Personally I don't like the over the top goal celebrations.
First goal, sure. Milestone goal, of course. Big game goal, yeah.
But there's no reason to go goofy every time you score.
Like the old saying goes "act like you've been there before".
Do you think MPS will be getting anywhere near the Rexall ice this year, not to mention the second line? I don't.
Once Yakupovs rookie season is over we can all expect him to act like he has been there before,but for now every goal will be one of those you listed and he has a hockey -god given right to celebrate each and every one of them,in his second year he is expected to harness the excitment and act a bit more veteran about it all.
I dont know what to expect from Ralph{Rolly-friendly nickname-no disrespect}Krueger in terms of system selection or execution,sure we hear fast paced and offensive and energy driven,but what does that all mean??I dont know if our offense will be catalysed out of a fast break mentality or a three controlled transition mentality.
One style allows us to use our "wingers" speed North/South in high speed thrusts and effectively gives the opposition a better chance of controlling our overall momentum and pace and limits our second shot totals off of rebounds.Thats the fast break.The other style allows us to use our overall team speed East/West and North/South,and forces the opposition to deal with our team speed man for man for 60 mins which gives us the terminal advantage,we can force more than one or two guys out of position and expose them then beat them up--and it gives us a much higher conversion rate of second shots or rebound control.
If we want to use the old Oilers"desperation" fast break we were forced to use when we only had one or two star players then we will see Hartikainen racing upice to get to the front of the net to have a shot at the rebound off of the rushing winger,one crack at it as he is arriving if the timing is perfect and he doesnt get snuffed in the middle.Maybe krueger is comfortable with that mindset as his experience really seems to have been born of desperation constantly playing better teams and trying to find ways to navigate through the cracks in opposition systems by keeping to sound basics and trying to be ultra-reactive.I hope to god this isnt the case,Sather had balls of steel and he used his assets in every way he could fearlessly.
If we use a controlled 3 transition style we will see more give and gos and more plays that involve the entire line,all the stickyhands will touch the puck more ,we will see many opportunitys to dismantle opposition systems.The controlled transitional style allows us to draw the opposition to us as opposed to running away from them on the breakout.This means we increase our chances to force them into mistakes three times over,we also end up entering the o=zone in a much more unified uniform controlled fashion which will give us a much higher percentage of o-zone possesions to shopts and second shots because our personel will be in the right places at the right times to collectively dominate the o-zone with numbers when the rebound is presented.There is a major tactical issue involving shooting the puck that sits between these two styles.One style gives you 40+shots per game and one gives you 30 shots per game.One lets you pick corners and one lets you flood the tender with multi-faceted shot attacks.One lets the goaltender control momentum and one removes the goaltender from the equation much as Sam Gagner did in his big night and much like LA did last year to every goaltender they faced.
MMMmm,I dont "expect"to see MPS starting on the second line,I pray he does.The only saving grace is as i said earlier,Ralph is ultra-reactive in my opinion and he will not ride a losing horse for every long its against his survival instincts--he learned to be a mover and a sticker to survive. I expect Krueger will try to design his system around his tools as best he can first before he realises he needs to put his tools to work how he wants within his system,there is a big difference in those two approaches.One is like the last ten years,and one is NewAge and embraces an evolving crew and NHL on many levels.
The only question I have is if we can recover from this critical starting dynamic fast enough to remain competative this year in the shortened season.
I think Ralph will go with Hartikainen to start with based on the tools decide how you build the house outlook ,and then after we choke for maybe 5 or 6 games we will see the pressure cranked up on a rookie coach n the NHL and we will see MPS take his spot and a switch over to a controlled 3 transition type of game which will render Harti what he is ,an energy guy and thats it for now.My money says it was MPS supporting Hartikainens on ice improvments and I believe if harti goes back to the AHL he will fade back,while MPS will get better with the increased workload and responsibility,in my opinion MPS anchored the Barons second line which gave them the secondary defense first scoring they needed to allow their 1st line to play the way they did.The exact same way I believe we need him to anchor the second line in the NHL,we need to ease the pressure on Yakupov create a double-headed shooting threat and allow Gagner to shoot nearly as much or as much as Yak does,this means they need a defensive anchor and that is Magnus,sorry folks it isnt Harti,he might fit as a first line energy guy during an 82 game schedule but his offense will not materialis fast enough from the 2nd line and we will need to adjust quickly or begin the good old spiral yet again.
I can see how people misinterpret Hartikainens ability to contribute,but they may not be seeing the dynamic situation clearly.
I am having my very first twinge over Krueger,as i am seeing him make moves that are reminiscant of a survivalist mentality not a dominance mentality,and I am hoping that this isnt a trademark of his resume.
The MPS question is and was never a question,and Magnus is not a Ryan Jones who surprised everyone and continues to evolve,MPS comes with a guarantee and we arent seeing that aknowledged,he comes ready made and instead our coaching staff is trying to make something out of an energy guy like Harti,MPS can put up Hartis numbers any day on any line but Harti may never posess magnuses defensive awareness and abilitys.To me this is a major issue of player evaluation and application that is a red flag. Remember these words from hartikainen "I have nothing left to prove in the AHL""remember those words because first of all he is full of crap and second of all had MPS or anyone else even uttered those words we would be all over them---jeepers--even Jordan Eberle the league points leader and J Shultz the number two man NEVER had that attitude.I am calling this one early and hard--we will pay a price if we start Harti and not MPS and it might be a season long type of price."Houston--we have a problem....."BadMedicine seems to be needed already and we havent even begun the season.
