Grand Rapids Griffins 17-18

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GrGriffins

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Speaking of fights.. what do you think of Dominik Shine? Does he have the skills to be a regular 4th liner in the NHL? I liked him in the 3 games I saw. Does he PK at all?

Hard to say on Shine. Good skater and fore checker, but he has not played as many games this season, but when he has, he does not look out of place. He played 2nd unit PP last night as the Griffins had several players missing. I do not recall if Shine has seen any PK time for the Griffins this season. Mainly a 3rd or 4th line player when he has played here so far. Shows potential, but not enough games to get a real good feel for him right now. Currently on an AHL only contract right now.
 

GrGriffins

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Hicketts has always been known for his offensive output until this year.
Who the Wings call up doesn't mean anything. They are terrible at assessing talent.
Hronek is much better defensively than Saarijarvi. After sitting out 8 against games as a scratch at the start of the season (they still had Sproul for the first 5 and still have one too many leaving Saarijarvi as the odd man out too often or going with 7 defensemen (compromising everyone's ice-time)), he gradually gained more responsibility and is now a regular on the PK. Hronek is very competitive along the boards and in front of the net. As is evidenced in the highlights of the last 2 games.
In yesterday's game. Puempel was boarded earlier in the game and Hronek grabbed one of the Rampage by the neck in the melee that followed and shoved him to the ice earning one of his 2 roughing calls on the night. In Wednesday's game against Manitoba. He had his man tied up and knocked him to the ground on a goal mouth scramble on the goal against that he was on for. Playing against bigger stronger men hasn't tempered his combativeness at all.

Hicketts is more know for his physical and aggressive style of play than his offensive imput.

With Sproul clearing waivers and ended up in GR for 5 games caused a mess to where Hronek was the odd man out and Saarijarvi started the season in Toledo. That part is true. When Sproul got traded, it opened a d-man spot in GR and Hronek was inserted in and has been there ever since. Nelson was forced to play 11 forwards and 7 d-man for quite awhile, mainly because we had as many as 4-5 forwards rotatingly injured for a good portion of the first half of the season. So Saarijarvi took advantage and got playing time out of that.

Saarijarvi, in my opinion, is much better defensively, then Hronek. Saarijarvi sticks to the player on the defensive side of the ice and keeps the forward to the outside. Hronek is not good at defending in front of his net as most of the time, he comes in late while the forward has position in front of our net and he has to work on that part of his game. On the Wednesday night game the Moose winger blew by Hronek three different times (twice in the first period and the third in the third period) to where the winger faked Hronek out by using the same move and walked right in on Coreau and on all three occasions, Coreau had to make the save to bail him out each time. On Friday's game, if you watch the Rampage first goal, Hronek was on the guy from one side, behind the net and out in front, but he stopped when the shot was taken and Hronek was puck watching and the rebound went to the Rampage player was wide open and he got a clean shot and buried it by McCollum. Hronek also made a nice break up on a 2 on 1 later in the period as well. He is slowly improving along the boards in the defensive end of the ice. On the Puempel hit, he was right there and he took on the Rampage player to help his team mates out and he is suppose to do that. Nothing wrong with that.

I noticed that Hronek seems to have trouble at times to go from offense back to defense to where forwards are catching him flat-footed to where they go right on by him on occasion. That is my what I have seen in nearly 20 games that he has played here in GR. Offensively, Hronek is doing very well and he is helping out on the 1st PP unit at the point position and he is producing points at even strength and has 4 game winning goals which leads the team. He had a brief laziness issue earlier in the season on getting the puck when the other team iced the puck to where the fore checker beat him to the puck a few times and Nelson took him off the PP unit for a couple of games and that has now been corrected. I would like to see Hronek not position himself towards the middle on the PP as teams are taking advantage of the open side he leaves open that gives the shorthanded team an easy out to clear the zone.
 

turkleton85

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Svechnikov is lucky he didnt get killed in that one, Prout would probably be a top 5ish tough guy in the NHL if he was still up. He one punched Lucic before. Svech didnt win but he did handle himself well though and doesnt seem to take **** which is nice.

