2013-14 Qualitative +/- Ratings

[tarheelhockey]

Game 52 vs Columbus Blue Jackets
1/27/2014
3-2 Win



ES GOALS FOR

3rd 11:18 Eric Staal (Semin, Faulk)
+1 Eric Staal - Showed some great hands in controlling Semin's turnover and converting it to a quick shot.

3rd 12:18 Eric Staal (Tlusty)
+1 Tlusty - Extremely strong coverage on the lost faceoff, gaining possession even though the puck went to the boards on his opposite wing.
+1 Eric Staal - Despite losing the faceoff he found the soft spot in Columbus' coverage and again showed some quick hands on the shot.

3rd 14:05 Jordan Staal (Lindholm, Skinner)
+1 Lindholm - By all rights Skinner's pass was a soft turnover. Lindholm did a fine job of bodying Anisimov off the puck and laying it out for Staal.
+1 Jordan Staal - One of the nicer goals we saw all season.

ES GOALS AGAINST

1st 2:25 MacKenzie (Tyutin, Tropp)
-1 Sekera - He jumped ahead of the play trying to get out of the zone, then turned and accidentally checked a teammate off the puck, then kind of floated around the general area of the crease instead of picking up a man.
-1 Ruutu - Weak board work leading to a turnover.
-1 Malhotra - Tough position for him to be in with Ruutu and Sekera working against him, but handling the puck into a turnover is still minus-worthy.

1st 2:42 Umberger (Johansen, Foligno)
-1 Faulk - Horrendous turnover in his own zone, catching the whole rest of the team off guard.


Totals
+2 Eric Staal
+1 Lindholm
+1 Jordan Staal
+1 Tlusty
-1 Faulk
-1 Malhotra
-1 Ruutu
-1 Sekera

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 53 @ Montreal Canadiens
1/28/2014
3-0 Loss



ES GOALS FOR

none

ES GOALS AGAINST

1st 6:11 Prust (Gorges, Bourque)
-1 Semin - This cluster**** of a defensive sequence begins with Semin's piss-poor job of defending a simple 3-on-3. First, Komisarek clearly gestures for him to take Gorges... Semin ignores that, and attacks Bourque instead. Ok, that's still not technically the wrong thing to do. But then he skates right past Bourque, throwing everything into confusion, and THEN fails to defend the passing lane to Prust. It would literally have been better if he had not been there and the D could have defended a normal 3-on-2 passing pattern.
-1 Harrison - Mite coaches all over Quebec were laughing when Harrison decided it was a good idea to turn his back on a rush in order to defend the guy whose passing lane was already denied, while a wide-open forward skated down the slot behind him and scored.
Harrison and Semin made Komisarek look so bad here that I almost gave him a minus too. But after watching it a few times, Komi had absolutely no chance to do more than he did on this play, given the shockingly poor defense that his linemates were playing around him.

1st 18:44 Gallagher (Desharnais, Pacioretty)
-1 Faulk - Simply caught flat-footed by Gallagher on a plain old cycle movement. Even worse, he failed to keep Gallagher from stabbing his own rebound into the net. Inexcusable.

2nd 1:41 Pacioretty (Markov, Gallagher)
-1 Liles - Missed his pinch, then casually coasted back so he could get a good view of Pacioretty scoring.
-1 Hainsey - That kamikaze-style defense doesn't work in the NHL. He wasn't going to stop Gallagher's shot, but he could very easily have cleared the rebound or at least not driven Skinner out of the play.

Totals
-1 Faulk
-1 Hainsey
-1 Harrison
-1 Liles
-1 Semin

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 54 vs St. Louis Blues
1/31/2014
3-1 Win



ES GOALS FOR

2nd 1:51 Skinner (Jordan Staal)
+1 Skinner - Muller really seems to like setting up his snipers directly off the draw. Skinner does a nice job here of controlling the puck, creating space, and finding a hole to shoot for.
+1 Jordan Staal - Not a completely clean win, but he drew it back on the second effort.

