GDT: Game 43: Rangers @ Coyotes - 6PM - FSAZ

[Tom Polakis]

He wasn't on the ice. It was OEL who was picked by Vesey.

Yeah, that was a pretty awful turnover. Chychrun did have a couple ugly turnovers, though. In addition to generally very good play for 65 minutes, I was pleased with the bottom pairing D for the first time this season. I kept expecting the usual errors from Schenn, and he kept letting me down!

 

[Coyotedroppings]

We're watching our team develop and improve right before our eyes and I read mostly complaints. Good - no great hockey played last night - isn't that what we all want?

Thus far it appears the lack of practice that the schedule inflicted could have easily been a problem. Very impressed that RT and the boys have been able to hold it together and keep from folding, despite the horrific record.

 

[BlazingBlueAnt]

Martinook is playing his best hockey of the year. When he plays like this he is a very effective valuable player.

Martinook is good at cycling along the boards, but that's literally all Archibald can do too. One of them needs to get removed from that line for someone who can actually do something in open ice. That line gets plenty of zone time, but then don't actually turn that into anything productive

 

[Mosby]

I think Martinook struggled to adapt to Tocchet's system. He's got it figured out now though. He's a key figure on the PK (trails only Richardson for PK TOI among forwards). We've finally got a PK that works. Let's not mess with it. I'd keep Martinook around. He shouldn't play above 4LW though.

 

[SniperHF]

He's got it figured out now though. .

I thought he was really good last night, agree with this. He was using the same method as the skill players going up ice via quick little redirect passes until finding the open ice. Once in the offensive zone he was doing a pretty solid job of getting the puck to the better shots on the line. The second part was especially part of the problem in November/December. Even when they had sustained pressure they could never turn into a shooting position off the cycle. But the Martinook - Dvorak - Archibald line had 12 shots by themselves. Dvorak with 7 of them. So the puck was getting to the feature shot on that line and it was working.

It's still a problem now in general due to all the left shots but last night it was much improved as it was in the Predators game.

One other interesting thing last night was that there were no buried lines. All forwards played 14+ except Cousins who had no special teams time.

 

[ParisSaintGermain]

Never had any issues with Martinook. Cannot recall a game when I thought "what the hell Martinook, what have you done" or "what the hell Martinook, you have lost us this".

Keep him here please

 

[Mosby]

The way he started the season I thought he was going the way of McMillan and Klinkhammer. Thankfully that no longer appears to be the case.

 

[Murf]

There's far too much value on the eye-test for "effort". Look at actual data. That will tell you who to keep and who to ship.

But alas, hockey people are too thick, too prideful to do objective analysis. They end up benching productive players because of feelings and cliches and tropes.

 

[Jakey53]

The way he started the season I thought he was going the way of McMillan and Klinkhammer. Thankfully that no longer appears to be the case.

Martinook wasn't alone in that aspect.