Post-Game Talk: 11.8.14: FSTN 7 PM CT - Preds @ Booze

[101st_fan]

Instead of being totally outclassed and just praying not to get blown out, it now feels like we can seriously compete with the Chicagos and St. Louis' of the world.....

So ... how things were most of the past nine seasons against the Blues? 33 wins, 23 losses since the lost season of 04-05 heading into tonight ... including the two rough seasons of 2012-13 and 2013-14.

 

[jstreet]

Just watched the game, so happy with the win.

Forsberg will shatter all of our rookie records

 

[kypredsfan]

I also just watched the game. Great result obviously! I feel like we definitely could've potted a couple more but so could they. 4-2 on the road trip, yes thanks!

 

[Phototropic]

Really enjoyed the win. Strong 2nd and 3rd periods from NSH and Neal's shot was sick.

 

[MrMariusz]

I value even strength goals much more than special teams contributions. So not too worried about PP not clicking too well yet, we know what they are capable of, so it's not like it will never improve.

 

[PredsV82]

if anyone thinks we are hard on our players/too pessimistic they need to read the Blues GDT from last night. Even before they lost the lead they were extremely critical. You'd think after a 7 game win streak, losing 2-1 to a good team wouldn't be cause for ripping everybody

 

[jwhouk]

Don't look now, but this team is officially off to the second best start in franchise history...

 

[jwhouk]

So, there are no radio stations with the Preds game on between Florence AL and Athens AL and then between Athens and Columbia. But I persevered and was able to get the occasional NHL score feed on my phone. Technology is a wonderful thing.

Pies are late, but they're ready. Have some!

What? Your vehicle doesn't have SiriusXM??? For shame.

Yeah, it was the Blues broadcast, but they were showing massive respect to the Preds. In fact, they had FF9 as their #1 star of the game (gotta wonder what the rest of the pressbox was seeing, handing Elliott the #2 star and Neal #3...).

 

[NSH615]

What? Your vehicle doesn't have SiriusXM??? For shame.

Yeah, it was the Blues broadcast, but they were showing massive respect to the Preds. In fact, they had FF9 as their #1 star of the game (gotta wonder what the rest of the pressbox was seeing, handing Elliott the #2 star and Neal #3...).

Neal got a star because of the GWG. They probably gave Elliot a star for only allowing 2 goals on 35 shots and him being on the home team. So the last star comes down to Pekka or Forsberg.

 

[hockey diva]

The 3 stars announced at the arena were Pekka first, Elliot second and Forsberg third.

 

[NSH615]

The 3 stars announced at the arena were Pekka first, Elliot second and Forsberg third.

The NHL.com game recap gave the third star to Neal.
http://www.nhl.com/gamecenter/en/recap?id=2014020210&navid=sb:recap&intcmpid=sb-highlights

 

[glenngineer]

Someone keeps harping that we're 21st in 5 on 5 goals scored. Well, here's a stat, we are second overall in the league at 5 on 5 G for versus against. Pittsburgh is number 1 at 1.88, we're second at 1.86, LA is third at 1.53 and 4th is Tampa at 1.38. So basically it's us and Pittsburgh at the top with our 5 on 5 play. That's pretty impressive. 28 other teams are below us and 27 of them are almost or more than .5 goals away in this category.

Now if our PP and PK improve slightly, that would be great because I doubt we keep this scoring ratio of 5 on 5 up but if we do and our special teams get even slightly better, we will be very hard to stop.

Our PP has jumped to 21st overall so we're improving there. The PK is atrocious and 28th overall and that needs help. I'd remove Nystrom from the PK and get someone else out there that can move the puck out of the zone when needed as opposed to the constant whiffs he seems to have.

And while our FO % is also 28th in the league, we continue to win. Our loaded teams with Kariya and such were poor FO teams as well. Doesn't always correlate to wins and losses. It's what you do with the puck once you have it.

 

[Enoch]

I just want to know everyone's +/-. We all know that is the ultimate determining factor anyways ....

 

[glenngineer]

I just want to know everyone's +/-. We all know that is the ultimate determining factor anyways ....

Well played.

 

[wadesworld]

Being honest in my assessments, and those assessments coming true is a burden on HF. When I called the team out for issues when they hadn't lost in regulation, I caught hell. We still have suspect special teams. We are very dependent on one line with minimal secondary scoring ... Nystrom is our 6th highest goal scorer with a whopping two goals ... above him is Weber, Smith, and the top line. Neal scores from a low percentage area, even for him, and these boards act as though that goal is to be expected. Every win is great ... every point earned is one step closer to the post season ... but let's not delude ourselves about what is really happening on the ice every night.

Point is, there's no sense in wringing our hands every night. Although we have issues, the evidence would suggest they're not insurmountable. Doesn't mean we won't lose games we shouldn't, nor does it mean we will always be able to overcome them. But every team, every night is fighting to overcome their issues.

