Is Gus Nyquist Slumping?

kerjuxaxaxa

Registered User
Nov 11, 2011
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He's the new Franzen. When he scores nobody complains; when he doesn't, well - he's useless. Strictly from my eye test he's creating decent chances out there, just had bad puck luck, unlike Tatar.
 

silkyjohnson50

Registered User
Jan 10, 2007
11,301
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He's the new Franzen. When he scores nobody complains; when he doesn't, well - he's useless. Strictly from my eye test he's creating decent chances out there, just had bad puck luck, unlike Tatar.

Tatar's two most recent goals, which you might throw under the puck luck category, both involved him driving towards the net though. That's what needs to change to get more puck luck.
 
Aug 6, 2012
10,752
5
Last 5 games:
Tat: GP5 G3 A1 PTS4
Nyq: GP5 G0 A1 PTS1

Nyquist has no goals and 2 assists in his last 10.

How do you figure?

True he's gotten some production recently but he looks really really bad out there IMO. Constantly making terrible plays all over the ice. Always giving the puck up so easily. So much fancy ****. Wish he would play more north-south because his entire game right now is east-west and its easy as hell to contain. He played a much simpler game under Babs and it really helped him.
 

Flowah

Registered User
Nov 30, 2009
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RvYWzCU.jpg

FlashyG, watch out, you got some hot youngblood on your heels for best photoshopper.
 

ap3x

Registered User
Jan 31, 2014
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Stockholm
Completely and wholeheartedly disagree. He is every bit as bad as people are saying. You must be biased for some reason....
I have been watching him closely for the past 10 games, and he is literally useless. He cannot win a puck battle to save his life. Sure players have a bad game here and there, well thats 16+ bad games in a row and counting. Enough is enough.

Sorry, but if you call me biased, I don't know what you are. Did I wrote something like "he's really good right now"?
The only sure thing after each game is that you tell us how bad he is. Won't even matter if he's got several good plays or not.
 

KJoe88

Forever Lost.
May 18, 2012
7,027
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Dang. Gus has gone from hero to zero. Wow.

He's in a slump IMO. He's still playing solid defense and not a liability.

The goose will be loose again.
 

Red Stanley

Registered User
Apr 25, 2015
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USA
The thing I don't like about Nyquist is he literally disappears when he's not putting up points. He'd be a fantastic source of secondary scoring on a better team, but can't realistically be expected to carry us out of the scoring dark ages. He and Tatar are both streaky scorers, but Tatar seems to have more willingness to go to the net and in the corners.

Use one as tradebait for sure, but if I had to choose whom to keep, it would be Tatar.
 

Ezekial

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I too would keep Tatar over Nyquist. But I also did get a 21 jersey and not a 14 jersey, and he is my avatar.
 
Apr 14, 2009
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Sorry, but if you call me biased, I don't know what you are. Did I wrote something like "he's really good right now"?
The only sure thing after each game is that you tell us how bad he is. Won't even matter if he's got several good plays or not.

I'm Canadian, not Slovakian. I mentioned you were biased because it appears you are Swedish, and Nyquist is Swedish. And no thats not true, if a player plays well, but gets shut out on the score sheet, I definitely won't complain or criticize. I watch #14 closely, and this has not been one of those streaks where a player plays well but simply does not get on the score sheet. He's not getting on the score sheet, and he's also not playing well. He is way too soft, and doesn't get involved physically. Regardless, he is on this team to score and help out offensively, and the bottom line is that he is not doing so.

Anyways, both Nyquist and Tatar need to be better and more consistent. Let's just leave it at that.
 

The Zetterberg Era

Ball Hockey Sucks
Nov 8, 2011
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Ft. Myers, FL
We need more out of him... Bottom line, he needs to find a way to the middle of the ice. He hasn't had much puck luck but with just 16 shots over 10 games he isn't doing enough to look at that alone. At least he is solid in both ends and isn't a walking turnover when he is off, but no doubt Gus needs to pick it up.
 

