GDT: Game 2: Avalanche vs Flyers | October 6, 2018 | 7 PM MT

[MartinSkoulYa]

Oh don't worry, he did.

Oh shit! So he did! Haha

 

[Vaslof]

- I declare PP2 the brain unit thanks to Kerfoot and Girard and their game sense.
- Jost is still struggling and wasn't noticeable even with his linemates having a great game.
- Wilson looked like a beast.
- Another good game from Söderberg, but his linemates Nieto and Bourque didn't impress me.

- Barrie is still pointless but I don't think he's played particularly badly.
- Barbs was the weak link in the defense, even if we exclude the icing mishap.

- Varly with two solid games. Definitely not going down without a fight against Grubauer.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

I find that Jost is quite useless on the PP the way he is being used. He will never get a lot of PP pts until that changes.

 

[klozge]

- I declare PP2 the brain unit thanks to Kerfoot and Girard and their game sense.
- Jost is still struggling and wasn't noticeable even with his linemates having a great game.
- Wilson looked like a beast.
- Another good game from Söderberg, but his linemates Nieto and Bourque didn't impress me.

- Barrie is still pointless but I don't think he's played particularly badly.
- Barbs was the weak link in the defense, even if we exclude the icing mishap.

- Varly with two solid games. Definitely not going down without a fight against Grubauer.

I absolutely disagree. Jost has been strong. He's part of the reason why his linemates are having great games.

 

[Pokecheque]

I find that Jost is quite useless on the PP the way he is being used. He will never get a lot of PP pts until that changes.

I dunno, he's at least getting it on net. If anyone on that top PP unit is really struggling it's Rantanen. I also don't like what Landeskog is doing, but I thought he handled the puck relatively well tonight on the man advantage from what I saw.

 

[CobraAcesS]

I dunno, he's at least getting it on net. If anyone on that top PP unit is really struggling it's Rantanen. I also don't like what Landeskog is doing, but I thought he handled the puck relatively well tonight on the man advantage from what I saw.

I actually disagree..

So Rant's avenue to MacK is being cut off. That's to be expected, but Barrie's passing to Mack has been a shit show. Hes constantly putting the puck in MacK's feet and killing the chance for the one-time shot. Watch it closely IMO.. MacK is receiving passes and having to adjust which requires him to either take a latent shot or pass the puck. Barrie himself is contributing to making MacK less of a threat IMO.

One of Barrie's issues has always been his pass placement. Those of us in the know have always been aware of this, and hes started the season as expected IMO. He fixed it to some extent last year, but it hasn't been the case with his start to the season IMO.

Not to add to the Barrie shit show, but I think hes killing the PP as a QB right now because of his pass placement. Which has long been an issue of his game. Let's hope he fixes it.. Or Girard might be the answer to fixing the top unit IMO. We wonder why the second unit is killing it, well I'd argue that Girard is the main catalyst.

Right now I think EJ might make a better QB and passer at that position than Barrie. Maybe not a better trigger getting his shot through, but EJ can actually place a pass consistently. Barrie's f***ing inability to place his passes right has always been a fatal flaw and it pisses me off.

It is a huge reason I lean towards the Barrie hate crowd at times, even as much as I defend him. For someone with that much talent it almost feels like carelessness and arrogance to be honest. For f*** sake you have all the skill in the world. It matters where you place the puck not just how quickly you do it god damn.

 

[Pokecheque]

I actually disagree..

So Rant's avenue to MacK is being cut off. That's to be expected, but Barrie's passing to Mack has been a **** show. Hes constantly putting the puck in MacK's feet and killing the chance for the one-time shot. Watch it closely IMO.. MacK is receiving passes and having to adjust which requires him to either take a latent shot or pass the puck. Barrie himself is contributing to making MacK less of a threat IMO.

One of Barrie's issues has always been his pass placement. Those of us in the know have always been aware of this, and hes started the season as expected IMO. He fixed it to some extent last year, but it hasn't been the case with his start to the season IMO.

