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GDT: 2020-21 season game 28 LA Kings vs St. Louis Blues 7:00pm 3/17/21

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johnjm22 said:
He's always taken low percentage shots. He's a volume shooter. His career average shooting percentage is 11.4%. I don't expect his percentage to get back to that level, but even if got back to where it was last year (9.3%), he'd be scoring at a 20 goal pace.

I'm not saying his play hasn't declined. It has. I just think people are exaggerating a bit.

I agree that line has cohesion issues. Nobody wants to criticize Vilardi's play, but he's just not a good NHL center right now.
Click to expand...

man did he look great those first two games of the season against the Wild though. Gave me huge hope for the year. Maybe that is it for me is I had unfair expectations based on his play out of the gate. Looked so fast.
 
SFKingshomer said:
Kempe-Vilardi-Frk
Grundstrom-Carter-JAD
Moore-Lizzotte-Luff
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5P3LZcDHem9ZbW2TBDW8Y3JOHCWD8hWJ_kYx-2g_aLTNxy89oZJ9cJ3Cete5xLKsbvKv3vDqsVOnEx_tPijGgRulRNHfvpJe_M6seMhz9bJKX3RqCxeA6nf4tU71Dqrjef4hlt6ejPko8VFCIg


How dare you break up that Moore / JAD / Grundy line after 1 game, and 1 spectacular game at that!
 
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Vilardi had a rough road trip and it spilled over into last nights games. At least he's still fairly solid on the defensive side of things. Faceoffs not great, but improving.

One thing I've noticed with him is he struggled against certain teams. He didn't look good against Colorado or San Jose, but has looked fabulous against Arizona. His skillset doesn't match up against certain squads and like any other new player, he will learn to adjust to that.

He's done a really good job learning center at the NHL level, he comes back where he's supposed to and systematically he's solid. Like many I think that isn't playing to his strengths, and once those habits are established I'd like to see him tried on the wing. We've seen first hand how effective a team can be when guys can play all forward positions. I don't think he'd put up Carter numbers on the wing, but playmaking wingers that can score can cause matchup troubles for other teams.
 
bland said:
Vilardi has a narrow sphere of influence on the game.
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Perhaps his sphere needs to look for his influence a little more?

EDIT: Vilardi hasn't been perfect and I agree with the opinion that he'd be more "impactful"(?) on the wing.

BUT

he's still a rookie with just 38 games under his belt. If he were playing wing on a line with Kopitar and Iafallo perhaps a bad game from him wouldn't be so glaring or a bad shift from him wouldn't be so obvious. As it is he's on a line with two guys who, from my perspective anyway, constantly seem to be doing their own thing. Athanasiou will produce a highlight reel move and sometimes it results in a goal but ultimately Vilardi's line feels a lot like the Kovalchuk experiment to me. The skill and "effort" are there... just not in concert.

It's like watching a movie where you feel like one of the actors thinks they're in a completely different movie than the one they're actually in.

This season is still very much an experimental one.

They seem to have sorted out two lines that work and work consistently.
19/11/23 which has an expiration date on it
12/28/91 which has been together for like 6 games

Every thing else is a work in progress as far as I'm concerned.
 
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The big takeaways for me last night are the following:

- T-Mac with the "being in the mix" comment. I don't expect playoffs but I sure as shit expect them to tease us with the possibility this season or it would be a failure. They are right on target so far but I really like hearing the coach put it in those terms because, to me, that is the real measuring stick for Blake and Co. for this season.

- JAD missing all of that time and not missing a beat, including not playing tentatively with that shoulder. Just no fear hockey from him. Bodes well for the future.

- Last and certainly not least is AA fighting Krug. Without the hit on Kopitar, that little scrum that led to the fight would never have happened. If that was Dunn instead of Krug, I doubt AA goes with the headlock and starts a fight. This is the kind of shit a team does when they care about each other on and off the ice. You can't be a contender without a mindset like this. Really good to see that.
 
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Token said:
Woohoo, all this Vilardi-stank!

Did y’all not notice the man-child shutting down O’Reilly all night long?
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i'm not gonna say shutting down but he certainly held his own. shot share and corsi and all that was decidedly in ROR's line's favor but vilardi definitely held his own at the dot, and the blues' shots in general were much lower percentage comparatively

that said, it's a gritty shutdown veteran line centered by a conn smythe and selke winner vs a kid with 38 games played. i'm happy for him and like tmac said they're swingin' with the big dogs, but the eye test shows it just ain't there with that line
 
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Any chance Vilardi was one of the players ill in Colorado? Maybe his play the last few games was from that.
 
Carter needs to go off that line. Love what he's done for the Kings in the past but besides his speed he's got nothing left. Battling for the puck? Forget it. Dumping it in chasing it down and retaining possession? Nope. Remember when Lizotte was centering that line they were getting killed in possession stats. If you have guys on that line that can't cycle then you are relegated to counter-attacks only.
 
Lizotte and Carter actually played well together earlier this season.

When Brown and Frk are back:

Kempe-Kopi-Brownie
AA- Vilardi-Frk
AI-Lizotte-Carter
Moore-JAD-Tonka

Anderson-Doughty
Bjornfot-Roy
Maatta-Walker

Good enough for the playoffs?
 
You guys might remember me going in HARD on the 2nd line early this season because they were getting pinata'ed in possession but it was mitigated by Carter and AA scoring, right?

It's still happening, and the common theme of 'who' gets caved in is Carter.
 
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Raccoon Jesus said:
You guys might remember me going in HARD on the 2nd line early this season because they were getting pinata'ed in possession but it was mitigated by Carter and AA scoring, right?

It's still happening, and the common theme of 'who' gets caved in is Carter.
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Dude I don't even remember what I had for breakfast this morning, but Carter needs to slide down a line or two
 
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Carter just appears to be going through the motions most of the time, and I'm not sure its a physical thing. When he's out late in the game with leading with an empty net, he's a different player. He looks quicker, checks closer, and his energy looks way higher. That could be a product of conserving energy, but maybe he's worried about another injury or he might just not be that driven and into it any more. I'd totally understand either. It really doesn't matter why, but he's dragging things down when he's not on top of it. If this team squeaks into the playoffs, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see a totally different Jeff Carter. Right now he's our #1 candidate for minute management though.
 
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Yeah...that Jeff Carter's shooting percentage is this low which is too low so he will score more soon shit is exactly that: shit. He is a 2003 draftee! There aren't a lot of dudes from this draft that are still doing it. Maybe he'd have better numbers playing with #11 like the other 2003 draftee on this team but then that guy would be doing nothing.

This isn't shocking. He's got one year left on what should be a playoff team and then he is gone. We knew he'd be a "problem" for awhile bit, really, he isn't a problem. This team is not a contender and they won't be one next year. That said, Carter's professionalism has been touted for awhile now so him being around the young guys should be a good thing. I don't think he is sandbagging it out there: he's just old and the skate cut sapped him further.

Dude was a f***ing stud for us when it mattered though. What a stride and what a shot. I don't care if he's out there "holding back" anyone this season or next because I don't think that's a real thing. I love Vilardi and would love to be wrong but I don't see Vilardi all of a sudden becoming a PPG player because Kemp is on his wing. Actually, It might be better for Vilardi to have to be better to make goals happen because, if this all works the way we want it to, he'll be playing with talented young wingers soon enough: unless he is that winger.
 
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