And BTW, Neal is an elite shooter. Every time he shoots the puck, no matter from where, it has a better than average chance of going in. Doesn't mean they're all going to go in, but it's more a surprise when they don't than when they do.

 

[wadesworld]

Nystrom is our 6th highest goal scorer with a whopping two goal

Oh, the horror of this stat. On the #1 team in all of the NHL, their 6th highest goal scorer has a whopping 3 goals.

I'm not saying we're the equivalent of the Ducks offensively. But here's a stat, 6 of the Ducks' 10 wins have been by a single goal. That's more than 50% of their wins if you're into stats.

Looking at their stats, it appears the Ducks are HIGHLY dependent upon their top line. They're doing 80%+ of the scoring.

 

[Adz]

What? Your vehicle doesn't have SiriusXM??? For shame.

Yeah, it was the Blues broadcast, but they were showing massive respect to the Preds. In fact, they had FF9 as their #1 star of the game (gotta wonder what the rest of the pressbox was seeing, handing Elliott the #2 star and Neal #3...).

Nope. I had it til February but decided against renewal. Rarely had occasion to listen to it (I live maybe 10 minutes from work) and the constant bad mouthing of Nashville by some of the callers got old when I did. So I dropped it. I I told Logan this was one of the few times I really missed it.

 

[ChesterCopperpot1*]

I have that app and have used it before but I was driving. Internet coverage is spotty at best through there. It wouldn't still pick up without internet, would it?

It really depends on your cell carrier. I have Verizon and it's pretty good when I make my monthly trip to vegas with the exception of about a 70 mil stretch in the desert where I don't get any service. I'd imagine 4G coverage is much more prevalent where you were than northern arizona.

 

[101st_fan]

Someone keeps harping that we're 21st in 5 on 5 goals scored. Well, here's a stat, we are second overall in the league at 5 on 5 G for versus against. Pittsburgh is number 1 at 1.88, we're second at 1.86, LA is third at 1.53 and 4th is Tampa at 1.38. So basically it's us and Pittsburgh at the top with our 5 on 5 play. That's pretty impressive. 28 other teams are below us and 27 of them are almost or more than .5 goals away in this category.

Now if our PP and PK improve slightly, that would be great because I doubt we keep this scoring ratio of 5 on 5 up but if we do and our special teams get even slightly better, we will be very hard to stop.

Our PP has jumped to 21st overall so we're improving there. The PK is atrocious and 28th overall and that needs help. I'd remove Nystrom from the PK and get someone else out there that can move the puck out of the zone when needed as opposed to the constant whiffs he seems to have.

And while our FO % is also 28th in the league, we continue to win. Our loaded teams with Kariya and such were poor FO teams as well. Doesn't always correlate to wins and losses. It's what you do with the puck once you have it.

Hmm ... using defensive performance to support the case for the Preds. We'll keep them low scoring 5on5 and eek out a one goal win. That is the exact logic that filled this board for the past decade. The 2014-15 version of the Preds is a DEFENSIVELY SUCCESSFUL team. Offensively, there are two players with good individual stats so far but the team as a whole is struggling horrendously.

The PP needs to convert at nearly 40-50% for a stretch to get to levels approaching good for the season. Given the difficulty it has when any team pressures either unit, a hard road ahead.

The Kariya era teams were bad at the dot? Over 50% as a team from 2005-2008 disagrees.

I just want to know everyone's +/-. We all know that is the ultimate determining factor anyways ....

It's nice to see your misrepresentation and spin continue. Keep deliberately taking things out of context. Oh, did a minus player win the Norris last season or did the historical trend continue? He didn't? Oh. Back to your diatribe.

 

[glenngineer]

Hmm ... using defensive performance to support the case for the Preds. We'll keep them low scoring 5on5 and eek out a one goal win. That is the exact logic that filled this board for the past decade. The 2014-15 version of the Preds is a DEFENSIVELY SUCCESSFUL team. Offensively, there are two players with good individual stats so far but the team as a whole is struggling horrendously.

The PP needs to convert at nearly 40-50% for a stretch to get to levels approaching good for the season. Given the difficulty it has when any team pressures either unit, a hard road ahead.

The Kariya era teams were bad at the dot? Over 50% as a team from 2005-2008 disagrees.



It's nice to see your misrepresentation and spin continue. Keep deliberately taking things out of context. Oh, did a minus player win the Norris last season or did the historical trend continue? He didn't? Oh. Back to your diatribe.

Other than Pittsburgh, who else is dominating their foes offensively? Goal differential is the same as St. Louis'. Like I said, 5 on 5, where the game is played mostly, we are dominating the opponent. While this might be "defensive" hockey and we're eeking out wins, previous years teams would've gone in to lock down mode after we scored and took the lead last night. We kept pushing and forechecking hard, not a sign of a defensive minded team, but a team that is constantly putting pressure on the opponent and doing the same thing for the entire game.

