Dahlin has played extremely well but has been unlucky
Samuelsson was excellent defensively prior to his injury
Jokiharju and Bryson have been solid for their role
EJ should be traded soon
RJohnson is experiencing some rookie struggles
Power has had a pretty noticeable sophomore slump prior to injury
Clifton is signed for 2 more years after this
by omgyrx
7 Comments
Next season I want to see RJ – Dahlin, Power – Sammy, Joki – Clifton.
I am really high on RJ. I think even with his issues he has been awesome as a rookie. It definitely hasn’t helped he’s been playing mostly on the bottom pair. I think he has a lot of potential and I want to see how creative he can be with Dahlin.
I want Power to have the ability to take more risks and I think Samuelson can help anchor that pair. Power was kind of sloppy this year in our zone.
I’d prefer not to have Clifton but what are you gonna do.
If we want more balanced lines we can swap Joki and Samuelson or something.
I wonder how much of this has to do with poor roster construction and pairs made by the coaching staff.
In his entire time in Buffalo, Dahlin has never been paired with the same partner for more than 43% of 5v5 TOI. Makar is at 74% with Toews this season and Toews is 65% with Makar. Adam Fox is 72% with Lindgren and Heiskanen is 58% with Suter this season. I know there have been injuries but the seemingly randomness in how the defensive pairs are done only exacerbates the horrible system by the coaching staff.
Look at Power. It was clear to everyone the kid needs a partner. So last year they tried him with everyone but mostly with Joker at 43.5% of the time. Then Adams goes out and signs Clifton and E. Jonson in the UFA market only for Power to continue to mostly play with Joker but down to now 36% of the time. Clifton is 2nd with 16.6% of the time.
Everyone talks about how crappy the team is on exits and turnovers but it feels like the answer is punching us in the face and that’s nobody is in sync with each other because Granato keeps on fucking throwing out random combos.
The Clifton hate is overblown. It’s a flawed stat blah blah but he’s got the second best +/- of the dmen behind Joki and he leads the team in hits and is third in blocks. People are acting like he’s last years Bryson just cause he’s been front and center on some bad plays but he’s been fine since December.
Dahlin would be on his third Norris nomination on almost any other team. I don’t think people realize exactly how much of our horrible roster construction is given a pass because there’s a guy out there for 30 minutes a night making them look at least somewhat functional.
OP belongs in the AHL but that will never happen because he was prematurely given a giant contract so the “AHL is the place players need to be to learn how to be pro’s” mindset/speech from GMKA only applies to everyone not named Owen Power.
Don’t need advanced stats to know this team blows
Where’s that lunatic who believes Power is better Dahlin?