Been really impressed with OEL/Garland so far...

[The Listening]

I know we're only 3 games into the season, so I may be getting a little ahead of myself here. I just wanted to state that OEL and Garland have been two standouts of the team so far in the young season.

 

OEL, as of right now, looks crisp, he's playing with a ton of emotion and standing up for teammates in scrums. If this is the guy we are going to have for the next seven years, I will gladly take it. Based on what everyone was saying about his declining play prior to the start of the season did have me worried, but man, he really showed to the regular season. I'm not saying he hasn't made mistakes, I just want to focus on the positives that he has brought to the table. I never expected OEL to be able to play with the amount of emotion that he has shown so far. I'm glad we have a Swedish defenceman that can bring some flare to the back end. I loved Edler but he was way too monotonus for me.

 

Garland has already won my heart as a fan. He plays a lot like how Burrows used to play, but Garland has a lot more skill than Burrows did. That celly he scored against Detroit yesterday was insane. And top of that, he was able to agitate the entire Red Wings bench. His speed, tenacity and drive every shift has been invigorating to watch. 

 

Even though the games have not exactly gone our way so far, the games have all been entertaining, and these two are big reasons why.  I'm looking forward to our next game already!!!

[King Heffy]

I'm hoping jerseys go on a decent Black Friday sale so I can pick up a Garland.  He's awesome; OEL has been solid at both ends of the rink.  I stand by my comment in the original trade thread that this deal could end up being similar to the deals Quinn made to fill out our group leading up to '94.

[-Vintage Canuck-]

Cliff Ronning + Alex Burrows = Conor Garland.

[MeanSeanBean]

This trade could very well go down as Benning finest peice of work as GM once everything said and done. Here's hoping! So far it's looking like a homerun.

 

Also, off topic, but I saw Lights a few years ago at a music festival and she killed it. Not really my type of music, but I was impressed with her ability to get the crowd into it and she was very talented at her... Keytar?

[Alienhuggyflow]

34 minutes ago, King Heffy said:

I'm hoping jerseys go on a decent Black Friday sale so I can pick up a Garland.  He's awesome; OEL has been solid at both ends of the rink.  I stand by my comment in the original trade thread that this deal could end up being similar to the deals Quinn made to fill out our group leading up to '94.

Loved this trade from the start and remember your comments and thought you were bang on.

OEL has been a massive upgrade on Edler or Nate and last-night when he and Quinn were on the ice that was pretty nuts and a great bullet to have in the chamber.

I've always been a fan of Myers but him being paired with OEL has him playing his best since his rookie year. Our record doesn't reflect it and won't get into that but the fact that aside from 2 periods we are dominating our opponents on the road with 3 games in 4 nights with 4 regulars missing is pretty darn impressive. 

Garland is exactly what we were told he would be and more. He's exactly what I see Hoglander turning into and how FN cool is that.

 

I think by about game 10 this team will be tops in the pacific once everyone gels and these two will be a huge reason for it.

[Nuxfanabroad]

Thanks, OP..nice positivity.

 

Do we thank the dreaded Covid for this larceny? Already I'm sure Ariz is just a useless $-shredder. With the lousy economy they were even more desperate to dump 70 million(OEL, & Garland's pending negotiation) at this point in time.

 

But it feels like just karma for our team. When Kes flew the coop, poor JB got a choice of 2 destinations to deal with. Well, apparently OEL had the same demand - in his case, very fair in accordance to his NMC, on paper.

 

So we get to DUMP 8 figures of lousy vet-AAV, & acquire 2 studs? Hey, JB's 2014 stress-intro can now be completely forgiven & forgotten!

[Jester13]

Agreed, I was on board with this trade right away and have been pumped for them to prove everyone wrong. Success is the best revenge, so let's goooooooo!!!!

[Patel Bure]

Agreed.  I’ve been VERY impressed with our arrivals from Arizona.  I’m going to throw Tyler Myers some love here as well. I think he’s been great for us this season as well. 
 

OEL, Garland, Myers, Podkolzin, and Hoglander have probably pleasantly surprised me the most this season.  Podkolzin has shown great defensive savvy for his age.  Very atypical of a young kid. 
 

I’ll also throw Kyle Burroughs some love here as well.  He outworked Bowey and Schenn to earn that 3rd pairing RD spot and has looked very defensively responsible.

[Dazzle]

I think even the doubters of this team thought Garland was an awesome pickup. It's really the OEL acquisition that had people questioning this trade. I didn't question this trade at all. OEL is/was a lot better than what these 'fancy' stats pansies could have perceived. Just comes to show you that numbers are just numbers; how you interpret them is where someone can just be outright wrong.

 

We've seen Arizona fail miserably when building a roster through stats, although Carolina/TB have also embraced fancy stats.

 

There's also something that numbers alone just don't explain - human will/motivation. What drives Garland to play like he does? I welcome any math wizes to come up with some BS statistic to 'explain' it.

[Patel Bure]

4 minutes ago, Patel Bure said:

Agreed.  I’ve been VERY impressed with our arrivals from Arizona.  I’m going to throw Tyler Myers some love here as well. I think he’s been great for us this season as well. 
 

OEL, Garland, Myers, Podkolzin, and Hoglander have probably pleasantly surprised me the most this season.  Podkolzin has shown great defensive savvy for his age.  Very atypical of a young kid. 
 

I’ll also throw Kyle Burroughs some love here as well.  He outworked Bowey and Schenn to earn that 3rd pairing RD spot and has looked very defensively responsible.

