GDT GAME#79 Habs vs Caps 7pm Thursday April 6 2023

[hab29RETIRED]

1 hour ago, Sir_Boagalott said:

I saw this and was somewhat shocked by it:

 

I found it surprising that 4 bottom-dwelling teams made that list.

 

Could the Habs being 2nd in blocked shots be part of their 600+ games lost to injuries problem?

 

I've never fully understood why players outright block shots anyway because they should really be trying to block angles.  i.e. cover part of the net that the goalie can't.  ex:  when a goalie is hugging 1 post, stand in a manner that blocks the opposite top corner.  If a player takes away the open part of the net that would force the shooter to try to get the puck past the goalie, and the goalie will make the easy save. 

 

 

 

 

Not all that surprising. It’s not the dead puck clutch-grab-block era anymore. The games all about speed and possession now. If you are blocking a lot of shots, it means you aren’t spending a lot of time actually controlling the puck.

 

Shot blocking prowess as an advantage, without having skill, is as much a fallacy as the straw-dog size is king argument.

[hab29RETIRED]

5 minutes ago, sbhatt said:

Terrible win for the standings, but Washington really mailed it in tonight so I don't think it could be helped.

It doesn’t help when Armaia finally shows up after sleep walking through the year and Gallagher gets healthy and productive when we least need him to be.

 

I think the caps are trying to position themselves to have an outside chance of drafting the Russian kid if he slides down to them. Who knows, with Ovechkin going for the Gretzky record, the caps are one team that Patin may let the Russian kid leave Russia early to part of that.

[dlbalr]

10 hours ago, Sir_Boagalott said:

I saw this and was somewhat shocked by it:

 

I found it surprising that 4 bottom-dwelling teams made that list.

 

Could the Habs being 2nd in blocked shots be part of their 600+ games lost to injuries problem?

 

Bad teams allow more shots than good teams so it stands to reason that bad teams should have more blocked shots.  Vegas is the one outlier there but their coach is big on having their blueliners block shots.

 

There could be some correlation between injuries and blocked shots.  Belzile's season-ending injury, for example, came on a blocked shot last weekend.  There might be another one in there plus some cumulative wear and tear for someone like Savard.

[DON]

4th most goals against

5th most shots against/gm

thanks god they are blocking lots of shots.

Matheson still impressing, will be nice to see him play with a healthy roster in Sept.

6 shots for Kovacevic, he seems to be holding his own. 

4 shots and 1 goalie knocked over, looked like the old Gallagher.

[alfredoh2009]

2 hours ago, dlbalr said:

 

Bad teams allow more shots than good teams so it stands to reason that bad teams should have more blocked shots.  Vegas is the one outlier there but their coach is big on having their blueliners block shots.

 

There could be some correlation between injuries and blocked shots.  Belzile's season-ending injury, for example, came on a blocked shot last weekend.  There might be another one in there plus some cumulative wear and tear for someone like Savard.

 

I wonder if they are still wearing the extra foot protection over their skates, since they are blocking so many shots.

 

I do not remember seeing anyone wear them this season.

[dlbalr]

25 minutes ago, alfredoh2009 said:

I wonder if they are still wearing the extra foot protection over their skates, since they are blocking so many shots.

 

I do not remember seeing anyone wear them this season.

 

They're not necessarily something you'd see on a broadcast without looking for it.  In general, I've seen far fewer plastic guards hit the ice and get caught in the skate now than a few years ago.  I think that's more attributable towards improved product design than players not wearing them.  Can't say for sure obviously but I think (and hope, for that matter) that most are wearing the extra protection.

[alfredoh2009]

3 hours ago, dlbalr said:

 

They're not necessarily something you'd see on a broadcast without looking for it.  In general, I've seen far fewer plastic guards hit the ice and get caught in the skate now than a few years ago.  I think that's more attributable towards improved product design than players not wearing them.  Can't say for sure obviously but I think (and hope, for that matter) that most are wearing the extra protection.

 

Belzile wasn't, as it can be seen on the replays. I have not gone back to check Gallagher's injury and others (Monahan, etc)

 

I remember that it became mandatory under one of the precious coaches. I forget which one

[GHT120]

1 hour ago, alfredoh2009 said:

Belzile wasn't, as it can be seen on the replays. I have not gone back to check Gallagher's injury and others (Monahan, etc)

I remember that it became mandatory under one of the precious coaches. I forget which one

 

I recall that there may have been a time that the Habs made it mandatory for defencemen, or at very least discussed it ... but not certain it was for all players.

[alfredoh2009]

3 hours ago, GHT120 said:

I recall that there may have been a time that the Habs made it mandatory for defencemen, or at very least discussed it ... but not certain it was for all players.

I remember Gallagher gettin one stuck under his skate or Pleks

[The Chicoutimi Cucumber]

23 hours ago, dlbalr said:

 

Bad teams allow more shots than good teams so it stands to reason that bad teams should have more blocked shots.  Vegas is the one outlier there but their coach is big on having their blueliners block shots.

 

There could be some correlation between injuries and blocked shots.  Belzile's season-ending injury, for example, came on a blocked shot last weekend.  There might be another one in there plus some cumulative wear and tear for someone like Savard.

 

I agree that shot blocking stats are usually a “loser” statistic. (The same seems to be broadly true of hits. These are stats that suggest a team that doesn’t have control of the puck).

 

On the other hand, it’s interesting that Vegas leads the league in the blocked shots category. They don’t suck. 🤷‍♂️

 

As for injuries, indeed. Heck, beyond shot blocking, I wonder if being a terrible team may tend to lead to more injuries. If you’re always scrambling, always struggling to catch the play, always reeling on the defensive against superior teams, maybe your guys are more likely to end up in awkward or vulnerable positions, or to overtax themselves through desperation plays, etc.. It may not be a coincidence that the Houle years were ravaged with injuries, and that the disastrous 2022 and 2023 seasons also have been. The standard tendency is to say “the team played poorly because it had so many injuries,” but perhaps being a terrible team tends to be generative of injuries to begin with.

[GHT120]

11 hours ago, alfredoh2009 said:

I remember Gallagher gettin one stuck under his skate or Pleks

Those two would have needed them.