A few thoughts.
The Jones-Larsson pairing is not going to work. In fact, I don't think Adam Larsson should be playing in the NHL. The thought process going into the season by the coaching staff was erroneous -- long gone are the days of pairing a slow, immobile, 'physical' defenceman with a smaller, faster, 'puck-moving' defenceman. This isn't the 80's. All of your defencemen need to be capable of skating and passing in the modern NHL. The meta demands this of each and every player. If you are incapable, you become a brutal hindrance to your team. Sometimes the option to go D-to-D isn't there. We saw what happens when a slow defenceman is exposed tonight in a few games. Bogosian, Hamonic, Larsson. The idea of a big stay at home defenceman in the NHL is long gone. They don't serve a purpose. Skill players are laughing maniacally at the prospect of getting out on the ice against a Larsson or a Hamonic. They're drooling. Look at what McDavid did to Hamonic tonight...it was embarrassing. Larsson lacks capability due to regression or injury or confidence or what have you. He is never going to be a good defenceman in the NHL. You can immediately see a guy like Koekkoek in contrast who is a league minimum, waiver wire tier player. Showed immediately that he brings more value to a team trying to win hockey games tonight.
I liked Caleb Jones' game. Like the SN panel said (think it was Bieksa actually), the pinch Jones made to try and keep the puck in the zone was smart. Kassian did a swell job of coming back to break up the play and Larsson totally failed to read the situation correctly. I liked how Jones was our most active defenceman skating into the play. He made a really great stop-up play once he skated into the offensive zone at one point and made a nice pace to a winger crashing the net. Top defencemen in the NHL do that. While Jones isn't anything like a top defenceman, you can see in his confidence and offensive awareness that he can offer the team something that the rest of our D seemingly can not, which is a regular offensive threat as a rover or trailer into the zone. He was like a waterbug out there. Didn't play too many minutes, but I would chalk that up to being due to paired with Larsson who was having a horrific outing (with Koekkoek and Nurse both looking decent). I am excited to see what he brings to the game tonight if Russell isn't drawn into his spot.
Barrie looked bad. Nurse looked better than he did last season in my opinion. Bear struggled with handling the puck at times and I hope he sorts that out soon. He might be our most important defenceman this year.
Speaking of lineup changes, I doubt we see any on the defence. Only one game in, you can't sewer some of your players you hope to be regulars this year. You can't sit Larsson after one poor outing, even though you'd like to get a look at Bouchard. Russell may draw in for Jones but I feel that would be a mistake. You know what you get with guys like Russell and Larsson -- consistent disadvantage when they're on the ice. We can take a quick look at the CF%'s of last night and try to discern something from them.
You have the Draisaitl line at 54-51-51 %'s respectively. You have McDavid alone at 48%, then you have Bear and Jones at 47% and 46%. Larsson at 40%, Koekkoek and Barrie at 36%. The line of Ennis-Khaira-Chiasson at ~10%.
Contrasted to the Canucks defence, we see Juolevi at 85%. Hughes and Myers at 60%. Their only defenceman below 50% was Schmidt and he was up against Draisaitl's line who looked brilliant for a lot of the game. We are beginning to notice the same trend as last season, only one game in. Bear & Jones leading the team in CF%, Nurse middling, and Larsson + the rest of the D consistently costing us games.
Let's talk a bit about the forwards...
RNH-McDavid-Kassian was a shit show. McDavid almost single-handedly won us the game off multiple big rushes and opportunities with no assistance from either of his linemates. That was the worst game I've ever seen from RNH, and Kassian played his usual role of mostly-useless. Had that pass of his not gone through the Canuck defenders legs to Nurse, then Kassian would've been a total non-factor tonight like usual. Really disappointing effort from both of them, although I am a firm believer that Kassian should be playing on the 4th line. It is clear that we need to find some sort of alteration here. I think I am going to start trying to track how many times McDavid gets the puck with speed out of his own zone compared to other star centres. Total travesty that we are sullying the potential of one of the best players ever, putting him out on the ice with a guy who can barely handle the puck or think the game. Kassian ain't too good either
Kahun-Draisaitl-Yamamoto got better as the game went on. Yamo looked really bad to start the game off and got better. That was our only good line tonight and you can't win with one line going. Kudos to them. Kahun looks like a good signing so far. Seems to have really good awareness and knows to defer to Leon when possible. Crashed the net hard on a few opportunities as well. Solid.
Archibald-Turris-Puljujarvi ... this line looked bad at times, and good at times. I don't think Archibald is a fit on that line, and I don't think Turris is near game shape yet. At least I hope he isn't. Really poor showing from him. Handled the puck like a grenade while being quite slow in his decision making and movement. Stark contrast to Puljujarvi who was flying all over the ice like a wild man last night. Loved to see that from him. Still looks lost out there, out of control. Seems like he's an alien species, or the equivalent of a dog playing fetch. Big goofy grin, going turbo speed in whatever direction the ball is headed. Head over heels at times. Lowest IQ of any hockey player I've seen in my entire life, but he is entertaining to watch at least. I think he might end up as a solid player for us. Give him 10-20 games and re-evaluate.
Ennis-Khaira-Chiasson was the worst line we've put together since I started watching in 2005. Khaira and Chiasson should not be in the NHL, and Ennis should be moved up the lineup as an experiment...in Archibald's spot. I pray we never have to watch that combination of Khaira-Chiasson play together again. An abhorrent mess on ice. Something like 1 chance for, 10 against last night in real limited ice time. That's gotta go.
Surely Tippett is going to be replacing one or both of them for tonight, right? Shore in Khaira's spot? Nygard in for Chiasson? Swap Archibald over to RW in Chiasson's spot and move Nygard onto the LW on Turris' line or put Ennis there with Nygard on the 4th? Anything. That has to be fixed. We can not afford to be running a line that you know will produce nothing and be manhandled all over the ice. It's not going to lead to success in the modern NHL.
I think the biggest thing we can take from this game is that our defence needs something to change. I don't think the coaching staff is comfortable trying Bouchard in Larsson's spot which is understandable, but I would love to see a game of that. Ideally, and unrealistic, below are my fantasy ideal lines going into tonight.
RNH-McDavid-Puljujarvi
Kahun-Draisaitl-Yamamoto
Nygard-Turris-Ennis
Benson-Shore/Mcleod-Kassian
Jones-Bear
Nurse-Bouchard
Koekkoek-Barrie
Can swap them around, but I think if Jones-Bear can hold their own, you go with that.
Good luck tonight fellas.
