Oilfan2
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- Aug 12, 2005
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Player Discussion Todd McLellan
- Thread starter Del Preston
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CantHaveTkachev
Legends
Meh, he played with McDavid and Nuge a fair amount last season, and Draisaitl played most of the year on the top line. I don't remember too many people calling for that combo until this season.
Plenty of people were calling for him to get top 6 time. He performed well when given top six time, but McLellan got it in his head that Jesse has to learn to be a checker about 20 games into last season and continued that train of thought until half way through yesterday’s game.
I have been yelling for him to get time with Drai since the start of last season. But it seemed the biggest Drai fans were also the biggest Jesse detractors and didn’t want Drai saddled with a linemate that would, in their opinion, drag him down.
MessierII
Registered User
- Aug 10, 2011
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oobga
Tier 2 Fan
- Aug 1, 2003
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Not with Rattie playing the point against our PK in practice. He's our secret weapon to perfect the craft.
The PP and the PK both look pretty poor still.
Letting McDavid skate his way to a goal isn't a real PP set up.
Letting McDavid skate his way to a goal isn't a real PP set up.
Bryanbryoil
Pray For Ukraine
- Sep 13, 2004
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Burnt Biscuits
Registered User
- May 2, 2010
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This is the first season Jesse looked ready to make an honest push into the top 6, his first season he simply wasn't NHL quality (he wasn't even a particularly good AHL player for that matter), his second season he battled inconsistency the entire time, I don't even know if he was a capable 3rd line winger on the whole.
Time and time again people bitch about playing a young skilled player more, whether that's Gagner, Yakupov, or heck even Schremp all these fanboys just want skill to play with no discernible eye for the quality of the player or an ability to discern what level their play/game is presently at or honestly assess the weaknesses in their game. Jesse hasn't been hard done by aside from PP time, he's got more than he has deserved at every point in his NHL career, up until this season which we are only 4 games into BTW.
Burnt Biscuits
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- May 2, 2010
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My general thoughts 4 games into the season:
- I'm not as extreme as some wanting Benning sent to the AHL, but he needs to be removed from the regular D rotation, I wouldn't let him suit up again till someone drops the ball badly or an injury occurs (and even then I might think of calling up Bear to play).
- Nurse seems like he is ready to make a push to be the best d-man on the team, though I expect Klef to get progressively better as he shakes off the rust and becomes more confident his shoulder will hold up.
- Russell is a respectable and solid d-man, but I'm become rather aggravated that he always needs to corral the puck and survey the situation or makes unnecessary D to D passes, when a head man pass for a quick transition is directly infront of him. He seriously stunts our ability to launch a quick counter attack, I'd take a very lateral D trade just for someone with better puck moving ability, cause I think stylistically we need more of that element rather badly, even if we become worse at defending (which is also a problem).
- Brodziak hasn't looked particularly good to me, I don't think he's getting enough done 5 on 5 and I'd consider rotating him out on a game to game basis, with Khaira subbing in at center as needed.
- I've been hard on Caggiula in the past, but this season I've been fairly happy with his play, he's playing a more gritty energy kind of role and has even agitated a bit. That isn't to say I want him seeing top 6 ice-time like McLellan likes to do, but on the 4th line I think he adds a nice element.
- Lucic needs to be taken off the 1st unit PP, he just isn't doing enough as a net front presence, despite his size he just isn't taking the goalies line of sight away like he needs to. On the whole though I have to say Lucic looks to be playing better this year, good for him putting in the work over the summer.
- Our ability to break out is critical for this team, I want either Bear or Bouchard suiting up every single night.
- I think this team has a skill deficiency and its ability to produce offense outside of McDavid is worrying, I want Chiasson playing more often than not, cause I think he brings a little more skill to our 4th line.
With all respect, I disagree with your view. As your opinion is so strong I guess me putting a strong opinion in is fine, too.
First season he struggled at the end, when he sat between the games and played low minutes in lower lines. Until that his season was fine and stats-wise he was ahead of many other players in the team. It's impossible to fight about a matter of taste, but based on those stats and what was written on this forum it'd be very hard to say he at least before the last stretch of games was the worst forward of the team. I am sure you would be very suprised if you went through the old messages and media articles.
