Stanley Cup Final Twitter Mailbag (Patric Hornqvist)

Patric Hornqvist

Stanley Cup Final Twitter Mailbag

By Ryan Wilson

Jun 3, 2016 • 3:20 pm

0comment-bubble

In most playoff series the schedule would dictate a game being played after one day off. In this year's Stanley Cup Final there are 10 off days for a seven game series. Today is the second consecutive day with no new hockey. As a result I've decided to answer questions from Twitter rather than try and fabricate some storyline or try to re-brand prior analysis into something that sounds different.

So here we go:

I thought the Sharks defensemen were going to do a better job on the Penguins forwards. The speed the Penguins have been bringing has overwhelmed them for large stretches of the series so far. If Martin Jones wasn't playing at a .930 level it would look even worse for San Jose at this point. I thought the series was a coin flip but that clearly hasn't been the case. This is Pittsburgh's to lose and the chances of that happening aren't very high.

If they do decide to bring him back it can't be in that 3-4M range. I have to brush up on my understanding of qualifying offer sheets and how this stuff works but the Penguins shouldn't make a big investment in him. He has done OK but he has done so in very sheltered minutes. I don't want to pay a premium for sheltered minutes. Pittsburgh already has a player who would do just fine in sheltered minutes in Derrick Pouliot. I would be fine with trading Ian Cole and giving Schultz that kind of money and making him and Pouliot the bottom pairing.

Ben Lovejoy has not been a liability during this playoff run. He's done a nice job. His score-adjusted shot attempt percentage is 50.96 in the playoffs which is good for a player of his skill set. I think what you are seeing is his ceiling as a player. I still find it annoying how many controlled plays he leaves on the table because he has tunnel vision but the Penguins have gotten a lot worse play from defenders in years past (Orpik/Scuderi/Eaton). I still don't care for the trade that brought him to Pittsburgh but that isn't his fault.

The biggest misconception the last few years was that Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin's "window" was closing. The only way it was going to close was if the team kept missing the mark as badly as they did on depth front. The Penguins have all the hard to get pieces in their organization already. They just needed to stop whiffing on the kind of players they needed to fill out the roster. The light bulb finally went off this past year and their commitment to speed has paid off. Pittsburgh doesn't have any huge contracts that will be problematic in the years to come. Fleury, Kunitz, and Daley (~14M) will be off the books and that will give the team whatever wiggle room they need to remain competitive. The Crosby and Malkin window should be open for a long time given the front office can continue to find proper value in filling out the depth that surrounds them. Part of this strategy is giving players within the system a legitimate chance to play and they have done that this year.

The only way the window will close in the near future is if the team suffers from self-inflicted errors in judgment.

This is one of the easiest roster decisions they have. They have to trade Marc-Andre Fleury. I would start that process as early as this year's NHL draft.

This is one of the offseason's biggest mysteries. I have no idea what they have planned for him. There are really only two viable options from where I stand. The first is that you make him a regular in the lineup and play him every single game he's available in 2016-17. The second is trading him this summer because what is the point of having an asset you have no plans on using?

I would keep him and play him. I'm not down on him as much as most people are. His cost is still incredibly cheap and if given a legitimate chance I think he can be a real asset to the team. Cheap talent that can positively contribute is the name of the salary cap game. A lot of times people just focus on the what and not the why in player evaluation. For me if a player makes a huge error once in a while I ask myself why that decision was made. More times than not with players like Pouliot (or other puck skilled defenders) it is because they were trying to make a controlled play. I want my players to play that way. Occasionally mistakes will be made. Some people accept high off the glass as an acceptable outcome, but that is a turnover. I don't want players who make that a regular habit of doing that as their means of a zone exit. I view that as a mistake in most cases. One happens multiple times every game (sometimes every shift) and the other one happens once in a blue moon. The way things are currently perceived by the populace is that the frequent mistake is accepted while the more obvious but rarer mistake is an abomination. This mindset needs to change. People should accept that the rare mistake, while potentially costly, is worth it in order to gain infinitely more controlled zone exits which leads to way more scoring opportunities for. I'm tired of the risk averse mindset that plagues the sport of hockey. The idea that somehow Ian Cole is less of a liability than Pouliot is comical and it is for all the reasons stated above.

I don't like the idea of fighting Clayton Stoner so I'll take the 100 duck-sized horses. It wouldn't be hard to suppress the duck-sized horses as I would have multiple bags of baby size carrots. I would earn their trust through carrots and ultimately have an army of 100 duck-sized horses at my disposal.