My pleasant surprise list:

-Garland

-OEL

-Podkolzin

-Hoglander

-Myers

-Burroughs

 

Kind of what I expected:

-Pettersson

-Hughes

-Miller

-Rathbone

-Demko

-Highmore

-Chiasson

 

Disappointed in so far:

-Dickinson

-Pearson

-Halak

 

 

[danjr]

OEL has been pretty stellar, moving the puck crisply.  Love some of the o-zone drives he's been leading.  Really showing that he wants to be that guy.  Lets hope he keeps it up for the whole season.

Garland has been pretty awesome.  One the boards he's pretty awesome.  Shake and bakes crazy good.  Can beat guys out of the corner pretty easy.

Except there is a problem with his skates.  Either his profile is the wrong radius or his hollow is wrong.  Never seen a guy loose so many edges.  Sure he changes directions lots, but man he is stumbling out there.  If he gets his blades in order, he'd be even more lethal.

Miller has been pretty sub par so far.  So many duffed passes and mediocre plays.

Someone mentioned Lights....pretty awesome.

[VancouverHabitant]

25 minutes ago, Dazzle said:

We've seen Arizona fail miserably when building a roster through stats, although Carolina/TB have also embraced fancy stats.

 

There's also something that numbers alone just don't explain - human will/motivation. What drives Garland to play like he does? I welcome any math wizes to come up with some BS statistic to 'explain' it.

It sucks that Sportsnet 650 has deleted their interview with Eric Tulsky as it was done on a radio show that's no longer around (Rintoul and Surman).  

Eric is regarded as one of the better analytics guys (PhD in Chemistry, very very heavily involved in the analytics community).  

 

In his interview he stated that citing analytics in a vacuum can lead to a worst understanding then if you had just done the old eye test.  So simply looking at some possession number without looking at the quality of competition, quality of teammates, type of deployment, the eye test, etc was prone to misdiagnosing that player/team.  It was very interesting to listen to him, I'd highly recommend looking him up.  

[mll]

1 minute ago, VancouverHabitant said:

It sucks that Sportsnet 650 has deleted their interview with Eric Tulsky as it was done on a radio show that's no longer around (Rintoul and Surman).  

Eric is regarded as one of the better analytics guys (PhD in Chemistry, very very heavily involved in the analytics community).  

 

In his interview he stated that citing analytics in a vacuum can lead to a worst understanding then if you had just done the old eye test.  So simply looking at some possession number without looking at the quality of competition, quality of teammates, type of deployment, the eye test, etc was prone to misdiagnosing that player/team.  It was very interesting to listen to him, I'd highly recommend looking him up.  

He is AGM with Carolina and some think he is ear-marked to be their next GM.  It’s Ron Francis that brought him in to Carolina.

[VancouverHabitant]

12 minutes ago, mll said:

He is AGM with Carolina and some think he is ear-marked to be their next GM.  It’s Ron Francis that brought him in to Carolina.

Right, I forgot to mention the most important part of who he is haha

[HorvatToBaertschi]

1 hour ago, Patel Bure said:

My pleasant surprise list:

-Garland

-OEL

-Podkolzin

-Hoglander

-Myers

-Burroughs

 

Kind of what I expected:

-Pettersson

-Hughes

-Miller

-Rathbone

-Demko

-Highmore

-Chiasson

 

Disappointed in so far:

-Dickinson

-Pearson

-Halak

 

 

I've found Dickinson to be exactly as advertised. Strong defensive 3/4C with lots of grit and ready to kill tons of penalties. I've liked what I've seen

[The Listening]

2 hours ago, Shayster007 said:

This trade could very well go down as Benning finest peice of work as GM once everything said and done. Here's hoping! So far it's looking like a homerun.

 

Also, off topic, but I saw Lights a few years ago at a music festival and she killed it. Not really my type of music, but I was impressed with her ability to get the crowd into it and she was very talented at her... Keytar?

Yes, it is a keytar!! Impressed you know what it's called hahaha!

[Patel Bure]

6 minutes ago, HorvatToBaertschi said:

I've found Dickinson to be exactly as advertised. Strong defensive 3/4C with lots of grit and ready to kill tons of penalties. I've liked what I've seen

True, but how is that any different from what we saw out of Jay Beagle and Brandon Sutter these past few years?  Only difference being that those guys can win face-offs.  Dickinson was advertised as a guy that had some untapped hidden offensive potential. He was supposed to be our 3rd line center that could play a two way game while serving as a playmaker for our talented wingers.  So far, I’m not seeing this offensive side or this hidden offensive potential.

[King Heffy]

11 minutes ago, Patel Bure said:

True, but how is that any different from what we saw out of Jay Beagle and Brandon Sutter these past few years?  Only difference being that those guys can win face-offs.  Dickinson was advertised as a guy that had some untapped hidden offensive potential. He was supposed to be our 3rd line center that could play a two way game while serving as a playmaker for our talented wingers.  So far, I’m not seeing this offensive side or this hidden offensive potential.

We'll see how he does once Boeser is good to go and we can spare a second offensive winger for the third line.

[The Listening]

20 minutes ago, Patel Bure said:

True, but how is that any different from what we saw out of Jay Beagle and Brandon Sutter these past few years?  Only difference being that those guys can win face-offs.  Dickinson was advertised as a guy that had some untapped hidden offensive potential. He was supposed to be our 3rd line center that could play a two way game while serving as a playmaker for our talented wingers.  So far, I’m not seeing this offensive side or this hidden offensive potential.

Was Dickinson ever advertised as someone who could bring offense? I thought he was coming in as a solid defensive centreman who could bring stability to our bottom six. I would love if Dickinson could bring offense but we've been lacking a true bottom-six centerman who can actually defend in the defensive zone for a long time, I mean since the days of Malholtra. So if Dickinson can fill that role, I'm more than happy.

[KKnight]

3 hours ago, -Vintage Canuck- said:

Cliff Ronning + Alex Burrows = Conor Garland.

Perfect comparison.