oldnews Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I can't be bothered to read through all this, so apologies if someone has already explained the hockey reasons for using Hansen with the Sedins. It has absolutely nothing to do with the suspicious psychologism being offered here. Simple reason: Vrbata is not hard in on the forecheck. With him on the top line, the Sedins need to do the work in the hard areas, creating space for him, as opposed to vice versa when it's Burrows, Kassian or Hansen on that line. That is a point that Henrik himself made this year. Calgary's blueline is mobile and the move the puck quickly. The Sedins are not your ideal forecheck in this matchup. Hansen is - he's the fastest guy on this team, and works as hard as anyone. He gets maligned all the time for not being skilled enough, bu this production for his role and ice time has been outstanding over the years - and he's a right handed shot, with a pretty good, quick release, which also fits well. That's why Hansen was on the top line, and it makes good solid hockey sense. People attempting to question Desjardins' integrity and intelligence will have to do a hell of a lot better than this. Not everyone is going to agree with every decision, but I guarantee that very few can make a case as strong as the reasoning informing his decisions. WD is a great coach. I'm thrilled to have him and he's done an outstanding job this year. I look forward to him continuing to grow with this group. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I prefer they shoot the puck period. This isn't EA NHL 15 where an errant pass scores a goal. This is an elimination event playoff hockey in the real world. Advanced stats mean crap if you're not scoring on them. Again, dominating the period....generating no shots. PLay an entire shift in the opposing zone playing keep away...no shots. Full power play. No shots. While I respect the hell out of them again it is not trolling or antagonizing anyone to say the truth. If they don't shoot they won't score. And the issue is, they do not shoot. As well, about the shin pads comment. Calgary and Anaheim scored some gems of deflection shots thus far in the playoffs. You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. You have to remember that as long as they're dominating and have the puck. Calgary doesn't. Even if they don't shoot or score, simply having the puck (and in Calgary's end) is better than Calgary having it. Period. And their corsi numbers clearly show they take more shots than the opposition when they're on the ice. Again, no refuting that's better. It's a hell of a lot better than the what the majority of other lines are doing. As for the shin pads/deflection shot retort, we don't have Calgary's D, their D's speed or their down low coverage. That's a whole separate issue (that I hope gets addressed this summer). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I can't be bothered to read through all this, so apologies if someone has already explained the hockey reasons for using Hansen with the Sedins. It has Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnews Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 I prefer they shoot the puck period. This isn't EA NHL 15 where an errant pass scores a goal. This is an elimination event playoff hockey in the real world. Advanced stats mean crap if you're not scoring on them. Again, dominating the period....generating no shots. PLay an entire shift in the opposing zone playing keep away...no shots. Full power play. No shots. While I respect the hell out of them again it is not trolling or antagonizing anyone to say the truth. If they don't shoot they won't score. And the issue is, they do not shoot. Youl clearly don't understand the advanced stats you're talking about. They are based upon shot attempts alone - they have nothing to do with time of possession - which would actually reflect even significantly stronger numbers for them were that the case. This appears to be a growing misconception with folks who don't bother to inform themselves what those statistics actually mean. Perhaps it's counter intuitive to call them possession statistics when what they are is actually shot attempt statistics. Actual time of possession does not appear to be tracked at this point - which would be interesting - as would the volume and percentage of passes atttempted and completed; In any event, if you're going to dismiss 'advanced stats' it would help to know what they mean and what their actual limits are before pretending to one-up their usage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnews Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 This. We never bargained for Kassian to be out all this time and unfortunately we don't seem to have anyone else other than Burrows who performs miracles while getting slapped around because he doesn't have the size. I'm sure JB will address this for next season, even if Kassian comes back. (Backs take a long time to allow you to get back to where you were as we saw with mason Raymond) This is another reason I think WD elected to go with Hansen on their wing as opposed to Vrbata. Simply put, Hansen goes to the hard areas - Vrby is a sniper that you don't necessarily want getting hammered around in front of the net. I also don't believe that Vrbata is healthy. He has a goal and an assist, but he hasn't been himself - not sure if it was (unintentional) lowbridge early in the series, or what, but he looks like he's only half there, and the type of player and competitor he is, I'd reject outright any suggestion that he lacks playoff will or 'hasn't shown up'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnews Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 It has where? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aGENT Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 where? lol must have been in another thread where I was combating idiocy Edit: Yup, here it is: http://forum.canucks.com/topic/369093-interesting-article-on-the-sedins-corsi-dominance-in-this-series-and-our-lack-of-depth/?p=12748029 People wonder why Hansen gets put there and that's exactly why. Burrows has been by far their most successful line mate and Hansen is probably the closest player we have currently available to play that role. It's far from ideal but it's the best we've got right now with Burr/Kassian out and Vrbata both not fitting that role (board battler, net presence etc) and being a playoff no-show. I was responding to a post of RUPERTKBD who, in fairness, was saying similar things. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BI3KSA- Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 lol yeah there is definitely no other reasonable explanation I agree 100% Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
oldnews Posted April 23, 2015 Share Posted April 23, 2015 lol must have been in another thread where I was combating idiocy Edit: Yup, here it is: http://forum.canucks.com/topic/369093-interesting-article-on-the-sedins-corsi-dominance-in-this-series-and-our-lack-of-depth/?p=12748029 I was responding to a post of RUPERT who was saying similar things. There's no shortage of it on CDC at the moment. The Sedins, Vrbata, Desjardins, Bonino, Lack, Bieksa, Weber, Sbisa - no shortage of targets of the thirst for whipping boys. The usual response to a couple losses. Heightened by the underestimation of the Flames and the fact this is the postseason. No problem whatsoever with criticism, particulary constructive criticism, but most of the complaining in here is of the chicken little variety. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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