TSN: Quarter point grades by Craig Button

[Monctonscout]

http://www.tsn.ca/montreal-habs-firing-on-all-cylinders-in-strong-start-1.398522

Not a lot that I disagree with...

I would have given Emelin at least a B, he had a great start before he got hurt. Plying much better than last year(and I found he was better last year than people give him credit for).

I find Eller at C+ is pretty charitable, he hasn't really produced much on offense given top 6 minutes.

I would give DSP a higher grade, he's improved a lot from last year and is a much more effective player, he's part of a great 4th line with Mitchell and Flynn/Byron.

Overall, great start by the team and A+ to the coaching staff for the adjustments that got us there...more aggressive puck pressure at ES plus much improved PP. The fact that the record is what it is with Price missing half of the games is really nice.

Click to read more...

 

[CHaracter79]

http://www.tsn.ca/montreal-habs-firing-on-all-cylinders-in-strong-start-1.398522

Not a lot that I disagree with...

I would have given Emelin at least a B, he had a great start before he got hurt. Plying much better than last year(and I found he was better last year than people give him credit for).

I find Eller at C+ is pretty charitable, he hasn't really produced much on offense given top 6 minutes.

I would give DSP a higher grade, he's improved a lot from last year and is a much more effective player, he's part of a great 4th line with Mitchell and Flynn/Byron.

Overall, great start by the team and A+ to the coaching staff for the adjustments that got us there...more aggressive puck pressure at ES plus much improved PP. The fact that the record is what it is with Price missing half of the games is really nice.

3rd among LW in TOI

no PP

and playin more then half the season with wingers like FLynn, DSP, Mitchell, Byron

define top 6 minutes?

highest used line is pleks

second is DD

Eller still has 6 goals.

 

[Kriss E]

Eller is playing 13:30 a game and no PP time, not sure when that had become the norm for top 6 minutes.

 

[Les Habitants]

DD should have an A. Moving to the 3rd line and not being a target for top defenders has made him the most (or one of?) productive 3rd line center in the league, that deserves an A.

 

[CHaracter79]

Eller is playing 13:30 a game and no PP time, not sure when that had become the norm for top 6 minutes.

its because he plays with CHUCKY.

you can spin things the way you wan if you word things right.

last game Flash scored a SH goal.. on a 2 on 0 with Eller.. and pierre Houde said un autre but pour la ligne de Desharnais.

and Marc Denis corrected him by saying

"Bien sur qu'en IN, cest Eller au centre et Non Desharnais"

 

[CHaracter79]

DD should have an A. Moving to the 3rd line and not being a target for top defenders has made him the most (or one of?) productive 3rd line center in the league, that deserves an A.

that was only the first 9 games.

that is our 2nd line.

in terms of points as well as TOI and usage.

 

[Justin11]

http://www.tsn.ca/montreal-habs-firing-on-all-cylinders-in-strong-start-1.398522

Not a lot that I disagree with...

I would have given Emelin at least a B, he had a great start before he got hurt. Plying much better than last year(and I found he was better last year than people give him credit for).

I find Eller at C+ is pretty charitable, he hasn't really produced much on offense given top 6 minutes.

I would give DSP a higher grade, he's improved a lot from last year and is a much more effective player, he's part of a great 4th line with Mitchell and Flynn/Byron.

Overall, great start by the team and A+ to the coaching staff for the adjustments that got us there...more aggressive puck pressure at ES plus much improved PP. The fact that the record is what it is with Price missing half of the games is really nice.

I understand what you are trying to say, however Eller has not been playing top 6 minutes. Eller-Galchenyuk-fill in blank are playing 3rd line minutes.

 

[Le Tricolore]

Condon should definitely be an A+.

I had zero expectations of him even making the team, but he's been way better than we could have hoped for. He had a bad game or two, but he's a rookie goalie, that's normal.

 

[FireBurningBin]

DSP shouldn't be a C-

 

[Price is Wright]

Eller is playing 13:30 a game and no PP time, not sure when that had become the norm for top 6 minutes.

Tomas Fleischmann seems to score just fine without PP time.

