On June 14 2013 04:47 Kyhron wrote: Dunno why the Pens are giving Malkin such a massive contract extension when its pretty obvious the team needs to upgrade their defense goaltending and possibly secondary scoring. Its totally understandable why theyre locking him up, but I dont think that should have been the biggest priority for them
Locking up the concensus #2 player in the world is usally concidered to be a fantastic move, even at that price. Yes they have other needs but Malkins skill set is irreplacable
On June 14 2013 11:27 Sub40APM wrote: I think in the West there is a trend towards a more physical yet turtly game. I'd say Chicago is actually a standout against that style, because of the way their team got cobbled together they are more like the Red Wings before Ken Holland went awol and play a puck possesion game. But everyone else: Kings, Blues, Wings and even SJ rely on large guys, going fast, mobbing the incoming puck carrier, and an aggressive forecheck. Which is what I mean Western style. In the East, you dont really see that many teams do that except Boston.
Would really have to disagree with you there. Flyers, Hurricanes, Canadiens, and Senators all play an aggressive forecheck and rely on team speed to play defense. It's very difficult to say what divides the conferences in terms of style. The Bruins are, at least this year, the only team in the East that is doing that style properly.
The East has no "hot" goaltenders. You have Fasth, Hiller, Quick, Lehner, Neimi, Crawford, Howard, Elliott, Halak, Emery*, Schneider* and Luongo* all who are almost always showing good if not ridiculous form.
In the East you used to have Miller, but Miller doesn't have a team in front of him. Same with Brodeur (dat loss streak). Holtby is a question mark like Reimer. Really you only have Lundquist and Rask this season/post-season since Price and Anderson** crashed. Bishop was supposed to help Tampa but they have a huge defense problem that doesn't help a relatively new no. 1 goalie.
You build from your goalie outwards and most of the West has huge goalies. Yes the West is more physical but the level of goaltending just doesn't exist in the East aside from the Bruins and Rangers.
While guys like Rask and Lundqvist can make a difference, you don't exactly need to build from the goalie outwards. Look at CHI, DET, and PIT. The statistical variance of shooting percentage also makes predicting success nigh impossible for anyone other than the truly elite. A goaltender will rarely lose you a series - lots of shots and opportunities against do that - but can certainly help you win one if he's "hot." It should also be noted that BOS and NYR don't score that much either, which could indicate that they play more "defensively."
Again, teams mostly win and lose because of the 18 other guys.
While guys like Rask and Lundqvist can make a difference, you don't exactly need to build from the goalie outwards. Look at CHI, DET, and PIT. The statistical variance of shooting percentage also makes predicting success nigh impossible for anyone other than the truly elite. A goaltender will rarely lose you a series - lots of shots and opportunities against do that - but can certainly help you win one if he's "hot." It should also be noted that BOS and NYR don't score that much either, which could indicate that they play more "defensively."
Again, teams mostly win and lose because of the 18 other guys.
Yeah I don't disagree with the fact that you need a really good plan with 18 guys, but the point is that you can have 18 guys but in the cases where you don't have a legit no. 1 competitive goalie, your team will never get far (except PIT I guess). Howard is definitely #1, and Crawford is proving himself this season (mb Chicago should trade Emery if they get another year with Crawford playing like he is now).
You can see how badly STL needed a good goalie when Halak went down and Elliott struggled. Allen stepped up and they got more competitive and then Elliott went on fire. It's the same with Tampa being completely shit out of luck even though they have St Louis and Stamkos this season. Same thing with Phoenix. The goalies really make that side a lot more competitive than the East.
Yeah, we have cases like Mason and Miller and in those I do agree it's a team effort, but for the most part I don't think it's the style of play between the conferences but really the goaltenders that matter the most in the comparison between the two.
But then again the Leafs did great playing really aggressive and tight forechecking so I guess that's an argument against, but they had a huge improvement in goaltenders this year that I would say allowed them to play as they did (+ coaching).
