101st_fan
I taught Yoda
The hype around Tolvanen depends which distinct series of datapoints and associated reporting people look at. Draft time Tolvanen came with a timeline ... 60 day KHL stud Tolvanen was going to dominate hockey immediately ... every other period of Tolvanen since draft day came with a different development timeline. He's a kid with demonstrated talent ... but still a kid.
Fiala's troubles are where I see the most issues. After the trade for Turris last season we were able to put together two lines with 20+ goal scorers on each wing and centers with mid-teen goal outputs as well. This year has Fiala incapable of doing much right ... pressing too hard, forcing passes that aren't there, simply losing control of the puck, etc ... and as a result playing himself out of a payday he earned based on last season's performance. The next order fallout from that is that we don't have that occasionally dangerous second line with a pair of 20+ goal scorers on the wing. We have Smith and Turris alongside the struggling Fiala which then impacts everyone.
That is before the injuries in the top six. Take Arvy out for over 20 games. Forsberg for 12 and counting. Turris missed 8 games. Fiala's play makes it impossible to just move the next guy up so we saw Hartman on the top line for a while (where he managed to put up some points). Basically, through injury or regression, we've seen 4 of last season's top 6 out of the lineup for significant portions of this season. Johansen and Turris are both on similar goal-scoring paces to the 2017-18 regular season. Johansen is currently on pace for a higher point total than last season while Turris is on a path to just below last year's output (45ish points if he stays healthy and remains on his current season to date points pace even after missing time due to injury).
Looking at our PP is painful. 18 PP goals for the team total. Johansen with 9 PP assists, 0 PP goals. Turris with 3 PP goals, 2 assists. 14 of 18 PP goals with one of them involved ... no points shared between them on any of the PP goals to date (easy to check when we've only scored a PP goal in 14 out of 38 games).
With all of the failings of various eye tests in our play and injuries to our leading goal scorers from last season, we remain a mid-pack 5on5 goal scoring team ... like median, T-16th at 73 ES 5on5 goals. We're not tearing up the scoresheets at ES, but, we haven't fallen off the bottom of the page either. PP scoring is another issue altogether.
That means the issue is how do we replace what Fiala brought to the scoreboard last season? External options get expensive for a second line winger. Deadline prices tend to be overpayment and few teams are moving those type players at this point in the season without something significant heading back. (see Duschene, Turris, Girard/Kamenev) Internally, one of the few realistic options is Hartman. If he can keep producing at his pace so far this season, he puts up a goal count in the upper teens which is respectable.
Fiala's troubles are where I see the most issues. After the trade for Turris last season we were able to put together two lines with 20+ goal scorers on each wing and centers with mid-teen goal outputs as well. This year has Fiala incapable of doing much right ... pressing too hard, forcing passes that aren't there, simply losing control of the puck, etc ... and as a result playing himself out of a payday he earned based on last season's performance. The next order fallout from that is that we don't have that occasionally dangerous second line with a pair of 20+ goal scorers on the wing. We have Smith and Turris alongside the struggling Fiala which then impacts everyone.
That is before the injuries in the top six. Take Arvy out for over 20 games. Forsberg for 12 and counting. Turris missed 8 games. Fiala's play makes it impossible to just move the next guy up so we saw Hartman on the top line for a while (where he managed to put up some points). Basically, through injury or regression, we've seen 4 of last season's top 6 out of the lineup for significant portions of this season. Johansen and Turris are both on similar goal-scoring paces to the 2017-18 regular season. Johansen is currently on pace for a higher point total than last season while Turris is on a path to just below last year's output (45ish points if he stays healthy and remains on his current season to date points pace even after missing time due to injury).
Looking at our PP is painful. 18 PP goals for the team total. Johansen with 9 PP assists, 0 PP goals. Turris with 3 PP goals, 2 assists. 14 of 18 PP goals with one of them involved ... no points shared between them on any of the PP goals to date (easy to check when we've only scored a PP goal in 14 out of 38 games).
With all of the failings of various eye tests in our play and injuries to our leading goal scorers from last season, we remain a mid-pack 5on5 goal scoring team ... like median, T-16th at 73 ES 5on5 goals. We're not tearing up the scoresheets at ES, but, we haven't fallen off the bottom of the page either. PP scoring is another issue altogether.
That means the issue is how do we replace what Fiala brought to the scoreboard last season? External options get expensive for a second line winger. Deadline prices tend to be overpayment and few teams are moving those type players at this point in the season without something significant heading back. (see Duschene, Turris, Girard/Kamenev) Internally, one of the few realistic options is Hartman. If he can keep producing at his pace so far this season, he puts up a goal count in the upper teens which is respectable.
