Player Discussion Adam Larsson (Hall talk will result in a thread ban)

[Burnt Biscuits]

Don't know if this was posted yet but here's an article with swedish NT coach talking about Larsson as well as some comments from Larsson himself. Some interesting stuff in there.

WORLDS: Larsson encouraged to activate offensively

We have been encouraging defense men to join in the rush all the time under McLellan, if he is getting orders to stay back, it must of been directly from Jim Johnson.

 

[Del Preston]

So why are you even in this thread and posting? Seriously.

Because he's the same miserable poster he was under his old account. Put him on ignore and you won't see the garbage he spews even if it's quoted. It's like he's banned all over again.

 

[shoop]

So why are you even in this thread and posting? Seriously.

It's a thread about Larsson. Not about the WHC.

I don't watch them. I really hope Larsson has a bounceback year, but have learned a long time ago that the WHC doesn't really tell us much about how a player will perform the following year in the NHL.

 

[nabob]

Nah, tbh you're making this about me more than I am. You do seem oddly obsessed with my posts, I hold no grudge, to you or Larsson, haha, and will exit the thread and/or... so that you can focus on something or someone else. You seem to do that too much btw. Not sure when it became OK to be talking about posters instead of responding to what they post.

Hopefully Larsson is better next season, hopefully the Oilers are better. That's what we're here for.

Yes hopefully he isn't on the IR with a back injury and hopefully he doesn't have a tragic death of an immediate family member. You may not believe either of those had an effect on his play all you like. You can even try to pretend the injury wasn't real if you'd like.

Hopefully him have a strong last 15-20 games of the regular season, some people seem to have missed this in the mess of a season combined with their obsession on linking everything Larsson with Hall, as well as an excellent World Chamionship shows he is healthy and maybe a different assistant coach for the defense will allow him to play more assertively on the offensive side as he has said he wasn't allowed to do this last season.

 

[McShogun99]

Larsson should be on the ice for 25 minutes a game. Give him the tough shutdown minutes and reward him with some 2nd unit PP time. Our 2nd unit shouldn't be seeing more then 40 seconds a PP anyways.

 

[CycloneSweep]

None of those are personal attacks. I'm just getting frustrated with some people (not just you) criticizing Larsson just for the sake of criticizing him.

Criticizing him for giving it all for Team Sweden and not giving it all for the garbage dump team in Edmonton in a season when his father passed is a bit low IMO. Criticizing him for his lack of offense is perfectly valid. I don't see him being a PP guy either.

Larsson was giving it all early, then it was clear that he wasn't going to get a solid partner all year and as good as Larsson is, he isn't good enough to do it all himself.

Can't we all just agree on something here.

Hall is good.
Larsson is good.
Hall for Larsson was bad in value.

Done and done.

 

[LaGu]

So as Oilers fans we get a complete another season of misery, few things good going on, Larsson is supposedly injured all year and yet he apparently puts on his best play all season in Europe in some crackerjack tournament and as an Oiler fan I should be thrilled about that? It actually bugs me when players have their very best efforts elsewhere. Albeit as an Oiler fan I'm conditioned to see that.

Further, and this is the key point, without headcoach changes all I can look forward to is to not see whatever version of Larsson was on display in Europe. Because I've never seen offensively productive play from him here. About what I've seen is him be a Swedish version of Jason Smith. That being on a good year.

Yeah, Larsson was supposedly injured and his father supposedly passed away. Hey, I didn't see it, what do I know.

I cannot even be bothered to go on reading this thread after this post. Throwing doubt on something you apparently don't care about one bit. Why even bother?

After a tough season a player going through pain, injury and personal loss decided (after having declined due to his father's death) to re-join the team. He went on to encourage everyone else to join, according to the team (acknowledged by the Nashville trio and Hornqvist, Larsson pushed them to come) and the group has never been as close as this year. Journalists following the team put a big part of that on Larsson, not due to what he is, but due to what he lived through. They glued together from a tragedy and eneded up with a gold celebration of the like that I have never seen team Sweden done before. Genuin joy all around. He went on to be the best D on team Swe on a team with OEL, Klingberg, Lindholm.. It was great to see.