Speaking of fights.. what do you think of Dominik Shine? Does he have the skills to be a regular 4th liner in the NHL? I liked him in the 3 games I saw. Does he PK at all?


Prout had some quick flying fists,Geno himself landed a few as well. Svechnikov isn't your typical hockey player, from a physical standpoint. If he and the coaches wanted to, he'd gain weight rather quickley and still be a great athlete. Guy has the frame and physique of a tight end
 

GrGriffins

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Grand Rapids Griffins 1 at Manitoba Moose 0 - Status: Final
Thursday, February 15, 2018 - Bell MTS Place

Grand Rapids 0 1 0 - 1
Manitoba 0 0 0 - 0

1st Period- No Scoring.

Penalties-Maclise Mb (high-sticking), 5:08; Robinson Mb (tripping), 13:36; Kostalek Mb (boarding), 15:12.

2nd Period-1, Grand Rapids, Lorito 17 11:18.

Penalties-Russo Gr (holding), 17:04.

3rd Period- No Scoring.

Penalties-Lipon Mb (boarding), 4:45; Saarijarvi Gr (holding), 8:35; Cormier Mb (elbowing), 14:02.

Shots on Goal-Grand Rapids 13-15-10-38. Manitoba 9-13-6-28.

Power Play Opportunities-Grand Rapids 0 / 5; Manitoba 0 / 2.

Goalies-Grand Rapids, Coreau 19-10-4 (28 shots-28 saves). Manitoba, Phillips 2-2-1 (38 shots-37 saves).

A-3,350

Referees-Michael Sheehan (74), Jason Faist (26).
Linesmen-Andrew Stammers (96), Justin Verhaeghe (25).
 

GrGriffins

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Hicketts and Campbell back in the Griffins lineup for tonight's game. Puempel still out. He should be back in the lineup next week when the Griffins come back home.
 

GrGriffins

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Grand Rapids Griffins 5 at Manitoba Moose 0 - Status: Final
Saturday, February 17, 2018 - Bell MTS Place

Grand Rapids 2 1 2 - 5
Manitoba 0 0 0 - 0

1st Period-1, Grand Rapids, Street 9 (Tangradi, Lashoff), 11:57. 2, Grand Rapids, Turgeon 11 (Hronek), 18:16.

Penalties-Ford Gr (interference), 19:45.

2nd Period-3, Grand Rapids, Turgeon 12 (Lorito, Campbell), 16:12.

Penalties-Cormier Mb (tripping), 3:24; Russo Gr (roughing), 5:49; Sgarbossa Mb (slashing), 19:41.

3rd Period-4, Grand Rapids, Turgeon 13 (Campbell), 3:00 (SH). 5, Grand Rapids, Tangradi 21 17:08.

Penalties-Elson Gr (slashing), 2:32; Melchiori Mb (cross-checking), 5:27; McIlrath Gr (roughing, fighting), 19:21; Lemieux Mb (fighting), 19:21.

Shots on Goal-Grand Rapids 16-12-14-42. Manitoba 11-17-10-38.

Power Play Opportunities-Grand Rapids 0 / 3; Manitoba 0 / 4.

Goalies-Grand Rapids, Coreau 20-10-4 (38 shots-38 saves). Manitoba, Phillips 2-3-1 (42 shots-37 saves).

A-4,410

Referees-Michael Sheehan (74), Jason Faist (26).
Linesmen-Kelsey Mahoney (52), Darrell Surminski (88).
 

GrGriffins

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Coreau back to back shutouts both in Winnipeg, plus Turgeon first pro hat trick (a natural one at that). Nice shorthanded goal. Hicketts and Campbell back in the lineup. Took over 3rd place for now as Chicago lost at home. Griffins ended up 6-2 for the season vs the Moose, including 4-0 in Winnipeg.
 

