Player Discussion Jesperi Kotkaniemi Part 16

Status
Not open for further replies.

gillyguzzler

Registered User
Jan 21, 2007
2,966
701
Ontario
Do you see a pattern? KK's line mates have been criticized all season in this thread. :shakehead

Take a look at the comments back in January. Armia and Toffoli were a terrible duo for KK. How could that line possibly work? Now they're part of the best offensive line we've seen in years.

When Anderson was paired with KK after the TDL, there were no complaints. Andy was the "Powerhorse". Now? Andy's not playing well, they should play KK with the "hot hand".
Round and round and round with blaming everyone and everything other than KK himself. Blame his wingers, blame the coaches, blame the D, blame ice time, blame him being on the wrong side... blame blame blame. Today's excuse : Anderson! Unbelievable.

He HAS improved many facets during the year but is NOT bringing it enough right now. I've defended him all year but I can't be blind to his struggles and just place blame on everyone else for these struggles. Almost everyone during the past couple of years clamoured for him to be on the PP. Well, he is and not producing at all. Lehkonen is mocked incessantly for his stone hands. With no PP time and much less overall ice time while mostly playing on the 4th or being a healthy scratch, stone hand Lehkonen has as many goals as KK. Same for cancer Danault.

He finally took a couple of decent shots yesterday on the PP yesterday so that's a start.
 
Last edited:

salbutera

Registered User
Sep 10, 2019
13,352
13,952
The same thing applies to Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who did not have a great night and watched the final nine minutes of regulation and all of overtime from the bench. That doesn’t define him either. Kotkaniemi will not be benched every game.

Romanov will not be turning pucks over left and right every game. Caufield will not be scoring overtime goals every game. That’s the nature of being a young player in the NHL, you are constantly searching to stabilize your game, to be reliable or predictable or any of the other adjectives coaches use to describe players they trust.

This is what makes what Nick Suzuki is doing right now different because his game is not solely defined by moments. Over the past couple of weeks, Suzuki has strung together moments at both ends of the ice, and when moments are strung together, they cease to be moments.

They become consistency, the holy grail of hockey traits players are always seeking.

Suzuki appears to have found it.
Snippet from Arpon Basu’s article on The Athletic this morning, good read if you’re interested, and can access - to help maintain perspective..
 
  • Like
Reactions: gillyguzzler

gillyguzzler

Registered User
Jan 21, 2007
2,966
701
Ontario
Yes, when the injured return
I'm actually worried for KK that when the injured return, he may just be eating popcorn early on in the playoffs. I never would have thought that even two weeks ago. He needs to step up during the next few games and guarantee his spot in the lineup.

Everyone is praising Evans after every game. If the choice is between Evans and KK, who will Ducharme choose? Evans, who's been praised game after game? Or KK, who has certainly improved but is struggling lately, is getting ice time, better linemates and PP time but is not producing at all??

Or if it's a choice between Caufield and KK?

I wish it was a choice between KK and Staal but it won't be.
 

26Mats

Registered User
Jun 23, 2018
31,735
24,111
I'm actually worried for KK that when the injured return, he may just be eating popcorn early on in the playoffs. I never would have thought that even two weeks ago. He needs to step up during the next few games and guarantee his spot in the lineup.

Everyone is praising Evans after every game. If the choice is between Evans and KK, who will Ducharme choose? Evans, who's been praised game after game? Or KK, who has certainly improved but is struggling lately, is getting ice time, better linemates and PP time but is not producing at all??

Or if it's a choice between Caufield and KK?

I wish it was a choice between KK and Staal but it won't be.

KK could still get better linemates imo. He had Drouin and Anderson, then grinders, then out of position on the wing. Look at what Suzuki's doing now that he's away from Drouin.

On the pp, he needs to be on his one time side and the coaches need to tell him to use his one timer more, with Cole back in his offense. If he doesn't produce in those conditions then he can sit at this time in his career - or play wing.
 