ES GOALS AGAINST

none

Totals
+1 Skinner
+1 Jordan Staal

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 55 vs Winnipeg Jets
2/4/2014
2-1 Loss



ES GOALS FOR

3rd 2:42 Nash (Bowman, Ruutu)
+1 Faulk - Pretty good bounce pass off the boards, even though it was handled awkwardly.
+1 Ruutu - Decent play on the zone entry, putting a soft puck out there that should have been handled cleanly and then, importantly, jumping right back into the rush to give Bowman some space.
+1 Nash - He goofed up the entry pass, but stuck with it just enough to prevent the Jets from clearing. The hockey gods rewarded his persistence with a goal.
Bowman doesn't get anything here because he made precisely the wrong play and got lucky that it wasn't a turnover.

ES GOALS AGAINST

2nd 12:57 Ladd (Frolik, Little)
-1 Faulk - Probably his worst defensive sequence of the entire season, whiffing on a poke check and then failing to make a simple play on the rebound.
-1 Gerbe - He did a nice job getting back, but his instincts were wrong -- Sekera had Frolik completely covered, Gerbe should have hung back to play the pass and protect the slot.

3rd 18:57 Thorburn (Trouba, Wheeler)
-1 Liles - This is a terribly soft shift from Liles, considering the time of game. Look at that dump-in: he was 10 feet from a loose puck and allowed a Jet to come in 1-on-4 to pick it up cleanly.
-1 Hainsey - I'm not sure what happened here, if he was expecting Liles to switch assignments with him or if he just wandered halfway behind the net and confused himself. Either way, it was really poor defensive coverage.
-1 Malhotra - Look where the Canes players are with 1:06 left on the clock. A perfect little defensive triangle with a Cane pointed toward each attacking Jet. It was Malhotra's point of the triangle that scored the goal, because Manny decided to wander away and defend some unoccupied space in the slot.

Totals
+1 Nash
+1 Ruutu
-1 Gerbe
-1 Hainsey
-1 Liles
-1 Malhotra

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 56 vs Florida Panthers
2/7/2014
5-1 Win



ES GOALS FOR

1st 9:17 Nash (Ruutu)
+1 Nash - Good strong work in the offensive zone, both with and without the puck.
+1 Ruutu - Nifty backhand pass around the defender.
+1 Bowman - Made a turnover initially, but he transitioned well into the forecheck and then bothered Thomas at the top of his crease.

1st 10:44 Semin (unassisted)
+1 Eric Staal - He and Tlusty teamed up for an extremely clean faceoff win, and then both did a good job screening Thomas and causing chaos in the slot.
+1 Tlusty - This kind of shift is why he works so well with Staal and Semin.
+1 Semin - Good decisions to move the puck initially, and to shoot it the second time.
+1 Faulk - Worked well with Semin and Sekera off the draw.
+1 Sekera - Again, worked well with his teammates off the draw and took a strong shot that the Panthers couldn't handle.

1st 18:21 Bellemore (Lindholm, Skinner)
+1 Skinner - He showed a ton of energy on this shift, twice picking up the puck on the forecheck.
+1 Bellemore - Who knew?
+1 Eric Staal - Seemed to rustle Thomas' jimmies with his presence in front of the net.
+1 Lindholm - Showed nice chemistry with Skinner on this shift, as the second wave of the forecheck and also in mop-up duty for loose pucks.

2nd 4:36 Tlusty (Eric Staal)
+1 Tlusty - Rewarded for hustling 100 feet to get up on the forecheck, and then having the presence of mind to swivel into shooting position after the turnover.
+1 Eric Staal - Good hard low shot that created a viable rebound for Tlusty.

ES GOALS AGAINST

1st 15:30 Bjugstad (Olsen, Upshall)
-1 Skinner - If he'd had his head on a swivel, he'd have cut off that pass to the point.
-1 Lindholm - Likewise, he had the passing lane covered but let a Panther influence him into moving away too soon.
-1 Faulk - Got caught chasing the puck, leaving teammates to cover his area and ultimately causing the slot to be wide open.

