PavelValerievichDatsyuk

The blame still goes around for me. There's plenty of weak links between the years. Even beyond what we've already talked about. Larkin being significantly worse (13 pt. less production) struggles in center position. Dekeyser (+2 vs -22). Nielsen replacing Dats and playing significantly on the 3rd line. Sheahan's disappearance. New PP coach. And again, PP going from 13th to 27th is not slighty worse. One could just as easily been call that our weakest link. Or one of the other areas. It's not far-fetched to think that if any of these factors was better we could have squeezed into the playoffs.

Again, I'm not arguing that goaltending wasn't worse, but there was definitely other factors and, i think, greater factors. My final pitch on how the Defence was significantly worse than the previous year: - Got rid of Quincey, who was a top 4 guy for us when he left. - Smith only played 33 games. - Marchenko waived after 30sum games so that's 3 guys from the previous year's team that were gone or (smith) played less than half the season. Already it's not the same group - Kronwall played less games and was noticeably worse. halved his point total (26 pt. turned to 13) - Ericsson played only 51 games. Struggled from his wrist injury. So only Green, DK, from the year before played close to a full year. And so we saw around quarter seasons from newbies who didn't play the year before: Sproul (27gp), Russo(19gp), all who showed different levels of struggle and weren't great. Lashoff and Renouf also got brief stints. And for all the talk of Howard being great last year (which he was) he still had a losing record (10-11-1). That suggests to me that a good goalie wouldn't be enough to compensate for a struggling team. And in the later half of the year he was 5-7-1. How much of that is his injury and how much is the team hitting struggles, injuries? As for "PP = worse (slightly? ish?)" (15-16) 18.80 to 15.08 is a significant drop. In 15-16 we were 13th in the league and last year we 27th. Anyway, agree to disagree. Hopefully Daley continues to be a good upgrade, Dk continues to rebound from last year, we stay away from D injuries , Larkin continues to fill the 2C role that I think was lacking last year, and the good goaltending continues.

I just can't see the drop out of the playoff as only due to goaltending. Side note: Saying Smith and Jensen were improvements to the core to counteract concurrently with Kronwall's decline is suspect. Jensen only played 27 games last year and Kronwall's big drop off happened probably 3 years ago. Maybe you could say that Jensen replace Smith when he was traded or maybe a replacement for Quincey late in the season, but that's about it. And Smith's been playing full time since 2013. You could count him as replacing/an improvement over White, but his development while here was never much of a steep trajectory. But anyway were talking about the drop off last year not a larger curve. I didn't mention it before, but also losing Dk's partner in Q (who was very solid the couple years before) - and essentially replacing him with Oulette/Marchenko? last year - was also a significant hit to an already weak D. Plus Smith only played 33 games due to injury. Ericsson and Kronwall played 50 something games to injuries and were nagged by their injuries when they did play. Due to these factors and a subpar year from DK (also Marchenko playing himself off the team), I think the D was probably one of the bigger contributors to missing the playoffs. Anyway, my point is that explaining the change as just due to subpar goaltending is too simplistic. Though Mrazek wasn't good, goaltending never looked high on the list of the team's problems to me. And as I said before I don't think it was a complete switch from the year before when both goalies struggled off an on. Agreed that early mid is important. I think that often because team's lose moral if they're in the basement. Also, team's will trade for help if the team looks promising (or will go with youth if things look bad).

I think that's essentializing too much. Mrazek wasn't good, but I thought the crappy PP, replacing Datsyuk with Nielsen, Kronwall+E's descline, underperforming Larkin+Helm+Abby+etc were more of an impact. Also, the year before last you must be forgetting that 2nd half after Mrazek's great stretch when both Howard and Mrazek were no good and it seemed neither wanted the starting role going into the playoffs. So it wasn't really we went from having good goaltending to having poor goaltanding. Both years had stretches of great goaltending. This good start is great to see, but this happened last year as well. Definitely don't want to be a downer, I don't think we should call this a change yet, since the teams we've beat so far haven't been among the league's best (Ott was Karlsson-less). Then again, I think if Larkin keeps proving himself a capable 2C that gets 2 top lines going (like when Datsyuk was here) and if Daley, Frk, Mantha keep having this positive effect on the PP, and yes good goaltending then the holes from last year could be filled and this success could be sustainable.