40-50% to get the PP to a reasonable level? We're 6 for 41. Let's see, say we go 3 for our next 9, that takes us up to 18% which is a pretty decent level. That's 33% for about a 2 game stretch. If we go say 5 for our next 19, we are at 18.3% and that's at about 25% success rate for 4 or 5 games. You talk about hyperbole and stretching truths but with it still so early in the season, we have a few games in a row where we pot one and maybe pot 2 in another and all of a sudden the PP numbers will improve pretty well. If it were late in the season your assessment and math would be pretty accurate but right now, not so much.

 

[I Will Son]

Put Forsberg on the PK

 

[101st_fan]

Point is, there's no sense in wringing our hands every night. Although we have issues, the evidence would suggest they're not insurmountable. Doesn't mean we won't lose games we shouldn't, nor does it mean we will always be able to overcome them. But every team, every night is fighting to overcome their issues.

And BTW, Neal is an elite shooter. Every time he shoots the puck, no matter from where, it has a better than average chance of going in. Doesn't mean they're all going to go in, but it's more a surprise when they don't than when they do.

I'm not wringing my hands. I'm simply pointing things out. The way people rant back actually makes me laugh ... just like before the first regulation loss when comments that anything was lacking in our play received an immediate backlash. The wins are great ... the overall play continues to have huge holes.

Anaheim ... depending on their top line ... also converting on over 19% of their PP opportunities, winning over half their faceoffs, and killing off 84% of their penalties. Vatanen has more PP points than we have PP goals as a team .. more PP points than all but three Preds have total points. The Ducks are also cooling down from their hot start where they won by multigoal margins early, now going to OT in three of the past four contests ... they scored three or more in seven of the first nine games, only scored three once in their last seven contests. Needing to hold the opposition to one or less to avoid OT is problematic for any team ... Preds and Ducks included. Pekka and the D holding the opposition to two or fewer in ten of the games so far helps hide a lot of the offensive issues ... helps minimize the impacts of the poor special teams ... does it all at the expense that it requires Pekka to far surpass his best ever season for another five months.

 

[101st_fan]

Other than Pittsburgh, who else is dominating their foes offensively? Goal differential is the same as St. Louis'. Like I said, 5 on 5, where the game is played mostly, we are dominating the opponent. While this might be "defensive" hockey and we're eeking out wins, previous years teams would've gone in to lock down mode after we scored and took the lead last night. We kept pushing and forechecking hard, not a sign of a defensive minded team, but a team that is constantly putting pressure on the opponent and doing the same thing for the entire game.

40-50% to get the PP to a reasonable level? We're 6 for 41. Let's see, say we go 3 for our next 9, that takes us up to 18% which is a pretty decent level. That's 33% for about a 2 game stretch. If we go say 5 for our next 19, we are at 18.3% and that's at about 25% success rate for 4 or 5 games. You talk about hyperbole and stretching truths but with it still so early in the season, we have a few games in a row where we pot one and maybe pot 2 in another and all of a sudden the PP numbers will improve pretty well. If it were late in the season your assessment and math would be pretty accurate but right now, not so much.

It took the Preds 4 for 15 on the PP during the road trip to crawl to 14% ... including the 2 for 3 night at Dallas. If any team bothers to watch the tape of any home game, or at Calgary ... at Vancouver (can't count on Hamhuis knocking in goals for us every night) ... the PP shows just how vulnerable it is. 18ish percent is about two percent below Trotzian levels in the good years ... right now the team is below Trotzian poor levels ...

 

[Dave is a killer]

Put Forsberg on the PK

I never liked this idea

 

[wadesworld]

I'm not wringing my hands. I'm simply pointing things out. The way people rant back actually makes me laugh ... just like before the first regulation loss when comments that anything was lacking in our play received an immediate backlash. The wins are great ... the overall play continues to have huge holes.

I think you're mischaracterizing people.

I didn't see anyone who thought our team was perfect before its first regulation loss. We saw the problems and realized we were eventually going to lose in regulation. We just didn't write posts and posts about how our dire predictions would soon come true. We enjoyed the wins which came despite our flaws. You seem to be angry we didn't pat you on the back for your predictions when the loss came.

We all still see the holes. We simply recognize that other teams, including top teams, have many concerns as well.

But guess what? I'd be willing to bet our coaches are not blind to these concerns either and are working hard to try to fix it. No matter what they do however, holes will still exist. Players will still make ridiculous and stupid plays. They'll whiff on open nets and fail to stop someone 1-on-3. They'll need Pekka to bail them out, and sometimes he'll fail to do so. That's life in the NHL. All you can do is go the rink every day and try to get better every day.

The more hockey I watch, the more I realize these "ridiculous" things don't just happen to the Preds.