Observations XXV

[jumb0]

WTF is with the shorts Neal?

 

[hockey diva]

I saw a Twitter post that Johansen's wedding was called off.

 

[AdmiralsFan24]

What's Bitetto's BAC in that picture? O/U is .25.

 

[PredsV82]

I saw a Twitter post that Johansen's wedding was called off.

Oh snap. That doesnt bode well for the coming season. I think I remember Rinne struggling for a while after his fiancee broke up with him a few summers ago

 

[NoNecksCurse]

Oh snap. That doesnt bode well for the coming season. I think I remember Rinne struggling for a while after his fiancee broke up with him a few summers ago

aw shit. girl problems will ruin a man quicker than anything!

 

[GeauxPreds1]

aw ****. girl problems will ruin a man quicker than anything!

I'm calling it now joey will get 42 points and benched multiple times this year. Until the playoffs when he starts dating a smoking hot brunette and he scores 32 points in 23 games and gets the Conn Smythe and we hoist the cup lol.
Didnt rinne have a down year after a break up a few years back?

 

[King Weber]

Granlund also got married last week. Rinne, Saros and Salomaki all in attendance with a bunch of other finnish and current/ex-Wild players.

 

[braindead]

Opens thread: sees it has turned into People Magazine
Closes thread
Tiptoes away quietly

 

[Armourboy]

12 games on NBC networks this year. Pretty crazy.

 

[hockey diva]

Most of them away games though.

 

[NoNecksCurse]

just so everyone knows... NHL network will be showing some of the biggest and best games in our franchise's history.

it starts at 9 am central! first is our first win in 98 against Carolina (I'm most excited to watch this one!) followed by game 4 sweep of Chicago. then game 6 WCF against the ducks and last game 3 SCF versus the penguins. Then game 6 against the ducks will be showed again at 6 pm central.

 

[Predsanddead24]

just so everyone knows... NHL network will be showing some of the biggest and best games in our franchise's history.

it starts at 9 am central! first is our first win in 98 against Carolina (I'm most excited to watch this one!) followed by game 4 sweep of Chicago. then game 6 WCF against the ducks and last game 3 SCF versus the penguins. Then game 6 against the ducks will be showed again at 6 pm central.

Thanks for the info. I really wish the NHL had a better archive system to watch old games. NHL.tv let's you go back a couple of seasons but I'd love to be able and watch some of the old teams during the doldrums of the offseason.

 

[sparkle twin]

That made me sad watching game 6 vs Ducks. The way they played was incredible, and I didn't see any of that this past season.

 

[GoldOnGold]

That made me sad watching game 6 vs Ducks. The way they played was incredible, and I didn't see any of that this past season.

Was that the game where we got a 5 minute PP and had zero shots on goal?

 

[Armourboy]

Was that the game where we got a 5 minute PP and had zero shots on goal?

No he was talking about the WCF game.

 

[LCPreds]

Damn! I'm pissed that I didn't have a chance to look at the forums yesterday. Was searching the listings looking for the game tonight at 6PM so I could record but it was yesterday.

 

[Marty Party]

 

[JustaFinnishGuy]

Looks way better but I really don't know why it seems like that the Preds media pumped up the scoreboard more than Duchene

 

[TitansVolsPreds615]

I saw it at the John Mayer concert the other night. It's indeed very large.

 

[GoldOnGold]

Arvidsson is listed as a LW on some places, wonder if we would try him there. It would really balance our lines.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Arvidsson is listed as a LW on some places, wonder if we would try him there. It would really balance our lines.

I'd imagine we may see a bunch of variations with the wingers until something sticks. Only concern with Arvidsson on his off wing is it may make him more difficult to catch those stretch passes that he is so great at scoring off of.

 

[BigFatCat999]

I have fallen down the rabbit hole of hockeyviz.com 's heat maps of shot placement. Bonino looks more like a wing than center. His positive effects happen along the boards and a little for tipping in rebounds. If you said Bonino 3rd line wing I would not mind. We have made comment about this team has too many centers but from what I see it has too many wings listed as centers.

