Wanna blog? Start your own hockey blog with My HockeyBuzz. Register for free today!
 

NHL Thoughts : Some Despair and Some Hope

April 4, 2018, 9:40 AM ET [66 Comments]
Adam French
RSSArchiveCONTACT
Just a few thoughts on random threads throughout the NHL.


Calgary Flameouts : While we’ve all had fun mocking Peter Chiarelli’s Oilers terrible season despite McDavid having another MVP season, I think their frienemies to the south deserve more ire. Calgary has completely flamed out down the stretch as the playoffs loomed near. At the most important time in their season, they simply imploded. This included a crippling 7 game losing streak against a lot of teams they were chasing. It’s easy to blame the lack of Mike Smith. But he still played 55 games. How many were they expecting? All 82? This is a team getting career years offensively from Gaudreau (82p), Monahan (64p), Tkachuk (49p) and Ferland (40p). Yet they’re being wasted. This is a team that going into the season was supposed to have a top-5 defense in the entire NHL. Look at it on paper and the names “say” that this is an elite defense. Hamilton/Giordano/Brodie/Hamonic/Stone, on paper this is an amazing 1-5 defense. They’ve got size. They’ve got puck moving. They’ve got strong (historically) transition defenseman. They have “on paper” and by “reputation” good defensive defenders. In reality though, the defense has been mediocre at best. Brodie has been downright awful.

What went wrong? A lot of Flames fans would say “everything.” Depth players expected to produce simply didn’t. The goaltending outside of a few stellar months from Smith earlier in the season has been terrible. The defense did not perform to expectations. Lastly, the coach seems lost and in over his head. That viral video of him swearing and launching a stick doesn’t tell the whole story, but it tells enough to know he’s desperate.

With a lottery pick in the hands of the Islanders and their top prospects being defenseman, this is shaping up to be an interesting offseason for the Flames. They reportedly want their lottery pick back…shocker...and have defensemen to give to an Islanders team with defensive woes. They need forward depth and they need a new coach. Make it happen Calgary.


Twins Basil, Twins : The Sedin’s announced they would be retiring at the end of the year. I have to say it makes me both sad and glad to hear their plans. Sad, because I always thought it would be neat if they tried the mercenary route of signing small money and term deals on contenders to be their 3rd line PP specialist duo. Glad, because at this stage in their career they can pretty much go out on top as some of the greatest Canucks players of all time. With an Art Ross each and a Hart for Henrik, it’s hard to put up an effective argument against them becoming future members of the HHOF. Maybe not First Ballot, but they’ll get in. No amount of “The Sisters” and other derisive comments will take away from their combined 2100+ points. For two seasons they were the best forward in the game, something that has been extremely rare for players not named Crosby, Malkin or Ovechkin during this decade. That, along with their international achievements and sustained success and durability should give them enough leverage to get in. Though I would love it if they voted Henrik in First Ballot and left Daniel for the next vote.

Great career and seemingly great guys. All the best to them, their families and the fans in Vancouver.


Karlsson Kerfuffle : Around Ottawa, a lot is being made of Erik Karlsson grabbing the puck out of the Sens net and keeping it. Alluding to the idea that this might be his last game played at the CTC in a Sens jersey. I think people are blowing this way out of proportion. Not because that isn’t a distinct possibility. Which it is. But because it’s only natural. There has been so much rampant speculation about him being dealt and how the offseason would be the best time to trade him, there has to be a part of him worried he won’t be back. This is a player who met his wife in the city of Ottawa and has made a life here. Of course he cares about something as important as his last game puck. In my opinion, this isn’t a bargaining tactic, this isn’t an “F U” to Melnyk, this is simply a person who cares deeply about his time with the Senators who is dealing with a potential situation. Nobody cares though, so let’s all speculate for hours on end where he will end up!


Nolan Patrick, More Seguin than Hall? : Nolan Patrick has not exactly lit the lamp in his rookie season. Though Nico Hischier has had only the “usual” first overall pick year himself. We’ve become a bit spoiled by the Matthews/Laine rocketing in as 19/18 year olds that we forget that most 1st and 2nd overall picks do not enter the league like that. Here are the parallels. Hall came into the league as the number one go to guy on the Oilers. Given all the minutes he could handle and damn the consequences. Hischier fought for the top centre slot, but it really wasn’t much of a fight. Though not “the guy,” he’s certainly the number two in New Jersey. Patrick has entered into the Seguin situation. Joining a team with uncharacteristic forward depth for a 2nd overall player to deal with. Seguin joined the Bruins who were very deep at forward and played very limited minutes. Patrick joined the Flyers who are fairly deep at forward (not as much as that years Bruins squad admittedly) and has slowly clawed his way up the depth chart as the season progressed.

In his first season Tyler Seguin scored 74gp 11g 11a 22p playing on average 12:12 minutes with limited PP time.

In his first season Nolan Patrick has scored 71gp 13g 16a 29p playing on average 13:37 minutes with similar limited PP time as Seguin.

At the time everyone wrote Seguin off as a potential bust. Which was absurd. He was 18/19 year old playing on the fourth line on a defense first squad. Similar is the idea of Patrick being a bust as an 18/19 year old playing on the 3rd/4th line. He has been playing a lot better as the season has gone on and I think it’s an indication of what we can expect next season. Maybe not the 69 points that Seguin charged to, but definitely 50+.


Aus “Ton of Fun” Matthews : You may not have heard of this obscure player. Unless you live in any part of Canada and have TSN or Sportsnet. Three separate minor injuries have derailed what was likely going to be another 40 goal season for the Leafs franchise centreman. Despite said injuries he’s still scoring goals at Even Strength like a maniac and having an amazing season. He has 29 goals at even strength with zero empty netters. Who scores 88% of their goals at even strength in today’s NHL?

The thing I’ve found most interesting about Matthews is that he has been a very quiet “star” as it were. Other top players have had nutty 5 point games and random spurts of pure dominance. Matthews himself famously scored 4 goals to start his NHL career. Yet this season he has been consistently consistent. He has only not registered a point in 18 games all year of the 60 he has played and the longest streak he had without scoring was 4 games. 18 of 60 might seem like a lot without context. Laine for example has been held off the score sheet for 30 games of his 80 games. That’s a difference of 8%. Not to take anything away from either player or players like Hall/McDavid/Malkin/MacKinnon/Kucherov having lights out years. It just feels like Matthews is one offseason of learning how to play on a Power Play from becoming a top-10 forward in the NHL.

This message was brought to you by a Ghost Writer of the Toronto Sports Network.


Thanks for reading.
Join the Discussion: » 66 Comments » Post New Comment
More from Adam French
» NHL Thoughts : Russian Tides Were Up All Sides
» 2022 Draft Class : Star Studded Draft
» The Toronto Maple Leafs: A Team of Odds and Ends
» Hockey Thoughts
» The Prospect Blog: Byfield Looms Large Over Rossi