The unfortunate thing is that it's hard to realize statistics for goaltenders that are independent of the skaters in front of them. You need a huge sample size to accurately say that one goalie is elite, mediocre, or below replacement level. Basically, it's impossible to say who can steal you games unless their name is Lundqvist, Rask, or Rinne. Everyone else in the league is a significant step behind them.
In the case of STL (vs LAK), every game was low-scoring and was decided by one goal correct? I'd hardly say the goalies for STL were the problem. The goalies certainly weren't the main problem for TBL, they just had an awful defense. Teams also have little control over having a great goaltender. Rask was a good prospect (2nd rounder?), but Rinne and Lundqvist were late-round picks. Teams don't use high draft picks on goalies because they know there are lots of adequate replacements. Just look how MAF turned out. Although a lot of hockey's mantras are bloviating anachronisms, the idea of sticking with a hot goaltender (even if he is the backup) is absolutely essential.
On June 15 2013 08:32 sharkeyanti wrote: The unfortunate thing is that it's hard to realize statistics for goaltenders that are independent of the skaters in front of them. You need a huge sample size to accurately say that one goalie is elite, mediocre, or below replacement level. Basically, it's impossible to say who can steal you games unless their name is Lundqvist, Rask, or Rinne. Everyone else in the league is a significant step behind them.
stats don't work as well for hockey in comparison to baseball. the large sample size doesn't work very well because goalies run hot and cold. some goalies are great one year and very bad the next. WHIP says a lot more about a pitcher than any stat you can come up with for a goalie. a lot of american fans don't understand that.
AV to NYR seems like a good deal for the Rangers. Now if they could trade Nash back to Columbus for all the supporting guys they clearly needed more than a floating overhyped hack they'd be good to go.
On June 16 2013 08:57 KelianQatar wrote: looks like Raynor was right, Ovechkin wins the Hart
more importantly is Bob getting the first ever Vezina for Russia. Huge thing. My hopes for the guy to keep growing big.
there are something like 5 "Hockey At Lunch" radio shows in Canada. they have talk about something. the Canadian media questioning Ovechkin in the early season were just filling air time. the people who know little about hockey just mindlessly followed along. Ovechkin didn't make a big come back because there was really nothing wrong with him.
On June 16 2013 08:57 KelianQatar wrote: looks like Raynor was right, Ovechkin wins the Hart
more importantly is Bob getting the first ever Vezina for Russia. Huge thing. My hopes for the guy to keep growing big.
there are something like 5 "Hockey At Lunch" radio shows in Canada. they have talk about something. the Canadian media questioning Ovechkin in the early season were just filling air time. the people who know little about hockey just mindlessly followed along. Ovechkin didn't make a big come back because there was really nothing wrong with him.
yeah media likes hot stories like "this guy lost it" and then "dang he found it again" while indeed nothing was wrong. In the russian media for example we didn't see a lot of serious talks whether Ovi is an elite player or not, there were no questions about that. All there was is that he can't score but there was always "yet" in those sentences.
But i think changing the side did help him to stop doing one same move all the time and become a bit more all-around player. Ovechkin is alright. Thanks guys for supporting him as well!
well, I wouldnt say he stopped being an elite player but there is unquestionably a decline in his point production while his 'all around game' is still relatively lacking. Certainly watching him play, I can see on the screen that a guy who was once an unstoppable offensive force is looking a lot more average -- an average super star to be sure but still.
On June 16 2013 04:57 Sub40APM wrote: AV to NYR seems like a good deal for the Rangers. Now if they could trade Nash back to Columbus for all the supporting guys they clearly needed more than a floating overhyped hack they'd be good to go.
pretty surprised the Seattle mayor has opened his mouth. This makes me wonder if this is just posturing to get more money out of either Quebec or Glendale.
Chipman et al were dead silent. The Thrashers just disappeared.
In a way, its a neat idea to get Vancouver fans to come down. Only 3 hours away and so many people drive down to the states to do shopping over the weekend anyway. But who in Seattle would actually go to the games? Seattle would be like Vancouver B. Just tell MLSE to shut the fuck up and put a second team in Toronto already, we all know that is where the most demand/dollars are at al.
EPT
