Surf Nutz
Hockey Remote Viewer With A Frozen Finger
PLD to Washington is easily the best trade Blake has ever made or will ever make.
Leaving himself an emergency parachute on the original disaster move was not dumb.
PLD to Washington is easily the best trade Blake has ever made or will ever make.
It's just incompetence.PLD to Washington is easily the best trade Blake has ever made or will ever make.
I’m not burying my head in any sand. I was just saying that the team record after he came back after injury and clearly not 100% fit (which you were critical of) isn’t the basis of any conclusion. I also don’t think he was the biggest issue in that series… the lack of coaching adjustments was problem #1.Kevin Fiala in that series was a 39% CF%, 38% SCF%, and a 33% xGF%.
Fiala IS AN ISSUE. He has always been an issue in the playoffs across now several teams. It's just now also manifesting in the regular season.
I'm sorry but I'm sick of people burying their heads firmly in their asses about this. It's visible AND it shows up in stats. What more will it take to at least make you guys say "huh, that is bad" rather than "Lol no problems?" Why the hell is the bar for this guy set so low? We need him to be one of our best players, a true positive difference maker, not just 'not bad', especially given they've coddled him every god damn which way to no effect (except a bad PP and ever dwindling even strength play).
I try to give everyone here the benefit of the doubt but it seems some people are hypnotized by his razzle-dazzle and ignore the substance.
Thank you.I think there's a happy medium at play as far as arguments. By focusing on Fiala and providing no other depth in the discussion or posts, it implies that he alone is the reason the Kings lost. Very similarly, people posting he scored 2 points per game in the series suggests he should be absolved. So people try to add context and layers instead of just nodding mindlessly.
Are we seriously in “PLD’s mere presence is helping the Kings to win” territory with Fiala now?Just to add having someone like Fiala (and Clarke for that matter) will affect how other teams set up. They might tell the D to be more conservative than normal, for example. As soon as that happens it helps even when said player is not on the ice. Given Fiala’s form I doubt he’s causing that to happen much at the moment, but when he’s on I think it’s likely teams make adjustments, even just small ones. I’m not saying it’s going to be adjustments like you’d make when facing the McDavids of this world.
You can’t have players that all play safe/conservative because it’s horrendously easy to play against. So having X-factor players is important. It’s the same with Clarke, he makes thing happen and teams have to allow for that.
I’m not defending the trade/contract as that’s a separate argument. I’m just saying that evaluating his value to the team isn’t a straight forward as looking at a stat line. As I’ve said though it really requires him to actually be playing well which he isn’t.
Whether or not you like Fiala, Statto has a point. Opposing teams have to respect the skilled players. If they were to leave Fiala alone or let him make easy decisions, he will create dangerous scoring chances. They need to neutralize a skilled person who's not a complex problem solver.Are we seriously in “PLD’s mere presence is helping the Kings to win” territory with Fiala now?