GrGriffins

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coreau_jared180219-1038x576-1519052313.jpg
Photo: Jonathan Kozub
COREAU NAMED CCM/AHL PLAYER OF THE WEEK

FEBRUARY 19, 2018
0
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. … The American Hockey League announced today that Grand Rapids Griffins goaltender Jared Coreau has been selected as the CCM/AHL Player of the Week for the period ending Feb. 18, 2018.
Coreau was perfect in two starts against the league’s top-ranked offense last week, stopping all 66 shots he faced.
Grand Rapids brought a nine-game points streak (7-0-0-2) into a two-game series against Manitoba at Bell MTS Place, and Coreau helped the Griffins maintain their winning ways with 28 saves in a 1-0 victory over the Moose on Thursday night. Coreau came back on Saturday with his second consecutive shutout, making 38 stops in a 5-0 win to improve to 5-1-0 (1.41, .955) in seven appearances against Manitoba this season.
Coming off a Calder Cup championship with the Griffins in 2016-17, Coreau is tied for third in the AHL in wins (20-10-4) in 36 appearances this season, with a 2.47 goals-against average, a .916 save percentage and two shutouts. The fifth-year pro from Perth, Ont., owns a career mark of 84-48-10 with a 2.42 GAA, a .919 save percentage and 13 shutouts in 146 AHL games, all with Grand Rapids. Coreau made his National Hockey League debut with the Detroit Red Wings last season, playing 14 games.
In recognition of being named the CCM/AHL Player of the Week, Coreau will be presented with an etched crystal award prior to an upcoming Griffins home game.
 

Fil Larkmanthanasiou

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Hronek is usually on the top scoring line for the Griffins as of late (Street, Puempel, & Tangradi) and they have been scoring a lot recently. +/- stat means that you are on the ice when your team scores more than goals your team gives up on even strength and on shorthanded situations. Does not mean that you are a great defenseman if you have a high +.

Russo had the best +/- in his first season for the Griffins in the entire AHL with a +41 and was named AHL All-rookie D-man, but he did not win best AHL d-man that season that season. If a lot of you people online base everything on +/-, than Russo, Hronek should not even be playing in the AHL at all and they should be taking regular shifts in the NHL already. But they are still in GR because they have a high + on the +/- stat, does not mean they are great d-men.

Hicketts has a - on his +/- mainly because he goes up against the top forward lines in the AHL on most nights, while Hronek and Russo does not. Big difference. Hicketts is more of a defending d-man and he is not know for his high offense output as Hronek and Russo are. Explains why Detroit called up Hicketts over Hronek and Russo, mainly because Hicketts is a physical player and defends a whole lot better than Hronek and Russo will ever do. Who is Detroit on the d-side is a physical player right now? Kronwall use to be, but not no more. Green will not hit at all. Jensen and Ouellet rarely does, DeKeyser does at times, Ericsson does at times, Dailey does at times.

Sproul best d-man in the OHL for Soo Greyhounds one season (because he had the most points scored by a d-man and had a high +, not because he was a great defending d-man). Scored points here in GR when he was here, but his main problem is that forwards from other teams go around him like a pylon in his own end. Explains why he could not make it in Detroit and with the Rangers. Where is Sproul now? In Hartford in the AHL. Why? Because he can't defend in front of his own net and he is consistently not accurate with his hard shot that he is known for.

