He´s got lots of potential and his size is an asset, but we have started to see the areas, where he he needs to develop. Sometimes he´s not strong enough in one on one situations and he looses battles in critical situations on the defensive zone. He is very active when offensive.
Player Discussion: Emil Martinsen Lilleberg
- Thread starter TheDaysOf 04
- Start date
bov
Registered User
- Nov 13, 2010
- 7,196
- 3,320
Hasn't been very good since that big hit on Leason. Don't see him laying the body or finishing checks as much either. He has been getting exposed a bit lately, but you can tell they want him to go through it as he learns the NHL game. He'll be fine, but definitely looks like a rookie out there at times.
It's OK if your #6 is one of Lilleberg/De Haan/Fleury, anything beyond that not so much right now.
It's OK if your #6 is one of Lilleberg/De Haan/Fleury, anything beyond that not so much right now.
Performance probably decreased as Blashill started coaching him up on that wonderful box plus one system
LightningStrikes
Champa Bay Lightning
- Nov 24, 2009
- 26,239
- 10,093
TBF with all the injuries lately (Serg, Fleury, Cernak) he has probably gotten a lot more ice time than he should have.
PaulGG
Registered User
- May 15, 2011
- 1,874
- 315
Not ready for NHL but has potential. Good that he is getting a look at what he needs to work on in his development.
Point21
Registered User
- Oct 23, 2018
- 9,125
- 7,152
TheDaysOf 04
[ 2 6 ] [ 4 ]
Through his first 23 NHL games he has 69 hits - Top 10 in the league among dmen during that time frame (January 6th - March 7th)
Started solidz Showed flashes of a top 4 d, and started to slow down. Needs to be more consistent and improve to solidify a spot in the top 6 d. Could be a cheap replacement for Cernak.
TheDaysOf 04
[ 2 6 ] [ 4 ]
Some nice games from him recently. Also hope that his presence on the Lightning has created some new Lightning fans in Norway.
He really elevated his game after he was benched for a few games. I think he may have been sent to ahl but forget.
At least you now have everyone in Emil's hometown Sarpsborg rooting for you!
In the hallways of his local Norwegian team (Sparta) Emil and Tampa is a hot topic amongst parents and people working in the club. Here everything is semi-professional and a high number of the people doing work for the club is doing it for free, so people really care about hockey and the players growing out of this club are heros All the kids are dreaming of Tampa jerseys with #78 these days The small hockey community in Norway is of course rooting for the Norwegian players. We only have 2 guys in the league now with Lilleberg in Tampa and Zuccarello in Minnesota. Zucca is at the end of his career and is (in my opinion) playing a really boring team. Without Kaprizov Minnesota is zzzzzz.
This is the second NHL player Sparta has produced. Jonas Holøs was also a D-man playing Colorado in 2010/2011 season and now works as coach in the club.
The 7pm games starts at 1am in Norway so a lot of people watch the games recorded the day after. On Saturday I think the broadcasters will see a lot of Norwegian watchers since that game starts 7pm Norwegian time.
Good luck in the end race of the season! It looked really dark a couple of months ago, but now I would be extremely surprised if you don't make it to playoffs. Thats gonna be even more fun!
After a good start his performance was dropping, but luckily after being recalled he seems to have developed a lot. I hope he's not pairing up with Dumba anymore - he's dangerous!
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Stammertime91
TBL: TEAM OF THE CENTURY
Love what he brings to the team. 16mins TOI for nearly half a season and played 14-19mins in 5 playoff games. Really hope he can develop and not take a step back next season. Definitely a viable solution to 3LD. He skates with the puck fairly well. Gets panicked and pick pocketed at times but that will happen less with experience but he's better than CDH. Right side of defense is a majority priority this offseason.
TheDaysOf 04
[ 2 6 ] [ 4 ]
He was a pleasant surprise for us this year. Really helped turn our season around in the 2nd half, and didn't look like a rookie in the playoffs. The future is bright for him.
Stammertime91
TBL: TEAM OF THE CENTURY
True. Early flaws for Lilleberg with his skating are definitely pivots/transitions. He needs to adapt as he got burned a lot when guys accelerated down the wing. He isn't afraid of hitting and getting hit, which Perbix is for the most part. Lilleberg reminds me of Cernaks early days, but less effective defensively. I feel like his position the depth chart will help his development being behind Hedman and Serg more than Perbix being put in over his head.
Tampa22
Eternally grateful TBL enforcers!
I have high hopes when he enter to the league but sadly don't see any improvements. I think he plays cause all the others are more disasters than him. Throw some hits but always hide from any confrontation, this series never use the intimidation in his favor. I know is a kid, but years ago players Stevens, Daneyko, Marchment, Ulanov, where kids and really use his body and his fists. The NHL change for worse, too soft in this glass generation. Hope he can learn something for the next season.
TheDaysOf 04
[ 2 6 ] [ 4 ]
He had a sophomore slump. His rookie year he played 94% of his even strength minutes next to Serge, Cole, and Heddy. Serge had a career year, Hedman obviously cleans up a lot of mistakes, and takes control of the puck out there, and Ian Cole was a solid defensive minded 3rd pair guy.
45.8% - Sergachev
34.6% - Hedman
13.6% - Cole
and this season 95% of his even strength shifts looked something like this:
31.6% - Hedman
19.7% - de Haan
18.6% - Lilleberg
9% - Cernak
8.2% - Sergachev
4.7% - Fleury
3.4% - Raddysh
The main things:
- less time with Hedman
- almost 20% of his time next to de Haan, maybe the worst dmen on the team
- 18.6% with a rookie who went through some ups and downs
- Serge, his main partner from 2023, struggled himself this season
The constant shuffling of d partners (the Bolts used 14 dmen this season), having to play on the left side instead of the right at times, not playing in front of competent goaltending the first half of the season with JJ in net, and the increased ice time and responsibilities in year 2 all effected who is still a young dmen himself. But I don't think Lilleberg will face a lot of these same issues in his seond year (or at least hopefully). Vasy should be back to 100%, he plays on the left side behind Serge and Hedman who are going to do most of the heavy lifting for this defense, and Lilleberg already has some preexisting chemistry with Crozier who might stick around. We'll see. Hard to compare both players since they have different skillsets, different things each one has to improve on, not to mention Lilleberg played this season as a 22-23 year old, while Perbix was 24 all of his rookie season.
RussianGuyovich
Hella Ennui
- Jan 2, 2007
- 9,815
- 8,203
this year was so difficult to judge defenseman, i am willing to give perbix a pass. for the reasons you stated, and just honestly because we started JJ and with a new defensive system. brutal decision by cooper, in hindsight and obviously didnt pay off for us in the playoffs.
TheDaysOf 04
[ 2 6 ] [ 4 ]
Completely forgot about the new defensive system. Lots of change for a young player in any sport always complicates things
Peacefool
Registered User
- Nov 15, 2019
- 1,100
- 784
Dude has everything to become a really good D. He skates great, joins offense, omg he hits(!!!) give him some experience, help him to improve vision at D zone, and he has a lot of chances to be a good 3rd pairing
These Are The Days
Oh no! We suck again!!
He needs to spend the next year in Syracuse. He has a lot of potential but he's about as raw as it gets
