Post-Game Talk: GAME ONe '17 | Canucks 3, Oilers 2 | Welcome to the Horvat show ft. Derek Dorsett(????)

[VanJack]

i'd say the coach knows a hell of a lot more than u do...its just one game, now lets see what he does in the quarter of the season.

Couldn't agree more.....saw more purpose and confidence in one game than Willie's teams generated at any point in the entire season. Canucks will still have their ups and downs this season, particularly if they get bitten by the injury bug....but I think pundits and posters will be shocked at the difference coaching will make for this team's and their competitiveness most nights...safe to say Willie likely won't ever work in the NHL again as a head coach.....he was just that bad.

 

[DarrenX]

And in the long term this strategy of playing a player who isn't going to be around here in 2 more years over a player we need to succeed to have any hope of rebuilding is god. damn. idiotic.

Derek Dorsett just played a big part in shutting down the best player in the league. McDavid was plainly frustrated, and more interested in spearing Dorsett behind the play than he was in scoring. We won the game in no small part due to keeping McDavid off the scoresheet.

You want "goddamn idiotic"? Complaining about the presence of such an effective player in the lineup. *That's* idiotic.

You (and everyone who thinks like you) are just going to have to resign yourself to the fact that the rookie coach of the team wants to win games now, not three years from now.

 

[Hit the post]

^ meh, it's only one game. Not going to tear into a player after a good good (though I ain't going to be putting him on a pedestal either).

 

[Catamarca Livin]

John scott has played almost 300 games in the NHL.

Tanner Glass has over 500 games in the NHL.

Dorsett's not very good at his role, he's a goon. Dorsett's never been good defensively, he's an anchor offensively, and possession wise. The only thing he does is he fights. That's it.

Is he on the pk to fight? He helped cause the Sutter goal and drew a penalty without fighting last game. Dorsett was never in the league because he is a fighter. That ability just got him paid more. He is miles better that Chaput and Meygna at hockey. When at his best he makes team better while making opposition worse.

 

[rune74]

Yeah, I do think we could slowly slip Gaunce into this role, but I’m not convinced he’s quite ready to step into elite shutdown mode just yet. I think he could play with Sutter and Dorsett and I would definitely prefer him to either Burmistrov or Gagner who I don’t believe have the skill set to shut down elite opposition.

Elite and Guance just don't go together...I'm not sold on him at all.

 

[LeftCoast]

On the Boeser / Virtanen / Dorsett / Burmistrov roster decisions, I just hope that Green rotates them (or maybe others - Vanek/Eriksson) enough that they have a chance to earn the ice time and his confidence. If any one of them sits in the press box for 3 or 4 games in a row it is going to be tough to rebuild their confidence. This will get even more interesting when Gaunce returns from injury. This is one of the many areas in which Willie Desjardins (and Torts - with sitting Andrew Alberts for 2 1/2 months) failed. Willie would have too many young players called up from Utica and wouldn't play them - even going as far as playing Biega or Pedan as a forward.

Tomorrow night we play the Sens who are missing Erik Karlsson and Johnny Oduya. They have 2 close games, both resulting in OTLs this season. Without Karlsson they are pretty much a (Guy Boucher) trap team - but with much less counter attack. This would be a good game to get Boeser AND Virtanen into the lineup.

Also - return of Alex Burrows!

 

[WTG]

Derek Dorsett just played a big part in shutting down the best player in the league. McDavid was plainly frustrated, and more interested in spearing Dorsett behind the play than he was in scoring. We won the game in no small part due to keeping McDavid off the scoresheet.

You want "goddamn idiotic"? Complaining about the presence of such an effective player in the lineup. *That's* idiotic.

You (and everyone who thinks like you) are just going to have to resign yourself to the fact that the rookie coach of the team wants to win games now, not three years from now.

Lets use ocams razor here. Which scenario is more likely: Derek Dorsett shutting down Connor McDavid, or Connor McDavid having an off game? Which is more likely?

If you really want to argue that our 4th line RWer just shut down the best player in hockey. All the power to you. I do not believe it.

 

[Nomobo]

Lets use ocams razor here. Which scenario is more likely: Derek Dorsett shutting down Connor McDavid, or Connor McDavid having an off game? Which is more likely?

If you really want to argue that our 4th line RWer just shut down the best player in hockey. All the power to you. I do not believe it.

Did you watch the game?

