Blueger? I know you base this off his shooting percentage. You might want to go back and actually looked how he scored half his goals last year. He doesn't have a great amount of typical shots, he scored half his goals with an empty net fortunate bounce off the back boards, and a couple on the PK that trickled through a couple goalies that were not really what I consider shots to call him a sniper/goal scorer, more than half his goals last year. This is not without saying he has some nice shots for goals, but it's not enough to sway me to put him on Geno's or Sid's wing. That would never cross my mind good shooting percentage or not.
Look at this years, empty net to start off the season, his next one was and attempted bad pass that happen to trickle through Fleury who was expecting it to go to McGinn sliding over. Blueger posting up in front of the net half open for a pass shoot in. 2 goal game in Montreal, a 6-0 drumming, 1st goal being a 2 on 0 that ZAR passed to him with the goalie froze and he got it up (first real shot goal), goal #2 that he got in tight on the goalie that trickled in, starting to notice a trend? His next goal was a nice shot from a nice feed from Dumo and ZAR's net front locking the goalie in place with a screen. His next is another one on one with the goalie on the PK, but much better puck control finish. His last goal this season was a empty net due to Boyle's semi breakaway off the glove of the goalie.
Conclusion, Teddy needs a lot of one on ones (breakaways) with the goalie or partial to full open nets to score goals.
This is a case where SH% is not an outlier to being a goal scorer. He might have out of 15 goals over the last 2 seasons scored goals 4/5 times with a clean shot to beat a goalie in normal circumstances in much too small of sample sizes.
Go back and look at them.
Just a reminder, and I almost did this back at those pages back where you brought it up.
Do you both want to rebuff some of this?
TB's role is what has kept him in this league, had he not worked hard at his role given to him because, depth on the team was not going to allow him to be a regular top 9 let alone a top 2 line player. Players sometimes have to embrace a role to stay relevant, which is what TB did. It however, doesn't mean he's better than what he is. He's making the most of his role, the role he fits into. Maybe he can be a rover type much Like Talbot was, but Talbot in his youth before he was drafted was a skilled offensive player who himself embraced a role to stay relevant.
I don't see the similarities.
Most of TB's plays are one and done. He doesn't strike me as a give and go make 3 plays happen consecutively with his line mates to the promise land type of guy consistently.
No, I don't wanna recant. You're assuming way too much about my thoughts on this and basing your whole post off it. I don't look at players with that shallow of a lens as to look at a shooting % and say that's the only reason they can work somewhere.
These are the reasons why I would try that:
- Malkin isn't really showing chemistry with anyone 5v5 and it's concerning. His lines have also been defensive liabilities. We have tried several wingers and it's not working. Guentzel+Rust is the closest thing to a lock for being a fit with him that I can think of.
Sid could find chemistry with others and we could get more out of the top 6 as a whole, especially defensively.
- Blueger is a strong 5v5 2-way player. He's intelligent. His playstyle is highly adaptive. GCR is hemorrhaging HDCA's all over the place. For as much as they are doing offensively, it's come at a heavy cost. Jarry has limited the damage but they're super lucky it's not worse.
Blue is a guy I could see working well on the walls with Sid and not throwing the puck away. He is an underrated playmaker, and yes, does have a good shot and patience. He would backcheck hard and negate some of the damage the other way.
- I never said he's a prototypical top 6 winger, but it's something that could work in our particular situation. It would provide balance.
For example you could do Blueger + McGinn with Sid. Both Blueger and McGinn have scored a lot in very defensive roles. They have shown excellent chemistry with each other this year. They would be a stingy line. It's a line I could see being a net positive in a playoff series, providing easier matchups for GMR and L3. That would make GMR your L1 for all intents and purposes, and you could roll out Heinen - Carter - ERod as your L3.
- Blueger does not have a lot of shots because he's getting 70% D-zone draws and playing with ZAR. Teddy's 1.80 5v5 P/P60 last year is pretty much top 6 worthy, despite the role he's in. This year it's slightly lower, but he's compensated with a higher % of goals and has almost played all his games with a winger who has 1 goal on the season.
So you're saying it's all luck? Good offense in extremely defensive roles in back to back years and it's all horseshoes? Unlikely.
I'm not gonna call him a true sniper or anything of the sort, but he's no blockhead who puts it into the goalie's logo either. He makes goalies work.
GMR worked because there was no Sid. There was no sharing top minutes/PP.
This makes no sense at all. We're talking about 5v5 play, not PP. With Crosby out, that meant Malkin's line got the toughest D-pairs assigned to them. Despite this, they scored at the best rate 5v5 relative to usage of all lines in the league. Malkin led the NHL in P/P60. Rust was among the very best RW's. Guentzel the same among LW's.
It worked because they had major chemistry, and may still. Unless they're tried again we won't know. In our current situation, I don't really see the harm in seeing what happens. The team is struggling 5v5 and a shake up is in order.
To conclude on Blueger, I never said he could do WAY more in an offensive role, but I feel he could do more than people expect. Not a detriment at the very least. Goal scoring was not my main motive in bringing it up.
I straight up disagree with you that he doesn't have more to give offensively. We've always seen him in checking roles and don't know how it would go. This 30 game stretch is a very good time to tinker with the lineup with the playoff picture all but being locked in in the East.
