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Game #22 Habs and Sens 7:30 Nov 20 2019


DON

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Let's stay calm, please.

 

Yes, the team needs Domi in particular to start producing. Yes, the loss of Drouin is unfortunate. But lots of teams are streaking - either in the right direction (Islanders, Dallas) or the wrong direction (Leafs, Flames, Canucks) right now. I think part of what happens is teams ride a burst of early season energy and it starts to peter out right about now.

 

Am I irked at the complete indolence of a GM who seems to think that sitting around with his thumb up his butt-hole is an acceptable strategy for the next three years, on the magical assumption that a bunch of good-not-great prospects are suddenly going to win the Stanley Cup around 2023? 100%. But right now they're a bubble team and are still above the playoff bar. The team just needs to bear down, trust the coaches, the system, the depth, and each other, and ride out this little slump.

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31 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

Let's stay calm, please.

 

Yes, the team needs Domi in particular to start producing. Yes, the loss of Drouin is unfortunate. But lots of teams are streaking - either in the right direction (Islanders, Dallas) or the wrong direction (Leafs, Flames, Canucks) right now. I think part of what happens is teams ride a burst of early season energy and it starts to peter out right about now.

 

 

Agree

31 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

Am I irked at the complete indolence of a GM who seems to think that sitting around with his thumb up his butt-hole is an acceptable strategy for the next three years, on the magical assumption that a bunch of good-not-great prospects are suddenly going to win the Stanley Cup around 2023? 100%. 

 

Disagree. He has re-stocked the prospect pool. We are at ground level of the construction of a contending team. The current prospects are not  all going to be around in 2023, some very good one will be shipped out to fix holes in the team.

 

31 minutes ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

But right now they're a bubble team and are still above the playoff bar. The team just needs to bear down, trust the coaches, the system, the depth, and each other, and ride out this little slump.

 

Agree, and that has nothing to do with the GM; the coaching and players have to deliver what Therrien's teams never could

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I liked Hudon's game again, Mete is such a good D, he reminds me of Svoboda :)

 

I am glad to see Kulak getting a bunch of games in a row. But he has not plat much better than Reilly. 

 

If Fleury continues to play like this, Folin or even Juulsen may be available for a trade.

 

I agree with Commandant and others that Domi is not as good on the wing as he was last year at center. But is is not worse at wing than he was at center this season. 

 

 

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2 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

The team just needs to bear down, trust the coaches, the system, the depth, and each other, and ride out this little slump.

 

This. The current team (even excluding Drouin and Byron) has demonstrated that it can play better than it has in the last two games. It's not a huge gap to a point where we could have taken three or four points from these last two games. Even if they only fix some of these:

  • A few fewer defensive miscues (Chiarot ...)
  • A few fewer OT errors (Tatar, Suzuki ...)
  • A bit better goaltending (Price, on Tuesday ...)
  • A bit more driving to the net (Domi ...)
  • A bit more confidence/assertiveness (Kotkaniemi ...)
  • A bit more discipline in the last minute of each period (the entire team)
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1 hour ago, alfredoh2009 said:

I liked Hudon's game again, Mete is such a good D, he reminds me of Svoboda :)

 

 

 

Svoboda! Now that is a more pleasant memory than Metropolit or (shudder) Darche 😄 And it is an interesting parallel. Svoboda was not a huge point-producer and not a physical guy (although I used to call him "rubber man" because he would occasional absorb these catastrophic hits and bounce back seemingly unaffected). He was, however, a capable, useful puck-moving second-pairing defenceman. Maybe that's the right comparable for Meat.

 

As for Kulak, I'm beginning to think we may have to accept that last season was an outlier and that he is indeed the borderline guy Calgary got rid of.

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45 minutes ago, Habber31 said:

Watching this game makes me think Tkachuk would have been the better choice over Kotkaniemi. Tkachuk is a gamer and he puts up points 

Many were hard on him here but I always wanted him. That being said, I also wanted Zadina and he has not done much. Let’s not be too hard on Kotkaniemi though. First off, he will be a fine player and secondly it wasn’t until we drafted him that our center depth began to look promising. 

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

Many were hard on him here but I always wanted him. That being said, I also wanted Zadina and he has not done much. Let’s not be too hard on Kotkaniemi though. First off, he will be a fine player and secondly it wasn’t until we drafted him that our center depth began to look promising. 

Still so young. Hard to peg anyone as this point, but Tkachuk is a beast and he can also bury. Kotkaniemi will never have that edge to his game 

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2 minutes ago, tomh009 said:

One thing to keep in mind is that Tkachuk is almost a year older than Kotkaniemi.

excuses, they both have almost 100 NHL games under belt

 

Is 1 sided so far, but who knows how they compare in 2 or 3 years.

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1 hour ago, DON said:

excuses, they both have almost 100 NHL games under belt

 

Is 1 sided so far, but who knows how they compare in 2 or 3 years.

 

I don't think it's an excuse: at 19, Kotkaniemi is simply not as far along the development curve. How much of the performance difference is because of that, I can't say. But a 19-year-old body is indeed still developing.

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11 hours ago, tomh009 said:

 

I don't think it's an excuse: at 19, Kotkaniemi is simply not as far along the development curve. How much of the performance difference is because of that, I can't say. But a 19-year-old body is indeed still developing.

OK, then compare Kotkaniemi this year to Tkachuk's production last year (same age). Any way you slice it is still one sided production-wise.

Obviously Tkachuk gets more icetime at 16:01/17:52 vs 13:44/12:55.

 

 

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19 hours ago, Habber31 said:

Watching this game makes me think Tkachuk would have been the better choice over Kotkaniemi. Tkachuk is a gamer and he puts up points 

Brady Tkachuk is a winger, where Jesperi Kotkaniemi is a centre.

I think that Kotka is being brought up differently in Julien's system: sheltering him in the 3rd line to improve his defensive game against lesser opposition while building his offensive game. I think that after his sophomore slump, KK will be fine

 

Tkachuk has been allowed to "just play" and adjust his game.  

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We'll see. As I noted in another thread, KoKo could well evolve into a rangy Bobby Smith, but if he tops out as 50-point-ish useful C I would not fall out of my chair in shock.

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3 hours ago, alfredoh2009 said:

Brady Tkachuk is a winger, where Jesperi Kotkaniemi is a centre.

I think that Kotka is being brought up differently in Julien's system: sheltering him in the 3rd line to improve his defensive game against lesser opposition while building his offensive game. I think that after his sophomore slump, KK will be fine

 

Tkachuk has been allowed to "just play" and adjust his game.  

And is having no sophomore slump, on pace for 48pts. Don't think better players have any sophomore slump.

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On 11/21/2019 at 9:53 AM, alfredoh2009 said:

I agree with Commandant and others that Domi is not as good on the wing as he was last year at center. But is is not worse at wing than he was at center this season. 

 

 

Domi going back to center , as of today's practice

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