2016-2017 NHL Season: Expansion Draft Dodging - Page 33

On May 17 2017 03:02 Flaccid wrote:


Yeah, Eberle had a pretty off year

I'm going to throw a couple charts up here and go from there:





Now point your eyes at the Sh% columns. Holy sweet jeebus fuck. There is snake-bitten, and then there is Jordan Eberle circa 2016-2017. Here is the full page and it is worth looking at: http://stats.hockeyanalysis.com/showplayer.php?pid=1342

Anyone who argues the uselessness of Jordan Eberle without including the context of his Sh% is missing a big piece of the story. You can certainly back up the 'off year' narrative using these regular season numbers - numbers that saw his powerplay Sh%, for example, go from 17.5% a season ago to fucking 8.8% this year. Hell.

And this fit what the eye saw this season as well - at times it seemed like Eberle was never going to score, ever again in his life given the unreal saves that went against him and the complete lack of anything even resembling the smallest amount of luck in his favour. He was consistently creating chances and getting good looks - but just nothing was going his way.

Buuuuuuuuut....

Now we have to address the issue of Jordan Eberle, the playoff performer. Even without scoring, we saw his ability to generate offense in the regular season. The points weren't coming but you kind of knew they would. Eventually. He was still doing those Jordan Eberle things. You can't make that argument in regards to how he played in the playoffs. He was completely invisible.

Eberle is, and always has been a very one-dimensional player. It's allowed because his one dimension, producing offense, is the most important dimension in hockey. The downside though, is that when Eberle isn't producing, he brings nothing else. In fact, it's a net negative. It's not like RNH - who can go weeks without scoring but still bring value to every shift. RNH was, in my opinion, the MVP of the San Jose series. Eberle doesn't have that in his game, so he needs to score.

And he will score. But maybe not in the playoffs. Ever. Perhaps it's a symptom of the tighter checking in the playoffs or, specifically, the nature of the teams that Edmonton encountered in the first two rounds, but Eberle was rendered completely ineffective. He has never been a fast player, or a strong player, but the nature of the playoffs truly exposed these weaknesses. He lacked either the strength or the speed (or both) to create any separation for himself at any point in any game ever. There was just no clean air and it was horribly obvious that he could do nothing about it.

And that's what sucks. There is no doubt his Sh% will recover and he will score again. But he remains, right now, a player who has not shown that he can score in the playoffs. And he, as a one-dimensional player, needs to score. And Edmonton, as a team that wants to challenge for Stanley Cups in the McDavid era, needs players who can provide value in difficult playoff situations. Unfortunately, it is completely justified if they are doubting Eberle's ability to be one of those guys.

FWIW, I love Eberle and I hope they keep him and find a situation that works for him and the team. But the Oilers always sell low so I'm sure they'll trade him for a 5th round pick and retain salary so wtf do I know fuck it.

edit:

On May 23 2017 13:39 QuanticHawk wrote:
fuk ya pk and nashville

On May 24 2017 13:49 Orcasgt24 wrote:
Sens force Game 7!

On May 30 2017 08:01 JimmiC wrote:
I'm gonna go with Nash in 6!