 

[WTG]

Is he on the pk to fight? He helped cause the Sutter goal and drew a penalty without fighting last game. Dorsett was never in the league because he is a fighter. That ability just got him paid more. He is miles better that Chaput and Meygna at hockey. When at his best he makes team better while making opposition worse.

According to advanced stats he is replacable. According to my eye test over the past 3 season he should be in the ahl

 

[WTG]

Did you watch the game?

Yes? Did you?

 

[Pip]

Did you watch the game?

I did, and I agree with WTG

 

[Nomobo]

Yes? Did you?

Of course I did. Makes me wonder if you did though. When the consenting opinion is that Dorsett was very effective in shutting down McD and you keep jumping up and down and coming up with excuses why he wasn't, I don't know if we watched the same game. Maybe you thought you were but you were watching some other game? Maybe you're hockey'd out already or you're just being contrary for the sake of it?

 

[Nomobo]

I did, and I agree with WTG

Didn't expect anything else.

 

[Pip]

Of course I did. Makes me wonder if you did though. When the consenting opinion is that Dorsett was very effective in shutting down McD and you keep jumping up and down and coming up with excuses why he wasn't, I don't know if we watched the same game. Maybe you thought you were but you were watching some other game? Maybe you're hockey'd out already or you're just being contrary for the sake of it?

Maybe you (and others) don’t know how to properly evaluate hockey games and just buy into whatever the commentator is saying.

Dorsett was good at annoying McDavid in between whistles. He didn’t do much in preventing goals against. I thought if anyone on that line did it was Granlund, plus Markstrom had a really good game.

 

[Nomobo]

Maybe you (and others) don’t know how to properly evaluate hockey games and just buy into whatever the commentator is saying.

Dorsett was good at annoying McDavid in between whistles. He didn’t do much in preventing goals against. I thought if anyone on that line did it was Granlund, plus Markstrom had a really good game.

You didn't like Sutter or Dorsett in THAT game?

 

[Cogburn]

Lets use ocams razor here. Which scenario is more likely: Derek Dorsett shutting down Connor McDavid, or Connor McDavid having an off game? Which is more likely?

If you really want to argue that our 4th line RWer just shut down the best player in hockey. All the power to you. I do not believe it.

I don't subscribe to that pool of thought. McDavid is fresh off a big game against Calgary, there is no reason that he would have just a bad game without an external force. Especially against a weaker team, at least according to Tankers and media wags.

I am not a Dorsett fan, in fact I was calling for him to be traded, waived, or simply bought out. But he had a hell of a game shutting down McDavid. Every shift he was in his face. He was hitting, he was lifting sticks, he was beaking, he was doing everything we could want from a 4th liner.

It wasn't just Dorsett either, our "foundational" player in Sutter and our Swiss(Finnish) Army Knife in Granlund were all playing together. Even with my biases against two of these players, that line was supremely effective against Edmonton's first line, and Dorsett drove a lot of that.

Was it one game of a star player having a bad day, our 4th line having a good day, or is it a solid fit of a shutdown line? Who knows, it's been one game. I'm just looking forward to seeing them in action tomorrow.

 

[RobertKron]

Of course I did. Makes me wonder if you did though. When the consenting opinion is that Dorsett was very effective in shutting down McD and you keep jumping up and down and coming up with excuses why he wasn't, I don't know if we watched the same game. Maybe you thought you were but you were watching some other game? Maybe you're hockey'd out already or you're just being contrary for the sake of it?

I don't know how much "shutting down" I saw, in terms of him picking his pocket Datsyuk-style.

You could argue that he was doing a great job of following him around and being annoying, which made McDavid so angry that he was unable to play hockey anymore, but McDavid has probably had that treatment in 95% of games he's played since he was like 9 years old.

Dorset played a good game, but I think this "he totally shut down McDavid with his elite shutdown play and made McDavid totally incapable of playing the game" type of talk is kind of silly. It's just as likely that McDavid was frustrated because he was having a bad game and decided to take it out on the guy who'd been jabbing at him all night. Or, even more likely that it was a mixture of both.

 

[Pip]

You didn't like Sutter or Dorsett in THAT game?

I thought Sutter was okay. Played his typical almost penalty killing style of defense which I don’t really care for but was fairly effective at it.

 

[Mr. Canucklehead]

Next game's discussion thread is up. Shutting this down.

Closed.