Did Travis Green mishandle Nikolai Goldobin?

[mpt]

2 hours ago, vannuck59 said:

Loui Ericksson comes to mind doing nothing but getting played.

Eriksson is a better bottom 6 forward than Goldy, he doesn’t screw up much, plays ok defensively he’s just not anywhere near his worth at 6 million

[Attila Umbrus]

4 hours ago, Lancaster said:

It wouldn't be viewed as mismanagement if a player like Virtanen had a similar short leash.  

Green probably should have "punished" Goldobin by playing him in a bottom-6 role at times and demanding he play the system and play physical while there.  Then put him on the PK and demand he throw his body in front of a one-timer to show how much he wants to stay in the line up, a la Motte.

Shouldn't just be top-6 or out... something more in-between would have been better.  

But he has given tough love to JV as well. He’s played him down the line up more games than not but has tried to play him at the top but he just doesn’t produce...I think the only difference here is that Green knows he can play Jake down the line up and he will be ok. As where Goldy would be terrible in the bottom 6. They’ve maintained all along this year that they want Goldy to take a top 6 spot on the team. They left it wide open for him to steal it from guys like Baertschi, Leivo, Virtanen, but he never stole the job. He had a great first start to the year and was looking great with Petey, but at the end he just couldn’t regain the chemistry with Petey again as the games started getting harder and harder he just kinda couldn’t get anything accomplished. 

 

With all that being said, I actually don’t mind brining Goldy back for one more year. He has little to no trade value right now anyways. If we trade him now or later I don’t think it effects his value.

 

edit: sorry I wrote this too quick and didn’t notice all the mistakes lol, darn auto correct!

Edited April 7, 2019 by Attila Umbrus

[UFCanuck]

Goldobin mishandled himself out of town.

[riffraff]

9 hours ago, xereau said:

He appeared to me, to be "getting it" just before he was yanked out of the line up.  He was digging for the puck.  He was not floating in the back of the play.  He (mostly) stopped the really dangerous passes.  He hit a LOT of posts, meaning, he was beating goalies.  He appeared to me, to be doing as the coach asked.

This being said, we do not know what goes on behind the scenes.  We don't know what kind of person Goldie is.  We don't anything about what kind of attitude he has in training. Not saying its bad.  We don't know what kind of attitude when he has one on ones or when criticized or leaned on by the coaches.  Not saying its bad.  We simply do not know. Given that he appeared to be finally become a complete player, there surely must be more to this story that we as fans on the outside are missing.

I don’t know.  I recall an interview either before or after the trade deadline where he was point blank asked all the tough questions and he handled it exceptionally well and professionally - to the point where I thought to myself “wow this young kid deserves some respect”

 

all this was mentioned in one of my posts at the time.

[riffraff]

I may get flamed but I find it interesting that Peteys play in the last 15 games was equally “as bad” as goldys If not moreso.

[kloubek]

3 minutes ago, riffraff said:

I don’t know.  I recall an interview either before or after the trade deadline where he was point blank asked all the tough questions and he handled it exceptionally well and professionally - to the point where I thought to myself “wow this young kid deserves some respect”

I agree.  He could have whined about his ice time or the way he was being handled.  Could have acted all negative but he seemed very professional to me.

 

I feel the club really tried to help Goldobin be an NHL player and I don't blame Green that he never "got it".  I will say, however, that I felt that right before he was benched for good that he was playing his best hockey and I question if that was the right move.

 

I havent written Goldobin off completely. His skillset is strong and I saw glimpses in those last few games that he was really trying to round out his game.  People are basically saying he is gone but is there any detriment to qualifying him?

[Mathew Barzal]

Even if Goldy produced 40 ppg from here on out in his career I wouldn't want him. He doesn't have the winner's mentality.

 

It's why he hasn't and will not grow as a player since his draft year. He's made the NHL and he's satisfied with just getting by as long as he's here.

[Rush17]

nikolay whodobin?

[BlueDragon23]

While I like Goldy, he always seems to lack the intensity and desire to score and hustle on the backcheck. Look at a comparison between him and Petey. Not even close. Petey has a hyper competitive edge to him where he wants to win and score every game. He puts in the extra effort on and off the ice.

 

Goldy has a great hockey sense and skill but does not have that same hunger or desire to win which is why I think he is not working with how Green coaches. I Don’t think he has enough consistency to be a NHL regular. 

 

He has had numerous opportunities to prove himself, and we have given him a very long leash but unfortunately it has not panned out. Coach Green isn’t really to blame. Honus has to be on the player equally. 

[Viper007]

I hope Goldobin pulls a Hutton this off season and comes back knowing what he has to do to stay in the lineup.  If Hutton can come out of the doghouse, so can Goldobin, but he has to put in the work ethic.

[-DLC-]

I think it's unfair to speculate when there's no way of really knowing.

 

Perhaps.

 

Or, possibly, Goldy had his own ideas and wasn't buying in to some of the coaching he was given.  And that can set a bad precedent, as others may adopt that same attitude.  Like it or not, coaches are in place for a reason and if they bench a player, we have no idea of what's happening behind the scenes.  Maybe he's showing up tired/unrested, late, unfocused, etc.   Maybe he isn't committed to learning, training and or growing.  (Speculation, don't like that stuff).

 

So I don't see that this serves a purpose, really.  Sure, it's a forum for discussion but I've grown to hate the pointed finger of blame because it was catch on.  Tabloid stuff. 

[JeremyCuddles]

5 hours ago, vannuck59 said:

Really then why was our record better in the first half of the season then the second half.

I mean. St Louis’ record sucked early. Buffalo was pushing first in the league at one point. Some teams start out hot, some start out slow. I’d say Petey’s hot start really inflated our play early. Even Bo cooled off as the season went on. Second half of the season seperates the men from the boys, contenders from the pretenders. You’ve watched hockey before right?

