GDT: Silver Knights

[MinJaBen]

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[Svechhammer]

 

[chaz4hockey]

Alright well, that was fun. The last 2 min took some of the shine off of it, but overall best game of the season.

Having Svech back is big. 11-7 was working but Tripp brought up an interesting point that perhaps 11-7 was preventing some of the chemistry that could cause more of the offensive creativity we saw today (idk how much I buy it, but it's a theory). PP didn't suffer without TDA - maybe we need TDA to come in and spark the PP when it loses its shine, but PP1 looked the same with Burns last night as it did with TDA the last few games. Aho is the one stirring the drink on that unit right now, not necessarily the dman.

Noesen continues to be my favorite player. Love the way he finds passes around the net: no look, weirdly contorted around his body, etc. He's clearly got good, simple hockey sense in the ozone. Whatever line he's on seems to get a boost.

Biggest story though was the Staal line. Fast to Staal was beautiful, but perhaps even more encouraging was their followup shift to that goal. You can tell there was a mindset shift - a lot more passes above the goalline, a bit less cycling while not completely moving away from it as their bread and butter. This dynamic seemed to happen to the whole team but especially this line - they picked their head up and looked for offensive plays in the offensive zone, and it worked out for them.

Kochetkov looked amazing, to the point where I started wondering if the goaltending is solved, and then gave those last 2 min just to remind me that it probably isn't completely solved yet. That said, he looked great all game and for 58 minutes goaltending was simply not the story. That's all this team needs.

Was good to see Kotkaniemi get the monkey off his back. I don't think he'd looked nearly as bad as 1g 0a in 10 games or whatever it was, but he's definitely faded back into more of the "don't notice me good or bad" role that we saw in the first half of last year. Hopefully this wakes him up. I saw that it was his first ever NHL game in front of his grandparents so that's a good game to get on the scoresheet.

I didn't think he looked especially dangerous or gamechanging, but Michael Bunting walked away with 3 points and the #1 star. That's kinda what we were hoping we signed - not a gamebreaker but an efficient cleanup scorer. Hope this is a springboard to his season as well.




Overall, psyched about this. I frankly was approaching watching this game with a bit of a pit in my stomach. This is the type of game you could look back at and say it was a turning point.

Great post!

I can stomach losses when the team plays good and when they play great and win it's special. Last night was special.

Team is now 9th in PP% (23.9%) and tied with Colorado and just 1 behind Edmonton for number of PP goals (26).

Also, the team in now 13th in PK % at 81.4% and at their current kill rate should vault into top 5 by year's end (96.5% PK last 10 games).

 

[The Faulker 27]

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

4 straight great games from Pyotr, 3 wins and 1 shootout loss. Keep riding him man, when he's in a groove and confident he's a legit starter in the NHL. Stats would look even better if not for the 2 late meaningless goals after the game was already decided last night. Not as worried about our goaltending now with Pyotr stepping up and the positive Freddie news.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I mean, facts are facts. #CancelTheWave

 

[Canes]

I mean, facts are facts. #CancelTheWave

Wow we beat the reigning, defending Cup chumps by 3 by doing the wave. Sign me up for the rest of the season. Helps me out with the boredom when we have 40 shots and only 2 goals.

 

[Nikishin Go Boom]

Pyotr is a top 5 goalie in december, not so much the rest of the season

 

[Joe McGrath]

I don’t think it should be understated that the first period effort of PK won this game. How many games this year did a backbreaking shorthanded and/or late period goal swing momentum and cause them to chase the game?

Now generally that’s just the goalie doing his job, but that’s been tough to come by this season. He’s 15th in the league in GAA which seems impossible with a sub .900 sv% but here we are.

 

[Blueline Bomber]

I don’t think it should be understated that the first period effort of PK won this game. How many games this year did a backbreaking shorthanded and/or late period goal swing momentum and cause them to chase the game?

Now generally that’s just the goalie doing his job, but that’s been tough to come by this season. He’s 15th in the league in GAA which seems impossible with a sub .900 sv% but here we are.

Yeah, it turns out having competent special teams makes it easier to win games. It's a wonder that we've never tried it before

 

[Joe McGrath]

Yeah, it turns out having competent special teams makes it easier to win games. It's a wonder that we've never tried it before

I was referring to PK the goalie, but yes going 6 for 6 on special teams certainly helps.

 

[Canes]

And both of you are wrong. The spirit of Peter Karmanos is the real deal.

 

[Canes]

Ok, that was harsh for trolling please forgive me

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

I mean, facts are facts. #CancelTheWave

The wave is bad, but it's not nearly as bad as starting to sing along to Bon Jovi...

 

[AhosDatsyukian]

Yeah, it turns out having competent special teams makes it easier to win games. It's a wonder that we've never tried it before

Well we have tried it before in the regular season...

PK since Rod took over as HC is #1 in the league in that timeframe at 84.4%. Next highest is Boston at 84.0 then SJS at 82.1.

PP is 11th since he took over, at 21.4% ahead of Vegas (recent Cup winner) and Pittsburgh (a lot of star power)


Playoffs, however, we stop trying for some reason...
(some small sample sizes from other teams that make the stats somewhat less reliable)

PK is 21st out of 28th at a pitiful 76.4%
PP is 26th out of 28th at a more pitiful 14.2%


Of course you only go up against good teams in the playoffs so some drop off in both should be expected compared to regular season average, but that drop off is just egregiously bad. Not sure what the reason is but if our special teams in the playoffs was even remotely close to our regular season capabilities we could have a Cup or 2 by now honestly.