Ontario Reign 20-21 part II Growing Pains

Byfield’s plus minus is now -10, tied with Clague and Brickly... Dudas is -14 . So I assume those hammering Byfield’s plus minus also think Clague isn’t up to the NHL either .

In all seriousness there needs to be some recognition that Byfield has improved his defensive gave, whilst also getting going offensively. His plus minus is now improving whilst most of his teammates’ are continuing to get worse... that’s important context when looking at that stat. After just 24 AHL games he figured out how to translate his skill set offensively and has improved his defensive game. There’s been a significant evolution of his game yet we are still hearing he has IQ issues... give me a break. His time in the AHL has proven to be incredibly valuable and seeing how his game is evolving just shows how smart and coachable he is. I hadn’t seen an AHL game for a couple of weeks but I could see the continued evolution yesterday.

Also worth noting Kalyev is +1 which is really interesting considering how poor he is defensively.

 

Someone posted in his prospect thread I forget the exact number, but that he started the season -17 and was +9 over the last little while or whatever. He’s also approaching PPG, and as it currently stands, he’s in the top-5 18 YO AHL seasons of all time by points per game (and could end up in 2nd OA if he keeps it up). He’s also the youngest NA to play in the AHL and 2nd youngest of all time (Filip Chytil).

 

Yes I agree, and it might not be the popular opinion, but I don't think the core players on the Kings team outside of Doughty really care or are willing to do what's needed to win... and that's ok. They brought cups to LA that I never thought I'd seen in my life time. They're legends to me. Right now they're just basically place holders until the prospects develop.

I also don't agree with people who think adding someone like Eichel is the answer as far as maximizing the good years left in players like Kopitar and Brown. I'd much rather LA allow the prospects to develop, show what they can do at the NHL level and then move/trade accordingly.

Just my opinion though.

 

His development really has been amazing... especially for those of us who watched his WJC play. Beating a dead horse here, but AHL QB is so worthy of that 2nd overall selection and I'm just a huge fan of the kid. I think he's going to be a very good if not great player for LA. If only he played with an edge, he'd be a beast.

 

Andersson with a nice Kopitar-esque goal. Reign look pretty good so far which means they'll prolly stink up the 2nd and 3rd period. On a side note, Dudas is a pretty tenacious player.

Imama also took a run at Zegras. Maybe it'll spark some fireworks.

 

Do you have any news about Tyler Madden? Do you know if it's a concussion or another injury?

 

There's been nothing official but most likely it's a concussion and most likely he'll be out a while

 

How has Wolanin looked?

 

Aaaaand here comes the collapse again.

 

welp, there goes Hults. Doesn't look good

 

He's looked steady.. which at this point is all you can ask from a Reign d-man

 

Bring up Imama!!!

 

I don't think I've seen Byfield since he got tripped. He fell into the boards and it looked like it hurt him a bit...

 

Yeah I think he might be hurt or something hopefully it's not serious. They're down to 4 defenseman since Hults got injured too.

 

I missed Hults injury, how bad did it look? Did he skate off by himself?

 

I assume Byfield is injured?

 

He needed help getting off the ice I don't even think they showed how it he got injured. He was up against the boards and looked like he was dazed it didn't look good.

Hopefully it's not serious he got up on his own when he slid into the boards after a trip but it may have been a shoulder or arm.

This Reign team has been hit hard with the injury bug. Fagemo, Gaunce, Madden, now Hults and hopefully not Byfield.

 

It looked bad.

 

What the f*** is up with all of our AHL players getting hurt? Is it an issue of first-time pros not being used to the physicality of this level or are we just getting legitimate prospects beaten up by career minor-leaguers?

 

Contact sport. Chalk it up to bad luck.

 

Well f***

 

Fair enough.

 

It looked bad. You can't see the actual contact, but you can tell the Gulls player went to hit Hults with force. The camera was following the puck going up ice, but you can see the player go for the hit and I remember thinking whoever it was that was the target is going to get blasted.

When it did show Hults, he was crumpled on the ice and looked to be holding his shoulder. He was not moving much at all and looked to be a lot of pain. He was down for a while and a couple team mates came over to check on him. Eventually he did get up and skate off, but he'll be out a while I'm sure.