[NHL'er]

 

1 hour ago, debluvscanucks said:

I think it's unfair to speculate when there's no way of really knowing.

 

Perhaps.

Perhaps Tryamkin didn’t like the smell of weed in Vancouver but Goldobin really did. 

[The Lock]

I tend to be of a mindset of if you are given every chance to succeed and you don't, it's on you. He's played on the top line. He's played up and down the line. He's seen successful players and what they do.

 

No matter what Green may or may not be doing, Goldobin's had numerous chances to succeed. It's on Goldobin whether or not there's other factors. You either make what you can of things or you don't.

[ButterBean]

4 hours ago, Tomatoes11 said:

We definitely had favourites and Goldie wasn’t one of them.

 

like Baertschit, JV, and craplund were force fed minutes like crazy, probably because dim Jim didn’t want his trades and first high pick to look like crap. 

 

If goldie was force fed those minutes he would look a lot better right now, unfortunately, he rubbed someone the wrong way somehow. 

 

Unfortunately, this would mean both burrows and Hansen trades would be bust trades. The irony is that those were probably dim Jim’s two best trades and if they failed, imagine how bad his other trades were. Lol

 

Trade JV and Baertschit before Goldie imo. Move green for quenville if that’s what it takes.

I don’t think JV was forcefed minutes at all. He’s primarily deployed on the 3rd line and he would occasionally take shifts with Bo. Goldy had tons of oppurtunities playing with Bo, Boeser, and Petey but ultimately what it comes down to is effort and there is no urgency/hustle to his game. JV never really got those oppurtunities as often despite the fact the Green juggles his lines a lot(in and between games). Then there’s Eriksson who is almost identical to Goldy(effort wise) but gets a free pass because he can play in his own end. 

[BCNeil]

He is Yakupov with less skill.  

[Dr. Crossbar]

Had Goldobin buried a few more missed scoring chances, perhaps changing the direction of games in our favor, I don't think this would be as much of an issue.

 

In the second half I felt bad for him because he was getting the opportunities, even game winning opportunities, he just wasn't capitalizing.  In some cases, he was just unlucky. 

 

At least a few more timely goals would have offset the defensive liability factor and made it harder for Green to keep him out of the lineup. 

 

 

[DownUndaCanuck]

I hate to say it, but I have to side with Green on this one for a few reasons.

 

Green gave Goldobin his chance. He got a decent slab of the season (about a quarter?) playing with Pettersson and Boeser and getting prime offensive minutes, and shielded from defensive zone starts. He was on the top PP and was giving a glorious opportunity. Yes, he put up some points, but not a hell of a lot all things considered, and never really played well defensively. He was always a bit rogue and never bought into Green's philosophy.

 

Meanwhile, you see guys like Spooner, Motte, Schaller and Beagle work their asses off, not scoring very much but playing the right, hard way which is what Green wants. They don't put up many flashy points but when they do score they're hard-earned goals.

 

That's the type of system Green runs, to be fair it's a good one for the playoffs but not for flashy skilled players and he can only really let Pettersson and Boeser get away with stuff like that (and even then they're on a short leash, they have been brutal defensively at times this season especially Boeser). We can't have a whole line or team full of guys like that, especially if you're not putting up goals the way they are.

 

Goldobin was good, yes he was getting into an offensive rhythm, but his defensive game never really changed which is why he was on the out looking in. Honestly, he'd be perfectly suited for a run-and-gun type of team, in particular the Capitals, TBL, Carolina or Pittsburgh come to mind. Hopefully there's a trade to be made there, I'm sure there's one with a Carolina defenceman...

[oldnews]

Green knows what he's doing - and why.

If Goldobin wants to be a regular in Vancouver, he has next training camp to make his case - assuming he's qualified.

 

He wasn't good enough this year, unfortunately.   Part of that was being somewhat snakebitten it seemed, whenever he elected to shoot the puck - he might have lead the NHL in hit posts.

But the other part was glaring inconsistency, relative indifference without the puck, with the odd sample of what Goldobin could be if he applied himself with the regularity that it takes to be an NHL regular.  And part of the challenge for him is that the team needs certain ingredients from their skilled LWers - that Goldobin wasn't necessarily bringing - a stronger forecheck, a bit harder to play against - so I think that aspect slightly tilts his requirement to capitalize on what he does bring.

 

I wouldn't write him off yet - would probably qualify him and give him one more summer to show up and see if he's grown - but the competition probably isn't going to get any easier, so he's going to need to take bigger strides imo.

[TheRealistOptimist]

I like Goldobin's skill set and think we need more of it in the top 6.

 

I do think Green treats Goldobin differently than other players, and if I recall correctly, I believe that there were reports that Goldy questioned the coaching staff on why he was getting picked on, when other players were making the same mistakes. If true, this probably rubbed Green the wrong way and didn't do Goldobin any favours with him. 

 

Goldobin is offensively gifted and lackluster at best defensively, he needs to play in a top 6 role to be successful. This limits Green's options when Goldobin isn't producing because you can't play him in the bottom 6, this is probably why it's so easy for Green to healthy scratch him. I also think the Canucks being in a playoff race was a key reason as to why we didn't see Goldobin in the lineup more down the stretch. Then by the time we were out of it, Green probably had his mind made up about Goldobin this season and so there was little point in playing him the last few games of the season. Hopefully they were very honest with Goldy about what he needs to improve on over the offseason.

 

I think it's a bit fool hearty to give up on Goldobin after he had a career worst shooting percentage this season. Goldobin was clearly snake bitten this year and I believe it affected his confidence. If he had 13-15 goals this season (like his shooting percentage prior to this season might suggest he should have), we would probably be looking at his season much differently.