Totals
+2 Eric Staal
+2 Tlusty
+1 Bellemore
+1 Bowman
+1 Nash
+1 Ruutu
+1 Sekera
+1 Semin

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 57 vs Montreal Canadiens
2/8/2014
4-1 Loss



ES GOALS FOR

2nd 5:42 Bowman (Nash, Faulk)
+1 Bowman - An elite shot!
+1 Faulk - That was a deceptively dangerous situation for him, having to swat a bouncing puck past two Habs at the blue line. If he doesn't get that one just right, it's probably a goal against.
+1 Nash - Likewise, he had the presence of mind to just settle the puck and pass it away from danger.
Thought about giving Ruutu a "plus" here, but the giveaway by Price was a total freebie and frankly, Faulk bailed us out of a 2-on-0 due to Ruutu's bad pass.


ES GOALS AGAINST

2nd 17:52 Desharnais (Bourque, Gallagher)
-1 Skinner - This goal is 90% on him, having first made a really foolish lunge at the puck in the Habs' zone and then a garbage effort at breaking up the pass from Bourque to Desharnais.
-1 Faulk - It's not easy to defend a 4-on-2, but that doesn't excuse allowing a pass right through the heart of the slot. Faulk has to deny that lane if he's going to play back and not challenge the puck carrier.

2nd 19:17 White (Markov)
-1 Eric Staal - His crummy effort is the reason the Hurricanes didn't clear the zone easily after that first shot. Simply standing there, not moving his feet, and letting an opponent out-will him to the puck... and then literally standing there and watching that guy score unmolested on the rebound. All of this in the last minute of the period in a tie game. Don Cherry would have a coronary if the captain of the Leafs did something like this.
-1 Faulk - More nightmarish play from Faulk, fumbling with the puck in his own zone and then getting caught in a Keystone Cops scramble.

3rd 6:15 Desharnais (Gallagher, Beaulieu)
-1 Malhotra - Controller disconnected?

Totals
+1 Bowman
+1 Nash
-1 Faulk
-1 Malhotra
-1 Skinner
-1 Eric Staal

 

[tarheelhockey]

As of the Olympic break:

Forwards | Plus | Minus | Total | Margin Of Error
Drayson Bowman | 9 | 3 | +6 | -
Zach Boychuk | 4 | - | +4 | -
Patrick Dwyer | 10 | 3 | +7 | -
Radek Dvorak | 11 | 6 | +5 | -
Nathan Gerbe | 15 | 3 | +12 | -
Elias Lindholm | 10 | 5 | +5 | -1
Manny Malhotra | 12 | 5 | +7 | -
Riley Nash | 15 | 2 | +13 | -
Tuomo Ruutu | 13 | 9 | +4 | +1
Alex Semin | 22 | 5 | +17 | -
Jeff Skinner | 19 | 11 | +8 | -
Eric Staal | 26 | 16 | +10 | -
Jordan Staal | 16 | 4 | +12 | -
Brett Sutter | 2 | 4 | -2 | -
Jiri Tlusty | 16 | 5 | +11 | -
Kevin Westgarth | 1 | - | +1 | -

Defensemen | Plus | Minus | Total | Margin of Error
Brett Bellemore | 3 | 6 | -3 | -
Justin Faulk | 16 | 15 | +1 | -
Tim Gleason | - | 3 | -3 | -
Ron Hainsey | 10 | 12 | -2 | -
Jay Harrison | 6 | 10 | -4 | -
Mike Komisarek | - | 3 | -3 | -
John-Michael Liles | 3 | 2 | +1 | -
Ryan Murphy | 9 | 9 | even | -
Andrej Sekera | 15 | 12 | +3 | -

Goaltender Errors

Player | Errors
Anton Khudobin | 4
Justin Peters | 4
Cam Ward | 2

 

[tomdundo]

As of the Olympic break

Riley Nash at a +13. THE FUTURE.

