Around the League 19: And Down the Stretch They Come...OK, Who Hit the Pause Button?

[WreckingCrew]

2 things:
1. Based purely upon play before stoppage, no way RBA sits Fleury. Eddy and TVR sit. But who knows, odd circumstances to be sure.
2. What type of advantage will the higher seeds be given? Normally the higher seed gets home ice, but there will be no home ice advantage. Possible that the higher seeds start with a 1-0 series advantage? Curious to know if anyone has seen this topic discussed yet.

Based purely on how RBA deploys players (i.e. TVR o 1st pairing with Slavin)...no way he plays Fleury over TVR/Edm even if he scores 10 goals and the other two shoot at our own net

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

My guess is that Brindy will play these pairings:

Skjei-Hamilton
Slavin-Vatanen
Gardiner-Van Riemsdyk
Fleury

I genuinely think that Slavin, Gardiner, and Skjei are our 3 best LH guys, though Fleury's played really well, and TVR's been no slouch from a possession perspective, particularly at the end of this season (Link: Trevor van Riemsdyk Stats | Hockey-Reference.com). If Vatanen and/or one of those above guys underperform in a loss, replace them with Fleury and Eddy the next game. Easy. What's been kind of amazing for the Canes is that there hasn't yet been a single player on our team who has been below 50% Corsi outside of Brian Gibbons, so there's no real "bad" choices to plug into our D-corps, just "less good" ones.

 

[hblueridgegal]

It would be nice to rattle a few cages again.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Personally, if Brindy's up to letting the first pairing be more offensively-oriented, I would love to see how Skjei plays with Hamilton. Because Dougie is such a possession monster, Skjei, in many ways, would be sheltered a little bit and would be allowed to open up his offensive game and focus on break-outs and setting up one-timers in Dougie's direction. To me, Slavin's defensive skills should be used to shelter Vatanen as he gets adjusted with a new team and a new system.

 

[GoldiFox]

It took a solid 6 months for Slavin to adjust to Hamilton's more positionless style and solidify the 1st pair. Given that Skjei plays a similar game to Dougie I'm not sure I would want to see them trying to figure that out on the fly during elimination games.
Skjei-Vatanen seems like an easier stop-gap with more sheltered deployment.

I really hate the thought of going into a 5 game elimination series against NYR. I'd have preferred literally any other team except Boston. Shesterkin will be itching to make his mark and Zibanejad was on fire before the break.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

It took a solid 6 months for Slavin to adjust to Hamilton's more positionless style and solidify the 1st pair. Given that Skjei plays a similar game to Dougie I'm not sure I would want to see them trying to figure that out on the fly during elimination games.
Skjei-Vatanen seems like an easier stop-gap with more sheltered deployment.

I really hate the thought of going into a 5 game elimination series against NYR. I'd have preferred literally any other team except Boston. Shesterkin will be itching to make his mark and Zibanejad was on fire before the break.

To me, playing the Rangers is no time to play it safe. Take some risks and see if changing the defensive pairings in a more offensively-minded way gives our team more of a shot against their goalies.

 

[Big Daddy Cane]

Slavin - Hamilton
Fleury - Skjei
Edmundson - Vatanen

Gardiner, van Riemsdyk

I doubt that Brind'Amour will want to experiment with all 3 pairings; Hamilton probably goes right back with Slavin. Fleury's play before the break and skating ability should keep him in the lineup against the Rangers. Edmundson and Vatanen are a very logical stylistic fit and they could end up with 2nd pairing minutes. Gardiner and van Riemsdyk rotate in as necessary

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

It took a solid 6 months for Slavin to adjust to Hamilton's more positionless style and solidify the 1st pair. Given that Skjei plays a similar game to Dougie I'm not sure I would want to see them trying to figure that out on the fly during elimination games.
Skjei-Vatanen seems like an easier stop-gap with more sheltered deployment.

I really hate the thought of going into a 5 game elimination series against NYR. I'd have preferred literally any other team except Boston. Shesterkin will be itching to make his mark and Zibanejad was on fire before the break.

Haven’t been following that closely - is Shesterkin available after his car crash? Thought he broke some ribs.

Not that we do any better against Lundqvist.

 

[GoldiFox]

Haven’t been following that closely - is Shesterkin available after his car crash? Thought he broke some ribs.

Not that we do any better against Lundqvist.

He played a couple games before the season was suspended. Hard to say if he was fully healed then given the injury but I'd assume he is fully healed now.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Slavin - Hamilton
Fleury - Skjei
Edmundson - Vatanen

Gardiner, van Riemsdyk

I doubt that Brind'Amour will want to experiment with all 3 pairings; Hamilton probably goes right back with Slavin. Fleury's play before the break and skating ability should keep him in the lineup against the Rangers. Edmundson and Vatanen are a very logical stylistic fit and they could end up with 2nd pairing minutes. Gardiner and van Riemsdyk rotate in as necessary

I disagree with the bottom-pairing. Go Gardiner on the left side or go home, at least to me. Vatanen needs a partner whom can boost the possession metrics and shelter Vatanen's deficiencies. Gardiner does that, occasional gaffes notwithstanding. Skjei has the excellent skating chops necessary for solid play on his off-hand, so if Fleury plays his way into the lineup, he's probably going to be the one that moves to the right side. I just personally prefer an all-strong-side lineup, in which case, you should play Slavin/Skjei/Gardiner.

