The Blue Jackets get goals from Gavin Bayreuther, Tim Berni, and Kirill Marchenko but still fall 6-3 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. We’re talking about the game, about Johnny Gaudreau’s season low ice time, and about yet more injury new hitting the team!
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3 Comments
Let me try to explain it how I think of it. Play johnny and he gets injured.. we have the man for 6 years right. This season is a bust. We need to see who wants the spots. Kiril obviously does. Now for the rest of them. I will say we made kinda a big mistake with gudbranson I'd like to see him play to his strengths and not go to far. I'm also not a fan of boquist I'd take jiricek over. We don't have the depth to replace but it's a really good season for these guys to get nhl feet
Ice time is an issue but keep in mind Johnny doesn’t play on penalty kills so that takes potentially 8 minutes away. So part of Kuraly or others time is from that kill. Add that to other factors and we have the 14 minute situation.
He may not have scored last night, but Laine was the BEST player on the ice yesterday. Most of the scoring chances were direct or non-direct consequences of Patty checking. I don't however think Roslovic was contributing much (surprise surprise) and Nyquist had a surprisingly erroneous game.
Some casuals are giving Patty some shit, just because he isn't scoring all the time, but he is more than that now. Plus, he creates more rebounds above expected than anybody else on that team. The boys just aren't scoring on them. And don't even mention the PP. Patty has half the shooting % on unblocked shots compared to Ovechkin. The guys need to get the puck moving much better and make it so that Patty has a better lane in front of him. Patty isn't getting the chance to shoot either. Ovi on caps has 4 times more shots on goal on the PP, even though he has played only 1.72 times more games.
I understand Larsen limiting Gaudreau's minutes. It's a reflection of how Gaudreau is carrying himself right now, it's atrocious to look at. He looks like he does not want to be there and he isn't leading, which the A requires.
That being said since the team will not make the playoffs anyway, he should plant Patty and Gaudreau on the same line and leave them on the same line for the rest of the season. If you look at the advanced statistics, Patty and Gaudreau are the most dangerous players and they should play together. They don't need to divide the talent in a season like this and they won't build solid chemistry, without playing a lot together.
Larsen also plays grunts too much, which is because he used to be one. The Kuraly line does not need to play 15min per night. Let the young kids play, who needs playing time with each other to build the future.
I love how Marchenko is playing, but the goals are not a representation of the whole truth. First of all, his Shooting% is 32,1, which is twice or more what will be his norm. He is taking over double the amount of shots in percentage unblocked, which is why they are sinking. But he has a great spirit, is a great skater and I look forward to his development.
Oh, and we need a proper center. With all due respect to KJ, he isn't a first-line center or even a second-line center, he might not be a center at all. KJ, Bemmer, and Gaudreau together can create possession, but they aren't producing results beyond that.