Frk It

Mo Seider Less Problems
Jul 27, 2010
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We need more out of him... Bottom line, he needs to find a way to the middle of the ice. He hasn't had much puck luck but with just 16 shots over 10 games he isn't doing enough to look at that alone. At least he is solid in both ends and isn't a walking turnover when he is off, but no doubt Gus needs to pick it up.

Totally agree. He had I think 6-7 shots in that Buffalo game, so he's only had like 9 shots in the other 9 games. Needs to get his shot total way up.
 

ap3x

Registered User
Jan 31, 2014
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Stockholm
I'm Canadian, not Slovakian. I mentioned you were biased because it appears you are Swedish, and Nyquist is Swedish.

No, admitting that I like both Tats and Gus but I'm not biased towards any of them. We agree on not being satisfied and expecting much more right now - as we all know what he's capable of - but just disagree about how useless he is.

Anyways, both Nyquist and Tatar need to be better and more consistent. Let's just leave it at that.

Aye. Let's hope for the best.
 

steafo

Registered User
Sep 26, 2005
1,412
84
Michigan
Keep in mind, if Nyquist was performing now like he has the last 2 years I would still want to use his name in trade proposals. He's struggling now so it's easier but like I said I think him and Tatar are redundant players but I like Tatar's game slightly more.

The simple fact is we have bigger holes(puck moving 2-way dmen) on our team that will cost a good roster player and I think Nyquist would help us get something back without having to give up a TON of other players.
 

SpookyTsuki

Registered User
Dec 3, 2014
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Keep in mind, if Nyquist was performing now like he has the last 2 years I would still want to use his name in trade proposals. He's struggling now so it's easier but like I said I think him and Tatar are redundant players but I like Tatar's game slightly more.

The simple fact is we have bigger holes(puck moving 2-way dmen) on our team that will cost a good roster player and I think Nyquist would help us get something back without having to give up a TON of other players.

I think Tatar is the better option then Nyquist. Same Height. Same weight. Play the same pretty much, though Tatar kind of have more of an "edge" to his game.

Tomas is just slightly better at producing (though it's not much of a difference at best it will be like 5 points)

I just think it comes down to the playoff production. Tomas Tatar almost won us a game vs tampa bay, I think game 6? or 7? somewhere like that. Nyquist has been pretty invisible in the playoffs these past 2 seasons. I have seen Tatar more. And hes scored more points (barely)
 

Frk It

Mo Seider Less Problems
Jul 27, 2010
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I think Tatar is the better option then Nyquist. Same Height. Same weight. Play the same pretty much, though Tatar kind of have more of an "edge" to his game.

Tomas is just slightly better at producing (though it's not much of a difference at best it will be like 5 points)

I just think it comes down to the playoff production. Tomas Tatar almost won us a game vs tampa bay, I think game 6? or 7? somewhere like that. Nyquist has been pretty invisible in the playoffs these past 2 seasons. I have seen Tatar more. And hes scored more points (barely)

For their careers, Nyquist has produced better.

If you want to say Tatar has produced better of late, that would be correct.
 

ap3x

Registered User
Jan 31, 2014
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Tatar's execution is better lately and - due to his advantageous physical play in relation to his body - harder not to notice. But no way he's the better overall player.

As Gus had to adapt his style of play after his high-scoring seasons, he started to shape some skills and got away from a typical goal-scorer to a guy relying more on assists than before. Just consider his - admittedly more or less inconsistent - flashes of brilliance in regard to hockey IQ and passes. Lost count of how many of those weren't converted at an earlier stage of the season. Not to mention how many people seem to have forgotten how he showed what he's capable of in regard to protection of the puck and play along the boards. That's not to say that he shouldn't get some weight on to avoid being pushed around when he isn't getting the space that he needs to play his game.

You've to give to get, yes. But if we trade him - among others - away, then for a significant upgrade for our defense at least.
 

