I think we’re about 15+ years removed from any player changing their behavior because of who is on the other team.
Physicality impacts hesitancy. Always will.
So stupid for the Pens
Maatta/Oleksiak good, Riikola/Johnson bad btw
As a Dallas fan I was pissed off when I first saw this trade yesterday. Then read some comments and thought maybe it wont be so bad, and maybe he's better then how he was last time in Dallas
But, now I'm just mad again. WTF Nill this is such a stupid trade. He's more then likely still terrible at defending, and hes signed for two more years....
No it doesn't. You have to wonder why a lot of teams don't have the bruisers of yore and that's because the modern game isn't very forgiving towards foolish acts of toughness. You take stupid penalties, you'll end up getting scored upon.
If Tom Wilson didn't have hockey skills to supplement his physical play, he'd not be in the NHL.
I’m not talking about plugs. I’m talking size+skill (and willingness to use it).
Even considering that, only a judicious use of physicality is beneficial. It's one thing to use your physical strength to separate a player from the puck, retrieve it, and create plays (see Bergeron or Benn in Beast Mode) and another thing if you're busy hitting to intimidate (and not doing much after). The latter just means that you don't have possession and the numbers will catch up to you.
To be fair... Big players will injure soft ones in the playoffs. And in a 7-game series, "injuring slightly" or "punishing" your opponent is a strategy.
It worked wonders for Boston on Vancouver cup final.
And many other situations. LAKings vs Anyone.
The big player has to catch up with the smaller player. This isn't the clutch-and-grab era.
Punishing cannot be your top strategy in today's NHL and very likely ranks very low on the list. Only a dinosaur coach will resort to punishing instead of out-possessing, out-chancing, and out-scoring your opponent.
Seeing all the Pens fans trash Oleksiak in this thread and talking about how bad he is brings back memories of them thinking he was a changed man and top 4 dman. They thought they struck gold in him
We will see...
Who has more value at this TDL.... Simmonds or Nyquist.
Nyquist scores more... Simmonds is Grittier.
The big player has to catch up with the smaller player. This isn't the clutch-and-grab era.
Punishing cannot be your top strategy in today's NHL and very likely ranks very low on the list. Only a dinosaur coach will resort to punishing instead of out-possessing, out-chancing, and out-scoring your opponent.
So stupid for the Pens
Maatta/Oleksiak good, Riikola/Johnson bad btw
I didn’t mean as pairs I meant as individual playersMaatta/Oleksiak pairing was Litterly a walking disaster.
I didn’t mean as pairs I meant as individual players
Oleksiak is terrible.
Maatta is good.
Riikola is good and much much better than Oleksiak. Oleksiak is one of the worst Dmen ive seen.
You Think fans would learn by now that the pens are Dmen fixers.
Daley- Hawks fans were saying Scuderi was the better player and Daley was trash...lol wrong.
Schultz- Edmonton fans were happy with a 3rd, calling it an overpay....lol how ridiculous does that look now?
Oleksiak- Dallas fans can't seem to accept that they're wrong...he's a fine Dman...it's okay you're not the only fanbase who have been wrong about the penguins Dmen before...
So Dallas fans were right, and you were wrong? Which is it?
I agree with you. Oleksiak stinks. He doesn’t think the game fast enough. I wish Dallas had just kept the 4th Rounder. Nill bailed out Rutherford’s 2 mistakes:Clearly I was wrong.
Oleksiak was pretty good his first 25 games here. I jumped the gun, after Cole got traded, Oleksiak fell off a cliff away from him.
Dude has no idea how to play the D posistion.
Why do ppl assume I’m talking about dinosaurs? Obviously I’m talking about “talented” size/physicality. Sheesh. Clearly nobody wants a pylon/coke machine.