Player Discussion Mats Zuccarello Part II

[anofsti]

What happened to Zucc yesterday? His, and Mikas, possession stats looked horrible, and that's very unlike him - but it might be just the wrong bounces. It looked like he did some good defending from the highlights, but that was often after some nasty turnovers from the team.

 

[YetAnotherNorwegian]

5 goals, heaps of players with points, and you're not one of them. Time to step it up, Mats!

 

[Zucc36]

Saw this last year too. Had a flying start, followed by a terrible slump. Have a feeling he is on the same track...

On the other hand, it is really great to see the whole team producing points. The depth of thise team is awesome. 9 players with 5 or more points.

Right now more concerned about Stepan, no goals in his first 7 games.....

 

[Ori]

Zuci usually get other players going that his strength since he is one of the best passers in the league, but the Zib line struggle without Kreider, and I`m not sure that Miller should be on that line.

Saw this last year too. Had a flying start, followed by a terrible slump. Have a feeling he is on the same track...
On the other hand, it is really great to see the whole team producing points. The depth of thise team is awesome. 9 players with 5 or more points.
Right now more concerned about Stepan, no goals in his first 7 games.....

I`m not worried about Stepan - he is a similar player like Zuci he usually pass first kind of guy to get Vesey & Nash better since they are suppose to finish on that line.

 

[member 116805]

His game last night was absolutely brutal

 

[Ori]

His game last night was absolutely brutal

Well, he didn`t had major mistakes like G turnover in the 1st period, but he was quiet, because Boston did their job well to neutralize Zuci. The other teams in NHL is aware of his strength, @Hellion.

Anyway, it doesn`t look that Zib & Zuci have chemistry so far like he had with D. Brassard. AV is still experimenting with lines for sure, and I hope he will figure it out.

 

[anofsti]

Yhea, it's a small sample size (in regards of possession stats) - it just found it as a weird outlier.

 

[Inferno]

kinda amazing to think about the fact that the rangers are an offensive juggernaut, but 2/3rds of their top line going into the season has missed the past few games, their top scorer from last season, Zucc, has been horrible, and the defense still sucks at transitioning the puck up the ice to the forwards...

Jimmy Vesey, Rick Nash, Brandon Pirri and Derek Stepan deserve a ton of credit.

 

[anofsti]

Zucc, has been horrible

Has he? He's looked good in all the games I've seen, and is second in points on the team, and has a positive corsi (despite the game I mentioned where his possession stats were really bad).

He shoot's at 26% right now though, and that is unsustainable.

 

[BBKers]

He could have netted 4 yesterday. Plus he had some nice feeds that were missed. Looked very good. Would like to see him with Miller and Hayes for a few games preying heavily on third line matchups. Could be a very lethal line and weapon (a la Pittsburgh).It would also improve the fourth line likely too. Get healthy Chris!
A fourth line of Grabner - Pirri - Fast with Fontaine called up and Lindberg on a conditioning stint in Hartford would be optimal. Lindberg did look a bit better yesterday but it is clear he returned prematurely but injuries seem to have forced this hand. I think he has an inverted season compared to last year - ie is slow in the start and with a fiery finish. Much better for the team. He has the talent but was hurt half of last year and is way behind now. Playing for a new contract tends to do that too.

 

[NickyFotiu]

Has he? He's looked good in all the games I've seen, and is second in points on the team, and has a positive corsi (despite the game I mentioned where his possession stats were really bad).

He shoot's at 26% right now though, and that is unsustainable.

He never looked horrible in my opinion. A couple of quiet nights is not horrible. He was almost never on the ice for a goal against. He had an incredible passing night vs Detroit but guys did not finish. He could have had 5 assists vs Detroit. Last night he came out determined to shoot more himself. That was a major difference. 7 points in 8 games after no camp is pretty darn good.

 

[YoSoyLalo]

Was going to say before the game last night he needs to step up and score a goal or two. That was definitely his best performance of the season.

Still don't like him and Zibanejad together at ES, although they were good last night.

Until a trade is made, I'd put him with Hayes and Miller when the forwards are all healthy.

 

[Ori]

He never looked horrible in my opinion. A couple of quiet nights is not horrible. He was almost never on the ice for a goal against. He had an incredible passing night vs Detroit but guys did not finish. He could have had 5 assists vs Detroit. Last night he came out determined to shoot more himself. That was a major difference. 7 points in 8 games after no camp is pretty darn good.

Yes, a very good point @NickyFotiu, all players going through this in a NHL season, and most players will have some quiet games for sure. But you hope they will bounce back fast as possible as Zuci did tonight. And he was flying on the ice tonight - a great performance. It was sad that we gave up that PP goal in the last seconds of 2nd period and I mentioned Fast, but there are other players too like G who are too passive PKìng - and I hope the coaching staff notice this and correct it soon as possible.

