Observations XXI

[NoNecksCurse]

kesler and johansen meet for the 1st time this year after kesler trashing talking ryjo in the summer out of nowhere.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

kesler and johansen meet for the 1st time this year after kesler trashing talking ryjo in the summer out of nowhere.

Totally forgot about that. Very excited.

 

[NoNecksCurse]

Totally forgot about that. Very excited.

kesler isn't the player he use to be. 5 points in 15 games but he is still the ultimate DB. i just wish johansen could actually fight.

 

[Pred303]

So, the other teams' empty netters don't count?

we lead the league in empty netters with 7. 21 other teams have 2 or less. we have three more than than 6 of the other 9 teams. take out empty netters for all teams and we are 15th in the league in regular scoring.

 

[MrJoshua]

Well, 15th in the league for offense, top of the league in defense ... that's about what we expected, no? I hope for better offense moving forward if the middle six can heat up (although I must say again that Turris has had a surprisingly good start to the year), but while Forsberg-Johansen-Arvidsson is a great top line, our depth after that is solid but not spectacular. So I'm not really surprised we aren't top-10 in offense.

I AM surprised that our offense is that high when our PP stinks like roadkill on a summer day.

 

[FossilFndr]

anyone hear any word on Arvidsson yet?

This was an update after the 10 am post

Viktor Arvidsson has been placed on Injured Reserve with an upper-body injury.

How to Watch, Live Stream Preds at Ducks

 

[TitansVolsPreds615]

I'm betting Arvi has a broken hand/finger.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

I really need the Preds to win tonight. You ever have those times where something as small as a hockey team beating a rival means a lot? Now would be one of those times.

 

[lakai17]

Is Watson good to go on the 15th? where's he slotting in?

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

Wouldn't the best way to look at it be 5 on 5 scoring? We get the advantage of most empty net goals but I can't see us staying at 13.6% on the PP, despite how unimaginative it is for the entire season.

 

[TitansVolsPreds615]

Has any STH got their $100 gift card for signing up for ACH payments?

 

[Pred303]

the arvidsson situation stinks. afraid this won't be a short term thing this time.

 

[Drake744]

OP version 3.0


Changed the title to try to accommodate Drake's suggestion but some regulars suggested otherwise.

To be fair I thought it was pretty funny

 

[PredsV82]

the arvidsson situation stinks. afraid this won't be a short term thing this time.

Need our absent(from posting anyway) friend from Signal Mountain to work some voodoo magic for him..

 

[FossilFndr]

90 minutes before puck drop and neither team has a GDT up.

 

[Flgatorguy87]

90 minutes before puck drop and neither team has a GDT up.

Not it

 

[triggrman]

Subban hurt or sick?

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

Can the arena music operators play the Benny Hill theme for our PP's from now on?

 

[Armourboy]

Can the arena music operators play the Benny Hill theme for our PP's from now on?

Might as well go with Cotton-Eyed Joe, at least then we can all have a good time looking at the crazies on the jumbotron while it's going on.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

Our power play sucks.

 

[LCPreds]

Power play sucks but that can be fixed. If they can continue to deliver similar results to what we’ve seen to start the season then I’m ok with that. Provided they fix the power play be the end of March.

 

[Pred303]

i'm angry only because I hate ANA. And our PP.

you knew at some point the PP failures would start to cost us points. and that some point would come when the top line finally cooled off. Without Arvy's speed to open up the ice for Forsberg/Johansen you also knew that would cause them to quit dominating the games. personally, next I would try Smith up on that 1st line right wing. the way we are constructed, you almost have to have at least a goal per game from that top line.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

I hate to overreact when we have the best winning percentage of any team in the league but I'm worried about how much we depend on Rinne and our top line.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I'm sure everybody has a pet theory on how to fix the PP. I'm pretty convinced that Subban is our best point-man there, despite the struggles and funks that he seems to somehow get into. With Arvy out, I'd go with JoF-Ha putting Hartman in the crease, and try to get Subban to play himself out of the funk moreso than leaning on Josi-Ellis... but admittedly it is just one subjective hunch and I don't honestly have any particular faith in any specific solution.

 

[Pred303]

our handedness somewhat limits the optimum setups and personnel on our PP. if we run a pure umbrella with three out front it depends on having three good onetimer shooters on the perimeter and two guys that can screen crash for rebounds. johansen likes to look pass first on one wing, and subban tends to hold onto the puck too long out top. these delays allow defenders to get out and block the one timers we do get.

when we try to run a regular overload set up, we have a righty johansen who has to run off the left halfboard. which means you want a good left handed shooter in the high slot. we don't really have that scoring lefty that we need. and in turn running the PP off the left halfboard means we have forsberg forced to play down low below the goalline, taking our best scorer out of one timer and high danger shooting ares. we don't have a good enough lefty pp quarterback to run a PP off the right half board where we could get forsberg in the high slot. it's sorta a personnel problem that forces us into an umbrella type attack, which in turn means we are very limited to perimeter type shots.. add in that our zone entries are well scouted and defended and it makes for a perfect storm of suck currently.

 

[Gh24]

One thing I'm glad is that we're no longer just banging our heads against the wall trying to force those d to d passes and one-timers as the only option.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

our handedness somewhat limits the optimum setups and personnel on our PP. if we run a pure umbrella with three out front it depends on having three good onetimer shooters on the perimeter and two guys that can screen crash for rebounds. johansen likes to look pass first on one wing, and subban tends to hold onto the puck too long out top. these delays allow defenders to get out and block the one timers we do get.

when we try to run a regular overload set up, we have a righty johansen who has to run off the left halfboard. which means you want a good left handed shooter in the high slot. we don't really have that scoring lefty that we need. and in turn running the PP off the left halfboard means we have forsberg forced to play down low below the goalline, taking our best scorer out of one timer and high danger shooting ares. we don't have a good enough lefty pp quarterback to run a PP off the right half board where we could get forsberg in the high slot. it's sorta a personnel problem that forces us into an umbrella type attack, which in turn means we are very limited to perimeter type shots.. add in that our zone entries are well scouted and defended and it makes for a perfect storm of suck currently.

The drop-back zone entry is a little dubious. Ultimately they should have enough SHEER TALENT to do at least something on the PP. I don't know, put Josi and PK together on the PP points, and really I don't think umbrella necessarily works here. Who knows really, they SHOULD have enough talent to make it work in almost any configuration, you'd think. I'm sure the coaching staff is pulling out hairs trying to figure it out, and I'm sure the players are at least scratching their heads. But something has to give at some point. ... doesn't it....

Still, if that's our only headache and it seems soluble with some experimentation, all good, just... of course we are within our rights to try to delve into it...

 

[FossilFndr]

Would it help to have a smaller gap between the D man and the following forward as they execute the drop back pass? Or do it 1/2 zone more into the attack giving the defenders less time to react? Or doing less of a drop back, almost just stopping the puck letting the forward skate into it instead of sending it 20 feet back?