 

[TheOllieC]

Defense, pls.

 

[Finnish Jerk Train]

Riley Nash at a +13. THE FUTURE.

Watershed.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Nash isn't exactly my favorite player on the roster, but I have to give the guy credit for consistently chipping in points while rarely hurting the team in their own zone. Within the context of having relatively easy assignments and low minutes, he's not the worst option for that bottom-6 center spot.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 58 @ Buffalo Sabres
2/25/2014
3-2 Loss



ES GOALS FOR

2nd 16:52 Eric Staal (Faulk)
+1 Faulk - Lazy Sabres made it kind of easy on him to pick up the loose puck and get it up to Staal cleanly.
+1 Eric Staal - Miller gave him the 5-hole and got burned. Smart shot, too, considering Semin was right there for the rebound.

3rd 16:00 Semin (Sekera)
+1 Semin - A one-man show.

ES GOALS AGAINST

3rd 12:13 Ennis (Moulson, Stafford)
-1 Nash - Best I can tell, he fell down while losing the faceoff and then went straight to the bench. Maybe he was hurt, but it left the team without a center going the other way.
-1 Ruutu - Simply beaten to the rebound by Moulson, then fails to track the next rebound.
-1 Skinner - First he loses his man on the transition out of his own zone, then fails to realize that there's not a center involved in the play -- that he needs to stop playing defense like a winger and get his nose dirty.

3rd 19:16 Ehrhoff (Miller)
-1 Faulk - Own-goal with under a minute left in a tie game... ouch.

Totals
+1 Semin
+1 Eric Staal
-1 Nash
-1 Ruutu
-1 Skinner

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 59 @ Dallas Stars
2/27/2014
4-1 Loss



ES GOALS FOR

3rd 2:42 Eric Staal (Tlusty, Sekera)
+1 Eric Staal - This was probably a pass rather than a shot. Either way he put it low, hard, and fast into a scoring area where good things happen.
+1 Ruutu - Nice work in the dirty areas to keep the play alive, and then provide a target for Staal's pass/shot.
+1 Tlusty - Performed his usual role, being where he's supposed to be and making simple but effective plays.
+1 Sekera - Strong QB'ing at the point.

ES GOALS AGAINST

1st 3:18 Seguin (Nichushkin, Benn)
-1 Faulk - He gestures for Dwyer to cover Seguin, but that's not really a viable assignment given that Dwyer's already attempting to cover the center lane. In any case, as the backside defenseman he simply has to stop that pass through the low slot.
-1 (Margin of Error) Dwyer - I'm going to give Dwyer a MOE point here since it's impossible to know who he was "officially" supposed to cover according to the team's defensive scheme. Dwyer did the fundamentally-correct thing by covering the center when JStaal lunged out to the left, but then JStaal abruptly came back to the center lane and Faulk pointed for Dwyer to cover Seguin at the last second... who knows, maybe he was really supposed to take Seguin by design. I doubt it, but it's worth noting that possibility.

Totals
+1 Ruutu
+1 Sekera
+1 Eric Staal
+1 Tlusty
-1 Faulk
-1 (Margin of Error) Dwyer

 

[Joe McGrath]

^Does Hainsey get a +1 (MOE) for demolishing Rousell?

 

[tarheelhockey]

He gets a +1 (HI5).

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 60 @ Los Angeles Kings
3/1/2014
3-1 Loss



ES GOALS FOR

1st 19:45 Sekera (Nash, Dwyer)
+1 Sekera - Lovely little pump-fake on Dustin Brown to get him out of the way, before releasing an easily deflect-able shot.
+1 Nash - Made the most of his modest offensive skills to shield the puck and get it up to the open point man.
+1 Dwyer - Jedi-mind-tricked Regehr into knocking the puck into his own net.
+1 Bowman - Helping Dwyer screen Quick.

