'll be riding out his ELC, get a piss poor two year contract and will be back to Finland as one of the biggest busts ever in a few years.

I'm not saying this is going to happen, so please relax when you accuse me of calling him a bust already. But right now things are not looking good. He had a full off-season to recover from injuries. He's grown another year and matured but seems to have taken a big step backwards. It could just be a confidence thing and he just doesn't trust himself out there like he did last year, but why? What changed that would force him to do that? Are his knees a lot worse than we thought and he's scared of getting badly hurt?

What's scaring me is how much his current play reminds me of all the Shvidki's, Novoseltsev's and Olesz's that we've had throughout the years. Super "talented" players from Europe that just look lost out there at times. Defensively he's still somewhat but whoever players you put him with, he's the worst of the 3 this year almost every shift.

I wish someone knew that answer so they could help him improve on it and start getting on the right path again, cause he's definitely on the wrong road right now.

 

[spacemanatee]

Bjugstad I am not concerned about as others have said. He's playing well (for the most part) and creating chances not only for himself but for his inept linemates as well.

Barkov isn't doing anything out there. If I wasn't specifically watching for him I wouldn't even notice him. I mean, Kopecky is more noticeable than he is. Barkov doesn't do anything on the ice to for you to spot him. That's fine if he's cerebral, but he's not. He just doesn't do anything. Last year he was completely different.

He constantly dumps the puck in and is always passing it off. He looks like **** out there. He needs to snap out of this soon because he'll be riding out his ELC, get a piss poor two year contract and will be back to Finland as one of the biggest busts ever in a few years.

I'm not saying this is going to happen, so please relax when you accuse me of calling him a bust already. But right now things are not looking good. He had a full off-season to recover from injuries. He's grown another year and matured but seems to have taken a big step backwards. It could just be a confidence thing and he just doesn't trust himself out there like he did last year, but why? What changed that would force him to do that? Are his knees a lot worse than we thought and he's scared of getting badly hurt?

What's scaring me is how much his current play reminds me of all the Shvidki's, Novoseltsev's and Olesz's that we've had throughout the years. Super "talented" players from Europe that just look lost out there at times. Defensively he's still somewhat but whoever players you put him with, he's the worst of the 3 this year almost every shift.

I wish someone knew that answer so they could help him improve on it and start getting on the right path again, cause he's definitely on the wrong road right now.

relax. a little sophmore slumpin going on there, it's cool. be worried about our poor offence overall.
is it a "european"-thing perhaps? hubey gets to slump like crazy and its fine but not barkov (11 games into the season when we.can't.score.at.all btw). imma hold you to this when he breaks out . not that you called him a bust (cuz you're "not", but you sorta are) but that you didn't believe in him.
he just came back from injury and our whole team sucked butt last night so dude realx.

 

[TheEkbombIsReal]

Went to bed after the 3-0 goal, knew it was a lost cause.


Anyways, we got 71 (!) games left. Our offense is putrid as we all know but it is bound to get better soon. None of our forwards (except Jokinen) is producing. I'm aware of that we don't have a Pittsburgh-offense but I am almost certain that the ball will start rolling soon. I just can't see how this offense is worse than the one we had when we reached the playoffs. Hopefully they'll start clicking before it is too late.


And about the defense, what can I say... Luongo had a crap game and so did the defense, it happens and it will probably happen a few more times, considering we have 71 games left to play.


Sucks to loose but it was bound to happen sooner or later. New game tomorrow and hopefully a different Panthers-squad show up.

 

[CatscratchFever]

Just awful. The point of this game is to score more goals than your opponent, no?

 

[Mkoll]

Pretty empty in Philly.

Apologies if this was sarcasm. I am no good at spotting it.
But it was a sellout in Philly, always is..

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

I think people have unrealistic expectations, team is on pace for 89 points, a very good start (though schedule is about to get much more challenging). Hopefully Pirri is back Saturday, at least Huberdeau is.

 

[floridada]

What a terrible GDT. I came in expecting references to the show, and NOTHING. FAIL!

 

[ucanthanzalthetruth]

^new win gif?