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What kind of a player is Beaulieu?


Meller93

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Feel free to add this to an already existing Beaulieu thread guys, I know it exists but couldn't find it.

 

The latest article on the front page, "The guys who get you through" had me thinking. I feel that many may disagree with me, but I think Beaulieu is that kind of player.

 

For all his woes like his mental lapses, his unpolished defensive game, and yet to be reached offensive potential, I feel that Beaulieu has emerged through everything to have the mentality needed in a winner.

 

Beaulieu will fight for his teammates, even new ones (King), and seems to have the fire of Hades in him when he does it. Beaulieu is pissed off when he can't play because he wants to help his team and keep improving. Beaulieu hits, blocks, sacrifices, and works his ass off. I think he responded the right way to how long it took him to make it to the NHL.

 

For all the trade talk about Beaulieu, this is why I'd rather keep him. In my opinion, he is just one tiny step in his progression from being exactly the kind of player a team needs. Let's not forget he isn't old for a defenceman.

 

I'll be the first to admit that Beaulieu has work to do with his game, but I think he has a few things you can't teach. 

 

But I also feel like there are people who perceive him in a very different way than I do, so I'm interested to know what you guys think about him.

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He ####s up too much. Sorry, you can be a great player but if the team loses because you make one stupid play per game, you need to go (see PK).  For me I would rather they keep Benn protected over him come the expansion draft.  He's always going to be that guy that cripples the team with his brain farts.

 

 

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18 minutes ago, Habs owned the 70's said:

He ####s up too much. Sorry, you can be a great player but if the team loses because you make one stupid play per game, you need to go (see PK).  For me I would rather they keep Benn protected over him come the expansion draft.  He's always going to be that guy that cripples the team with his brain farts.

 

 

I guess that's the question though, will he always be that guy?

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26 minutes ago, Meller93 said:

I guess that's the question though, will he always be that guy?

Sorry but yes, he will be the same player at 28 or 34 that he is now. He simply seems to lack 'hockey IQ' for lack of a better term.

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25 minutes ago, Machine of Loving Grace said:

Skill of a top 4 with the brain of a #7.

 

Maybe coaching was a problem. Maybe he needs a new team with new coaches. Maybe Neidermayer or Housley could fix him. But it ain't happening in Montreal.

JJD may not be the best coach, but I don't think even Larry Robinson could make him a smarter player, but you could be correct?

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Guest Stogey24

As I've said before, he needs to have his feet moving. When he's standing still and making passes, he ends up turning the puck over. 

 

He was a free wheeling d-man in jr. I know he can't do that in the NHL, but when this kid is skating the puck, that's when he's at his best.

 

The same goes for Petry. He needs to be moving his feet to create plays....On that note, I find it pretty funny that there is thread about Beaulieu, meanwhile Petry makes a ton of bone headed plays too. 

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4 minutes ago, Stogey24 said:

As I've said before, he needs to have his feet moving. When he's standing still and making passes, he ends up turning the puck over. 

 

He was a free wheeling d-man in jr. I know he can't do that in the NHL, but when this kid is skating the puck, that's when he's at his best.

 

The same goes for Petry. He needs to be moving his feet to create plays....On that note, I find it pretty funny that there is thread about Beaulieu, meanwhile Petry makes a ton of bone headed plays too. 

 

I think that's one thing I noticed actually. YES sure Beaulieu makes more boneheaded plays than most, but I think once something is noticed we tend to focus on it, and slightly exaggerate it. I'm not denying Beaulieu makes more mistakes than the average defenceman, but that we have a keener eye for it now that he has a reputation. A vicious circle situation. 

 

Like the whole #Hartnelldown thing. Once people started noticing Hartnell falls down a lot, it becames a huge trend. Maybe we see Beaulieu's mistakes because we're used to looking for them, while giving the Markovs, Petrys, Webers etc. Free passes. I've honestly seen looooads of boneheaded moves from all three, and yet we don't focus on them. 

 

I could easily be wrong, but I think Beaulieu still has it in him to be a 4th defenceman/second powerplay guy for years. Petry-like honestly, but with more grit. Petry himself didn't establish himself as top 4 until 2-3 years ago.

 

 

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3 hours ago, Stogey24 said:

As I've said before, he needs to have his feet moving. When he's standing still and making passes, he ends up turning the puck over. 

 

He was a free wheeling d-man in jr. I know he can't do that in the NHL, but when this kid is skating the puck, that's when he's at his best.

 

The same goes for Petry. He needs to be moving his feet to create plays....On that note, I find it pretty funny that there is thread about Beaulieu, meanwhile Petry makes a ton of bone headed plays too. 

I think difference is that, Beaulieu is younger and we all hoped he would be a 1st pairing guy and now are grasping at straws to give him some more rope to show he is a good 1st round pick. Whereas Petry is not a rookie, basically spent a 2nd round pick to get him and I think we know what we will get from him..both good and bad, also he will unlikely change very much next season, so can simply argue is he worth $5m/yr or not I suppose.