Not to add to the Barrie **** show, but I think hes killing the PP as a QB right now because of his pass placement. Which has long been an issue of his game. Let's hope he fixes it.. Or Girard might be the answer to fixing the top unit IMO. We wonder why the second unit is killing it, well I'd argue that Girard is the main catalyst.

Right now I think EJ might make a better QB and passer at that position than Barrie. Maybe not a better trigger getting his shot through, but EJ can actually place a pass consistently. Barrie's ****ing inability to place his passes right has always been a fatal flaw and it pisses me off.

It is a huge reason I lean towards the Barrie hate crowd at times, even as much as I defend him. For someone with that much talent it almost feels like carelessness and arrogance to be honest. For **** sake you have all the skill in the world. It matters where you place the puck not just how quickly you do it god damn.

I suppose you're right. I know he's never been a pin-point passer, it's his ability to skate the puck up-ice that makes him so effective. I'm sure he'll figure it out in time but I still say Rants is passing up shot after shot to the point where they're not even respecting it, much like whenever Kerfoot had the puck in the attacking zone last season. He needs to work on that one-timer of his and get shots off quicker and through traffic.

Passing overall was sloppy as hell last night against the Jax. At least a couple clean breaks were ruined because of someone passing it into someone else's skates.

 

[AllAboutAvs]

I dunno, he's at least getting it on net. If anyone on that top PP unit is really struggling it's Rantanen. I also don't like what Landeskog is doing, but I thought he handled the puck relatively well tonight on the man advantage from what I saw.

I really don't disagree too much with you. What I was getting at is that he is hardly used on the PP. Landy as well for that matter but not to the same extent as Jost. Jost just stands there in the middle most of the time. He can go a full shift on the PP without touching the puck sometimes. Landy shouldn't control the puck too much but Jost should be used more IMO. It's not his fault. That's the way the PP is designed. I think it could be good if they could change their PP to use the other guys more. That would also open up passing lanes. I find that the 2nd unit uses all guys a bit more. Better distribution of the puck all around.

 

[MarkT]

I actually disagree..

So Rant's avenue to MacK is being cut off. That's to be expected, but Barrie's passing to Mack has been a **** show. Hes constantly putting the puck in MacK's feet and killing the chance for the one-time shot. Watch it closely IMO.. MacK is receiving passes and having to adjust which requires him to either take a latent shot or pass the puck. Barrie himself is contributing to making MacK less of a threat IMO.

One of Barrie's issues has always been his pass placement. Those of us in the know have always been aware of this, and hes started the season as expected IMO. He fixed it to some extent last year, but it hasn't been the case with his start to the season IMO.

Not to add to the Barrie **** show, but I think hes killing the PP as a QB right now because of his pass placement. Which has long been an issue of his game. Let's hope he fixes it.. Or Girard might be the answer to fixing the top unit IMO. We wonder why the second unit is killing it, well I'd argue that Girard is the main catalyst.

Right now I think EJ might make a better QB and passer at that position than Barrie. Maybe not a better trigger getting his shot through, but EJ can actually place a pass consistently. Barrie's ****ing inability to place his passes right has always been a fatal flaw and it pisses me off.

It is a huge reason I lean towards the Barrie hate crowd at times, even as much as I defend him. For someone with that much talent it almost feels like carelessness and arrogance to be honest. For **** sake you have all the skill in the world. It matters where you place the puck not just how quickly you do it god damn.

Couldn't agree more. The way the Avs powerplay works, the first unit doesn't need someone with Barrie's skills. What they need ideally is someone up top who can pass it well and/or has a shot that scares the defenders. To me that means EJ or Girard. Meanwhile the second unit could probably actually use Barrie because I don't trust the guys on that unit to carry the puck as well as Barrie (or MacKinnon) can up the ice.

 

[Pokecheque]

Couldn't agree more. The way the Avs powerplay works, the first unit doesn't need someone with Barrie's skills. What they need ideally is someone up top who can pass it well and/or has a shot that scares the defenders. To me that means EJ or Girard. Meanwhile the second unit could probably actually use Barrie because I don't trust the guys on that unit to carry the puck as well as Barrie (or MacKinnon) can up the ice.

