GDT: Blues @ Washington| 6pm, BSMW|

[ChicagoBlues]

Carolina and Calgary will be good eye test games, and with advanced stats, I'm not sure we'll have a big enough sample to make a good conclusion. I'm curious on how we deploy everyone when it's a normal 6 man group. Will Leddy always be with Parayko or will Scandella play with Parayko at various points in the game to give Leddy a more offensive tilt.

Which we won't know cuz.....Krug hand thing.

 

[bleedblue1223]

I think Leddy should stick with Parayko. 2 reasons why:

1. We've already seen Scandella there. He isn't good.
2. Isn't the reason we got Leddy to see if he's the answer? Might as well roll with him so we know in the offseason what we should be targeting in terms of stylistic fit.

I believe he'll stick there, but what I'm wondering is will Leddy/Parayko be like Krug/Faulk, where they are together the vast majority of time, but Krug still gets sheltered more to the point where Krug and Faulk have dramatically different zone starts as individuals. I imagine Leddy and Parayko will stay together, Parayko will maintain his current usage, and coaches will try to deploy Leddy how he was used in NY, which is similar to how we use Faulk, mostly balanced with a slight offensive tilt. I'm curious how that would look with our healthy 6 man group.

 

[Mike Liut]

Any news on Krug?

 

[Linkens Mastery]

Any news on Krug?

 

[ezcreepin]

Watching the game on Tuesday, I can say with confidence that the defense looked way better with someone like Leddy in the lineup as opposed to running Scandella or Mikkola on the 1st unit. There are quantifiable stats I'm sure, but Leddy's ability to get the puck out of the zone was exceptional and even the type of "getting the puck out" where you take it on the backhand and use the glass to hit the neutral zone, I saw many instances where he used that play and it seemed to work every time. Parayko does this as well and is pretty good at it, but Mikkola, Scandella, and at times Krug are pretty bad at it. The difference with Krug being that he can just pass it to an open player on the tape.

The game seemed to be pretty high pace, so I was pleasantly surprised with Leddy's play, but we'll just have to see how this experiment works out.

 

[Celtic Note]

I was very pleased with Leddy’s first game, but I have to remind myself that even Scandella looked great for 10 games when he first arrived. Maybe Leddy will fit like a glove through the rest of the year, but one adrenaline filled game is hard to use as a barometer for future success.

Nevertheless, our transition game looked a lot better with him and if Krug is out a while it will be good to have a guy that can move the puck in his absence.

 

[Reality Czech]

I was very pleased with Leddy’s first game, but I have to remind myself that even Scandella looked great for 10 games when he first arrived. Maybe Leddy will fit like a glove through the rest of the year, but one adrenaline filled game is hard to use as a barometer for future success.

Nevertheless, our transition game looked a lot better with him and if Krug is out a while it will be good to have a guy that can move the puck in his absence.

I really don't get the Scandella hate, he's not that bad. The only problem with Scandella is that he's a 2nd or 3rd pair guy who's been asked to take on top pair assignments far too often. He's looked pretty good since returning from injury and he's clearly passed Mikkola on the depth chart again.

 

[BlueDream]

I really don't get the Scandella hate, he's not that bad. The only problem with Scandella is that he's a 2nd or 3rd pair guy who's been asked to take on top pair assignments far too often. He's looked pretty good since returning from injury and he's clearly passed Mikkola on the depth chart again.

He has by far the worst giveaway to takeaway ratio on the team and he's similar to Sanford in that his turnovers are usually glaringly bad. He also is just a fairly bland player that he's not particularly strong at any one thing, he's just mediocre at everything.

Sure, he's fine on the 3rd pairing. That would be alright and nobody would care if he was making 1 mil. But the fact is that he's making 3.3 mil and we need to get him off the books so we can upgrade our defense.

And re: Mikkola, Scandella passing him doesn't mean much. Mikkola did pass him for a bit and has struggled recently but he's a younger guy with more potential than Scandella still.

 

[Linkens Mastery]

I really don't get the Scandella hate, he's not that bad. The only problem with Scandella is that he's a 2nd or 3rd pair guy who's been asked to take on top pair assignments far too often. He's looked pretty good since returning from injury and he's clearly passed Mikkola on the depth chart again.

My biggest issue with Scandella is his inability to not pass the puck directly to the other team when trying to escape the d-zone. And if he doesn't pass the puck directly to the other team, it's like he can't put any kind of power behind it and it barely goes 10 feet.

 

[Celtic Note]

I really don't get the Scandella hate, he's not that bad. The only problem with Scandella is that he's a 2nd or 3rd pair guy who's been asked to take on top pair assignments far too often. He's looked pretty good since returning from injury and he's clearly passed Mikkola on the depth chart again.

To be very clear here, I do not hate Scandella. I really do not “hate” anyone on our team. I wish them all the best.

Scandella came to the team and outperformed his past few years in a series of games that led to a contract extension that saw him get overpaid.

Scandella does not have just one problem. Was he miscast on the top pair? Absolutely.
Yet, I am not convinced he would do well on the second pairing and he is too expensive to be a third pairing guy.

His breakout pass and forecheck evasion is not good and it hems our team in our own zone.

His defensive positioning is ok. It’s not something I would say is good. It’s not terrible either.

He isn’t really all that physical.

He doesn’t provide offense or help maintain offensive possession.

If we had the Scandella from the Minny days, I think most of us would be pleased. He could defend well and move the puck. Those days seem in the rear view.

He and Mikkola are very similar in their deficiencies and it’s a bit problematic, as our collective team struggles defensively.