Cool, great dive into some numbers to give perspective to the season thus far. My takeaways:
1) Our defense is MUCH better than the fanbase has given them credit for.
2) Our PP is every bit as bad as the fanbase makes it out to be. Definitely not a surprise to any of you reading this of course, but hopefully the coaches make bigger adjustments. Personally I’d like to see a pretty much wholesale swap of PP1 and PP2.
3) Our PK, after looking atrocious to start the season, has settled in and is looking strong. I was really worried about their performance during preseason and the first few games, but they’ve gotten the system worked out. To go along with that, apparently we’re very disciplined and taking a low number of penalties. Neat!
Not necessarily related to the article, but a few individual player things I’ve been noticing:
1) Sandin. No one seems to be talking about him, for better or for worse. It was good to see him finally get an assist last game, but his offensive production has been effectively nonexistent to this point. Hopefully he’s about to go on a heater (as much as a defender does offensively, anyway). I guess the good news is he hasn’t been a defensive liability while also not producing.
2) Dowd. Man, I always think we’ll have an easy time replacing him (it’s 4C, how hard can it be??) and this last stint out along with his impactful return has shown just how wrong that is. He and Malenstyn look great together, and NAK has fit like a glove with them in his call up. Hoping they stay together as our 4th line for the foreseeable future, as long as NAK has gotten his dumb penalty-taking out of his system.
3) Mantha. He’s shown great chemistry with McMichael since the latter’s move to C. When he comes back from injury (he skated today, so hopefully that means as soon as he’s eligible which’d be Saturday), it’ll be really informative if that duo can maintain their productivity.
4) Kuemper. It’s not time to trade him but it is definitely time to give Lindgren more reps. He’s been inconsistent since his arrival in DC. When he’s dialed in, it’s great. It just needs to happen more frequently. A lot more frequently.
5) Phillips. Once we’re healthy enough, Phillips has to be the first man out right? Other than his revenge game against Calgary he hasn’t done anything. Cheering for the guy, but at this point Hershey seems like the best fit.
mark_dink
the only thing we need to kick start is the offense now, which as been a bit better than it was at the start of the season, but its not enough yet. defense has been much better as well compared to those first few games.
something i thought was interesting in the peice was 2/3 of teams in a playoffspot by thanksgiving made the postseason. you can call me a pessimist if you like, but i still dont think we can quite get there as we are currently. need more goals.
BallsMahogany_redux
Once Ovi gets going this team has a chance to be very very good.
I think the new baby has effected Kuemper more than we think. He’s looked noticably worse at home where I’m sure he’s not getting very much high quality sleep. I haven’t looked into the numbers to prove this, but as a new parent of a 1 month old, I can imagine trying to do anything to the best of my physical and mental ability over the past 4 weeks.
K00ksRus
I was VERY critical of this team back in october & I will acknowledge I overreacted about this team after our rough start. I think the team is really getting into the grove with HCSC’s system & I for on LOVE it. It shows how much Lavi held this team back & along with it we have some amazing prospects that developing right now that will still make us a competitive team these next few years. Also Kuzy seems to be doing better despite some fuck ups & penalties he has been taking.
4 Comments
Cool, great dive into some numbers to give perspective to the season thus far. My takeaways:
1) Our defense is MUCH better than the fanbase has given them credit for.
2) Our PP is every bit as bad as the fanbase makes it out to be. Definitely not a surprise to any of you reading this of course, but hopefully the coaches make bigger adjustments. Personally I’d like to see a pretty much wholesale swap of PP1 and PP2.
3) Our PK, after looking atrocious to start the season, has settled in and is looking strong. I was really worried about their performance during preseason and the first few games, but they’ve gotten the system worked out. To go along with that, apparently we’re very disciplined and taking a low number of penalties. Neat!
Not necessarily related to the article, but a few individual player things I’ve been noticing:
1) Sandin. No one seems to be talking about him, for better or for worse. It was good to see him finally get an assist last game, but his offensive production has been effectively nonexistent to this point. Hopefully he’s about to go on a heater (as much as a defender does offensively, anyway). I guess the good news is he hasn’t been a defensive liability while also not producing.
2) Dowd. Man, I always think we’ll have an easy time replacing him (it’s 4C, how hard can it be??) and this last stint out along with his impactful return has shown just how wrong that is. He and Malenstyn look great together, and NAK has fit like a glove with them in his call up. Hoping they stay together as our 4th line for the foreseeable future, as long as NAK has gotten his dumb penalty-taking out of his system.
3) Mantha. He’s shown great chemistry with McMichael since the latter’s move to C. When he comes back from injury (he skated today, so hopefully that means as soon as he’s eligible which’d be Saturday), it’ll be really informative if that duo can maintain their productivity.
4) Kuemper. It’s not time to trade him but it is definitely time to give Lindgren more reps. He’s been inconsistent since his arrival in DC. When he’s dialed in, it’s great. It just needs to happen more frequently. A lot more frequently.
5) Phillips. Once we’re healthy enough, Phillips has to be the first man out right? Other than his revenge game against Calgary he hasn’t done anything. Cheering for the guy, but at this point Hershey seems like the best fit.
the only thing we need to kick start is the offense now, which as been a bit better than it was at the start of the season, but its not enough yet. defense has been much better as well compared to those first few games.
something i thought was interesting in the peice was 2/3 of teams in a playoffspot by thanksgiving made the postseason. you can call me a pessimist if you like, but i still dont think we can quite get there as we are currently. need more goals.
Once Ovi gets going this team has a chance to be very very good.
I think the new baby has effected Kuemper more than we think. He’s looked noticably worse at home where I’m sure he’s not getting very much high quality sleep. I haven’t looked into the numbers to prove this, but as a new parent of a 1 month old, I can imagine trying to do anything to the best of my physical and mental ability over the past 4 weeks.
I was VERY critical of this team back in october & I will acknowledge I overreacted about this team after our rough start. I think the team is really getting into the grove with HCSC’s system & I for on LOVE it. It shows how much Lavi held this team back & along with it we have some amazing prospects that developing right now that will still make us a competitive team these next few years. Also Kuzy seems to be doing better despite some fuck ups & penalties he has been taking.