Hronek is a great offensive d-man, but in my opinion, he is our worse d-man when it comes to defending in front of his own goal (which is suppose to be the first thing that a d-man is responsible in doing). Which is why he is in GR and not in Detroit right now. Saarijavi plays better defense than Hronek here in GR at the moment, but Hronek is more skilled on the offensive side than Saarijarvi, which is why everyone gets excited every time the Griffins box score shows up and everyone sees Hronek's name plastered all over the place scoring a goal and picking up several assists here and he is a +5 last week in a game, etc. That is fine and good, but watch what he does in the Griffins zone defending wise and you see a much different picture. This is where Hronek needs to greatly improve if he wants a shot in the NHL and stays there for seasons to come.
+/- can be a fluky stat but it's no mere coincidence that Datsyuk, Lidstrom and Zetterberg were usually amon g the league leaders in +/- and that Sproul never had a good +/- on very good Griffins' teams.
 
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GrGriffins

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Battle for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th spots in the Central Division starts tonight in GR as the Griffins battle the Chicago Wolves. McCollum will start in goal and everyone else is in, except for Puempel, who will remain out at least another week. Will see how they do tonight.
 

Fil Larkmanthanasiou

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Battle for 2nd, 3rd, and 4th spots in the Central Division starts tonight in GR as the Griffins battle the Chicago Wolves. McCollum will start in goal and everyone else is in, except for Puempel, who will remain out at least another week. Will see how they do tonight.
I'm hoping to see Machovsky sometime soon. He leads the E in GAA (kinda looks like Mrazek in his pic on hockeydb) You can watch individual games on AHL live (for $8, I'm pretty sure it was 5 or 5.99 last year). I'm gonna make sure to catch his first start. McCollum hasn't been very good this year hope the Mrazek trade doesn't hurt the Griffs' playoff position too much.
 

GrGriffins

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Chicago Wolves 5 at Grand Rapids Griffins 2 - Status: Final
Wednesday, February 21, 2018 - Van Andel Arena

Chicago 1 2 2 - 5
Grand Rapids 0 1 1 - 2

1st Period-1, Chicago, Bennett 7 (Pulkkinen, Pirri), 7:25 (PP).

Penalties-Elson Gr (tripping), 6:50.

2nd Period-2, Chicago, Kolesar 1 (Tynan, Bennett), 4:37. 3, Chicago, Pirri 19 (Tynan), 5:51 (PP). 4, Grand Rapids, Tangradi 22 (Svechnikov, Street), 18:03.

Penalties-McIlrath Gr (tripping), 5:48; Kolesar Chi (fighting), 6:12; Renouf Gr (fighting), 6:12; Pulkkinen Chi (interference), 8:51; Tangradi Gr (high-sticking), 18:56.

3rd Period-5, Chicago, Pirri 20 (Bennett, Leslie), 0:19 (PP). 6, Grand Rapids, Street 10 (Svechnikov, Hronek), 15:20 (PP). 7, Chicago, Kolesar 2 18:12 (EN).

Penalties-Pulkkinen Chi (hooking), 4:56; Lashoff Gr (tripping), 11:51; Bennett Chi (tripping), 12:04; Tynan Chi (hooking), 14:11.

Shots on Goal-Chicago 10-15-10-35. Grand Rapids 8-11-22-41.

Power Play Opportunities-Chicago 3 / 4; Grand Rapids 1 / 4.

Goalies-Chicago, Dansk 3-0-1 (41 shots-39 saves). Grand Rapids, McCollum 8-9-3 (19 shots-16 saves); Machovsky 0-0-0 (15 shots-14 saves).

A-6,160

Referees-Stephen Reneau (34), Peter Schlittenhardt (12).
Linesmen-Jesse Pletsch (51), Jim Scarpace (75).
 

GrGriffins

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Wolves caught the Griffins with our legs still in Winnipeg as they man-handled us tonight. McCollum was shaky and had difficultly with the puck. PK was terrible as the Wolves were 3-3 and the last one the Wolves killed their PP by taking a penalty of their own.

Griffins had no breaks tonight as they hit the cross bar twice and the post once, Saarijarvi had his first AHL goal taken away by a quick whistle. Wolves got away with just about everything and the Griffins could not touch them at all. Worse game in about 2 months and was expecting this could happen.