Frk It

Mo Seider Less Problems
Jul 27, 2010
36,271
14,768
If I'm trading Nyquist or Tatar (prefer not to because I like both) it needs to be along with a first rounder (or two) and a prospect (or two) for a legit defenseman. I don't even think I'd want to do a 1:1 swap, I saw us chew up Vatanen the other night pretty good. He's small, and I think kind of one dimensional. Trading a small offensive forward for a small offensive defenseman seems like a lateral move. I liked it better before we had Green, now I don't really think it is what we need as much.

I also don't even think one of Nyquist or Tatar is clearly better than the other any longer, just comes down to preference at this point.
 

steafo

Registered User
Sep 26, 2005
1,412
84
Michigan
I honestly don't see the grit in Tatars game that he used to have. He's soft as butter at the moment.

Could be the line he's been on most of the year. The Sheahan, Tatar, Nyquist line was absolutely terrible. I expect to see him go to the net more that he is paired with Datsyuk and Helm.
 

Flowah

Registered User
Nov 30, 2009
10,249
547
Could be the line he's been on most of the year. The Sheahan, Tatar, Nyquist line was absolutely terrible. I expect to see him go to the net more that he is paired with Datsyuk and Helm.

No. I've been complaining about it since last season. He does too many flybys, too many soft "checks" on the puck carrier, too much slowing down when he should be racing for the puck. His first full season was incredible. He was gritty, greasy, hard. He dug in real good and battled. After that it seemed like he got way softer knowing his production was enough to protect his roster spot. It's really frustrating.
 

HockeyinHD

Semi-retired former active poster.
Jun 18, 2006
11,972
28
He has created that space for himself in the past with his skating though. Also is a very good PP player, and the garbage PP has really hurt the stats of the guys who rely on PP production.

Nyquist has been disappointing for me so far. We know he is a more productive player than this.

Well, we do and we don't. We know that he's most likely a 20+ goal player, but we also know that said expectations are based on a really high shooting percentage because he's such a low-volume shooter.

In his crazy first year that jerked everyone's future expectations for him wildly out of focus he shot 18.3%, which is insanely high, and his shot rate was 2.68 a game, which is moderately high for Nyquist.

In these subsequent years where his production has decreased his shot rate has decreased (2.38 last year and 2.19 this year) and his shooting percentage has as well (13.8 to 12.8).

When you're losing 15+% of how much you shoot at the same time you're losing 10-15+% of the frequency with which those shots score, the cumulative effect is... ungood.

And, to add onto some other comments along this vein, Nyquist is a streaky goalscorer just like most goalscorers are streaky. Last year he had 4 6 game and 1 7 game goalless streak. Even in his first "full" year when he was going crazy he had 9, 8 and 6 game goalless streaks... in a 58 game season.

Barring injury he'll be somewhere in the 22-26 range, which is where I'd set reasonable expectations for him going forward.
 

Frk It

Mo Seider Less Problems
Jul 27, 2010
36,271
14,768
Well, we do and we don't. We know that he's most likely a 20+ goal player, but we also know that said expectations are based on a really high shooting percentage because he's such a low-volume shooter.

In his crazy first year that jerked everyone's future expectations for him wildly out of focus he shot 18.3%, which is insanely high, and his shot rate was 2.68 a game, which is moderately high for Nyquist.

In these subsequent years where his production has decreased his shot rate has decreased (2.38 last year and 2.19 this year) and his shooting percentage has as well (13.8 to 12.8).

When you're losing 15+% of how much you shoot at the same time you're losing 10-15+% of the frequency with which those shots score, the cumulative effect is... ungood.

And, to add onto some other comments along this vein, Nyquist is a streaky goalscorer just like most goalscorers are streaky. Last year he had 4 6 game and 1 7 game goalless streak. Even in his first "full" year when he was going crazy he had 9, 8 and 6 game goalless streaks... in a 58 game season.

Barring injury he'll be somewhere in the 22-26 range, which is where I'd set reasonable expectations for him going forward.

I think that is a pretty reasonable range as well, on average. More than anything, I'd like to see his 44 pt pace go up to back around 55ish or so where it should be IMO.

I think Nyquist and Tatar have the ability to eclipse 30 goals in their prime, but I don't think I would expect it as the norm.
 

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