Datsyuk in 13 playoffs

[Sentinel]

It's been a month since we've been eliminated. So my question is: does Datsyuk get a free pass for his pitiful performance in the second round against Chicago? He was not exactly dominant in both rounds (3+6=9 in 14GP), but his 1+1 in the last five games are just inexcusable and was extremely poorly timed.

While he was still competent in his own end (he always is), but the toughest defensive assignments were given to Zetterberg, so Pavel doesn't even have this argument. IIRC, he played against Sharp, who is not really setting the world on fire now (1 point in his last 5 games). I haven't seen any mentions of injuries. So whattahell was wrong with him? And why is nobody talking about it? Or did I miss the backlash?

A real pity, if you ask me. With a DECENT offensive performance from our team's BEST player in ONE of the last THREE games, we could have eliminated Chicago. We would have probably been crushed by LA in the next round (although with Quick's suspect performance you can't really tell), but we would still make it to WCF. And Datsyuk could really make the case for his number retired (I think he is going into HHOF already). A real pity.

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[GoAwayDanCleary]

Yeah he deserves a lot of criticism, it was really disappointing. That being said it happens to basically everyone every once in a while, just look at Crosby and Malkin. The one excuse he has is the lackluster play of the Mule and having Gator on his line but let's not forget he was producing with Gator and Cleary on his line at one point during the year.

 

[Flowah]

Yeah he deserves a lot of criticism, it was really disappointing. That being said it happens to basically everyone every once in a while, just look at Crosby and Malkin. The one excuse he has is the lackluster play of the Mule and having Gator on his line but let's not forget he was producing with Gator and Cleary on his line at one point during the year.

I thought his production suffered with those two. Am I misremembering?

 

[Sentinel]

I thought his production suffered with those two. Am I misremembering?

You are not. His production was nonexistent with those two pylons during the regular season. Oddly in enough, in playoffs Cleary exceeded each and every expectation, including Datsyuk's point totals.

 

[irishock]

He's starting to decline. I hope Kenny doesn't think he deserves 25 mil- 3 years. I rather let him walk than pay a 38 year old 8 mil. Next year he'll be putting up 65-70 pts at best.

 

[Heaton]

You are not. His production was nonexistent with those two pylons during the regular season. Oddly in enough, in playoffs Cleary exceeded each and every expectation, including Datsyuk's point totals.

Pretty sure that's not true. Overall he still was on his usual pace.

 

[ricky0034]

He's starting to decline. I hope Kenny doesn't think he deserves 25 mil- 3 years. I rather let him walk than pay a 38 year old 8 mil. Next year he'll be putting up 65-70 pts at best.

based on what exactly? a single Playoff series?

he had 49 points in 47 games during the regular season and 7 points in 7 games against Anaheim and was forced to play with Abdelkader pretty much all season(and sometimes Cleary too!)

 

[Heaton]

based on what exactly? a single Playoff series?

he had 49 points in 47 games during the regular season and 7 points in 7 games against Anaheim and was forced to play with Abdelkader pretty much all season(and sometimes Cleary too!)

Yeah, if we're basing Datsyuk declining on the Chicago series, Toews is basically dead.

 

[The Zetterberg Era]

He's starting to decline. I hope Kenny doesn't think he deserves 25 mil- 3 years. I rather let him walk than pay a 38 year old 8 mil. Next year he'll be putting up 65-70 pts at best.

The Wings are going East, his scoring is actually about to pick up, even if he is aging.


Datsyuk had a bad playoff, he won't be truly called to the carpet because he is too beloved. But I think Pavel himself would tell you he was disappointing and needs to be better for them to have a shot at doing the things they want to.

 

[Henkka]

based on what exactly? a single Playoff series?

he had 49 points in 47 games during the regular season and 7 points in 7 games against Anaheim and was forced to play with Abdelkader pretty much all season(and sometimes Cleary too!)

Scoring is not the only way to analyze playoff effort. He shut pretty much opposite forwards down, prevented more goals than created.

 

[Brick Top]

Scoring is not the only way to analyze playoff effort. He shut pretty much opposite forwards down, prevented more goals than created.

