GDT: WCQF - Game #2 Avs host Preds @ 7:30 p.m. MT | on TNT, SN360, SNE, TVAS, ALT, BSSO

[LOFIN]

This is why I have a problem with advanced stats, you look at that and you think G was a force. For the most part what he did was skate up the left side boards, run out of room and then get rid of the puck to whoever is close. I think he’s still hampered by something, even when he does his spin it seems like an absolute chore. He’s displaying some tunnel vision out there.

This is why advanced stats are great. You can use them to pump up the tires of a player you like, and then disregard them because like they say: "There are lies, damned lies and statistics".

 

[chet1926]

We'll that's about a dominant 2-1 game that you'll ever see.

Without a horseshoe shoved up Ingram's ass that could have result been a carbon copy of the other nights 7-2 whipping or worse. Nashville really can't expect to rely on that kind of goaltending moving forward. It just not realistic.

That was very much a game we would have lost years previously. But we stayed mentally focused, never made the big mistake, and never let up. Games like that can be frustrating but we found a way to win and that's all that matters.

 

[Ararana]

This is why I have a problem with advanced stats, you look at that and you think G was a force. For the most part what he did was skate up the left side boards, run out of room and then get rid of the puck to whoever is close. I think he’s still hampered by something, even when he does his spin it seems like an absolute chore. He’s displaying some tunnel vision out there.

Pretty much, you have to find a balance of stats and eye test. Girard put up good numbers but was easily their worst defenseman last night IMO.

I'm really concerned about him in round 2 against a team that doesn't suck ass. I just do not believe he's a top four defenseman on a team with cup aspirations. If Byram didn't miss half the year with concussion issues I don't think Girard would even be in the top four right now. Bednar is playing it safe there with the guy he knows more.

I'm really liking the Bo-EJ third pairing, I'm not advocating breaking them up, but Girard needs get better as the playoffs go on.

 

[The Shermanator]

G definitely looks slower and less confident. His Tornades used to be sweet.

 

[chet1926]

Anyone trying to defend Girard at this point is simply not watching the games. Easily the worst dman we had last night and it wasn't really close. Every time he was out I held my breath a little. Luckily Manson has stepped it up and is playing big boy hockey covering up Girard.

The attrocious decision on the only goal against, what the f*** was he thinking on that? You're a dman skate backwards and play defense. You do that it's a virtually harmless 2v2. Hell he might of even just got the puck and cleared it as it very well could have bounced where Trenin couldn't get it. Realistically doing what he did slowed it down so Trenin could get it.

On top of that he just physically dominated and takes hits like it's his job. Virtually no offense. That Vegas series broke him. I'd be trading him this offseason. Before his value absolutely plummets.

 

[JoeSakic13]

The games been over for hours and he’s still shooting. What a legend.

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

I think Girard has been fine. He's clearly being targeted because he is small and I think he's coped pretty well so far, he's done his job. The narrative before the playoffs was that he would be destroyed under the pressure, but he really hasn't. He's been coping alright. Is he playing the best? No, not really, but given the circumstances of facing the most physical team in the league I think he's doing just fine.

 

[Iceberg]

I blame Graves for that goal...

 

[Perratrooper]

Soooo do we take Burakovsky out of the lineup? I get that he has an X factor when he’s on, but my god he is making terrible offensive decisions. The shot in OT gave me flashbacks to Ryan Graves last season. We have Newhook and Cogliano in the wings and I thought LOC was better than Bura.

 

[shadow1]

I think Girard has been fine. He's clearly being targeted because he is small and I think he's coped pretty well so far, he's done his job. The narrative before the playoffs was that he would be destroyed under the pressure, but he really hasn't. He's been coping alright. Is he playing the best? No, not really, but given the circumstances of facing the most physical team in the league I think he's doing just fine.

I know Nashville didn't have a lot of shots (26), but Girard and Manson were only on the ice together for 2 shots against. Obviously one of those went in and it was Girard's fault, but it was a somewhat fluky play.

Girard's corsi against was only 9, which matches the eye test - the Avs had the puck most of the time he was on the ice. I'm not going to complain about that.

 

[The Shermanator]

Outside of his one boneheaded play that lead to the goal I didn't notice him as a negative.

 

[chet1926]

Soooo do we take Burakovsky out of the lineup? I get that he has an X factor when he’s on, but my god he is making terrible offensive decisions. The shot in OT gave me flashbacks to Ryan Graves last season. We have Newhook and Cogliano in the wings and I thought LOC was better than Bura.