Machovsky came in the 2nd period after McCollum looked bad on the Wolves 3rd goal and he looked pretty sharp. Stopped a breakaway and a 2 on 1 while he was in. Only goal he gave up was the Wolves 3rd PP goal early in the 3rd as 2 Griffins got sucked up by the blue line and Wolves had a nice 2 on 1 down low and the one player got the puck in front of the other Wolves player and redirected the puck in front and went in. Nothing Machovsky could do on it. Machovsky made a nice pass during one of the Griffins pp to catch the Wolves on a change.

Svechnikov made a nice pass from behind the net to Tangradi for the first Griffins goal and Tangradi hits the post seconds later before taking a high-sticking penalty to kill the Griffins burst of energy. Street made a nice tip-in on the Griffins pp goal from Svechnikov shot. Better luck on Sat and Sun against Iowa.
 

Fil Larkmanthanasiou

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Wolves caught the Griffins with our legs still in Winnipeg as they man-handled us tonight. McCollum was shaky and had difficultly with the puck. PK was terrible as the Wolves were 3-3 and the last one the Wolves killed their PP by taking a penalty of their own.

Griffins had no breaks tonight as they hit the cross bar twice and the post once, Saarijarvi had his first AHL goal taken away by a quick whistle. Wolves got away with just about everything and the Griffins could not touch them at all. Worse game in about 2 months and was expecting this could happen.

Machovsky came in the 2nd period after McCollum looked bad on the Wolves 3rd goal
and he looked pretty sharp. Stopped a breakaway and a 2 on 1 while he was in. Only goal he gave up was the Wolves 3rd PP goal early in the 3rd as 2 Griffins got sucked up by the blue line and Wolves had a nice 2 on 1 down low and the one player got the puck in front of the other Wolves player and redirected the puck in front and went in. Nothing Machovsky could do on it. Machovsky made a nice pass during one of the Griffins pp to catch the Wolves on a change.

Svechnikov made a nice pass from behind the net to Tangradi for the first Griffins goal and Tangradi hits the post seconds later before taking a high-sticking penalty to kill the Griffins burst of energy. Street made a nice tip-in on the Griffins pp goal from Svechnikov shot. Better luck on Sat and Sun against Iowa.

That didn't take long.
 

ChadS

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Good for Coreau to get the call-up, but that's horrible news for GR... Hope Machovsky can step in and do well.

 

GrGriffins

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Good for Coreau to get the call-up, but that's horrible news for GR... Hope Machovsky can step in and do well.

He looked great in relief. He will get his first AHL start this weekend (most likely on Sunday). Wolves took advantage on the Griffins tonight (first game back from road trip as they were in Winnipeg nearly the whole week) as the whole team was not sharp at all in the first two periods. McCollum had a bad night as this was his first bad game in nearly a month, but he had very little help out front. PK units were both exposed as the Wolves scored on the first 3 chances and their last one was killed off by taking a penalty of their own.

That is part of the Griffins being the Red Wings AHL affiliate as we are at the mercy of what the Wings do and the deals and trades that they make that has an impact on us and Toledo in the ECHL as well. Last season, the Vanek trade helped us in getting McIlrath and he was a big part in winning the Calder Cup for GR. Big games this weekend here vs the Iowa Wild that we need to take advantage of as part of our 6 game home stand. Going to be a real battle just to make the top 4 in our division all the way to the final game of the season whether the Griffins make it or not. Will see.
 

Fil Larkmanthanasiou

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They went with 7 d-man yet again which cuts their average ice-time about 15% or 3 minutes and they already get less than most because Nelsen almost always goes with 4 forwards on the PP if not 5. He doesn't want scorers to stagnate but this is a developmental league and the prospects need to develop those skills. Can't blame Nelsen as his job is to win but Kenny always signs too much redundant veteran depth.
 

