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Personally I don't particularly care about Juolevi's development timeline - it's what he does once he's healthy and here that matters. The thing about players like him who aren't necessarily physically matured at draft time - he was drafted for his hockey intelligence - he has a projectible frame - and when he's ready, I have no doubt he'll be a very good NHL defenseman. And the guys that are drafted high - who are defensive blueliners or two-way blueliners - I don't exptec them to excel at the NHL level as quickly as players whose bread and butter are puck moving - and don't have to handle the harder, heavier NHL minutes. So guys like Gud, Larsson, Murray, Juolevi - I think it's to be expected that they won't be 'impact' players/dominant at 18, 19, 20 yr olds. I also think that's why a player like Dahlin isn't necessarily at the head of the Calder conversation. His production was good - but he's not a 1D type as a rookie - he's still relatively sheltered - with a high proportion of pp productiion - but not ready to play the kind of minutes he will in the future.
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Larsson was an absolute stud in New Jersey. Larsson was a Calder candidate as a rookie. His 2nd and 3rd seasons however = injuries really limited his ice - like Gud - like Juolevi = like Ryan Murray. Elite shutdown guy by the time he was dealt to Deadmonton. I'd take any of these guys in a heartbeat, frankly.
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Interesting that the Isles are perceived as an 'off-the-charts' skill team (ala McLean). But EP outscored Barzal Horvat outscored Bailey Boeser outscored Nelson. Edler, Roussel - comparable production to Pulock, Lee. The Isles, however, are a Trotz team. Gave up only 196 goals this year - the fewest in the NHL - very few teams anywhere close to that.
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A Tampa first round exit - not saying that's gonna happen (it's never a good idea to get carried away two games into the playoffs) - but if they were to lose, I wonder what that might do for the market for a player like Tanev - with Stralman, Girardi, Coburn (and Rutta) expiring.... Tampa's blueline looks like they're missing Stralman imo.
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Appeared to be "chirping" (when Hedman taunts, I wouldn't characterize it as a 'chirp') the entire bench - not Nash (cool story though) - what he apparently said was "you guys are really good at this....had a 2-0 lead last year.....how'd it wind up?" Probably wouldn't want my guys poking that bear if I'm a Bluejacket.
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I'd be repeating myself for the nth time. What I actually said is this: "if a Tortorella team is going to go anywhere, it's with the kind of heavy, up tempo young lineup he has to work with - otherwise I don't think his cookie cutter fits many teams." Tortorella has some signatures that, unlike his friend Sullivan, I doubt he'll ever break from. Don't care for his systems - same in NYR as they were in Van as they appear to be in Columbus - overly aggressive forecheck (great, love that if you have the horses, which he does in Columbus), never liked his dzone zone collapses - loves to ride his key horses (borderline into the ground/exhaustion) - fortunately he has no shortage of them in Columbus - with a contender-deep lineup imo. If there's a team that he's a decent fit for - it's Columbus. But when I look at that roster, I don't consider 4th and 5th place finishes in the Metro to be particularly good results - or first round exits. Squeaking into the post-season on the 82nd night, edging out a Habs team - not good enough imo. Kudos to making the playoffs - but I look at: Jones Werenski Murray Savard Nutivaara Harrington Carlsson McQauid Panarin Atkinson Duchene Dubois Jenner Anderson Foligno Wennberg Bjorkstrand Dubinsky Bob Korpi And I don't see a perenial bubble team. I see as good a blueline as virtually any in the NHL - top 5 range - likewise with their center depth - and probably the skill they have on the wings. Some really talented, heavy forwards - Anderson, Jenner, Foligno.....great goaltending tandem. Enviable group to work with. Nice to see them performing well through the first few playoffs games - good time to get warm (and sometimes those bubble playoff teams enter the playoffs more ready for what's to come than a contender like Tampa that coasts in). A lot of players on that team that I like and would want to poach. But for the most part - not flavour-of-the-weeking them after a couple games - I don't think they're living up to their paper roster. And they're going to have some work in the offseason, so who knows what they look like next year. I look at them kind of the way I look at the Jets. I love the Jets - and think they have the makings of a very difficult contender to handle - but I just don't find Maurice to be a convincing guy to head that group. In a playoff run, anything can happen, but over the longer run, I wouldn't have stuck with either of these guys. I'd love to see where these teams would be with a guy like Trotz behind their bench.
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Watching the Jets, I can't help but find their puck pursuit disappointing/inadequate. They are a fairly big team, but I don't consider their mobility to be a problem. Being used to watching the Canucks on a regular basis, it's really notable how relatively deficient the Jets are in this sense, particularly when they really need to apply pressure - are playing from behind. The Blues do have quite a deep, experienced, hard-to-play against blueline that moves the puck well, but this seems to be an ongoing symptom, not just something that popped up situationally against a good opponent in game 1. Their entries and puck movement on their powerplays - frustrating. Their puck support - ditto. I just don't think Maurice is getting that group's potential out of them. Maybe that's not fair when such a large element of that group's key players are still 22, 23, 24, 25 years old - but I repeatedly have to wonder what one of the NHL's better coaches could manage with that lineup.
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I thought the difference that Muzzin makes was fairly evident last night. The Bruins playing as soft a brand of hockey as you'll see in that market was also surprising. Playing with Muzzin, Zaitsev looks considerably better than attempting to make up for Gardiner. That pairing was pretty effective - combined 27 dzone starts - 35% and 36.4% ozone starts - with corsis of 50 and 51.4%. Zaitsev +2, Muzzin +1... Enabled Babcock to relatively shelter Gardiner and Dermott - who were still fairly awful regardless. Gardiner with 8 ozone, 4 dzone starts - outshot 19-9 when on the ice - and Dermott comparably shelled. Likewise a similar dynamic with their forward group. Tavares Hyman Marner - 33-39% ozone starts, 53-61% corsi - and provided the production. Matthews, once again, a passenger. 12 ozone, 5 dzone starts (70.6% ozone starts) - outshot 31-21 (40% corsi) - did nothing in 21 minutes of ice-time and looked like the player that had the worst on-ice goals against on the Leafs in the regular season, a horrible 3.9 in the kind of minutes he plays..... The Leafs were fortunate to escape with a win - when one of their top 6 lines doesn't show up - becoming a signature of the primadonna Matthews. Luckily for the Leafs, that coincided with a relatively weak Bruins effort. But the difference Muzzin makes on that blueline - was fairly evident imo. I still think the Leafs probably should have made an additional move for their right side - but if they stay healthy on the back end at least they are that level deeper than they've been the past few years.