ES GOALS AGAINST

1st 19:04 Richards (Regehr)
-1 Ruutu - A lot goes wrong on this shift, but the major issue is that Ruutu's running around a large area without actually influencing the opponent's ability to move the puck. That has the effect of pulling Jordan out of position, which in turn leads to an outnumbered situation down low and the dominoes start falling.
-1 Jordan Staal - He's in tough on this shift because he's trying to do too much. But the bottom line is that he's the center -- he has to either win that board battle or block that shot or cut off that pass or communicate the defensive switch or something. Pivoting around uselessly isn't good enough.
-1 Bellemore - Like everyone else, he's trying to do too much. He actually started off this sequence really well, winning a puck battle against 3 Kings, but that soft turnover was a killer.
-1 Hainsey - Just caught up in the confusion, not recognizing Richards' switch from left to right. Everything still might have turned out OK if he didn't reach out and deflect the puck into his own net.


Totals
+1 Bowman
+1 Dwyer
+1 Nash
+1 Sekera
-1 Bellemore
-1 Hainsey
-1 Ruutu
-1 Jordan Staal

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 61 @ Anaheim Ducks
3/2/2014
5-3 Loss



ES GOALS FOR

2nd 15:20 Sekera (Hainsey, Nash)
+1 Sekera - Thank god for Sekera, giving some memorable light to this abomination of a game (see below). GOTY candidate leaguewide.

3rd 11:29 Dwyer (Liles, Gerbe)
+1 Dwyer - Strong, persistent effort in the dirty part of the slot.
+1 Liles - Not just for the shots, but for intelligently covering Hainsey's post when the puck was likely to come that way.
+1 Nash - Doing the little things right -- screening shots, finding loose pucks.
+1 Gerbe - It's kinda hard to see, but it looks like he actually keeps this play alive with a broken stick, pushing it back to Liles at the last second.

3rd 18:55 Semin (unassisted)
+1 Semin - Standard one-man-show Semin goal.

ES GOALS AGAINST

1st 6:39 Perry (Penner, Getzlaf)
-1 Nash - Wow, it's not often Nash has a truly bad defensive shift. But that was bad. First he fails to pick up the third guy on a simple 3-on-3 rush, compelling his d-partner to take a point-blank slapshot to the knee. Then he goes into deer-in-headlights mode, covering a shot the point while leaving a Hart-winning winger all alone at the net. The shift ends with Sekera facing a 3-on-1 in the low slot because Bellemore's knee is now made of shrapnel and Nash still hasn't figured out that he needs to be playing below the hash marks in this situation.

1st 13:38 Beauchemin (Perry, Penner)
-1 Harrison - Again the Canes seem to have trouble recognizing that Corey Perry is a good hockey player... for whatever reason, Harrison is playing 20 feet up-ice from him in transition. He would have recovered well if he hadn't fallen down, then been completely ineffective in covering Perry's give-and-go with Penner.
-1 Tlusty - So Harrison was obviously struggling. It's reasonable that the LW would cover down for him, as Semin did on the other side of the ice during this same sequence. But Tlusty just keeps going lower and lower into the zone, not making a play on the puck while also abandoning his point assignment. By the time Perry passes to Beauchemin, Tlusty is nearly touching the bottom of the faceoff circle, double-teaming the puck carrier yet not applying any actual pressure on him. In all, there are five Hurricanes covering three Ducks below the hash marks! For good measure, Tlusty recovers just in time to screen Khudobin because why the hell not.

1st 16:26 Perry (Fowler)
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
-1 Eric Staal - So, I just want to point out that I am a C-league hockey player at best and I have successfully executed this exact breakout pattern against sentient human beings. Anyway, Hainsey lays out a soft, slow, accurate pass that hits Eric right in the tape and in full stride, wide open up the middle of the ice. That should be a received pass 100% of the time at the NHL level... or the junior level... or the mite level. Instead it bounces off Eric's stick, directly into transition for Fowler, and Eric makes a halfhearted poke before circling all the way through the entire neutral zone to get a better look at the goal being scored on his team.
I'm not even gonna give Harrison a minus here because he was toast the moment that Perry got that puck in stride at the blue line.

