It seems like when the goaltending was bad, the offense was better. Now the goaltending is better and the offense is bad. We just need both at once.
The trade situation is frustrating because we’re clearly in on guys, but with Hughes we wouldn’t part with pieces for a rental and it may be the same with Ras.
It sucks to not get a trade done during a playoff push, but a bad deal sets us back further than no deal, so it’s tough.
This is why having solid, consistent goaltending is so important. Most of your players, even your stars, aren’t going to stay hot all year and are going to slump (though hopefully not usually to this degree – this has been quite the slump for some of our guys) but Gibson’s stellar play in net has still won us more games than any other team in the league over the past month and a half.
If we had the streaky goaltending of years past, we may have gone on a losing streak and could very likely be on the outside looking in. But we aren’t because we’ve had really good goaltending to fall back on during this slump.
This was a great article and a very enjoyable read.
Thanks for sharing OP!!
Yea she’s definitely time here boys and girls. Let’s make a big move at the deadline.
I think everyone should be very wary of wanting trades to happen. This team isn’t a cup winner even with a big trade happening, so why rush? In season/deadline trades are always expensive, and Ottawa is a great example of why not to shoot our shot too early
Hopefully the break will help people recharge. Hopefully the Olympics help inspire the ones who are playing.
I’m sure there are constant trade scenarios being looked at however I don’t see a trade happening just because players are “tired”. The schedule this season is tough. It’s tough for the other 31 teams too.
I hope this isn’t going to be the thing to blame this season. “Oh, the schedule was condensed so it wasn’t a normal thing and that hampered us because we got tired.” The team needs to overcome that issue since every other team is going thru the same thing. There will still be a SC awarded this spring even though people are *tired*.
Really interesting to see that we actually don’t match up that poorly with previous Stanley Cup contending teams! Great article. Think Stevie is wise to not pay too much for guys that are either old, old and require an extension, or that really don’t move the needle all that much in the positive direction.
His conclusion shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone watching games.
Solid top 4 D who can play with Chiarot is a priority. ASP is not ready and come playoff time, he’s going to be watching from the press box. This is why going after RD like Andersson is key.
Larkin hasn’t been good as a top C either. He’s scoring on the PP, but he’s not distributing the puck, and has only 19 assists, 1 fewer than Copp. If you go back to Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Fedorov, Yzerman… we’ve never had a top center with more goals than assists.
I’d love to snag Pettersson from Vancouver or Thomas from St Louis. They would immediately step in as top C, allowing Larkin to play against lesser opponents.
I would like to add speed, athleticism, agility, stick handling, dekeing, puck handling, and puck carrying ability by the trade deadline.
We struggle with this part of the game imo; especially 5v5 at even strength.
I feel we need to be better at breakouts, puck possession, rushes, evading traps, and aggressive/attacking neutral zone defense/pressure.
This article does a good job of highlighting how some of our players are slumping yet the team continues to win because of Gibson. However, I do not see that as justification for making a trade, particularly a trade primarily to make the playoffs. That is not a solid plan.
To clarify, I don’t mean that Yzerman should totally shut down for business. If the right fit comes along then by all means we should acquire the player. That’s different than being a “buyer” and working the phones hard to try to force a deal and getting into bidding wars. That would be a mistake. We have not made the playoffs in 9 seasons, comparing us to the model for Cup contender is a bit much.
Slumps are temporary. It isn’t the best idea to make snap decisions based on temporary conditions. It would be more productive to try to figure out what we can do to get players like Larkin, Kasper and Finnie back on track.
I get not wanting to make expensive trades for rentals but Larkin is almost 30 and the C depth in the organization is non-existent.
All it takes is a career-altering injury for Larkin or him demanding a trade and you are rebuilding the rebuild.
I think it’s more like we have gotten lucky with a couple players getting really hot during an extended slump by our first line.
I’m still of the opinion that making the playoffs is enough this year. This isn’t an all-in year, so there’s no point in paying big for anything less than a long term solution. So if Andersson won’t be extended, no thanks. I’d also be up for a Pettersson trade if that can be a thing.
Regarding the article, we have 2 weeks until the Olympic break, and that will get a lot of guys some much-needed rest. This is a depth-oriented team, so having the depth guys rested will keep some of the pressure off Larkin, Raymond, etc.
