The Stanley Cup Playoffs 2023: First Round GDT

[Contempt]

4 minutes ago, Claude Balls said:

Still, Boston has one superstar, David Pastrnak. I will never call Marchand a superstar. He is the dirtiest pos in the league. He is the king of slew foots and gets away with it 99% of the time somehow. He had one in the 2nd period than somehow went unnoticed. And all of a sudden Linus Ullmark, who couldn't stop a runny nose in Buffalo, looks like Martin Brodeur. My hate for Boston runs deep. 

Don't tell anyone.

You have my solemn 6 beers in on a Friday word. I won't tell a soul.

[Claude Balls]

So far, from what I'm seeing, is this years playoffs are all about goaltending. These guys have been the difference makers so far. I don't think I've ever seen so much incredible goaltending. Please Devon, be our savior. I still think we need a solid veteran netminder for next year. But how many guys will want to come here with Levi waiting in the wings. 

[DarthEbriate]

9 minutes ago, Claude Balls said:

Still, Boston has one superstar, David Pastrnak. I will never call Marchand a superstar. He is the dirtiest pos in the league. He is the king of slew foots and gets away with it 99% of the time somehow. He had one in the 2nd period than somehow went unnoticed. And all of a sudden Linus Ullmark, who couldn't stop a runny nose in Buffalo, looks like Martin Brodeur. My hate for Boston runs deep. 

Don't tell anyone.

I still don't understand the un-love for Ullmark when he was a Sabre. He got better every season and was above-average compared to goalies league-wide with some garbage Sabres teams. He was dynamite in shootouts. As scoring as increased leaguewide, his numbers have improved year after year. It's why you lock up your core and don't let them reach UFA (especially when your GM/coach has been turned over every 2.5 years for a decade. Good players will leave for better situations if they're able.)

[Goldseatsaud]

Boston looking like Boston tonight. I think they got a message the other night

[Claude Balls]

16 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

I still don't understand the un-love for Ullmark when he was a Sabre. He got better every season and was above-average compared to goalies league-wide with some garbage Sabres teams. He was dynamite in shootouts. As scoring as increased leaguewide, his numbers have improved year after year. It's why you lock up your core and don't let them reach UFA (especially when your GM/coach has been turned over every 2.5 years for a decade. Good players will leave for better situations if they're able.)

But the jump he made is remarkable. I know it's mostly the guys in front of him. But he was never reliable as a Sabre. And there was never a chance he was gonna re-sign with Buffalo. 

[French Collection]

Another comment for the faceoff debate.

Bergeron took over 1700 of the Bruins faceoffs this year. The next guy on the team was Coyle with 1000. 
Bergeron took close to 40% of his team’s faceoffs. I would put money on most of his extra draws were not in the neutral zone.

His win percentage was 61.1%. 

Did this have an impact on team success? Having possession on over 61% of the key situations is an advantage.

[French Collection]

Why do I think klepto when I see Crypto.com arena?

[PerreaultForever]

22 minutes ago, Claude Balls said:

But the jump he made is remarkable. I know it's mostly the guys in front of him. But he was never reliable as a Sabre. And there was never a chance he was gonna re-sign with Buffalo. 

He is on the record crediting goaltender coach Bob Essensa with changing and thus improving aspects of his game. 

His rebound control was excellent tonight aside from the whistle goal. 

Bruins played textbook shutdown hockey tonight. Taking Krejci out was a solid move. Hall was actually good for a change. 

[DarthEbriate]

7 minutes ago, French Collection said:

Another comment for the faceoff debate.

Bergeron took over 1700 of the Bruins faceoffs this year. The next guy on the team was Coyle with 1000. 
Bergeron took close to 40% of his team’s faceoffs. I would put money on most of his extra draws were not in the neutral zone.

His win percentage was 61.1%. 

Did this have an impact on team success? Having possession on over 61% of the key situations is an advantage.

It's not always important, but on PP, PK, late-game situations it's absolutely critical. Especially once the playoffs start and you're playing matchups every single shift.