2nd 8:47 Silfverberg (Palmieri)
-1 Dwyer - Another completely unacceptable turnover under modest pressure.
-1 Hainsey - Should have been able to break up that play with either his stick or his body. He failed to do either, getting shrugged off when he opted for the physical route.

Totals
+1 Gerbe
+1 Liles
+1 Sekera
+1 Semin
-1 Hainsey
-1 Harrison
-1 Eric Staal
-1 Tlusty

 

[tarheelhockey]

At this point in the season (toward the end of our post-Olympic western swing), Eric Staal's 17 minuses equaled that of anyone else on our team including defensemen.

I found this interesting enough to be worth checking previous seasons to see if there were any comparables. Here's what I found:

Most minuses 2012
Jay Harrison 29
Jamie McBain 26
Justin Faulk 22
Eric Staal 22
Next-worst forward - Jiri Tlusty 14

Most minuses 2013
Bobby Sanguinetti 18
Justin Faulk 15
Eric Staal 13
Next-worst forward - Jeff Skinner 9

Most minuses 2014 (incomplete)
Justin Faulk 17
Eric Staal 17
Next-worst forward - Jeff Skinner 12

Basically, Eric does as many things to put pucks in our net as a bad or overused defenseman. Except that he's a forward.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 62 @ San Jose Sharks
3/4/2014
3-2 OT Win



ES GOALS FOR

1st 12:07 Tlusty (Semin, Liles)
+1 Semin - Brilliant diagonal pass to catch Tlusty behind the defense.
+1 Tlusty - Strong finish.

2nd 4:16 Lindholm (Eric Staal, Sekera)
+1 Lindholm - Nice offensive instincts, recognizing the Sharks' double-team on Staal and finding that soft spot in the coverage.
+1 Eric Staal - Assists don't get much easier than that.
+1 Sekera - Supported the cycle with an intelligent pinch to the half-boards.

OT 4:18 Harrison (Lindholm, Sekera)
+1 Lindholm - That's one hell of an assist.
+1 Eric Staal - Nice job working a 2-on-1 at the point in order to set up that scoring sequence.
+1 Sekera - Likewise, solid work at the point and a well-timed shot that caught the Sharks cheating up high.
+1 Harrison - He saw this one coming all the way, recognizing that the Sharks' D had completely lost their assignments.

ES GOALS AGAINST

1st 13:05 Havlat (Kennedy, Desjardins)
-1 Lindholm - Rookie mistake, not having the positional awareness to mark Havlat on his stick side.

1st 19:32 Burns (Torres, Shepherd)
Goalie Error - Khudobin - A stickhandling error by Dobby. If he simply leaves the puck for Hainsey, or gets out of the way altogether, it's a simple clearing play.

Totals
+2 Sekera
+2 Eric Staal
+1 Harrison
+1 Lindholm
+1 Semin
+1 Tlusty
Error - Khudobin

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 63 vs New York Rangers
3/7/2014
4-2 Loss



ES GOALS FOR

1st 17:49 Jordan Staal (Semin, Hainsey)
+1 Semin - Turns Jordan's crappy pass into something worthwhile.
+1 Jordan Staal - Nice shot.

ES GOALS AGAINST

3rd 13:24 Nash (Stepan, Moore)
-1 Eric Staal - I remember watching this unfold like it was in slow motion. I also remember the feeling of physical disgust that came immediately afterward. How the hell does a high-paid captain, only a minute after his team has taken the lead late in a must win game, get caught cheating and then make a half-assed effort to backcheck on a guy who is obviously going straight into an undefended slot? To paraphrase that coach from Rudy, he just summed up his whole sorry season in one play.
-1 Sekera - He chose to play the pass, and whiffed.

