bustaheims
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All 7 Canadian teams in the bottom 9. It's a sad year for NHL fans up here.
2015-2016 NHL Thread
- Thread starter Peter D.
- Start date
bustaheims
Active member
CarltonTheBear said:
I figured they'd sink without Price, but maybe not to this extent. The thing is, they might be the only team in the league with less offensive depth than the Leafs. They really do have a pretty sad roster that was being bolstered by the best goalie on the planet.
GhostofPotvin29
New member
CarltonTheBear said:
They could also be in the running for A. Nylander, which would certainly add another level to future Leafs-Habs games.
Potvin29 said:
Not French enough. Gauthier's probably their guy in that spot.
GhostofPotvin29
New member
CarltonTheBear said:
Louis Leblanc!
bustaheims said:
They have some good pieces. Pacioretty, Gallagher, Plekanec, and Galchenyuk are all top-6 forwards, while Pacioretty is probably the only legitimate 1st liner the others are high-end 2nd liners. Eller and Fleischmann should form 2/3 of a good checking line. They have one of the best defencemen in the league plus Petry, Beaulieu, and Gilbert are all good 2nd/3rd pairing guys. I'm not really sure how to judge Markov at this point because of his age but I don't think he's terrible now or anything like that.
Their biggest problems are a massive over-reliance on guys like Dale Weiss, David Desharnais, and Alexei Emelin, refusing to play Alex Galchenyuk at centre even though there's a lot of evidence he's a better player down the middle, and using a system that benefits all their 4th line grinders instead of their top-6 skilled players.
And of course it also doesn't help that Condon/Tokarski/Scrivens have basically provided Toskala-like goaltending since Price went down. Bergevin really blew it by not acquiring another goalie (who wasn't Scrivens).
WhatIfGodWasALeaf
Active member
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/others/alexander-orekhov-dies-after-being-hit-in-the-neck-by-puck-travelling-at-over-100mph-a6852596.html
Didn't know where else to put this.
Poor kid.
Didn't know where else to put this.
Poor kid.
GhostofPotvin29
New member
bustaheims said:
Aren't they scoring at basically the same rate overall as last season? I can't find where I saw that but I swear I read it today or yesterday.
bustaheims
Active member
Potvin29 said:
On the season, yes, but since the beginning of December, they're averaging ~1.9 goals per game (not including a pair of shootout "goals"). Basically, once Price got injured the 2nd time and it was known he'd be out for an extended period, they started to become exposed for what they really are.
GhostofPotvin29
New member
bustaheims said:
I'm glad. I was sick of hearing them labelled contenders. And hey, maybe they would be with Price in net, and any team would suffer losing their best player. But that doesn't make them a good team.
bustaheims said:
Since December 1st their last in GF and 2nd last in GA. What's odd is that they still have the 3rd best score-adjusted possession rate in the league. They're also dead-last in both shooting and save percentage though, so their PDO is a good 4 points below the 29th ranked team. Not having a NHL-calibre goalie will do that to a team save percentage, but there's probably a bit of bad luck in regards to the shooting percentage.
bustaheims
Active member
CarltonTheBear said:
They have a few good pieces at the top, sure, but, like I said, they lack scoring depth. If you shutdown Pacioretty's line, you basically kill their offence. It's the same on the back-end. They have a number of very reliable, steady guys that aren't going to hurt you, but, outside of the Subban/Markov pairing, there's really no one there to help improve their offensive game. The guys they have might have good possession stats, because they're good shot suppressors and are proficient in causing turnovers, winning puck battles, and getting to loose pucks, but they're not great puckmovers, so the transition game struggles. Pair that with a real lack of secondary scoring options, and . . . well, it's not pretty.
bustaheims
Active member
CarltonTheBear said:
Possibly, but part of it is also lack of talent. I look at that roster, and I see a team that should be producing a shooting percentage that is below average - maybe not quite as bad as it's been for the past couple months, but still near the bottom of the league overall. Goaltending has obviously been their biggest issue, but, even with Price, they'd be a bad team - just one with a good record.
bustaheims said:
Fair enough. Being the full-grown adult that I am I'll accept the fact that two people can have a difference of opinion and not have a complete melt-down over this.
bustaheims
Active member
Potvin29 said:
I don't know if they would be contenders, as much as some of the media would have liked to hype them up to be. I imagine their playoffs would go pretty similar to last season - where they only scored more than 2 goals once in their last 10 games. If they ran into anyone with a reasonable offensive attack, they'd be done.
bustaheims
Active member
CarltonTheBear said:
;D
Bullfrog said:
Subtweeting's pretty fun.
bustaheims
Active member
CarltonTheBear said:
It turns being passive aggressive into an art-form.