 

[Monctonscout]

its because he plays with CHUCKY.

you can spin things the way you wan if you word things right.

last game Flash scored a SH goal.. on a 2 on 0 with Eller.. and pierre Houde said un autre but pour la ligne de Desharnais.

and Marc Denis corrected him by saying

"Bien sur qu'en IN, cest Eller au centre et Non Desharnais"

Eller did nothing on that play, Flesischmann took a loose puck and went in and sniped it home.

that was only the first 9 games.

that is our 2nd line.

in terms of points as well as TOI and usage.

AG's line started as #2 but DD's line outplayed and outproduced them, in part because of Eller. He isn't creative enough to be a top 6 guy.

I understand what you are trying to say, however Eller has not been playing top 6 minutes. Eller-Galchenyuk-fill in blank are playing 3rd line minutes.

He did to start the year and in part because of his play and the Desharnais line playing great, those minutes dropped.

 

[LaP]

Tomas Fleischmann seems to score just fine without PP time.

Fleischmann just have 1 more goal than Eller. So i guess Eller scores just fine to right? Or maybe you consider a 1 goal difference as a big difference.

 

[Mario le Magnifique]

I think DD deserves an A as he's into a career year, and both his wingers have As but mostly bury their chances on the rush WITH DD involved, although they both deserve their As I don't know why would DD get a lesser grade when he has GWGs up the wazoo.

I'd like Button to go on and explain his reasoning, that and not giving Petry an A as well, guy has been rock solid and made Emelin look like a legit top4 D.

 

[waffledave]

Tomas Fleischmann seems to score just fine without PP time.

And he has a TON more goals than Eller, that's for sure!!!!

 

[smirob]

Again Monctonscout changes his viewpoint.

ALL OF LAST YEAR:

"Desharnais is not on our first line, he doesn't play more minutes than Plek" - despite playing with our best (or top line) winger, pacioretty.


NOW:

"Eller is on our 2nd line winger" - despite playing 3rd line minutes.

Which one is it 'scout'?

You didn't want DD evaluated as a 'Top line centre' due to icetime because it didn't support YOUR argument.

Now you want Eller evaluated as a '2nd line winger' while ignoring icetime to support YOUR argument. .


I don't expect a response, because each time I shine some light on this you just ignore it.

 

[CGG]

Alex Galchenyuk 3-10-13. $2.8 million. C+
Tomas Plekanec 7-13-20. $6.0 million. A

Aside from the fact that Plekanec's $6 million contract doesn't kick in til next year, look at it this way:

Pleks as 3 goals and 2 assists into empty nets. Great that he's out there preserving leads, but that's padding his stats immensely. He plays with our two best wingers and has 15 points scored against a goalie (4 G, 11A).

Chucky has 3 G, 10 A playing with a converted center and whoever is filling in for a failed Semin on any particular night. I dare say he'd do a bit better with Max and Gally on his wings, instead of Eller and _______.

Pleks is apparently awesome, Chucky is apparently a bitter disappointment.

I don't get it.

 

[Milhouse40]

Fleischmann just have 1 more goal than Eller. So i guess Eller scores just fine to right? Or maybe you consider a 1 goal difference as a big difference.

1 more goal with 1:32 TOI per game more than Eller

 

[Mario le Magnifique]

And he has a TON more goals than Eller, that's for sure!!!!

Eller dosen't have any assists though.

Flash is a more complete player offensively, and not too shabby defensively. I'm baffled we got this quality of a player for such a low amount on a PTO.

Eller needs to keep grinding and working hard but he's just not talented enough to be productive offensively. He can bury his chances but as far as creating things he's pretty innefective.

When the DD line cools down (that'll happen), I could see Flash being bumped up and Eller back on a third line with DD.

 

[jwrocks1]

Tomas Fleischmann seems to score just fine without PP time.

and only has 1 goal more than Eller despite averaging more ice time per game

 

[Monctonscout]

Tomas Fleischmann seems to score just fine without PP time.

At ES...

Desharnais 22 GP 13pts
Fleischmann 22 GP 14pts
Weise 22 GP 11pts
Eller 22 GP 6pts
Mitchell 20 GP 10pts
DSP 21 GP 6pts

Eller is barely outproducing Flynn(5pts in 22 games) and Semin(4pts in 14 games) at ES.