Pavel is my favorite player and he did play his usual great defense in the playoffs. But you don't pay a checking center $6.7M a year. The Wings lacked the secondary scoring for him to do nothing on offense. I'd guess that he'd be the first to say that he needed to do more offensively, and I think he will bounce back in next year's playoffs if the Wings make it.

 

[odin1981]

I think the main reason off a poor 2nd round where his linemates. Franzen sucks playing with datsyuk. He does not have the hockey sense to play with him, in addition to that he just gets so caught up in watching pav put the moves on he just becomes a offensive pylon in the opposing teams end with him. To me specifically I believe franzen belongs on z's line. He is a elite center as well but is more kiss style (keep it simple stupid). Franzen is more mobile with z because he isn't confused as to what pavs is gonna do next. I really wish tartar was up on the third line this playoffs, then we would have been able to put brunner up with pavs. Not saying even brunner would understand pavs game but he aggresively shoots and tries to move around to weak areas in the defense for shots.

 

[7r4n]

Scoring is not the only way to analyze playoff effort. He shut pretty much opposite forwards down, prevented more goals than created.

Gotta agree with Henkka here. Just because he didn't produce any points doesn't mean he was bad. He was only -1 in the series, averaged more than 55% in the faceoff circle and had plenty of takeaways and defensive strong points.

Considering they were playing a strong Chicago team who in the regular season had the highest sv% and lowest GAA I'd say he did alright. Maybe not stellar but he did enough.

 

[fimoknete]

Pavel is my favorite player and he did play his usual great defense in the playoffs. But you don't pay a checking center $6.7M a year. The Wings lacked the secondary scoring for him to do nothing on offense. I'd guess that he'd be the first to say that he needed to do more offensively, and I think he will bounce back in next year's playoffs if the Wings make it.

???
pav stopped anaheim and almost chicago by himself. look how many great scorer both teams have and how little they scored. pavs was more busy with letting deadweight look good on his wings. just watch how many good setups abdelkader missed to score. or cleary. pav could easily have 10 more points if not playing with player with a hockey handycapped ID.
the only capable player he got was the reunion with zetta.

and remember the dangerous post hits he had. they all came out of a play where he did everything by himself. so basicly he has to keep the opponent and his winger out of the game. is a bit unfair to play vs. 7 player alone every shift.

 

[Brick Top]

???
pav stopped anaheim and almost chicago by himself. look how many great scorer both teams have and how little they scored. pavs was more busy with letting deadweight look good on his wings. just watch how many good setups abdelkader missed to score. or cleary. pav could easily have 10 more points if not playing with player with a hockey handycapped ID.
the only capable player he got was the reunion with zetta.

and remember the dangerous post hits he had. they all came out of a play where he did everything by himself. so basicly he has to keep the opponent and his winger out of the game. is a bit unfair to play vs. 7 player alone every shift.

I'm not saying that he wasn't effective defensively, although Z did the heavier lifting in the Chicago series by being matched up against the Toews line. And we all know that points are harder to come by in the playoffs when the games tighten up defensively. But when a regular season PPG star player that is an engine for his team's offense only puts up 2 points in a 7 game series... well, that's just not enough when he's got an average-at-best supporting cast of wingers and d-men who likely aren't good enough to pick up the scoring.

His PPG pace during the regular season was with generally the same set of wingers he played with in the playoffs, so it's not like there were dramatic line up changes to deal with. I do think that Chicago's effort to shut down Pavel and greatly limit Z on offense flew under the radar with all the talk of Toews being shut down.

Basically, I'm saying that this Wings team wasn't good enough for him to turn into Kris Draper for a series against the Hawks. That's all. And I expect him to put more points on the board next time in the PO's.

 

[GoAwayDanCleary]

Datsyuk isn't payed $6M to just shut down opposing players.

 

[Hendricks433]

He had a bad 5 or 6 games for sure. He played great during the regular season and the 1st round. It was disappointing and part of the reason we lost to Chicago but I would hardly say he is declining. He almost has to be with his age but not to an alarming rate or anything.

 

[7r4n]

Well a 7 games isn't a good enough sample size to discuss salary or the like.