This is a tough call, and won't ever happen. Bura has been rough all season. If you think Newhook or Cogs are subbing for him you clearly don't know Bednar. I don't think he's ever straight benched him.

 

[chet1926]

I know Nashville didn't have a lot of shots (26), but Girard and Manson were only on the ice together for 2 shots against. Obviously one of those went in and it was Girard's fault, but it was a somewhat fluky play.

Girard's corsi against was only 9, which matches the eye test - the Avs had the puck most of the time he was on the ice. I'm not going to complain about that.

It wasn't a fluky play, it was a simple play, that Girard turned into an adventure by making a boneheaded decision. If this had been Graves or Cole or someone like that making that play we'd be all over them for it.

Girard is being propped up by Manson who is playing very solid hockey.

Not to mention the fact that through 2 games the Avs are dominating play, so realistically it's tough for anyone to look truly bad.

But I'd say G and Rantanen have easily been the two worst players compared to expectations.

 

[Perratrooper]

This is a tough call, and won't ever happen. Bura has been rough all season. If you think Newhook or Cogs are subbing for him you clearly don't know Bednar. I don't think he's ever straight benched him.

I’m not saying it will, but my god that’s gotta be in the back of Bednar’s mind. I understand wanting to allow Burakovsky to get going in an earlier round with the hope that he get be hot moving forward, but the way he’s playing right now he’ll end up costing us more games than winning them.

 

[Polite HKYDiscussion]

This is a tough call, and won't ever happen. Bura has been rough all season. If you think Newhook or Cogs are subbing for him you clearly don't know Bednar. I don't think he's ever straight benched him.

Bura also has the intangible "veteran with playoff experience". I don't think he'll get benched.

I think we should go back to the OG top 6 of:

92/29/96
13/91/95.

The third line has not been great and when Nashville has home ice, Bednar won't be able to get them the favourable match ups.

We might have to go with a 3rd line Lehkonen/ JTC/ Newhook (or Sturm if Cogs comes back to the 4th line)

 

[PAZ]

I’m not saying it will, but my god that’s gotta be in the back of Bednar’s mind. I understand wanting to allow Burakovsky to get going in an earlier round with the hope that he get be hot moving forward, but the way he’s playing right now he’ll end up costing us more games than winning them.

Against Nashville there’s no chance he’s taken out. If the Avs are up a few goals in the last game of the series, I expect Bednar will do everything he can to get Bura going.

I think he’ll get some leeway in the 2nd round too unless the team needs a shakeup. If the Avs make it to the WCF and Bura is still ass that’s where I think Newhook might slot in.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Nashville mustered up only 3 shots on goal in Girard’s nearly 18 minutes of even strength ice time. The decision on the goal stunk because it was a great read, but you have to make the play if you go down to your knee. That being said, Nashville literally did nothing with G on the ice last night beyond that. I don’t know what more you want from him defensively. He took hits but kept going and moving the puck forward. I think he can improve in the offensive zone, if anything, but in his own zone, he was fine.

 

[Richard88]

Bura also has the intangible "veteran with playoff experience". I don't think he'll get benched.

I think we should go back to the OG top 6 of:

92/29/96
13/91/95.

The third line has not been great and when Nashville has home ice, Bednar won't be able to get them the favourable match ups.

We might have to go with a 3rd line Lehkonen/ JTC/ Newhook (or Sturm if Cogs comes back to the 4th line)

Hynes held the Duchene line out for a shift in OT to then match them against our 3rd line of Burakovsky-Compher-NAK and it worked as they got a good shift with a prime scoring opportunity just before the Makar goal on the next shift. Gotta think he'll try to do that again on home ice so ideally Bednar tries to mitigate that by balancing lines a bit, something like this:

Landeskog -- Mackinnon -- Rantanen
Nichuskin ------ Kadri ----- Burakovsky
Lehkonen ------ Sturm ---- Compher
Cogliano ------- Helm ----- O'Connor

That would be a good way to mitigate Nashville having the last change, as the 3rd line would be MUCH improved defensively. If Hynes wants to target the 3rd line they could very well get shut down by Lehkonen and Sturm and thereby leave our top 2 lines to feast on their middle 6 with both lines carrying offensive threat.

 

[shadow1]

Bednar is once again out thinking himself with his playoff lines.

Kadri + Landeskog does not work and has never worked. We know who Burakovsky is, and we know he won't play well with Aube-Kubel and Compher. Kadri had a career season centering Burakovsky and Nichushkin; that trio needs to be re-united.

