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Bourne Endeavor said:
Let's review Kuzmenko's NHL history.

- Great first season with us; fell off a cliff the following year
- Great start with Calgary; fell off a cliff afterwards
- Never climbed out of said cliff with Philly
- Great start with LA...

Noticing a trend here? Kuz has consistently been a one hit wonder where he excels initially, but crashes hard because he can't adapt his play whatsoever once teams figure him out.
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I was reading the mainboards thread on Kuzy yesterday. A few Canuck fans chimed in pretty much exactly that ^^^

Raccoon Jesus said:
Which has always kind of been the thing with the Kings

They have the two way guys to cover for liabilities
They have the possession and puck advancing to get into the ozone, roster full of play drivers
They've very much needed raw finishing, wingers for Kopitar, right handed shots, PP help

I'ts just really funny that Kuzmenko has been the best deadline fit since Gaborik after yeaarrrrs of trying to find solutions... I mean on paper Kovalchuk was this guy perfectly too, but instead of stapling him to Kopitar, they put him on the third line and NET FRONT ON THE POWERPLAY and couldn't understand why he wasn't being a good little checker

It's amazing but oh so strange that they immediately put Kuzmenko there and on PP1...but it's also amazing that they gave him some runway to figure it out...and now it's working like a charm

His slash skating and small-area puckhandling works so, so well with the Kopitar-Kempe cycle game and he doesn't even have to touch the puck until they're in the ozone

I never in a million years would have banked on it working out THIS well even knowing the above, it's been a shock to the system
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Then this Kings fan had a great take and it stuck with me.

Watching some highlites and then todays game, yup yup yup.

Everything I know Kuzy is capable of, I seen on the highlites and today, he fits like a glove kind of like Gaborik before him.

His game is so simple now, he SHOULD be able to keep it up.
 
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I feel like the jets cooked themselves again this season. Hellebuyck is at 61 GP according to NHL.com, I'm assuming that this Chicago game didn't count yet.

All they had to do was play him around 55, they've never gone into the playoffs with him fresh from what I recall.
 
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mossey3535 said:
I feel like the jets cooked themselves again this season. Hellebuyck is at 61 GP according to NHL.com, I'm assuming that this Chicago game didn't count yet.

All they had to do was play him around 55, they've never gone into the playoffs with him fresh from what I recall.
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For the Jets, they were just ahead of Dal until they won that H2H earlier this week to lock up 1st in the Central. Have just over a week before the PO begins. Going to have to hope that's enough time off for Helly to get re-freshed and ready to go for up to 4 rounds.
 
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Diablo2020 said:
I was reading the mainboards thread on Kuzy yesterday. A few Canuck fans chimed in pretty much exactly that ^^^



Then this Kings fan had a great take and it stuck with me.

Watching some highlites and then todays game, yup yup yup.

Everything I know Kuzy is capable of, I seen on the highlites and today, he fits like a glove kind of like Gaborik before him.

His game is so simple now, he SHOULD be able to keep it up.
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It’s sad he couldn’t figure shit out with us
 
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arttk said:
It’s sad he couldn’t figure shit out with us
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We benched him at the first sign of trouble and never really let him get out of the doghouse.

Likely highly attributed to Ep40s decline too. Or likely responsible for alot of Ep40s success however you look at it.

Either way the only shit was us, in our loveable ruskies bed.
 
Diablo2020 said:
We benched him at the first sign of trouble and never really let him get out of the doghouse.

Likely highly attributed to Ep40s decline too. Or likely responsible for alot of Ep40s success however you look at it.

Either way the only shit was us, in our loveable ruskies bed.
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Kuz is a downhill scorer, really depends on others and if not scoring is a huge liability and we will see him fall back to form next year on his 5th team.
 
StreetHawk said:
For the Jets, they were just ahead of Dal until they won that H2H earlier this week to lock up 1st in the Central. Have just over a week before the PO begins. Going to have to hope that's enough time off for Helly to get re-freshed and ready to go for up to 4 rounds.
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This sounds like exactly what they've said every other year. At some point you have to ask yourself if it's worth it, it's not like they're trying to cling to a wildcard spot.
 
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Diablo2020 said:
I was reading the mainboards thread on Kuzy yesterday. A few Canuck fans chimed in pretty much exactly that ^^^



Then this Kings fan had a great take and it stuck with me.

Watching some highlites and then todays game, yup yup yup.

Everything I know Kuzy is capable of, I seen on the highlites and today, he fits like a glove kind of like Gaborik before him.

His game is so simple now, he SHOULD be able to keep it up.
Click to expand...
That’s about what I said a bit ago. LA is full of two-way players that can cover for his issues. And in turn he’s free to be creative in the offensive zone.