 

Benn has been a very pleasant surprise at least and Emelin hasn't been terrible in last game or two.

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3 hours ago, Stogey24 said:

As I've said before, he needs to have his feet moving. When he's standing still and making passes, he ends up turning the puck over. 

 

He was a free wheeling d-man in jr. I know he can't do that in the NHL, but when this kid is skating the puck, that's when he's at his best.

 

The same goes for Petry. He needs to be moving his feet to create plays....On that note, I find it pretty funny that there is thread about Beaulieu, meanwhile Petry makes a ton of bone headed plays too. 

 

i wish Petry had some of Beaulieu's willingness to stickup for teammates...specifically when Price get's pushed around.  

 

Just throwing this out there  ...but why hasn't Beaulieu been paired with Weber?  Or Markov? Or have those experiments happened already? 

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1 minute ago, THE Bobby Orr said:

 

i wish Petry had some of Beaulieu's willingness to stickup for teammates...specifically when Price get's pushed around.  

 

Just throwing this out there  ...but why hasn't Beaulieu been paired with Weber?  Or Markov? Or have those experiments happened already? 

Yes has been paired with Weber, not sure many games/shifts but a good amount I think? And maybe Markov and Beaulieu are two lefties they just cant see working (or Markov had a veto on being paired up with him?).

 

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  • dlbalr changed the title to What kind of a player is Beaulieu?

I spent two years being mocked here because I didn't like beaulieu and didn't think he had any upside: no defensive capabilities and a nebulous offensive potential that never showed up on the scoreboard. I frequently want to say "I told you so" to the whole bunch of you, but ironically, he has grown on me a bit. 

 

Not enough, though. I'd trade him for a real second line center without a moment's hesitation, then laugh at how we fleeced the other GM. (Sadly, I would then put our new second line center on our top line.)

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For me, there's no doubt in my mind that Beaulieu will develop into at the very worst, a top 4 defenseman in the league. I've probably stated that more times than I realize. I expected him to pair well this season with Weber and while that didn't happen, I actually think it's obvious that he has top 4 caliber potential written all over him. He made the team quicker than other defensemen of the same age who will still find a home as 3rd pairing defensemen in the league.

 

Even most who are against him state that he has the skill but nothing between the ears. First of all, if you've ever heard him during an interview, he generally tends to say all the right things. He doesn't actually strike me as someone who is missing anything upstairs. I think it's unfair to label people like Eller, Beaulieu, Emelin, etc. who don make boneheaded plays from time to time as intellectually inferior in any way. Secondly and tied in with that, those who don't believe he will grow into his potential argue that he will be the same at 30 mentally as he is now. If that's not anything other than a simple hypothetical hypothesis, then I don't know what is. I can just as easily say that he will mature in those areas and may even find himself as a top 2.

 

My current expectation of Beaukieu and where he might fit on even a contending team? A top second pairing defenseman, or #3.

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15 minutes ago, xXx..CK..xXx said:

For me, there's no doubt in my mind that Beaulieu will develop into at the very worst, a top 4 defenseman in the league. I've probably stated that more times than I realize. I expected him to pair well this season with Weber and while that didn't happen, I actually think it's obvious that he has top 4 caliber potential written all over him. He made the team quicker than other defensemen of the same age who will still find a home as 3rd pairing defensemen in the league.

 

Even most who are against him state that he has the skill but nothing between the ears. First of all, if you've ever heard him during an interview, he generally tends to say all the right things. He doesn't actually strike me as someone who is missing anything upstairs. I think it's unfair to label people like Eller, Beaulieu, Emelin, etc. who don make boneheaded plays from time to time as intellectually inferior in any way. Secondly and tied in with that, those who don't believe he will grow into his potential argue that he will be the same at 30 mentally as he is now. If that's not anything other than a simple hypothetical hypothesis, then I don't know what is. I can just as easily say that he will mature in those areas and may even find himself as a top 2.

 

My current expectation of Beaukieu and where he might fit on even a contending team? A top second pairing defenseman, or #3.

Great post.  Especially the blue section.

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I think it's unfair to label people like Eller, Beaulieu, Emelin, etc. who don make boneheaded plays from time to time as intellectually inferior in any way. 

 

Look, I'm sure if you resurrected a young Albert Einstein, taught him to skate, and put him out on the ice as a defenseman, he'd look look like a farking idiot. (Although if you put him on the ice in the 60s or 70s, his hair would fit in.)  People that say those things are making statements about Hockey IQ, not general intelligence. It's entirely possible for a brilliant player to be an idiot off the ice, and for a guy with an IQ of 60 to be a savant with a hockey stick.  I never saw anything to indicate Eller was an idiot off the ice. On the ice is another story.