Every post-season, without fail, Bednar breaks up the top line to try to spread the scoring, and it never works. Just take a look at this:

	Regular Season	Post-Season
2019	Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen Kerfoot-Compher-Wilson Nieto-Soderberg-Calvert Bourque-Jost-Andrighetto/Brassard	Landeskog-MacKinnon-Kerfoot Wilson-Soderberg-Rantanen Nieto-Compher-Calvert Bourque-Jost-Brassard
2020	Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen Burakovsky-Kadri-Nichushkin Namestikov-Compher-Donskoi Nieto-Bellemare-Calvert	Namestikov-MacKinnon-Rantanen Landeskog-Kadri-Nichushkin Burakovsky-Compher-Donskoi Nieto-Bellemare-Calvert
2021	Landeskog-MacKinnon-Rantanen Saad-Kadri-Burakovsky Nichushkin-Jost-Donskoi O'Connor-Bellemare-Compher	Saad-MacKinnon-Rantanen Landeskog-Compher-Nichushkin Burakovsky-Jost-O'Connor Newhook-Bellemare-Donskoi

This is the fourth year in a row Bednar's broken up the best line in hockey in the post-season. They re-united at the end of Game 2, so maybe there's hope.

 

[Pokecheque]

Apart from one terrible mistake, Girard was perfectly fine in last night’s game.

If there’s a guy I’d like to see get going, it’s Nichushkin. His play has been fine but offensively he hasn’t done much. Whiffing or missing on too many shots.

 

[chet1926]

Nashville mustered up only 3 shots on goal in Girard’s nearly 18 minutes of even strength ice time. The decision on the goal stunk because it was a great read, but you have to make the play if you go down to your knee. That being said, Nashville literally did nothing with G on the ice last night beyond that. I don’t know what more you want from him defensively. He took hits but kept going and moving the puck forward. I think he can improve in the offensive zone, if anything, but in his own zone, he was fine.

You do realize that there are 2 dmen on the ice and Manson is playing well and is the one sheltering G.

Not to mention they aren't really getting the Duchene/Forsberg matchup. Which is the only really dangerous offensive matchup. It also helps that entire team has controlled play, so there hasn't been tons of action in our own end.

It will be interesting to see G in Nashville. I would assume that Hynes will want Duchene and Forsberg out against G/Manson. If Girard holds his own without favorable matchups then I'll start laying off him. But he deserves what he getting this year he has regressed horridly this year. Not even close to what he was playing at years previous.

 

[chet1926]

Apart from one terrible mistake, Girard was perfectly fine in last night’s game.

If there’s a guy I’d like to see get going, it’s Nichushkin. His play has been fine but offensively he hasn’t done much. Whiffing or missing on too many shots.

Rantanen??? Rants has easily been the worst forward compared to expectations. Lots of fumbled pucks, missed nets/fanned shots, and his skating has been lazier/weaker than usual.

We are going to need him to figure his shit out quickly. We need him to be a force out there and he is kind of floating right now.

 

[missionAvs]

So glad Bednar didn't take my advice and ice McDermaid. LOC, Helm and Sturm killed it tonight. 4th line needs more ice time. We should break up the Kadri line though; need more offensive punch there.

Agreed. Part of me still wants to see MacDermid beat some ass but I have to say that Bednar does appear to be playing it right now far.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

You do realize that there are 2 dmen on the ice and Manson is playing well and is the one sheltering G.

Not to mention they aren't really getting the Duchene/Forsberg matchup. Which is the only really dangerous offensive matchup. It also helps that entire team has controlled play, so there hasn't been tons of action in our own end.

It will be interesting to see G in Nashville. I would assume that Hynes will want Duchene and Forsberg out against G/Manson. If Girard holds his own without favorable matchups then I'll start laying off him. But he deserves what he getting this year he has regressed horridly this year. Not even close to what he was playing at years previous.

You don’t think Girard helps Manson? I know Manson would disagree with that. He’s not the most natural puck mover. That’s what partners do, they help each other out. Watch them on puck retrievals, they’re working in unison.

I don’t really get your point. Girard was +9/-2 in 4:37 against Forsberg. He’s not on the Avs first pairing, yet you want to hold it against him that he’s not being used in that matchup. His numbers were better than any other Avs defenseman last night, regardless of who he was and wasn’t matched up against.

 

[missionAvs]

So ‘umble

Probably had a super disingenuous look on his face while saying this lie.