pi2000

At some point KA has to consider flipping a forward prospect or two for a quality young D or D prospect.

Goaltending. Finally one of Comrie/UPL steps up on home ice. Encouraging.

They're not a playoff team. Whatever is going on in the room is irrelevant. That said, the Kings are a playoff team and traded a core locker room guy in Quick. Doughty and Kopitar were in tears at the press conference, but they'll get over it and move on. So yeah, Bryson can go fly a kite 😂

This isn't house league, it's a business, and the players know this.

How much salary was retained?

I, for one, like the trade for Buffalo. They add much needed toughness and grit. Now If he didn't get pumped every single tilt I'd like it even better 🙂

Moody walruses make wet meatloaf with muffins while Madonna washes my windows.

I fully expect one or more of Savoie, Kulich, Rosen to be part of a larger package for a defenseman.

Comrie is bad anywhere. Anderson is above average both home and away. WRT sv%, UPL is horrendous at home and top 3rd in the league on the road. That said, UPL has played 44% of home minutes, and 38% of road minutes. Makes you wonder if the braintrust realizes he has the 3rd worst home ice sv% in the entire league.

This is what happens when you let players make personnel decisions.

Disagree, in Feb they've averaged 33 shots for per 60min, vs 32 on the road.

Disagree, they have a better CF% at home (Feb: 51% vs 48%). Feb at home .840 sv%, on the road .909%. That's 6 goals worse every 100 shots at home vs on the road. They're giving up 17 high danger chances against per 60min on the road, and only 14 per 60min at home. They're not playing bad, goaltending on home ice is letting them down big time.

Goaltending still sucked tho. Home games in Feb: UPL (190min): 5.98 GAA, 3.15 xGA/60, .832 sv% Anderson (106min): 2.83 GAA, 2.86 xGA/60, .906sv% The team has a 51.4% CF... 15th best in the league at home during Feb.. not terrible. However, they've given up 27 goals in those 5 games, while xGA is just 17. That's 10 more goals over expected, in just 5 games... 2 goals/game, that's insane.

When everyone is healthy, they're a better than average team in the mix for a playoff position. However, we all know they're the youngest team in the league and are lacking depth at some key positions. That said, it should come as no surprise that they'll struggle if any of their core guys go down for any extended period of time. Yeah the timing of it sucks, but the important thing right now is guys like Quinn and Power gaining experience as top line contributors. This season was never about making the playoffs.

I covered this topic a few weeks ago, The conclusion I came to, after digging through stats, is goaltending. Below stats of Feb 22nd: Home: 107 GA, 86 xGA, .880 SV%, .777 HDSV% Away: 85 GA, 92 xGA, .905 SV%, .840 HDSV% The team actually plays "better" at home.... 54% CF at home vs 49% on the road.... that's the 4th best CF% at home. The goaltending sucks, 3rd worst SV% at home in the entire league. Home: Anderson: 2.87 GA/60, 3.06 xGA/60, .919sv% UPL: 4.09 GA/60, 2.47 xGA/60, .876sv% Comrie: 3.76 GA/60, 2.47 xGA/60, .863sv% Out of 54 goalies who have played >400min on home ice, UPL and Comrie rank 49th and 52nd in save percentage. Anderson 13th. That said on the road, out of 72 goalies who have played >300min (Comrie has played 391 min on the road), UPL ranks 21st, Anderson 24th and Comrie 47th in save percentage. Comrie is pretty much trash both home and away. WRT save percentage UPL ranks in the top 3rd of the league on road, and nearly DFL at home. Why is he so bad at home, where the team is actually playing better in front of him? On the road UPL faces 34 shots/60, and 14 high danger chances/60... at home he faces 33 shots/60 and 12 high danger chances/60. And yet his sv% is nearly 4 percentage points better on the road (.912 vs .876).

Cab drivers in NYC put on notice.

He was drafted as a C? Where is he lining up in Roch?

Maybe we make wildcard move with MItttlestadt wristing many winners.

============================================================== VAN even strength goal differential through 59 games = -21 VAN even strength minutes played through 59 games = 3013.29 exp+/- is a function of %min played at ES and team ES goal diff TRpm(team relative +/-) is the diff btwn actual+/- and exp+/- %min is % of ES minutes played ============================================================== Team Player TRpm GP +/- exp+/- %min VAN Quinn Hughes 17.63 55 10 -7.63 36.3 VAN Luke Schenn 14.87 55 9 -5.87 27.9 VAN Elias Pettersson 12.86 57 7 -5.86 27.9 VAN Ethan Bear 10.25 46 5 -5.25 25.0 VAN Andrei Kuzmenko 9.34 58 4 -5.34 25.4 VAN Bo Horvat 8.17 49 3 -5.17 24.6 VAN Ilya Mikheyev 7.50 46 3 -4.50 21.4 VAN Lane Pederson 3.92 11 3 -0.92 4.4 VAN Conor Garland 1.59 58 -4 -5.59 26.6 VAN Vasily Podkolzin -0.82 26 -3 -2.18 10.4 VAN Anthony Beauvillier -0.91 10 -2 -1.09 5.2 VAN Curtis Lazar -1.55 45 -5 -3.45 16.4 VAN Nils Hoglander -1.94 25 -4 -2.06 9.8 VAN Travis Dermott -3.03 11 -4 -0.97 4.6 VAN Jack Studnicka -3.59 34 -6 -2.41 11.5 VAN Sheldon Dries -5.29 40 -8 -2.71 12.9 VAN Nils Aman -5.53 45 -9 -3.47 16.5 VAN Tyler Myers -5.64 56 -13 -7.36 35.1 VAN William Lockwood -6.12 13 -7 -0.88 4.2 VAN Tanner Pearson -7.88 14 -9 -1.12 5.3 VAN J.T. Miller -8.81 59 -15 -6.19 29.5 VAN Kyle Burroughs -10.38 25 -13 -2.62 12.5 VAN Riley Stillman -10.69 32 -14 -3.31 15.8 VAN Dakota Joshua -11.09 56 -15 -3.91 18.6 VAN Brock Boeser -14.91 51 -20 -5.09 24.2 VAN Oliver Ekman-Larsson -17.38 54 -24 -6.62 31.5 ==============================================================

fun fact... "kulich" in Czech translates to "beanie"

UPL being sent down would my guess.

4 games into this 16 in 28 day stretch they've collected 6 out of 8 possible points (.750). The next 4 are CBJ, @BOS, TBL, EDM. If they collect 3 of 8 points, that puts then at .562 points% for the first 8 games. 4 points would put them at .625.

Great to see him developing.

Nice return for the Blackhawks.