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It seems like when the goaltending was bad, the offense was better. Now the goaltending is better and the offense is bad. We just need both at once.
The trade situation is frustrating because we’re clearly in on guys, but with Hughes we wouldn’t part with pieces for a rental and it may be the same with Ras.
It sucks to not get a trade done during a playoff push, but a bad deal sets us back further than no deal, so it’s tough.
This is why having solid, consistent goaltending is so important. Most of your players, even your stars, aren’t going to stay hot all year and are going to slump (though hopefully not usually to this degree – this has been quite the slump for some of our guys) but Gibson’s stellar play in net has still won us more games than any other team in the league over the past month and a half.
If we had the streaky goaltending of years past, we may have gone on a losing streak and could very likely be on the outside looking in. But we aren’t because we’ve had really good goaltending to fall back on during this slump.
This was a great article and a very enjoyable read.
Thanks for sharing OP!!
Yea she’s definitely time here boys and girls. Let’s make a big move at the deadline.
I think everyone should be very wary of wanting trades to happen. This team isn’t a cup winner even with a big trade happening, so why rush? In season/deadline trades are always expensive, and Ottawa is a great example of why not to shoot our shot too early
Hopefully the break will help people recharge. Hopefully the Olympics help inspire the ones who are playing.
I’m sure there are constant trade scenarios being looked at however I don’t see a trade happening just because players are “tired”. The schedule this season is tough. It’s tough for the other 31 teams too.
I hope this isn’t going to be the thing to blame this season. “Oh, the schedule was condensed so it wasn’t a normal thing and that hampered us because we got tired.” The team needs to overcome that issue since every other team is going thru the same thing. There will still be a SC awarded this spring even though people are *tired*.
Really interesting to see that we actually don’t match up that poorly with previous Stanley Cup contending teams! Great article. Think Stevie is wise to not pay too much for guys that are either old, old and require an extension, or that really don’t move the needle all that much in the positive direction.
His conclusion shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone watching games.
Solid top 4 D who can play with Chiarot is a priority. ASP is not ready and come playoff time, he’s going to be watching from the press box. This is why going after RD like Andersson is key.
Larkin hasn’t been good as a top C either. He’s scoring on the PP, but he’s not distributing the puck, and has only 19 assists, 1 fewer than Copp. If you go back to Zetterberg, Datsyuk, Fedorov, Yzerman… we’ve never had a top center with more goals than assists.
I’d love to snag Pettersson from Vancouver or Thomas from St Louis. They would immediately step in as top C, allowing Larkin to play against lesser opponents.
I would like to add speed, athleticism, agility, stick handling, dekeing, puck handling, and puck carrying ability by the trade deadline.
We struggle with this part of the game imo; especially 5v5 at even strength.
I feel we need to be better at breakouts, puck possession, rushes, evading traps, and aggressive/attacking neutral zone defense/pressure.
This article does a good job of highlighting how some of our players are slumping yet the team continues to win because of Gibson. However, I do not see that as justification for making a trade, particularly a trade primarily to make the playoffs. That is not a solid plan.
To clarify, I don’t mean that Yzerman should totally shut down for business. If the right fit comes along then by all means we should acquire the player. That’s different than being a “buyer” and working the phones hard to try to force a deal and getting into bidding wars. That would be a mistake. We have not made the playoffs in 9 seasons, comparing us to the model for Cup contender is a bit much.
Slumps are temporary. It isn’t the best idea to make snap decisions based on temporary conditions. It would be more productive to try to figure out what we can do to get players like Larkin, Kasper and Finnie back on track.
I get not wanting to make expensive trades for rentals but Larkin is almost 30 and the C depth in the organization is non-existent.
All it takes is a career-altering injury for Larkin or him demanding a trade and you are rebuilding the rebuild.
I think it’s more like we have gotten lucky with a couple players getting really hot during an extended slump by our first line.
I’m still of the opinion that making the playoffs is enough this year. This isn’t an all-in year, so there’s no point in paying big for anything less than a long term solution. So if Andersson won’t be extended, no thanks. I’d also be up for a Pettersson trade if that can be a thing.
Regarding the article, we have 2 weeks until the Olympic break, and that will get a lot of guys some much-needed rest. This is a depth-oriented team, so having the depth guys rested will keep some of the pressure off Larkin, Raymond, etc.