 

[Canes]

If it's Gardiner vs. Fleury give me the d-man who has the same amount ES points despite playing over 400 minutes less of ES time overall. Gardiner will probably play though because he's a veteran and we're going to try to salvage what we can out of his albatross of a contract until it's clear we can't.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

If it's Gardiner vs. Fleury give me the d-man who has the same amount ES points despite playing over 400 minutes less of ES time overall. Gardiner will probably play though because he's a veteran and we're going to try to salvage what we can out of his albatross of a contract until it's clear we can't.

Gardiner's possession metrics are off the charts good, particularly at 5-on-5. Let's stop pretending that Jake is chopped liver and is some sort of albatross. He's a very good player that got unlucky early in the year. His counting numbers began progressing to the mean before COVID cut the season short.

 

[cptjeff]

Gardiner's possession metrics are off the charts good, particularly at 5-on-5. Let's stop pretending that Jake is chopped liver and is some sort of albatross. He's a very good player that got unlucky early in the year. His counting numbers began progressing to the mean before COVID cut the season short.

Dude, just stop with the Gardiner crap. He was playing less terribly before the pause, but he was still pretty bad, just not as abysmally bad as early this season. Unless something significant has changed for him physically with the time off (and given his back and hips, that's not impossible), he's barely an NHLer right now.

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

Dude, just stop with the Gardiner crap. He was playing less terribly before the pause, but he was still pretty bad, just not as abysmally bad as early this season. Unless something significant has changed for him physically with the time off (and given his back and hips, that's not impossible), he's barely an NHLer right now.

"Barely an NHLer" is a major exaggeration. Gards had a very typical pattern from his normal career this year of great analytics and not-great counting stats, except with extreme outliers early in the season. You know that I'm a fan with strong convictions and a big stathead. When others zig, I happily zag, and I will keep zagging when it comes to Gardiner.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Dude, just stop with the Gardiner crap. He was playing less terribly before the pause, but he was still pretty bad, just not as abysmally bad as early this season. Unless something significant has changed for him physically with the time off (and given his back and hips, that's not impossible), he's barely an NHLer right now.

He’s going a little overboard on the Gardiner love but it seems like it’s a bit to balance out the unjustified level of Gardiner hate that many are spewing.

The last 20 games or so he was playing up to his contract. What’s the point of re-hashing all of this? Let’s just see how things are when we get back to playing and see how Gards is looking. He was clearly playing through injuries early in the season. This time off might have done him some good along with understanding the system and meshing better with teammates

 

[TheReelChuckFletcher]

He’s going a little overboard on the Gardiner love but it seems like it’s a bit to balance out the unjustified level of Gardiner hate that many are spewing.

The last 20 games or so he was playing up to his contract. What’s the point of re-hashing all of this? Let’s just see how things are when we get back to playing and see how Gards is looking. He was clearly playing through injuries early in the season. This time off might have done him some good along with understanding the system and meshing better with teammates

I admit that my comments were reactionary. I'm not saying that Gards is the best defenseman on the team (that's clearly Dougie and it's not close); I'm just saying that you have to balance his great advanced metrics with his not-great counting stats, as well as his progression in the year 2020, to judge his overall game and to see how he's an, IMO, prime rebound candidate this post-season and not some contract albatross.

 

[Joe McGrath]

To us it seems clear that Fleury should be playing but I fully expect to see him sitting again because of Brindy.

Who f***ing knows who should be playing? We don’t have any idea what shape these guys are in or how rusty they might be. Other than Slavin and Hamilton i don’t think anyone should just be penciled in.

 

[Cardiac Jerks]

Who f***ing knows who should be playing? We don’t have any idea what shape these guys are in or how rusty they might be. Other than Slavin and Hamilton i don’t think anyone should just be penciled in.

Sorry for offending you so greatly with my speculation

 

[HisIceness]

Lets not kid ourselves, there's going to be a lot of out of shape dudes when things get going again. I know these guys have home gyms and whatnot but some of these guys may not have had access to an ice rink during this break.

 

[VAcaniac]

Only thing I know about Gards is that hes slow.

Golden retriever on skates would be quicker. Probably smarter too.

 

[bleedgreen]

Fleury deserves to be in the lineup as we left it. Doesn’t matter to me how Jake is playing, if it came down to the two of them Fleury wins for me.

Not expecting that to be the case tho.

 

[DougieSmash]

The way he was dealing before the break, there's no way Fleury won't be top 4 guy for Brindy.

Slavin, Hamilton, Fleury and Eddy (ouch). Then you have Gardy, Skjei, TVR and Vatanen. Maybe it's just me but Vatanen screams mediocrity.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

The way he was dealing before the break, there's no way Fleury won't be top 4 guy for Brindy.

Slavin, Hamilton, Fleury and Eddy (ouch). Then you have Gardy, Skjei, TVR and Vatanen. Maybe it's just me but Vatanen screams mediocrity.

Why the hell would you put Eddy over Skej? Especially if you’re going to pair with Fleury?

 

[DougieSmash]

Why the hell would you put Eddy over Skej? Especially if you’re going to pair with Fleury?

Rod Brind'amour, not me. Just my prediction.

 

[GIN ANTONIC]

Rod Brind'amour, not me. Just my prediction.

Ehhh... ok... that pairing just doesn't make much sense to me on our 2nd unit, but I see what you're saying about Rod being stuck in his ways. If anything I would think Skej + TVR or something like that makes more sense. This is probably what I would want to roll with.

Slavin - Hamilton
Fleury - Vatanen
Skej - TVR

Either Gardiner or Edmundson as the extra, probably Edmundson and then legit look at inserting Gardiner in as a roaming forward or something like that.