 

[Monctonscout]

Alex Galchenyuk 3-10-13. $2.8 million. C+
Tomas Plekanec 7-13-20. $6.0 million. A

Aside from the fact that Plekanec's $6 million contract doesn't kick in til next year, look at it this way:

Pleks as 3 goals and 2 assists into empty nets. Great that he's out there preserving leads, but that's padding his stats immensely. He plays with our two best wingers and has 15 points scored against a goalie (4 G, 11A).

Chucky has 3 G, 10 A playing with a converted center and whoever is filling in for a failed Semin on any particular night. I dare say he'd do a bit better with Max and Gally on his wings, instead of Eller and _______.

Pleks is apparently awesome, Chucky is apparently a bitter disappointment.

I don't get it.

The Plekanec line plays against a lot of top lines, so to me that offsets the ENG points. It's not like when Sather had Gretzky out there padding his stats the year he scored 92.

Plus Galchenyuk has 5 of his 13pts on the PP, only 8 at ES in 22 games. On one side you can say his wingers are not great, but he hasn't made them better either. Plus his minutes are easier than Plekanec's.

 

[Monctonscout]

Eller dosen't have any assists though.

Flash is a more complete player offensively, and not too shabby defensively. I'm baffled we got this quality of a player for such a low amount on a PTO.

Eller needs to keep grinding and working hard but he's just not talented enough to be productive offensively. He can bury his chances but as far as creating things he's pretty innefective.

When the DD line cools down (that'll happen), I could see Flash being bumped up and Eller back on a third line with DD.

I find people make too big a deal of the PTO thing. There were a ton of PTO's this year in large part because of less money in the system so it squeezed hard on the non elite UFA's. A pile of them would have normally gotten 2-3-4 year deals at 2-4 mil AAV in other years where the cap would be rising a lot and smaller markets would have gotten more revenue sharing...all goes back to the Canadian $$.

 

[Price is Wright]

At ES...

Desharnais 22 GP 13pts
Fleischmann 22 GP 14pts
Weise 22 GP 11pts
Eller 22 GP 6pts
Mitchell 20 GP 10pts
DSP 21 GP 6pts

Eller is barely outproducing Flynn(5pts in 22 games) and Semin(4pts in 14 games) at ES.

I guess when I say scoring, people think only goals. My bad.

Plus Galchenyuk has 5 of his 13pts on the PP, only 8 at ES in 22 games. On one side you can say his wingers are not great, but he hasn't made them better either. Plus his minutes are easier than Plekanec's.

At the start of the year, most were saying if Semin turned his game around in Montreal, the Jack Adams should just be automatically given to Therrien. Same credit would have to goto Galchenyuk if he turned Semin into a top six guy again.

And then there's making third line centre Eller something more than a 25-30 point forward. It hasn't happened in four years. It'd take a magician to make that happen. Maybe David Desharnais? He seems to be nothing but magical right now.

 

[Milhouse40]

Eller dosen't have any assists though.

Flash is a more complete player offensively, and not too shabby defensively. I'm baffled we got this quality of a player for such a low amount on a PTO.

Eller needs to keep grinding and working hard but he's just not talented enough to be productive offensively. He can bury his chances but as far as creating things he's pretty innefective.

When the DD line cools down (that'll happen), I could see Flash being bumped up and Eller back on a third line with DD.

The assist....

5on5 SAT = Shot attempts at 5on5
Shots Attempts at 5on5 = Offensive and possession of the puck

Best Forwards so far:
Pacioretty = 326
Gallagher = 320
Plekanec = 311
Galchenyuk = 255
Eller = 252
Fleishmann = 244
Desharnais = 239
Weise = 233

Eller is the one getting the LESS 5on5 ice-time in that group.

Okay, this doesn't mean Eller is a good player offensively.
It doesn't mean that Eller don'T lack of vision or his prone to brain farts.
It doesn't mean a whole lot like most stats.......

But it does say this: Eller isn't preventing shots from being taken by his linesmates when he's on the ice, in fact there's more shots when he is on the ice

Is every shots missed, stopped, hit the post or blocked is all on Eller?

There getting their chances, they don't finished them (Eller is still the best finisher on that line and he shouldn't be IMO).

Many takes his lack of assists as actual prove that he doesn't create offense.....SAT says totally the contrary.

 

[Stan]

I'm always amazed by how the board doesn't seem to change whether we're last in the league or first.

Don't ever change HFBoards