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Post by seventeen on Mar 5, 2015 11:18:45 GMT -5
a bit of a blip. it happens. (signed) the kinder, gentler franko but they'd better not "blip" for too long! They kept hitting Gibson in the logo. I don't recall him making any spectacular saves. His positioning was good, but we made him look better than he is. Goaltending may still be the Ducks' Achilles heel.
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Post by seventeen on Mar 5, 2015 11:24:38 GMT -5
Just glad we don't play in this division. Winning a seven game series against these big Cali teams would not be too likely. The guys faced a hot goalie last night, but didn't make it as hard on him as other teams do on our goalie. Still not enough action in front of the net, to screen or to pounce on rebounds (as good as Gibson was, there were a few juicy rebounds that just skated safely away). These teams are playing in-your-face, take time-and-space-away hockey from us, and we are a bit overmatched. These teams are already in playoff hockey mode, and we are still playing on the perimeter and getting hemmed in our zone due to heavy forecheck. Now, there was the big time zone difference, travel, and the newbies in the lineup. But, there is still a gap between the top of the West and where the Habs are right now. It has been a very good season points wise this season, and we are going to be headed to the post season. I think we are in better shape than in the past as far as a lineup that can play those tougher, grinding playoff series. I still worry about a top two centre combo of DD and Pleks though. DD has the fight of the lion in him, but that only goes so far against much bigger opponents who have their way physically with him shift after shift. Pleks is a great two way centre, but still too much of a perimeter guy for a long haul in the playoffs. And when Max does not score... LA next. Out of the frying pan, into the fire. Yes, yes, and yes and another yes if there was a fourth point. The good news is that the Cali teams have to go through each other before they get to the Eastern champ, so they may just bang each other up enough to cause themeselves a big headache in the final. Our weakness is undoubtedly in those centre spots. As we've been saying for quite a while. If Galchy's not a centre, that makes it that much worse and if Eller doesn't develop a scoring touch, we're done for.
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Post by CentreHice on Mar 5, 2015 12:12:34 GMT -5
Just watched the Galchenyuk hat-trick vs. Carolina in the Highlight Reel thread.
Yes, I know it was against the woeful Canes…..but, ironically enough, Galchy was at centre with Max and Gallagher for all three goals.
Not saying Galchy should play centre again….but he should stay with Pacioretty, IMO.
It's like the lyric from "Sixteen Tons"….
"If the right one don't get ya, then the left one will…."
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Post by seventeen on Mar 5, 2015 12:35:23 GMT -5
I know everyone here has said it a billion times, DD has to be taken off the 1st line. I would switch him with Eller. He's bigger, better faceoff guy, and he's hard to move off the puck. I have a love/hate relationship with DD. He's not a true #1 centre but he's actually having a pretty good year and isn't our biggest problem on offense. He benefits from Pax and Gallagher driving the play in the zone but his passing complements them well. Here are some Corsi stats from last night. This is even-strength shot attempts for, sgainst, net %, and % of offensive zone starts while those players were on the ice. Sorry my chart skills are awful on this board. CF CA C% ZS% Gallagher 26 12 68% 75% Eller 24 15 62% 43% Pleks 20 13 61% 67% Pacioretty 19 13 59% 71% DD 18 13 58% 71% DSP 13 12 52% 57% DLR 10 11 48% 50% Galchenyuk 9 13 41% 64% Weise 6 9 40% 57% Prust 7 14 33% 75% Mitchell 5 13 28% 57% Flynn 5 15 25% 43% Gallagher was a beast last night in terms of net shot attempts with him on the ice. And there was the much maligned Lars Eller doing what he has done most of the year, which is driving positive shot attemps while taking less than 50% of his draws in the offensive zone...... and not scoring. With the exception of Galchenyuk, our better forwards pretty much outplayed Anaheim at even strength, while the bottom guys (including the new guys) were awful. But you don't expect the 4th line to be able to drive possession especially on the road. The above is really interesting in that, in Gallagher's case, it conflicts with my eye test. I thought that was a relatively poor game for Brendan. He couldn't seem to keep up and his passes were not getting through. In the 3rd, Therrien switched he and Galchy and both lines picked up their pace. There was one play (3rd period?) where off a face-off just outside our blue line, the puck came loose and Max started cheating toward the Ducks end. Once he saw that Gallagher was going to get the puck, he took off. Gallagher's best play was to bounce it off the right boards for a Max breakaway, but either he didn't see the play forming or didn't see Patches taking off. He passed to Gonchar, who had seen Max break, but by the time the pass got Patches, the Ducks D had recovered and the play fizzled. It wasn't necessarily a bad play on Gallagher's part, it's just something that could have been better and I found it disappointing. Most of his night was like that. Just a bit short. The possession stats are telling a different tale. Here's another example of why one needs to use them in context. We had the puck behind their net. DD lost a puck battle and the puck. Cam Fowler came in to battle with Galchy for possession. It was a gigantic battle, with both guys really working hard. Galchy was awesome and won the battle, made a pass, took a return pass and a path opened to the front of the net. From the corner he worked in front and was trying to get around Gibson to slide the puck in around him and he was either hooked or held some way that his arms were tied up and he was unable to score. One would grade that as a) Desharnais being overpowered. and b) Galchenyuk recovering the puck and generating a scoring chance from it. The possession stats would grade it as nothing. No shot attempts were made. Totally different plot. By the end of the game, I'd say Galchy and Patches were our two most dangerous forwards, yet Galchy's Corsi score sucks. Galchy had his own woes through the firrst half of the game as his passes weren't getting through either, much like Gallagher, but he was much tougher to handle in the second half. Can't say they played badly, but our scoring weakness reared its ugly head again. That and an abysmal PP.
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Post by Boston_Habs on Mar 5, 2015 13:00:29 GMT -5
Totally agree. The raw stats don't quantify quality of chances, missed opportunities like you mentioned, or sequences that don't result in a "metric" but demonstrate the weakness or strength of a particular player, such as DD losing puck battles or Galchy winning one even if a shot wasn't attempted. More than any sport, advanced stats in hockey need to make sense with the eye test. My only point there is that you need possession to be able to score and these stats give you a rough idea of where the play was while these players were on the ice. And of course it matters GREATLY which D pairing was on the ice with those forwards. Markov and Subban can make ordinary forwards look much better in terms of possession.
I will say that Corsi might be a more meaningful stat for teams that rely on heavy puck possession, forechecking, and long stretches of zone time. The Habs are more of an opporunistic offense, relying on quick passing, quick play through the neutral zone, stretch passes, transition, and making the most of perhaps less volume of opportunities. That's one of the reasons, besides Price, that we've been able to win games despite getting outshot and being on the wrong side of the possession stats.
Also shows how much we rely on Pacioretty. When he's hot, we win. When he's not scoring, it's really tough to find offense.
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