expatriatedtexan
Habitual Line Stepper
- Aug 17, 2005
- 16,918
- 12,573
Small sample size at the beginning against Eastern teams.
The AVs are good...and are a bubble team at worst. They are missing a couple of key things though...
1. Biggest need is another top 4 dman (top 2 would be best since Hejda isn't getting any younger.) The D currently has a good top pairing but is filled with good guys who are average at best from there on. Most of them belong on the bottom pairing or at the least should be paired with a better player in the second pairing.
2. Top 9 forwards all pass and don't drive hard enough to the net. They really need someone to step up in this regards if they want to get ugly goals which are necessary and count just as much as pretty ones. The AVs are too easy to box out.
3. New coach with a new game plan gave us an advantage...after a month teams started to know what to expect and were able to coach ways to compensate for what Roy was cooking. The AVs simply don't have the skill/maturity yet to demand/force the other team to play their game.
4. Tanguay's injury. I've always loved the kid even if I was so damn perplexed by his ability to always be offsides during his first stint here but he really was the straw that stirred the offensive drink. He gave us three lines that could all score. With him out of the lineup the AVs have had to go to two scoring lines and Bordy. When Bordy is off his game and not scoring the AVs are adrift.
5. Power play is a complete joke. There might not be another franchise in NHL history who has hard as hard a time gaining the zone and maintaining possession of the puck while on the man-advantage. Once the AVs achieve those goals...they simply keep passing until they lose possession because of number 2.
Still...very bright future ahead of these kids. They need to develop more of a bulldog mentality on the top two lines or bring in a player that can fill that role but offensively I think they'll be fine once MacKinnon is able to slow things down a bit. So hard to believe he's only 18 years old still. Tanguay being injured really threw him out of his protected/growing role as a third line center and into a top line winger role. I don't want to blame kids that were cut from the team but not being able to call up Hishon/Sgarbossa to fill needs has hurt this team. They need more scoring depth options from the AHL when injuries hit.
The AVs are good...and are a bubble team at worst. They are missing a couple of key things though...
1. Biggest need is another top 4 dman (top 2 would be best since Hejda isn't getting any younger.) The D currently has a good top pairing but is filled with good guys who are average at best from there on. Most of them belong on the bottom pairing or at the least should be paired with a better player in the second pairing.
2. Top 9 forwards all pass and don't drive hard enough to the net. They really need someone to step up in this regards if they want to get ugly goals which are necessary and count just as much as pretty ones. The AVs are too easy to box out.
3. New coach with a new game plan gave us an advantage...after a month teams started to know what to expect and were able to coach ways to compensate for what Roy was cooking. The AVs simply don't have the skill/maturity yet to demand/force the other team to play their game.
4. Tanguay's injury. I've always loved the kid even if I was so damn perplexed by his ability to always be offsides during his first stint here but he really was the straw that stirred the offensive drink. He gave us three lines that could all score. With him out of the lineup the AVs have had to go to two scoring lines and Bordy. When Bordy is off his game and not scoring the AVs are adrift.
5. Power play is a complete joke. There might not be another franchise in NHL history who has hard as hard a time gaining the zone and maintaining possession of the puck while on the man-advantage. Once the AVs achieve those goals...they simply keep passing until they lose possession because of number 2.
Still...very bright future ahead of these kids. They need to develop more of a bulldog mentality on the top two lines or bring in a player that can fill that role but offensively I think they'll be fine once MacKinnon is able to slow things down a bit. So hard to believe he's only 18 years old still. Tanguay being injured really threw him out of his protected/growing role as a third line center and into a top line winger role. I don't want to blame kids that were cut from the team but not being able to call up Hishon/Sgarbossa to fill needs has hurt this team. They need more scoring depth options from the AHL when injuries hit.