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52 minutes ago, Jeff Price (no relation) said:

 

Look, I'm sure if you resurrected a young Albert Einstein, taught him to skate, and put him out on the ice as a defenseman, he'd look look like a farking idiot. (Although if you put him on the ice in the 60s or 70s, his hair would fit in.)  People that say those things are making statements about Hockey IQ, not general intelligence. It's entirely possible for a brilliant player to be an idiot off the ice, and for a guy with an IQ of 60 to be a savant with a hockey stick.  I never saw anything to indicate Eller was an idiot off the ice. On the ice is another story.

I think that's a great point and I do understand the hockey IQ part of it. It's not only their general intelligence being discussed. I did however say intellectually inferior in *any* way. That being said, there have been times where people have criticized players such as AK46 as being slow both on and off the ice, just as an example. In any case, it still implies a lack of knowledge of the game and also an inability to ever be able to improve in the area. Judging by what I've actually heard from Beaulieu himself, he seems to understand the game and how to be a team member; in fact sticking up for his teammates is demonstrating exactly that. That it hasn't come fully to fruition yet, doesn't mean it cannot and won't. I believe the dots will connect for him. 

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I liked Meller's point about the 'vicious circle' problem. Players do get saddled with a reputation, and then everything they do that fits that reputation becomes magnified. And I hate it when that happens. E.g., it happened to Brisebois, who got a rep as 'Breeze-by' when he spent a year playing on his off side and struggling, and had to live with that rep long after it was truly applicable. It also happened to Subban, who got pegged as 'high risk' even though 99% of the time he was skilled enough to correct his own mistakes. Everyone freaked out about the mistakes and ignored the corrections, as well as the incredible offensive dynamism.

 

Beaulieu's a slightly different case, though. The problem with his defensive lapses is less that he's made them than that he has not generated enough consistent offence to compensate for them. Now this season, he is on about a 30-point pace, without much PP time. His numbers are creeping upwards and he has had more nights where you've noticed him doing something creative and dynamic. So I could see him taking one more step forward, becoming a 35+ point guy who occasionally makes gaffes, at which point you're talking about a legitimate second-pairing defenceman. It's not guaranteed that this will happen, of course; and the key may just be how 'coachable' he is. Only his coaches and teammates know that.

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19 hours ago, THE Bobby Orr said:

 

i wish Petry had some of Beaulieu's willingness to stickup for teammates...specifically when Price get's pushed around.  

 

Just throwing this out there  ...but why hasn't Beaulieu been paired with Weber?  Or Markov? Or have those experiments happened already? 

Beau played most of the start (10-20 games) of this season partnered with Weber and was given plenty of opportunity to assert himself as a top pair partner.

i think we will have to accept the downside of his play, which is his mental gaffes, for the upside which is his offensive instinct which is beginning to show and his willingness to defend teammates. 

Someone mentioned seeing him as a fourth dman and second pp wave, which I see as well.

if the young defensive prospects come up quickly then he could and should be moved as a package for skilled forward. 

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13 hours ago, hockeyrealist said:

Beau played most of the start (10-20 games) of this season partnered with Weber and was given plenty of opportunity to assert himself as a top pair partner.

i think we will have to accept the downside of his play, which is his mental gaffes, for the upside which is his offensive instinct which is beginning to show and his willingness to defend teammates. 

Someone mentioned seeing him as a fourth dman and second pp wave, which I see as well.

if the young defensive prospects come up quickly then he could and should be moved as a package for skilled forward. 

more like 4-5 games

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1 hour ago, JoeLassister said:

I wish Beaulieu was playing yesterday's game hockey full time.

But, he still had dumb plays/poor play looking lost in own end, along with the good offensive ones, that cost goal (or two) and we all hoped he would contribute more offensively, which he is at least this year. But; no one can say he is a dependable top four d-man...at least not yet. 

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7 minutes ago, DON said:

But, he still had dumb plays/poor play looking lost in own end, along with the good offensive ones, that cost goal (or two) and we all hoped he would contribute more offensively, which he is at least this year. But; no one can say he is a dependable top four d-man...at least not yet. 

So did every dmen in the league on every game this season.

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2 minutes ago, JoeLassister said:

So did every dmen in the league on every game this season.

Not costing goals almost every game he plays!

 

You can defend his play all you want, he is weak defensively which isn't a good attribute for a defenseman (and likely why there is this thread in the 1st place).

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Guest Stogey24
5 minutes ago, DON said:

Not costing goals almost every game he plays!

 

You can defend his play all you want, he is weak defensively which isn't a good attribute for a defenseman (and likely why there is this thread in the 1st place).

Costing Goals every game. Get real. 

 

Just like Subban, right?

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5 minutes ago, Stogey24 said:

Costing Goals every game. Get real. 

 

Just like Subban, right?

A bit, yes, but Beaulieu is much more gritty and will defend his teammates at least.

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