I`ll talk a little about Kreider, but I will use his thread.

 

[NickyFotiu]

Yes, a very good point @NickyFotiu, all players going through this in a NHL season, and most players will have some quiet games for sure. But you hope they will bounce back fast as possible as Zuci did tonight. And he was flying on the ice tonight - a great performance. It was sad that we gave up that PP goal in the last seconds of 2nd period and I mentioned Fast, but there are other players too like G who are too passive PKìng - and I hope the coaching staff notice this and correct it soon as possible.

I`ll talk a little about Kreider, but I will use his thread.

Most NHL players will have their share of quiet games. Stepan has some. So does Nash. So does Zooks. These guys aren't robots. Some nights they have better legs than other nights.

I think Zooks is a very unselfish player and that he sometimes needs to be reminded to shoot more himself. That is a shame because he has some very good shooting tools. How many breakaways did we miss in the last two games before Zooks scored on his breakaway?

 

[Idlerlee]

Was going to say before the game last night he needs to step up and score a goal or two. That was definitely his best performance of the season.

Still don't like him and Zibanejad together at ES, although they were good last night.

Until a trade is made, I'd put him with Hayes and Miller when the forwards are all healthy.

He had a really good game last night, but I actually think his Devils game was better. The passes he made to open up people for scoring that game was something.

 

[Ori]

Most NHL players will have their share of quiet games. Stepan has some. So does Nash. So does Zooks. These guys aren't robots. Some nights they have better legs than other nights.

I think Zooks is a very unselfish player and that he sometimes needs to be reminded to shoot more himself. That is a shame because he has some very good shooting tools. How many breakaways did we miss in the last two games before Zooks scored on his breakaway?

Yes, there are many this season, but that is about unique skillset too - you can`t really expect guys to finish like old Marty st. Louis. We will probably see many more misses on breakaways later this season. One of the main reason for that is that Zuci usually score is that he is a very good penalty shoter with high end skillset - so his accuracy is usually top class in the league.

 

[NickyFotiu]

He had a really good game last night, but I actually think his Devils game was better. The passes he made to open up people for scoring that game was something.

I thought he was amazing vs Detroit and came away without a point because nobody finished his amazing passes. AV must have thought so as well because he played over 22 minutes in that game.

 

[Idlerlee]

I thought he was amazing vs Detroit and came away without a point because nobody finished his amazing passes. AV must have thought so as well because he played over 22 minutes in that game.

Zucc is "always" the forward with the most icetime during a game, he's being relied upon to produce, so Im not sure how disastrous his start has actually been.

 

[NickyFotiu]

Zucc is "always" the forward with the most icetime during a game, he's being relied upon to produce, so Im not sure how disastrous his start has actually been.

Minutes wise I think his game vs Detroit was near a career high in a 60 minute game. We do not usually have forwards playing 23 minutes (22:54)

I think AV (like most coaches) will play guys more on nights when he thinks they have good legs.

 

[WesMcCauley]

Was going to say before the game last night he needs to step up and score a goal or two. That was definitely his best performance of the season.

Still don't like him and Zibanejad together at ES, although they were good last night.

Until a trade is made, I'd put him with Hayes and Miller when the forwards are all healthy.

Think his best game was the Detroit game, dominating performance but guys missed open nets time after time, his passing that game was unreal. A quiet night isnt always a bad night, he is so reliable defensivly and specially on the backcheck. He is the first forward back pretty much every single time.

 

[NickyFotiu]

Was going to say before the game last night he needs to step up and score a goal or two. That was definitely his best performance of the season.

Still don't like him and Zibanejad together at ES, although they were good last night.

Until a trade is made, I'd put him with Hayes and Miller when the forwards are all healthy.

Zooks plays well with Hayes so I would be okay with that. I actually thought Nash-Hayes-Zooks was a line that could have worked when JT-Hayes-Nash was not working well.

 

[Ori]

Zooks plays well with Hayes so I would be okay with that. I actually thought Nash-Hayes-Zooks was a line that could have worked when JT-Hayes-Nash was not working well.

Yes, AV should not be afraid to experiment with lineups, enjoy your weekend guys!
I`m cooking, and soon beer with some hockey later! ))

 

[Brooklyn Rangers Fan]

Yes, AV should not be afraid to experiment with lineups, enjoy your weekend guys!
I`m cooking, and soon beer with some hockey later! ))

Hahaha. I don't know why, but I love these little updates.

Enjoy!

 

[YetAnotherNorwegian]

Another high scoring game and no points for Mats. Getting a sneaky feeling he'll be sent packing in a Trouba-deal if he keeps this up.

 

[JohnC]

I was at the game and thought he played pretty well despite the no points

Also that clipping call was garbage IMO. More like 2 minutes for a midget's hip check.