Observations XXV

[OldFan]

I repeat myself; when Preds 3rd pair is out there it scares me to death.
And I noticed Carr doing some good things. Worthy of another look.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Hey guys, Duchene is good.

Very astute observation. tied for 2nd in points in the NHL

 

[herzausstein]

Jarnkrok did good with joey and rv. Would prefer another goal scorer in that position but jarnkrok might be an adequate roll player for that spot. Plays sound hockey and sees the ice really well. Joey has a good shot and with jarnkrok helping to distribute and move the puck joey might shoot more.

Carr didn’t look bad... he earned another shot.

Bones line didn’t look great up until boninos goal.

Bring Davies up (maybe even allard too) and let him have a shot. Seriously Irwin/Weber/hamhuis looks terrible

 

[BigFatCat999]

wow. what a hockey game. This is one more exciting hockey team, easily the best offensive team we have had since the Kariya years. Might even prove to be better than those teams. A few observations from a happy hockey fan;

..Granlund-Duchene-Forsberg are going to be a monster line if they stay healthy all year.

The Grand Dutchy line looks utterly disgusting.

..And with fewer offensive players on his line, this might force Johansen to shoot and score more.

And None of us would complain. He does have a shot.

..Duchene. what hockey idiots on here the last couple said he wouldn't make a difference, that he was just another 2nd line center?

Not me, thank God. Look I'm a silly idiot but I saw the potential of the guy.

..Forsberg should score his 40 with Duchene. might be and understatement.

Well, he is on a goal per game pace...

..if we only had a really good 2nd line LW'er I can't imagine how good we would be offensively

Could that be Tolvanen?

..not sure on our 2nd PP unit.

TML might have found the secret on that. If your PP1 scores within their first shift PP2 never gets on the ice.

..can't believe we left Ovechkin open in the faceoff circle on the PK twice.

How many YEARS have fans and coaches said that?

..for the first time in years, I don't panic when we fall behind.

Tell that to my angina! I'm 40 and I'm getting chest pains!

..I don't disagree that smith probably needs to be a RW'er.

Agreed.

 

[Armourboy]

Not going to win too many games giving up 2 PPG, a SHG, and your goalie with an .808 sv%. Its sure as heck exciting when you do though.

 

[Scoresberg]

I actually thought, Jarny looked fine in the Joey line. Kind of like a less-offensive Granlund, smallish but sound defensively. Allows Joey & Arvy to go 2-on-1's and be more free offensively like tonight.

 

[NoNecksCurse]

 

[OldFan]

Got to fix the D6&7. Weber looks capable as a 5
but he can just take care of himself; he can’t cover for the other guy. What is happening is that the 1,2,3 and 4 are having to log too much time. Early in the season, that’s ok but it will wear them down as season progresses. The 3rd pair has to be improved. Wouldn’t hurt for some forwards to play more D.
I am basking as most are in a thrilling win but that could have easily been a poor defensive performance leading to a loss.

 

[Legionnaire11]

Last year falling behind 4-2 would have been it, game over, no way the Preds tie it up let alone win... This year's team will definitely lose some games on boneheaded defensive lapses, but more often than not this offensive effort is going to win.

For a long time we asked questions like "would you rather win 2-1 or lose 5-4? because the Preds don't have the talent (can't attract the talent) to win as a run and gun team". Well, now we're a market and team that can win the run and gun game and it's a lot of fun!

 

[Predsanddead24]

Honestly 5 v 5 I didn't think our team defense was too concerning last night. We carried the play for most of the game and outscored them 5-2 at even strength. A couple of mistakes led to goals, but that's just part of hockey. Penalty kill was rough though and I really don't understand why you don't have someone draped all over Ovechkin the whole time especially after he scored the first PP goal. Bonino's turnover on our PP was bad, but he redeemed himself with the goal later in the game at least.

Finding a consistent 6D and 12F is still a bit of a concern, but if those are our biggest issues then we are in pretty good shape. Carr looked decent last night so I think he deserves a couple more games to try and get comfortable. Made a couple decent offensive plays and played pretty mistake free overall. For 6D I'm not sure what you do though. I'd guess we give Santini a look at some point and then maybe try some of the guys from Milwaukee?

 

[Legionnaire11]

..can't believe we left Ovechkin open in the faceoff circle on the PK twice.

I really don't understand why you don't have someone draped all over Ovechkin the whole time especially after he scored the first PP goal.

Hockey fans have been saying this for 14 years now

The Caps continually find ways to get Ovi open. Somehow I've seen three Caps games already this season and they have that top PP unit loaded with right hand shots. So they stall the play in the right corner and wait for the defense to shift that way, then kick it back to the RD, to LD and up to Ovi for the one-timer and because they're all right shots, it makes for very quick and accurate passes, much quicker than what the defense can react to. Teams will adjust to this through the season and then Washington will adjust as well and find another way to get the shot set up.

Draping one guy on Ovechkin the whole time doesn't work either because of his strength, he's either going to dump you on your rear, or you're going to take a penalty and go down 5-on-3.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Hockey fans have been saying this for 14 years now

The Caps continually find ways to get Ovi open. Somehow I've seen three Caps games already this season and they have that top PP unit loaded with right hand shots. So they stall the play in the right corner and wait for the defense to shift that way, then kick it back to the RD, to LD and up to Ovi for the one-timer and because they're all right shots, it makes for very quick and accurate passes, much quicker than what the defense can react to. Teams will adjust to this through the season and then Washington will adjust as well and find another way to get the shot set up.