Disney!!!

Announcer says our powerplay is one of the best in the league?

Wasn't so bad of a game. Mrazek does some blame because of that horrible goal, but he was really solid mostly. Enjoying seeing Larkin and Mantha getting so much time and doing well with it. I'd definitely keep them together since them building chemistry would be great and give the team offence that isn't dependant on Z. I'd put Abby on the top line (I know some would go crazy over that) and Nyquist on the 3rd. I think that will help both lines.

Or L(A)MF if they're really tearing it up.

In his defence, he was right that he wasn't getting enough icetime since his production blew up as soon as he was traded. The knights even scratched him for those few playoff games, so I can understand him feeling that he was buried in the depth chart with the Knights and wanting to go somewhere else where he could develop his game. I think it would be rare to find drafted OHL players getting scratched in the playoffs - I mean those are the cream of the crop. And the team claiming he was sick rather than scratched seems weird. Maybe they were protecting him from questioning, but it could also be protecting themselves from scrutiny. Anyway, I would hesitate to use this as a previous example of him being difficult. London's coach, Dale Hunter does have a reputation of not getting along with some people. Ask Washington in his one year coaching there, he was also fined for abusing an official off-ice as London's coach and was fined for falsely claiming other coaches ordered their player to injure Max Domi as well as other fines. His character to me is questionable and I wouldn't trust his characterization in this article.

It was all about Jimmy tonight! Other observations: I think we're playing better team defence this year. WItkowski must be a good face puncher because the only times he's been noticable is missing coverage or being slow. Just checked: Apparently he only played 4:36. Think we could give that spot to someone else if we had some cap space.

Yep!

HELM!!! EERRR, I mean FRKK On pace for 82 goals

You get a slash penalty, you get a slash penalty, everybody gets a slash penalty!!!

Good but just had a giveaway short handed that gave a big 2 on 1. DK saved the day. Had some errant passes in game 1 too, but he seems good otherwise.

Surprise, surprise another weak slash

Top Jimmy!!

Was hoping someone else caught that!! haha. Think that was right after the Green calll.

Would you go Green over Carlson, though, if both are real options? Honest question. I haven't followed John Carlson enough to know what style he plays or how much money he'll demand. I have really liked Green - he was our best D man last year, imo, and he's not that old, so I'd definitely be on board with bringing him back on another short term deal (though we should absolutely trade him at the deadline). But Carlson's 27 and has similar point production last year (and Carlson takes the 2 years before that). I've seen that he's on Washington's 2nd pair - Is he not a top pairing guy? That would be a deal breaker since I think Green has handled top pair duty (just needs a more steady partner).

..and the flaccid horn.... Nice game. Having Green and Daley on the point will be good for puck movement Frk's shot is responsible for 2 goals. 1 on the powerplay (I think it was Buppy who was s***ting the idea that he could help out the PP) Maybe just a special game for the guy on his birthday, but if we see more like that, it could be a useful piece. FML was frking my life quite nicely. Larkin looks like he's finding his way at center despite some errant passes. Top line seems to be lacking something. I'm always against Tats and Nyquist on the 1st line together. I'd put some speed or size instead of one of those guys. Maybe about 1.9-2.25 million worth of something...

Helm with the hip!!!

Daley's looking like he'll be good for the power play.

Well, that PP sucked... Everybody standing still at the blueline while the last guy skates it in doesn't seem like an effective strategy for getting in the zone.

What????

LIke the work between Larkin and Mantha

You said famous; not anything about artistic worth.