Totals
+1 Semin
+1 Jordan Staal
-1 Sekera
-1 Eric Staal

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 64 @ New Jersey Devils
3/8/2014
5-4 Loss



ES GOALS FOR

2nd 6:21 Skinner (Sekera, Eric Staal)
+1 Skinner - It's impossible to know quite what he was trying to do with that centering attempt, but it worked out well.
+1 Eric Staal - Good clean faceoff win.
+1 Lindholm - A sneaky illegal pick allowed Sekera the time to make a play at the point.
+1 Sekera - One of those pass/shots off the back boards that drives goalies crazy.

2nd 12:39 Semin (Malhotra)
+1 Semin - I'm pretty sure that Semin plays this game with the difficulty set to "rookie".

ES GOALS AGAINST

1st 4:25 Zajac (Ruutu, Jagr)
-1 Harrison - The defenseman simply has to cut off that pass, especially on a slow-developing play where he can clearly see the situation unfolding.
-1 Gerbe - With his center fully committed to the boards, he had all day to stand there and understand he would need to cover down on Zajac if the Devils retained control. He got caught leaning the wrong way, then couldn't recover quickly enough.

2nd 8:57 Henrqiue (Clowe)
-1 Komisarek - What a horrible turnover, especially in light of the strong forechecking game that the Canes were showing at the moment.

3rd 13:30 Ruutu (Zidlicky, Zajac)
-1 Malhotra - He simply gets burned by Zidlicky, no two ways about it.
-1 Skinner - Shrugged off and beaten to the scoring area by Ruutu.

Totals
+1 Lindholm
+1 Sekera
+1 Semin
+1 Skinner
+1 Eric Staal
-1 Gerbe
-1 Harrison
-1 Komisarek
-1 Malhotra
-1 Skinner

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 65 vs New York Rangers
3/11/2014
3-1 Win



ES GOALS FOR

2nd 0:33 Tlusty (Jordan Staal, Sekera)
+1 Jordan Staal - Quite a nice bit of playmaking out of the corner, particularly that 3-dimensional pass.
+1 Tlusty - Emphatic finish.
+1 Semin - Managed to maintain possession enough to draw 3 Rangers to the point.
+1 Sekera - Did the smart thing against pressure and chipped it down to the open man.

2nd 18:18 Jordan Staal (Tlusty, Semin)
+1 Jordan Staal - Crazy that he only see this stuff from Jordan every so often.
+1 Tlusty - Pretty easy way to get an assist.
+1 Semin - Bellemore's crap-tastic playmaking skills set Semin up in a dicey situation on the boards, so that high chip shot over the pinching Ranger was quite crucial to the outcome of this game.

3rd 14:31 Lindholm (Skinner, Eric Staal)
+1 Eric Staal - Well played on the forecheck.
+1 Skinner - Strong playmaking down low, not to mention a slow, bouncy dump-in for Staal.
+1 Lindholm - Tougher play than it looked, rolling off a defender and depositing a very quick backhand shot.

ES GOALS AGAINST

2nd 4:22 Klein (Zuccarello, Pouliot)
-1 Eric Staal - To his credit, he made an uncharacteristic effort to backcheck on this one. Unfortunately he was backchecking the non-shooting side of a guy who was already well covered, while ignoring Klein skating right down the slot behind him.

Totals
+2 Semin
+2 Jordan Staal
+2 Tlusty
+1 Lindholm
+1 Skinner

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 66 vs Buffalo Sabres
3/13/2014
4-2 Win



ES GOALS FOR

1st 13:20 Skinner (Murphy, Lindholm)
+1 Skinner - Goodness gracious, does he ever torch Ehrhoff. Fun fact: Ehrhoff's contract runs through the same year that Sealab 2021 is supposed to happen.
+1 Lindholm - Literally a perfect faceoff win.
+1 Eric Staal - He spends quite a bit of time on this shift screening Ehrhoff out of position, which is part of the reason that Skinner was able to have his way with him.
+1 Murphy - The whiffed pass looked bad, but importantly Murphy corrected it with an instant, clean, accurate second try. We have a couple of blueliners who, under the same circumstances, would have just stared blankly and fallen down.