At the beginning of the last season, if he wasn't ready to make a push to top6 I don't think any winger was. Like I wrote even until the end of March he was the best scoring winger of the team, earlier he was even among the best scorers/60 in the NHL. Towards the end of the season things started to get more and more quiet. The end of the season might've been different if he'd been allowed to stay longer with Drai after the great game they had together.
Like I said I say this with respect and I'm not going to start arguing about this, just wanted to write this.
I happened to have these ready so a bit of stats to hopefully back my view about Puljujarvi being an NHL caliber player for quite a while in his 1st season and making a top6 push at the first weeks of his 2nd season:
Dec 9 2016:
Stats/60 minutes:
Assists/60: 2nd (in the team)
Primary/1st assists/60: 1st
(* was the 1st in the NHL in this one after the season)
Points/60: 3rd
Corsi/60: 4th
(no success with scoring goals so bad in that one)
Total stats:
Assists: 4th (tied with Nuge)
Primary assists: 2nd
+-: 4th
December 2017:
Goals/60: 1st
+-: 1st (at some point dropped to 3rd)
Combined corsi: 1st
Even strength scoring chances: 2nd
Edmonton Journal player grade average: 1st (while he had been up)
Now I'll quit this here. I don't mean to be annoying, but couldn't resist sorry.
Dec 9 2016:
Stats/60 minutes:
Assists/60: 2nd (in the team)
Primary/1st assists/60: 1st
(* was the 1st in the NHL in this one after the season)
Points/60: 3rd
Corsi/60: 4th
(no success with scoring goals so bad in that one)
Total stats:
Assists: 4th (tied with Nuge)
Primary assists: 2nd
+-: 4th
December 2017:
Goals/60: 1st
+-: 1st (at some point dropped to 3rd)
Combined corsi: 1st
Even strength scoring chances: 2nd
Edmonton Journal player grade average: 1st (while he had been up)
Now I'll quit this here. I don't mean to be annoying, but couldn't resist sorry.
If you look at his play and stats while playing top 6 minutes last season you’ll see that they are actually quite good. He was regularly benched and demoted after his strongest games last season with zero logical explanation. To say that he’s gotten more than he deserves at every point so far in his NHL career is stupidity.
bobbythebrain
Registered User
- Jul 30, 2016
- 13,553
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TM stated last season he wants JP to be a line driver and possess more of a complete game. By the looks of it, he is putting it together slowly but surely, using his body and better on the forecheck. Also, based on the current situation, Drai shows he can't carry a line himself yet.
Seems the progress is happening, just too slow for some to handle
Like another poster mentioned, aside from the PP, JP has been handled just fine, getting looks everywhere. Those McD points he accumulated looked way more Yakish than what Rattie is doing thus far
Seems the progress is happening, just too slow for some to handle
Like another poster mentioned, aside from the PP, JP has been handled just fine, getting looks everywhere. Those McD points he accumulated looked way more Yakish than what Rattie is doing thus far
Thanks for posting this. Just shows exactly how stupid people are who claim that he has gotten more than he deserves for his entire career. It’s plain to see that Jesse got the shaft hard from McLellan last season after December.
Up the Irons
Registered User
it seems easy to critique TMac's use of Pulju, but if u think about it, a 20 year old coming into his own after a year in the A and a cautious year in the Chell..... seems about right.... if thats how is ends up happening.
That's how our minds often work if there's no reminders. The problem is there is no stats/right and wrongs for matter of taste, so no matter what the stats look like someone can always be adamant with his view. I'm not always right, either, but in this case the stats should be clear enough to make one rethink some of the harshest opinions.
Some posters just dedicate a lot of time to throwing shade on certain players for some reason with very little to back it up. Nurse was incredible for the first 50ish games last season and there were still some posters that needed to either reference a bad play he made in junior or invent reasons to slag him.
I remember that very clearly. Jesse had got it going very nicely and scored 4 points in 4 games with McD. The board was full of excitement and there had been many positive articles in the media. Already before the games in the 1st line his trend had been positive for a while, and he was actually put with McD quite long after fans suggested that.
Then there was a lot of anger and bewilderment when he was suddenly dropped down (after only a couple of minutes of the 5th game) and then benched. I think that messed up Jesse's head, as did the benching process that started almost immediately. I still wonder what happened there. Anyway, I'll stop this here and go to bed as it's too late again
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