Nope. The next trade proposal that I hear which is realistic for Evgeni Malkin will be the first. The Penguins finally have three solid centers which give them three dangerous lines again. What is the rush to blow that up? You ride out the Crosby/Malkin era until the end. Pittsburgh has been spoiled. The odds of them getting lucky with more generational talents after Crosby and Malkin isn't great. Teams chase this kind of talent all the time. You don't willfully give it away. Malkin has many good to great years left.

According to the suspensions system that Cameron Walsh created for our Hockey Hurts website he would have received 5 games. This is an objective point based system that takes different variables into consideration and based on those points awards a penalty. This system is a lot more severe than the one actually used by the NHL and would deter questionable hits better than the status quo. Here is the chart

For a more detailed explanation of the system you can go here

Probably none, but that has more to do with the CHL transfer agreement. He can't play in the AHL next year. It is either the NHL or juniors. By the time he is eligible to be a full time AHL player he will be ready to be a full time NHL player.

Absolutely. I don't think it is likely but he can certainly play his way on to the team. Bryan Rust is having a great run in the playoffs but he isn't going to be a long term top six solution. If Sprong has a strong camp and then makes the most of his 9 game "tryout" he could certainly earn a spot.

The tough thing for the Sharks is that they aren't as fast as the Penguins. Pittsburgh has done a nice job of altering their approach based on what the opposition has been trying to do. Against New York the Penguins played a more trappy 1-2-2 forecheck and waited for New York to make mistakes and feasted on transition. Against Tampa Bay they were being victimized by the stretch pass so Mike Sullivan turned the forecheckers loose and played very aggressive so that the Lightning defensemen didn't have time to make the stretch pass. If San Jose tries to play back and force dump-ins the Penguins have no problem chipping it in and winning foot races. If the Sharks get more aggressive they open themselves up to odd man rushes (think Kunitz on the boards making an area pass for Rust to skate into). The Sharks best chance for success is working over the Penguins defense in a cycle game. Pittsburgh's defense isn't built for extended in-zone time. If I'm the Sharks I try an aggressive 2-3 forecheck with their defensemen activating aggressively and hope they don't get burned on an alley-oop play by HBK. This will extend their zone time and increase their chance for offense.

I think for the Penguins you are looking at Sidney Crosby, Phil Kessel, and Matt Murray and for the Sharks you have Joe Pavelski, Brent Burns, and Martin Jones.

Crosby is only two points behind Kessel so I think he certainly has the opportunity to strengthen his case. He is Sidney Crosby after all and if it is close the league will probably lean his way.

I realize Logan Couture is leading the playoffs in scoring but I would still lean towards Pavelski as far as forwards go.

I would be looking for a top six left winger. I think the defense corp. could return next year and be very serviceable. Kunitz is doing a really nice job this postseason but they need to find his successor sooner than later.

You can't "shutdown" the Penguins right now because of the strength of their top three lines but you can alter the percentages. If I'm the Sharks coach I do my best to get the Thornton line out against Justin Schultz and Ian Cole. That is a severe mismatch and one that I think the Sharks can get more looks with at home.

Colorado is a great team to target if you want to make a trade. They clearly don't value the right things. If I was trying to land a quality asset from Colorado the first player I would offer them would be Patric Hornqvist. They are exactly the type of team that would overvalue him. There would be other parts necessary but the grit, character, and battle level that Hornqvist has would play well with Patrick Roy's vision as an ideal player.

As mentioned above it is a lot longer than most people think. Does anybody think that Crosby and Malkin can't find the success Joe Thornton is at his current age? I think there are at least seven legitimate years left.

That is the east course of Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, NY. Specifically it is their signature hole. It is the 594 yard par 5 13th hole. It is known as the "Hill of Fame". The trees on the right side of the green have the Hall of Fame plaques for many of golf's greatest players. It is one of my favorite golf holes and the course just happens to be in my hometown. There is a creek exactly at 300 yards which causes many players to lay up. Up until the 2013 PGA Championship no player had ever reached the green in two.

Another cool fact about Oak Hill is that it is the only course to have ever hosted the Ryder Cup, US Open, US Amateur, US Senior Open, PGA Championship, and Senior PGA Championship.

Here is a picture I took on the 13th hole during a practice round at the 2013 PGA Championship. You may recognize this former major champion.

Thanks for the questions. Game 3 is tomorrow night in San Jose.

Thanks for reading!

Show Comments
Loading...
Loading...
0
Show comments for this article