3rd 13:43 Tlusty (Semin, Jordan Staal)
+1 Tlusty - How insane is his chemistry with Semin?
+1 Semin - This shift neatly demonstrates the massive difference in hockey-sense between Alex Semin and Tyler Myers. Semin has Myers literally spinning around trying to follow the play.
+1 Jordan Staal - The goalie was visibly affected by the proximity of his face to Jordan's butt.

ES GOALS AGAINST

3rd 8:43 Stafford (Conacher, Weber)
-1 Murphy - This is one of those shifts where he just looked overwhelmed by NHL caliber forwards.
MOE - Tlusty and Sekera - This is a pretty tough play to judge for the guys in front of the net. Tlusty actually manages to deflect the pass, and Sekera is reasonably well positioned in front of Stafford. Technically they should both be responsible for denying the front of the net, so it's on them when Stafford bangs in a weak-side goal. But I have a hard time holding it against them when they have to defend a turnover directly behind the net, then get victimized by a bad bounce. It's even further complicated by the fact that both appear to be covering out of position at the moment. I feel like this one falls into the Margin of Error for both players.

Totals
+1 Lindholm
+1 Semin
+1 Skinner
+1 Eric Staal
+1 Jordan Staal
+1 Tlusty
MOE - Sekera, Tlusty

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 67 @ Boston Bruins
3/15/2014
5-1 Loss



ES GOALS FOR

3rd 3:53 Semin (Jordan Staal)
+1 Semin - An amusingly soft version of his signature faceoff snipe.
+1 Jordan Staal - Must be nice to be the center who has Semin standing right behind him on the draw.

ES GOALS AGAINST

1st 15:28 Lucic (Krejci)
-1 Sekera - Granted, this was a pretty unbelivable pass by Krejci. But still, Sekera got caught being a spectator.
-1 Eric Staal - This wasn't an awful backcheck, especially coming off the bench, but Eric has to recognize the point of over-commitment to the opposite center's weak side when they are both in the slot. If he stays inside of Krejci, there is no play for the Bruins here.

2nd 17:24 Iginla (Lucic, Krejci)
-1 Dwyer - Weak job overall trying to contain Lucic, both on the zone entry and behind the net.
-1 Harrison - Simply got dominated down low, rubbed out of the play for an instant board battle loss.
-1 Murphy - Aaaand Murphy's standing around watching the play.

3rd 12:49 Kelly (Krecji, Hamilton)
-1 Murphy - Wat. Wat r u doin.
-1 Tlusty - Defensive assignments don't get much easier than covering the near side dman during a board battle down low. He flat out blew it.
-1 Eric Staal - You can actually see the moment when he says "**** it, if nobody else is playing defense then I'm not either."

3rd 13:02 Iginla (Millar, Lucic)
-1 Eric Staal - Apparently he's taking defensive advice from Ryan Murphy or something.

3rd 19:50 Krug (Soderberg, Campbell)
Goaltender Error - Ward - Defensive miscues aside, an NHL goaltender has to stop that shot.

Totals
+1 Semin
+1 Jordan Staal
-1 Dwyer
-1 Harrison
-1 Sekera
-1 Tlusty
-2 Murphy
-3 Eric Staal
Error - Ward

 

[tarheelhockey]

Game 68 vs Edmonton Oilers
3/16/2014
2-1 Loss



ES GOALS FOR

1st 19:42 Jordan Staal (Eric Staal, Faulk)
+1 Faulk - Strong neutral zone play.
+1 Eric Staal - This is a really strong bit of playmaking. The cross-slot pass was there, and I think everyone including the Oilers was expecting it. Putting it back to Jordan really threw the D for a loop.
+1 Jordan Staal - Probably not quite the play he had in mind, but nice job burying it anyway.

ES GOALS AGAINST


1st 6:43 Hendricks (Gordon, Schultz)
-1 Murphy - I'm not trying to bust this kid's chops too hard, but come on.
-1 Harrison - Likewise... come on.

Totals
+1 Faulk
+1 Eric Staal
+1 Jordan Staal
-1 Harrison
-1 Murphy