I expect he will still be sheltered come playoff time but he has been playing decent hockey.
 
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Diablo2020 said:
I was reading the mainboards thread on Kuzy yesterday. A few Canuck fans chimed in pretty much exactly that ^^^



Then this Kings fan had a great take and it stuck with me.

Watching some highlites and then todays game, yup yup yup.

Everything I know Kuzy is capable of, I seen on the highlites and today, he fits like a glove kind of like Gaborik before him.

His game is so simple now, he SHOULD be able to keep it up.
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Don't make me like your posts Diablo

Just stop. Stop
 
would I rather walk into season with moderate playoff expectations, deal with injuries all year and miss playoffs with one of the younger teams in the league.

or....

walk into season as a favorite, limp into playoffs, losing the only dependable defensive D-man and bow out in rd 1 with the oldest team in the league?
 
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Diablo2020 said:
We benched him at the first sign of trouble and never really let him get out of the doghouse.

Likely highly attributed to Ep40s decline too. Or likely responsible for alot of Ep40s success however you look at it.

Either way the only shit was us, in our loveable ruskies bed.
Click to expand...

I think his issue is coaches let him get away with bad defence when he's new to a team and putting up some points. If heis going through a low scoring patch combined with bad D... coaches lose faith in him. He's a frustrating player with his d game not improving.
 
I wonder if the coaching carousel is going to get some new faces next year with Laivolette and Tortorella losing life. Sorenson probably isn't sticking around in Chicago.

New comer David Carle is going to get lots of interviews. It's already been said Carle is not going to a bottom team though. He wants to see a clear path to winning.

Right now Tocchet's career coaching win percentage is only better than Travis Green's and the coaches of all the current tear down rebuilding teams of SJ, Ana, Chicago, Detroit, Utah/Arizona, Montreal, Boston. Even saying that, there is only 11 current coaches that I would want over Tocchet. I'm not a fan of Tocchet as HC but he's still alright.

Potential options if Tocchet does leave that I'd like to try out
Mitch Love asst coach in Washington.
Neil Graham Head coach of the Texas Stars
Marco Sturm Head coach of the Ontario Reign
Manny Malholtra Head coach of your own ABBOTSFORD CANUCKS!!!!!!
A good experienced assistant would definitely be needed for all. Not a skills coach. (sorry Yogi)
 
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What exactly does it say about the Canucks pro scouting staff that they had interest in Will Borgen??

I also can't see Drury or many others in the Rangers organization making it through the summer. That front office makes Benning look capable.
 
rypper said:
What? The only reason Kuzmenko got the contract he did is because of Pettersson not the other way around. That's some revisionist history shit right there.
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Canucks with Kuzmenko .588 71-48-12 Since .558 54-41-18 ( a lot of other factors of course)
Kings with Kuzmenko .789 tops in the league.

Petey with Kuzmenko 1.29 PPG Petey since .72 PPG. (Injuries and other stuff but significant drop in production)

I would say that Kuzmenko and Pettersson fed off each other quite well. Kuzmenko playing with Kopitar and Kempe really completes that line 5v5. They have been great.

Kuzmenko was never going to get along with Tocchet's dump and chase though. Kuzmenko has faults in his game but he's honestly similar to Brock Boeser and teams are willing to pay Boeser 8M a year.
 
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ManVanFan said:


What exactly does it say about the Canucks pro scouting staff that they had interest in Will Borgen??

I also can't see Drury or many others in the Rangers organization making it through the summer. That front office makes Benning look capable.
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Borgen has been a solid defensive D for several years now and you can't scout a player based on one play.
 
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MS said:
Borgen has been a solid defensive D for several years now and you can't scout a player based on one play.
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I didn't. He was sheltered in Seattle and he's probably not far from cracking the top 10 worst D in the league this year defensively.
 
ManVanFan said:
I didn't. He was sheltered in Seattle and he's probably not far from cracking the top 10 worst D in the league this year defensively.
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He’s been buried in defensive zone starts his whole career aside from when he was struggling to start the year in Seattle and isn’t even in the 100 worst D in the NHL since moving to the Rangers.
 
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MS said:
He’s been buried in defensive zone starts his whole career aside from when he was struggling to start the year in Seattle and isn’t even in the 100 worst D in the NHL since moving to the Rangers.
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Let's skip to where he played so not in Buffalo
21-22 8.9% Dzone starts.
22-23 11.8%
23-24 15.9%
24-25 12.3%

Those are pretty regular numbers of a "buried" in defensive zone starts guy.

Basically puts him as a 2nd pair Dzone starter.
 
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