EDIT: But in this new era of coaching, it's not about position but p1, p2, p3, p4, p5. You have an offensive role and that should be specialized at center and defenseman. Wings are there to add that amorphic trait of chemistry. Defensively; p1, p2, p3....

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I have fallen down the rabbit hole of hockeyviz.com 's heat maps of shot placement. Bonino looks more like a wing than center. His positive effects happen along the boards and a little for tipping in rebounds. If you said Bonino 3rd line wing I would not mind. We have made comment about this team has too many centers but from what I see it has too many wings listed as centers.

EDIT: But in this new era of coaching, it's not about position but p1, p2, p3, p4, p5. You have an offensive role and that should be specialized at center and defenseman. Wings are there to add that amorphic trait of chemistry. Defensively; p1, p2, p3....

Bonino is a lot better defensively and on faceoffs though than perhaps the shot placement map will show? Which at least historically/stereotypically is what you ask out of a "3rd line center".

Those past stereotypes are kind of obsolete though. I'd be more likely to see our "bottom 2 lines" being equivalent, maybe one a little more offensive and one a little more physical/shutdown in orientation. Kind of the same for our top 2 lines really where hopefully they both have equivalent impact.

End of the day I can imagine injuries playing more into how we deploy our center depth than anything else. The season probably starts with "experimentation" followed by "injury adjustment" followed by... well who really knows past that.

 

[glenngineer]

Top 6 questions for all.

1. Who will be in the top 6?
2. What will the lines be?

The only piece of the first question to me is will it be Smith or Turris rounding out the top 6.

The second piece becomes a little more complex in a few ways.
1. Do you keep JOFA together?
2. Do you break up JOFA and balance the two lines?
3. Do you try to create two different types of lines, like one line full of speed and the other more methodical/power type?

If you keep JOFA together the second line is Duchene, Granlund and either Smith or Turris.

Balancing the two lines makes me think you move either Forsberg or Arvy to the second line to play with Duchene and Granlund and move Smith or Turris to play with Joey and either Forsberg or Arvy.

The other option of speed and methodical could go something like Duchene, Arvy, and Smith while your power/methodical line is Joey flanked by Forsberg and Granlund.

I think I'm really starting to like the third idea the best, speed line and power line. Joey, Granlund and Forsberg would be pretty fun to watch in the sense that they are all great puck handlers in addition to being strong on the puck. Imagine them coming out for a shift, wearing a team down, the puck getting iced and then Duchene's line coming on the ice to use their speed against a tired unit. For that matter, switch the scenario and it's equally as enticing.

Food for thought as we're closing in on training camp.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

Top 6 questions for all.

1. Who will be in the top 6?

JoFA, Duchene, Granlund are the locks. As you say it's between Smith and Turris for the other spot... I'm going Smith because I just don't think Turris can survive playing wing. They do have to try it. But I can't see it working.

2. What will the lines be?

No idea!

The second piece becomes a little more complex in a few ways.
1. Do you keep JOFA together?
2. Do you break up JOFA and balance the two lines?
3. Do you try to create two different types of lines, like one line full of speed and the other more methodical/power type?

It will be the subject of my preseason experiments anyway. And very likely to spill over in the first part of the season. I would not automatically keep JoFA together. But I wouldn't necessarily rule it out if all the experiments end up saying that's the way to go. However, I'm definitely entering the experiment with the hypothesis that it would be beneficial to break them up.

I don't think I would necessarily go with any other design constraints or premises though... a speed/power split or anything like that... well, if it came out that way fine, but end of the day I want "chemistry"... the lines have to work well together and produce. Bottom line.

Although I imagine there will also be injuries at some point and we'll see a variety of others bounce around in spots you might not have initially expected. I don't think any of our players are total "plugs", really. If you wanted a physical presence playing with the top-6 players, and somebody was hurt, you could drop Watson or Sissons there. If somebody like Carr or Grimaldi show really well, they could carve their way into the picture too. These sorts of things might only be tried initially due to injury... but if for some reason they turn out to "click", I'd have no problem sticking with them. If something outside the box like that did pan out, it might give us 3 scoring lines!