At the same time Larsson post a picture saying "this is for you, for you!!!" to his father posting a picture of the Cup, the gold medal, and finally jersey of .... not from team Sweden, but Edmonton Oilers.

 

[shoop]

Hall is good.
Larsson is good.
Hall for Larsson was bad in value.

Done and done.

There is more to trades than just 'value'.

Done, done and done.

 

[Spawn]

For all the talk about a renewed offensive acumen with the Swedish national team it didn't really translate to much actual production. Team averaged more than 4 goals a game over the tournament and Larsson had 3 points in 10 games. Good enough for 5th among d-man on the Swedish team. That type of production isn't all that far above his production in his first year here.

 

[LaGu]

For all the talk about a renewed offensive acumen with the Swedish national team it didn't really translate to much actual production. Team averaged more than 4 goals a game over the tournament and Larsson had 3 points in 10 games. Good enough for 5th among d-man on the Swedish team. That type of production isn't all that far above his production in his first year here.

I am not sure that was the point, the point was what we saw in the games played. For me it was much more about not deferring the break-outs than anything else. He looked good moving the puck up the ice. Confidence, which starts from himself (he needs to take initiative), and encouragement. Anyone watching the games, seeing Larsson with two great chances within the last minute of play of OT in the finals could see what this is about. He still wasn't on the PP for team Swe, and I am not sure he will/should be on the PP on the Oilers. That depends if he can contribute or not. But you could see him moving up alot and joining the rush several times. And Larsson himself and coaching said that they encouraged it. I don't see any negatives here. Honestly for me a 16/17 Larsson is more than enough, shut down top opposition and put up top 60 EV pts for D.

 

[Aerrol]

For all the talk about a renewed offensive acumen with the Swedish national team it didn't really translate to much actual production. Team averaged more than 4 goals a game over the tournament and Larsson had 3 points in 10 games. Good enough for 5th among d-man on the Swedish team. That type of production isn't all that far above his production in his first year here.

I also thought the same but I do think in his first year here Larsson was much better at moving the puck than this year so I'm glad to hear he's getting back to that.

 

[Burnt Biscuits]

For all the talk about a renewed offensive acumen with the Swedish national team it didn't really translate to much actual production. Team averaged more than 4 goals a game over the tournament and Larsson had 3 points in 10 games. Good enough for 5th among d-man on the Swedish team. That type of production isn't all that far above his production in his first year here.

I'm not a believer in his offensive upside, but he seems capable of making a few more good break out passes, just doing that with more frequency he should be able to become a sub-30 point d-man instead of the sub-20 point d-man he's been for the past 2 years. That 10(ish) point improvement, would help us out quite a bit.

 

[CycloneSweep]

There is more to trades than just 'value'.

Done, done and done.

Not disagreeing there. But all 3 things I said are true and are facts.

 

[McClelland]

Larsson was an absolute stud in the wc, often followed up the attacks and extending the offensive cycling game by the swedes. Almost was a game winner with one in the iron in the end of the finals!

Defensive stud as always, would say he played a bit more aggresive then usual , he looked like a true no 1 D in the tournament. Hopefully he dont need to nurse his D mate next season and can go on more offensive raids. Must try him at PP because he has great vision with sharp passes and a decent slapshot.

The problem are that he is so important for our pk so the loss there perhaps eating up the eventual win if we give him pp time, already eating so many hard minutes.

The infamous poster who has a habit to seak odd fights ,picking here on the wrong player in last years Oilers, Larsson hadnt a great season like the one before but he was top 2 D in our team and had the toughest matchup.

With Sekera gone for the most part(bad when coming back) and Klefbom with a 3/4 disaster season he did his best and had probably to play half injured in many games because his importance with so few reliable defenders.

I thinks a healthy and boosted Larsson will have a stellar season and our team isnt so bad as the results, couldnt play true the injuries and had a bad goalie situation, pk,pp!

 

[shoop]

Not disagreeing there. But all 3 things I said are true and are facts.

I hear you, but the trade really was a win-win. If you reduce it to just value you ignore a key part of the trade for the Oilers.