GrGriffins

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They went with 7 d-man yet again which cuts their average ice-time about 15% or 3 minutes and they already get less than most because Nelsen almost always goes with 4 forwards on the PP if not 5. He doesn't want scorers to stagnate but this is a developmental league and the prospects need to develop those skills. Can't blame Nelsen as his job is to win but Kenny always signs too much redundant veteran depth.

Nelson went with 7 d-men since last week because of Puempel's injury and will continue to do so until Puempel is back in the lineup (most likely next week). Nelson mentioned awhile back that he has plenty of d-men that can produce offensively on the point on the PP (Russo, Hronek, Hicketts, & Saarijarvi) to where he does not need 5 forwards on the 1st PP unit, plus he does not have the fire power in the forwards this season that he had last season and with Bertuzzi up in Detroit for good to put 5 forwards on the PP unit. Last night on the 2nd PP unit, you had 3 d-men out there (Russo and Saarijarvi on the points and Hicketts playing net front).

Plus Holland wanted Hronek and Saarijarvi to get time in GR this season but that was disrupted early in the season because the Wings had to put Sproul on waivers and he cleared and started the season in GR, which forced Hronek to sit out the start of the season here in GR and forced Saarijarvi to start his season in Toledo (ECHL). Wings had to make a deal to get rid of Sproul to make room here in GR for Hronek to play regularly here and bring up Saarijarvi as the 7th d-man.

Will see by Monday what the Wings do at the TDL in regards to Green & Ouellet if they will be around or not and if they are both gone, then it will open up a d-man spot in Detroit to where one will be sent from GR and it should create regular playing time for Saarijarvi here and for the Griffins to go back to 12 forwards and 6 d-men on the ice.
 

Henkka

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Will see by Monday what the Wings do at the TDL in regards to Green & Ouellet if they will be around or not and if they are both gone, then it will open up a d-man spot in Detroit to where one will be sent from GR and it should create regular playing time for Saarijarvi here and for the Griffins to go back to 12 forwards and 6 d-men on the ice.

When Green is gone, they should start rotating those right-handers up in NHL and that opens a full-time slot for Saarijärvi.

Red Wings D
DeKeyser - Daley
Ericsson - Jensen
Kronwall - Hronek/Russo (one up at time)
(Ouellet)

Griffins D
Lashoff - Hronek/Saarijärvi
Renouf - Russo/Saarijärvi
Hicketts - McIlrath
(McCarron)
 

Fil Larkmanthanasiou

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Nelson went with 7 d-men since last week because of Puempel's injury and will continue to do so until Puempel is back in the lineup (most likely next week). Nelson mentioned awhile back that he has plenty of d-men that can produce offensively on the point on the PP (Russo, Hronek, Hicketts, & Saarijarvi) to where he does not need 5 forwards on the 1st PP unit, plus he does not have the fire power in the forwards this season that he had last season and with Bertuzzi up in Detroit for good to put 5 forwards on the PP unit. Last night on the 2nd PP unit, you had 3 d-men out there (Russo and Saarijarvi on the points and Hicketts playing net front).

Plus Holland wanted Hronek and Saarijarvi to get time in GR this season but that was disrupted early in the season because the Wings had to put Sproul on waivers and he cleared and started the season in GR, which forced Hronek to sit out the start of the season here in GR and forced Saarijarvi to start his season in Toledo (ECHL). Wings had to make a deal to get rid of Sproul to make room here in GR for Hronek to play regularly here and bring up Saarijarvi as the 7th d-man.

Will see by Monday what the Wings do at the TDL in regards to Green & Ouellet if they will be around or not and if they are both gone, then it will open up a d-man spot in Detroit to where one will be sent from GR and it should create regular playing time for Saarijarvi here and for the Griffins to go back to 12 forwards and 6 d-men on the ice.
They have used 7 D at least a dozen times this year. This is the scoresheet from Oct 14 (4th game of the year) which was the first time they employed 7D.
https://theahl.com/stats/game-summary/1017168
Holland always signs too much redundant veteran depth.
 
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