You had me up until the bolded part. If there's one weakness to Girard's offensive game, it's that his shot isn't quite powerful enough. It could well end up being that, but it ain't there yet. He still has trouble getting it through traffic, and I don't think his release is quite quick enough. The big advantage he does have is his ability to maneuver and protect the puck while walking the line.

And the jokes about EJ's bombs pinging off shin pads didn't come out of nowhere. That shot scares NO one. John-Michael Liles had a more intimidating shot.

G is a better passer than Barrie, yeah, we know that, but as Henchy pointed out, Barrie just tends to be a slow starter. Whether they wait it out or just make the switch now, I really don't care either way, but I don't think there's an ideal solution. This team still doesn't have as great a shooting gallery as the talent would suggest, but I think the solution will come from within. One big reason they took a chance on Yakupov last season was precisely that.

 

[MarkT]

You had me up until the bolded part. If there's one weakness to Girard's offensive game, it's that his shot isn't quite powerful enough. It could well end up being that, but it ain't there yet. He still has trouble getting it through traffic, and I don't think his release is quite quick enough. The big advantage he does have is his ability to maneuver and protect the puck while walking the line.

And the jokes about EJ's bombs pinging off shin pads didn't come out of nowhere. That shot scares NO one. John-Michael Liles had a more intimidating shot.

G is a better passer than Barrie, yeah, we know that, but as Henchy pointed out, Barrie just tends to be a slow starter. Whether they wait it out or just make the switch now, I really don't care either way, but I don't think there's an ideal solution. This team still doesn't have as great a shooting gallery as the talent would suggest, but I think the solution will come from within. One big reason they took a chance on Yakupov last season was precisely that.

I think you missed the part where I said and/or. And I think the jokes about EJ way overestimate how often his shot gets blocked, and I think on a powerplay his shot would get through more often simply because the opposition wouldn't be able to focus on blocking his shot without opening up the Mac to Mikko highway.

So to make my point clearer: I think Girard has better passing than Barrie and EJ has both better passing and a better shot. I think either would be a better choice on the #1 unit than Barrie. Thinking about it more I think my ideal would have EJ running the top unit and both Barrie and Girard on the second unit.

 

[The Abusement Park]

I think you missed the part where I said and/or. And I think the jokes about EJ way overestimate how often his shot gets blocked, and I think on a powerplay his shot would get through more often simply because the opposition wouldn't be able to focus on blocking his shot without opening up the Mac to Mikko highway.

So to make my point clearer: I think Girard has better passing than Barrie and EJ has both better passing and a better shot. I think either would be a better choice on the #1 unit than Barrie. Thinking about it more I think my ideal would have EJ running the top unit and both Barrie and Girard on the second unit.

I love EJ but he's done absolutely nothing ever in his career to prove he's able to QB a top PP unit. His passing is average and his shot can never get past the first guy, that's not some narrative people push. He has a hard shot but it's rendered useless most of the time.

 

[MarkT]

I love EJ but he's done absolutely nothing ever in his career to prove he's able to QB a top PP unit. His passing is average and his shot can never get past the first guy, that's not some narrative people push. He has a hard shot but it's rendered useless most of the time.

Then how on earth does he have 11 shot on the net this season and Barrie and Cole have 5 each and everyone else has less?

Also, I used to be a bit of a blogger a few years ago, and I used a lot of stats. One that was interesting was that in 2015-16, EJ led all NHL defensemen in shot on net percentage.

Finally, I'm not suggesting he QB the top unit - MacKinnon is that unit's QB. What I think would help that unit is either a guy who can thread passes from the top like Girard, or be a threat to blast one-timers like EJ could be or maybe Zadorov if Bednar ever lets him on the PP. The defenseman on that unit doesn't even need to be able to carry the puck, because that's also MacKinnon's job, or Landy/Rantanen's in a pinch. Barrie's puck carrying ability, meanwhile, would be really useful because then they wouldn't need to rely on Wilson or Compher to do it as often.