I agree with The Nose that it happens to the best. Check out Crosby, Malkin, Neal, Letang and Iginla against the Bruins.

 

[Sentinel]

Gotta agree with Henkka here. Just because he didn't produce any points doesn't mean he was bad. He was only -1 in the series, averaged more than 55% in the faceoff circle and had plenty of takeaways and defensive strong points.

Considering they were playing a strong Chicago team who in the regular season had the highest sv% and lowest GAA I'd say he did alright. Maybe not stellar but he did enough.

We didn't need Pavel to be "alright." We needed and still need him to be stellar. Shutting down the opposition's second line is not enough. Not for a superstar we all know Pavel can be (or... once was?).

Hawks can afford Toews to be invisible. Detroit sure as hell cannot.

 

[Brick Top]

Well a 7 games isn't a good enough sample size to discuss salary or the like.

I agree with The Nose that it happens to the best. Check out Crosby, Malkin, Neal, Letang and Iginla against the Bruins.

I guess I wasn't referring to his lack of production to imply that he's overpaid, but just more that it points to his stature on the team and importance to what they do offensively. Generally, if a $2.5M player only puts up 2 points in a 7 game series, you're not overly surprised. If one of your top 2 centers who are basically interchangeable as the #1C makes $6.7M and only puts up 2 points in that same series, you probably feel like you needed more offense out of him. I think that comes with the territory when you throw in the A on the jersey, regular season offensive production, and his general ability to create offense.

Good point on the Pens players you brought up- I'm pretty sure those guys all expected more out of themselves against the Bruins, as did Bylsma and Shero.

 

[7r4n]

I guess my whole problem with these assumptions is that a superstar will be a point per game producer every single time against every single team, no matter who is on his line. Watching the games and playing hockey myself, I know how frustrating it is not to be able to put up points. I'm sure Datsyuk felt the same way. He was playing as well as he could defensively and was making great passes that his linesmates should have capitalized on. Also his shots (when he took them, I think he should take more shots but I digress) were stoned by Crawford.

Like I mentioned earlier, it happened to the best player in the game right now, Sidney Crosby. If you watched the Bruins/Pens series and saw what he was doing, losing defensive battles, losing faceoffs, and getting 0 points. If you made the statement based on those 4 games that he was declining and wasn't worth his 9 million dollar contract people would laugh at you.

It's silly to me that people can say he's declining and that he doesn't deserve what he gets paid. Yes you can say his offensive "slump" was poorly timed, but you could say the same about many superstars in many playoff series. It's not as if he was horrible.

 

[Henkka]

Like I mentioned earlier, it happened to the best player in the game right now, Sidney Crosby. If you watched the Bruins/Pens series and saw what he was doing, losing defensive battles, losing faceoffs, and getting 0 points. If you made the statement based on those 4 games that he was declining and wasn't worth his 9 million dollar contract people would laugh at you.

Yeah, when Crosby was shut down offensively, he was completely useless. He didn't do any Selke-kind-of-job at same time like Datsyuk did. Datsyuk is still a superb player even though he would not produce s single point. Datsyuk created chances, "abdelkaders" didn't score of them. There could be playoff series where he won't produce, but he always defends well and benefits the team. Then there will be playoff series, where he will produce and still defends well and benefits the team even more. When Datsyuk carried one pylon on his own line, the offence was deeper in other lines. Team benefited. He did produce 1+1 against Chicago, when Crosby did not produce a single point against Boston and was -3.

It's silly to me that people can say he's declining and that he doesn't deserve what he gets paid. Yes you can say his offensive "slump" was poorly timed, but you could say the same about many superstars in many playoff series. It's not as if he was horrible.

You nailed it.

 

[GoAwayDanCleary]

Don't know where you're getting the idea that some of us don't think Datsyuk deserves all the money he's getting. The point is he's not payed over six million bucks to just play Selke level defense.

 

[14ari13]

If I understand it right, he was mostly on the ice With the Smith-Quincey pairing, so he had to cover for them/Smith.

 

[Cursed Lemon]

Datsyuk was injured/sick/whatever in the Chicago series. If you couldn't see it, you weren't watching.