 

[mjlee]

I wonder if there will be any chirping or bragging rights in the locker room next season I believe Larsson was the only oiler who medaled.

 

[Chimpradamus]

Imo, people tend to get a bit blinded by semantics when discussing this. In Swedish a defenseman is called a back, which turns a lot of that stuff on its head. A back is just another player positioned behind the forwards, and the role he plays is up to him and the coach.

There's no way I'd pick Larsson or Vlasic over a guy like Burns, because what Burns excels at is much harder to do. His job is to get the puck into a tiny space, as opposed to getting it anywhere but that same place. That's simplified but it's also the gist of it.

If Burns hadn't a Vlasic or a Larsson to eat up the tough defensive responsibilities on the top 2, he could kiss his 58% zone starts goodbye. Then he would be played in all situations and Burns would look alot worse than without his nurtured ice time. Burns is a great specialist, but he sure as heck isn't your #1D. And if he is, you're in big trouble.

That's why I think it's laughable when Karlsson broke Orr's assist record, he was played in all situations and had tougher minutes than Doughty for example. Then when Burns puts up great numbers, he was nurtured into it and wasn't played in all situations. Talk about a double standard.

 

[joestevens29]

For all the talk about a renewed offensive acumen with the Swedish national team it didn't really translate to much actual production. Team averaged more than 4 goals a game over the tournament and Larsson had 3 points in 10 games. Good enough for 5th among d-man on the Swedish team. That type of production isn't all that far above his production in his first year here.

Larsson reminds me of Smid. Guy shows offensive instincts at times, but at the end of the day the points never show up.

 

[CupofOil]

Larsson reminds me of Smid. Guy shows offensive instincts at times, but at the end of the day the points never show up.

Larsson has better offensive instincts than Smid.
Smid always carried the puck into dead spots and he did it a lot. Larsson only selectively pinches and when he does, it's usually a smart play that keeps the cycle going even if it doesn't end up in a goal.

 

[joestevens29]

Larsson has better offensive instincts than Smid.
Smid always carried the puck into dead spots and he did it a lot. Larsson only selectively pinches and when he does, it's usually a smart play that keeps the cycle going even if it doesn't end up in a goal.

At the end of the day they both end up with very few points.

 

[CupofOil]

At the end of the day they both end up with very few points.

Smid always scored far less points and he activated offensively far more often so I don't see the comparison. Smid was a complete black hole offensively, no Hockey IQ whatsoever.

 

[Aerrol]

Larsson has better offensive instincts than Smid.
Smid always carried the puck into dead spots and he did it a lot. Larsson only selectively pinches and when he does, it's usually a smart play that keeps the cycle going even if it doesn't end up in a goal.

If any of our dmen remind me of Smid it's Nurse. Loves to skate the puck in and then do absolutely nothing with it.

Thankfully, Nurse has shown more offensive development already with some looks for trailers or better placed shots. Still not convinced he's going to turn into a true two way guy though.

 

[Bryanbryoil]

If any of our dmen remind me of Smid it's Nurse. Loves to skate the puck in and then do absolutely nothing with it.

Thankfully, Nurse has shown more offensive development already with some looks for trailers or better placed shots. Still not convinced he's going to turn into a true two way guy though.

Precisely. That said Nurse IMO is still improving while Smid stagnated in terms of his offensive abilities.

 

[nabob]

Precisely. That said Nurse IMO is still improving while Smid stagnated in terms of his offensive abilities.

Gotta agree with this. Nurse in his third NHL season showed a noticeable improvement with regards to his offensive abilities. Smid never did from day one until he called it quits. Larsson is a case where he has shown it but very rarely chooses to go for it. Maybe that's what makes him successful when he does, because it isn't expected.

 

[CycloneSweep]

Gotta agree with this. Nurse in his third NHL season showed a noticeable improvement with regards to his offensive abilities. Smid never did from day one until he called it quits. Larsson is a case where he has shown it but very rarely chooses to go for it. Maybe that's what makes him successful when he does, because it isn't expected.

He seemed to go for it a lot more at the World Cup, and I think I know why.

Larsson trusted OEL to be able to cover for him if he decides to jump in offensively. Don't think he trusts any of his partners here to do that.