All we have to do is think back to 1999. The Sabres couldn't win a draw in the Final and were chasing constantly. Zinger won that one cleanly in OT and Patrick put the shot off the crossbar... but during the draw scuffle super-vet Carbonneau got his sleeve on the shot (now, we'll never know if that sleeve made it hit the bar instead of going directly in, or if the shot would've missed entirely and the sleeve got it to clang of the post.)

[Marvin]

1 minute ago, DarthEbriate said:

It's not always important, but on PP, PK, late-game situations it's absolutely critical. Especially once the playoffs start and you're playing matchups every single shift.

All we have to do is think back to 1999. The Sabres couldn't win a draw in the Final and were chasing constantly. Zinger won that one cleanly in OT and Patrick put the shot off the crossbar... but during the draw scuffle super-vet Carbonneau got his sleeve on the shot (now, we'll never know if that sleeve made it hit the bar instead of going directly in, or if the shot would've missed entirely and the sleeve got it to clang of the post.)

If I recall, all of Dallas's GWG in games 2, 3, and 5 came immediately after the Sabres lost a defencive zone face-off.

[French Collection]

Bruins ball washers saying you know a team is good when an NHL MVP is on the third line.

My take is how badly an MVPs skills have eroded to be on a third line.

[French Collection]

Wow, Isles score 4 in the third to win their first game of the series. I wasn’t paying attention, finding those games kind of boring.

[DarthEbriate]

28 minutes ago, Claude Balls said:

But the jump he made is remarkable. I know it's mostly the guys in front of him. But he was never reliable as a Sabre. And there was never a chance he was gonna re-sign with Buffalo. 

The jump is impressive. He's coachable (re: Essensa), he's got the best team defense in the league in front of him. But his baseline the past 3 seasons has been .917 (including Sabres). He's a legit top-12 goalie in the league regardless of where he plays. As to reliable, his unreliability was two leg injuries. When he was in the net he was consistent as he's also shown with Boston. 

Now... re-signing. Yes, it goes back to UFAs and the ####-maelstrom that was this organization. However, I think if you extend him long-term after his first injury season (after 2019-2020, where if he doesn't get injured, the Sabres are in the play-in round instead of Montreal against a worn-down and disinterested Penguins squad). Instead, they left him unsigned and he got injured again (which, yes, red flag). But then, if you're going to let him hit UFA then you trade him at the deadline and trade a 3rd for a Vanecek or someone else to protect in the expansion draft.

[Contempt]

13 minutes ago, French Collection said:

Why do I think klepto when I see Crypto.com arena?

because you see krypto for what it is. 

11 minutes ago, DarthEbriate said:

It's not always important, but on PP, PK, late-game situations it's absolutely critical. Especially once the playoffs start and you're playing matchups every single shift.

All we have to do is think back to 1999. The Sabres couldn't win a draw in the Final and were chasing constantly. Zinger won that one cleanly in OT and Patrick put the shot off the crossbar... but during the draw scuffle super-vet Carbonneau got his sleeve on the shot (now, we'll never know if that sleeve made it hit the bar instead of going directly in, or if the shot would've missed entirely and the sleeve got it to clang of the post.)

But I've been told repeatedly that faceoffs don't matter. LOL

[Contempt]

9 minutes ago, Marvin said:

If I recall, all of Dallas's GWG in games 2, 3, and 5 came immediately after the Sabres lost a defencive zone face-off.

It's literally this that cause certain schisms in debates on this board because many of us remember that that too.  It's like how stolen bases don't matter until Dave Roberts swipes one in the WS in a huge spot. In the aggregate, sure. In individual trial? Nope, totally matter.

[French Collection]

Oilers coach Woodcroft looks more like someone from the Big Bang Theory than someone on an NHL bench.

[DarthEbriate]

10 minutes ago, Contempt said:

It's literally this that cause certain schisms in debates on this board because many of us remember that that too.  It's like how stolen bases don't matter until Dave Roberts swipes one in the WS in a huge spot. In the aggregate, sure. In individual trial? Nope, totally matter.