Draping one guy on Ovechkin the whole time doesn't work either because of his strength, he's either going to dump you on your rear, or you're going to take a penalty and go down 5-on-3.

I agree with you generally and obviously its easier said then done to shut down Ovi on the power play, but both of his goals last night were ones that in my opinion we should have been able to defend.



Goal 1: Johansen just floats between the circles to presumably try and cover a pass that doesn't exist, which just leaves Ovi wide open. That's just a really bad play there by Johansen and you have to be more heads up then that when you know Ovechkin is posted up in his key scoring spot.



Goal 2: Sissons overcommits to try and block Carlson's shot from the point, which once again leaves Ovechkin wide open. It's a situation where you have to know that Ovechkin is out there and you're better off continuing to cover him than leaving him open to attempt to block a shot that you're that far away from.

 

[Roman Yoshi]

I love this team. I even love Jarnkrok despite the fact he isn't James Neal

This team is not only good, they are exciting to watch. Tied for top with Toronto in goals scored in the NHL. It's early, but if that trends continues that's a good sign.

Also in the way too early stats, top 6 in faceoff percentage. Wowza.

Pekka's stick side was weak last night. Almost all goals went on that side.

Seeing the Devils 0-2-2 makes me real happy. We are a better team without Subban.

 

[GoldOnGold]

There's got to be a cheap 5d out there somewhere we can pair with Weber.

 

[glenngineer]

Fabbro finally showed he was a rookie last night. Flip side is, after the two gaffes, he settled down nicely and started playing solid hockey again. Didn’t get rattled. Doesn’t hurt to have Ekholm as his partner too.

 

[PredsHead]

Looking at the schedule and Milwaukee is off for five days after Saturday and we are on the road all next week, will be interesting to see if Poile calls someone up. Could be a chance to sneak Tolvanen or Pitlick into a game or two, or could see Santini being called up as another option on the third pair.

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

Fabbro finally showed he was a rookie last night. Flip side is, after the two gaffes, he settled down nicely and started playing solid hockey again. Didn’t get rattled. Doesn’t hurt to have Ekholm as his partner too.

He looked bad when he was paired with Irwin for some reason. Basically everyone has looked bad when paired with Irwin. It's pretty clear that Weber is a decent defenseman if he has someone that's decent to play with. Unfortunately, neither Hamhuis or Irwin are decent.

 

[Flgatorguy87]

Pretty obvious/damning stats for Irwin. I'm not sure what else you would have to see.

 

[OriginalName]

Wow, after reading that I've never been so convinced to jettison a player into space on a one-way trip to Pluto as I am now. Surely we're not stubborn enough to try to hold on to him with stats like those, right?

 

[GoldOnGold]

He looked bad when he was paired with Irwin for some reason. Basically everyone has looked bad when paired with Irwin. It's pretty clear that Weber is a decent defenseman if he has someone that's decent to play with. Unfortunately, neither Hamhuis or Irwin are decent.

I knew it was bad, but i didn't know it was THAT bad

 

[PredsHead]

He looked bad when he was paired with Irwin for some reason. Basically everyone has looked bad when paired with Irwin. It's pretty clear that Weber is a decent defenseman if he has someone that's decent to play with. Unfortunately, neither Hamhuis or Irwin are decent.

Not denying that Irwin and Hamhuis have been bad, but Weber has been just as bad if not worse in some games. He was really good most of last year, but has looked very shaky IMO so far this year. Not sure if he just is trying to do too much to cover for Iriwn or Hamhuis, but some of the plays he's trying to force are just making that pair look worse as none of those guys have enough recovery speed to cover for a bad turnover.

 

[OldFan]

He looked bad when he was paired with Irwin for some reason. Basically everyone has looked bad when paired with Irwin. It's pretty clear that Weber is a decent defenseman if he has someone that's decent to play with. Unfortunately, neither Hamhuis or Irwin are decent.

I’m not a good stats guy. With me it’s mostly “see player; decide good or bad”. Not always fair but that’s my system. I appreciate stats though and these are pretty bad.
Here’s Irwin’s dilemma; sometimes you have a player who can do better given time and coaching. Sometimes certain players rise to the occasion during say, the playoffs. But sometimes a player is giving all they’ve got and it is what it is. Irwin appears to be that latter player. Preds are getting all he’s capable of giving. I find no fault in his effort or attitude. He’s just limited as we can see and stats back up. I regret that but surely Lavy and GMP know that. It needs to be fixed.
Preds must find a D6 and maybe Hammer can finish out a good career as D7 & sub.

 

[triggrman]

I've been trying to tell you guys how bad Irwin is, even before these stats came out.

He does give his all, but his talent and skill level are well below that of an average number 6 NHL defenseman, unfortunately at this point, Hamhuis isn't much better.

 

[predfan24]

He looked bad when he was paired with Irwin for some reason. Basically everyone has looked bad when paired with Irwin. It's pretty clear that Weber is a decent defenseman if he has someone that's decent to play with. Unfortunately, neither Hamhuis or Irwin are decent.

What time period is this encompassing? This season only?

 

[101st_fan]

Irwin and Hamhuis are competing for the worst GA/60 among d-men on the team. 7.0 vs 7.1 after two games each. Luckily they both play limited minutes and don't share the ice.