Not The One

Registered User
Feb 28, 2002
3,191
1,629
Montréal, Qc.
I've been a bit out of the loop, but I see that KK has only one single point (an assist) in fourteen games... that is one hell of a slump. In his defense though the rest of the team isn't doing much better since april. Although of course they would be doing better if KK was contributing.

NHL Stats

Suzuki is on fire but that's mostly his six last games, he was slumping for a while before that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: angusyoung

Mrb1p

PRICERSTOPDAPUCK
Dec 10, 2011
87,761
53,482
Citizen of the world
Do you see a pattern? KK's line mates have been criticized all season in this thread. :shakehead

Take a look at the comments back in January. Armia and Toffoli were a terrible duo for KK. How could that line possibly work? Now they're part of the best offensive line we've seen in years.

When Anderson was paired with KK after the TDL, there were no complaints. Andy was the "Powerhorse". Now? Andy's not playing well, they should play KK with the "hot hand".

I think Armia is usually as useless as they come but he's been lights out for 4-5-6 games now, which is really nice to see, haven't seen that at all from him, at least, not consistently.

I have no qualms with KK being with Toffoli, Anderson, Gally, Tatar, Evans, Caufield, heck, even Lekhonen if he's with another skilled guy. Being at C would help though.

Nobody criticized Toffoli, it was Armia, Toffoli was doing very good with KK early in the season.


Nobody hate JK. I don't understand why some guy equate saying the guy wont be a 1st line player to hating the guy. I don't think he'll develop into a solid 1st line center but it doesn't mean i hate him. I don't hate him at all he's a good 3rd line center who might develop into a solid 2nd line center. This is how i see it. I might be wrong obviously.
Yeah, read this thread and youll find your statement very stupid.
 

gillyguzzler

Registered User
Jan 21, 2007
2,966
701
Ontario
KK could still get better linemates imo. He had Drouin and Anderson, then grinders, then out of position on the wing. Look at what Suzuki's doing now that he's away from Drouin.

On the pp, he needs to be on his one time side and the coaches need to tell him to use his one timer more, with Cole back in his offense. If he doesn't produce in those conditions then he can sit at this time in his career - or play wing.
Suzuki is playing with Toffoli and Armia. KK has played a lot with Toffoli and Armia. Armia is a favourite whipping boy of the experts here and they repeated incessantly how KK couldn't produce with him on the wing. But he's good enough for Suzuki?

It's not the quality of linemates, the lack of ice time and the lack of PP opportunities. It's lack of production, lack of stability with his linemates and diminished confidence of late. I'm hoping he really brings it during these last 5 games and that Ducharme finally decides on 4 set lines when the injured return.
 

Mrb1p

PRICERSTOPDAPUCK
Dec 10, 2011
87,761
53,482
Citizen of the world
On the Leafs' 2nd goal KK was almost in Allen's crease, doing what? Nobody knows. That placed him too far to get to the point when the puck reached the d-man. Also, he showed all the hustle of a sloth trying to get to the point.

In the first period, he was supposed to cover Kerfoot, couldn't keep up with him and Kerfoot got in alone on Allen. Luckily, Jake pulled off a nice save.

You want more examples of KK's inept play? If I think about it I may have to revise my assessment and say he played as badly as Romanov.

There were freaking good reasons why DD benched him.
Yes, theyre asking him to be a winger when he's been a center for 3 years straight, you see he always plays like a C and not like a winger, thats on the coach to figure it out.

There is also no one going to the slot, the system is forcing shots from outside, watch where Anderson is too.


Phil Danault gave the puck at his blue line in the 2nd on a routine play, he went for the change, which lead to a lot of pressure from the leafs and Petry took a penalty. Was he benched for this ? Right.

Mistakes like this happen so many times a game, you only focus on them because you have an axe to grind on Kotkaniemi, try to be more objective or just don't post anymore, it is annoying as hell.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->