It's also more of a team stat than just the player taking the draw because winning the initial draw vs. gaining possession are two different things.

I don't worry about the FOs between the bluelines, but in-zone... If you can take away 6 out of 10 clean opposition possessions-turned-point shots on the PK, or get 6 out of 10 draws on your powerplay to run set plays to TNT's snipe...  that adds up to massive improvement over what the Sabres did this year (4 out of 10). The good thing from a Sabres perspective is that FO %s generally increase as a player gets more experienced.  You can handle 50%, you just don't want it to be a liability.

[Contempt]

1 minute ago, DarthEbriate said:

It's also more of a team stat than just the player taking the draw because winning the initial draw vs. gaining possession are two different things.

I don't worry about the FOs between the bluelines, but in-zone... If you can take away 6 out of 10 clean opposition possessions-turned-point shots on the PK, or get 6 out of 10 draws on your powerplay to run set plays to TNT's snipe...  that adds up to massive improvement over what the Sabres did this year (4 out of 10). The good thing from a Sabres perspective is that FO %s generally increase as a player gets more experienced.  You can handle 50%, you just don't want it to be a liability.

I really wish they'd count them differently. PP and SH faceoffs in the respective zones are HUGE. Faceoffs int eh offensive/defensive zone with the goalie pulled? Also important. The draw the start the game? Who cares?

[French Collection]

1 minute ago, Contempt said:

I really wish they'd count them differently. PP and SH faceoffs in the respective zones are HUGE. Faceoffs int eh offensive/defensive zone with the goalie pulled? Also important. The draw the start the game? Who cares?

With all of the stats tracked by analytics people you would think someone is on top of that.

[Contempt]

2 minutes ago, French Collection said:

With all of the stats tracked by analytics people you would think someone is on top of that.

I'd bet they are privately.

[French Collection]

2 minutes ago, Contempt said:

I'd bet they are privately.

I guess it may be tough to determine a win in some cases. A C can lose a draw cleanly that goes to open space where a teammate gets it. Your team gets possession but you lost the draw.

 

[Contempt]

5 minutes ago, French Collection said:

I guess it may be tough to determine a win in some cases. A C can lose a draw cleanly that goes to open space where a teammate gets it. Your team gets possession but you lost the draw.

 

If it were me, and I ran this department with a team of interns breaking down film, I think I'd determine it whether or not my C won the draw into an area that I felt we should obtain the puck from and then define that space. Clearly it's possible to lose to draw and win possession but that not the goal right? You want to put the draw into places where your team statistically is most most likely to win possession.  All of that is definable and intern labor is cheap so why not?  This is why I say it's privately available. Team aren't going to tell you what they feel like is a won faceoff by the center compared to a lost faceoff by everyone else. The teams know what the center is instructed to do in each scenario while the rest of us might not.

Edited April 22, 2023 by Contempt

[GoPuckYourself]

I miss Marcus Foligno.

[Wyldnwoody44]

I miss Marcus Johansson 

[French Collection]

8 minutes ago, Contempt said:

If it were me, and I ran this department with a team of interns breaking down film, I think I'd determine it whether or not my C won the draw into an area that I felt we should obtain the puck from and then define that space. Clearly it's possible to lose to draw and win possession but that not the goal right? You want to put the draw into places where your team statistically is most most likely to win possession.  All of that is definable and intern labor is cheap so why not?  This is why I say it's privately available. Team aren't going to tell you what they feel like is a won faceoff by the center compared to a lost faceoff by everyone else. The teams know what the center is instructed to do in each scenario while the rest of us might not.

I guess you could call it a win for your C if he puts it in the right place, ties up his man but your winger/Dman doesn’t get to the space to gain possession.

I can’t wait until the Sabres have a go to guy who is above 50%. Right now I feel like they will lose most of the important draws.

3 minutes ago, Wyldnwoody44 said:

I miss Marcus Johansson 

Did you know he played centre in 2013/14?