Half-Assed GDT: Blues @ Wild -- Half Assed Streaking

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Robb_K

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Mikkola's 25, he's pretty likely finished improving his game, or at least improving it to anything appreciably better than what he currently is.
Mikkola could improve his game substantially merely by working extremely hard in weight training to build up substantially more strength and to add bulk, even if he doesn't improve his mental game. But, he should have been doing that at ages 20-23. Why should he need to be told that at 25?
 

MissouriMook

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That's like saying on Saturday when ROR had a defensive gaff that led to the Avs scoring and going up 2-0 that he should be under just as much scrutiny as a rookie that did the same thing. The biggest issue with goalies is mental and Binnington has proven he's as tough as they come mentally so when he gives up a shitty goal people aren't worried he's going to have a f***ing meltdown Allen style. Husso on the other hand, let's just say it's not looking good.
Your analogy is literally proving my point - even good players make mistakes, pretty much every game, and most players hold themselves accountable when they do. But a fan saying "Player X sucks" when one player makes a mistake and "Look at how well Player Y played before that mistake" when the other one does is a bias. Constantly glossing over one player's mistakes and pointing out his good qualities while constantly being outraged when a different player makes the same mistakes as the good player has made, never acknowledging their good qualities is a bias. It's possible to point out when a player makes a mistake, any player making any mistake, without overgeneralizing their play and their worth as a player.

Unless its a certain forward that keeps coughing up the puck in their own zone over and over and over again, leading to goals against and dropping in the standings, but the coach keeps running them back out there in high leverage situations. Then it is perfectly OK to put them on blast. :naughty:
 

MissouriMook

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Well it was smart to left alone most dangerous player in the slot. Not that there was forwards what Faulk should have hold at crease?

I think this tells where is his level of hockey IQ. Close cap and take away your man. Now he just screened goaltender and let most dangerous goal scorer alone. Even be position where you can reach with defensive stick to prevent shot.

This wasnt first time Faulk get caught no man's land.
What if I told you he was exactly where the coaches told him to be?

https%3A%2F%2Ffansided.com%2Ffiles%2F2020%2F08%2FMatrix_Laurence-Fisburne-Matrix-850x560.jpg
 

Thallis

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What if I told you he was exactly where the coaches told him to be?

https%3A%2F%2Ffansided.com%2Ffiles%2F2020%2F08%2FMatrix_Laurence-Fisburne-Matrix-850x560.jpg

Then the coach's defensive structure is overly static and has a giant soft spot in the middle.

QwvL0hH.jpg


Right before this, Sanford disengages with Kaprizov to cover the backdoor pass through the middle, and because he and Faulk were right on top of him. At this point, everyone but faulk is in a useful position. Sanford as F1 covers the backdoor while applying back pressure, Schwartz was applying pressure to the puck carrier, Bozak was covering the point options, and Scandella was covering the net front and backdoor. Faulk, having been on Kaprizov not 5 seconds before, should have drifted with him towards the dot. that would have covered the passing lane in front and allowed him to disrupt the threat in the middle. Instead he's caught at the moment he's disengaging, and his feet aren't set to challenge the play at all. In fact, he was drifting towards the corner at that point, opening up the lane to the man in front too. You'd like Sanford to be a little closer, but the backdoor man was also on the far dot right before the pass was made. Scandella probably could have communicated better as well, but ultimately, that's Faulk's puck to challenge.
 
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Moose and Squirrel

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Mikkola's 25, he's pretty likely finished improving his game, or at least improving it to anything appreciably better than what he currently is.
think he's got a whopping 28 games played in the NHL.. I'd like to see what a little more playing experience does for him. I think he'll get better.. he might not.. needs to play to find out
 
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Moose and Squirrel

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Mikkola could improve his game substantially merely by working extremely hard in weight training to build up substantially more strength and to add bulk, even if he doesn't improve his mental game. But, he should have been doing that at ages 20-23. Why should he need to be told that at 25?
some people have a hard time putting on weight.. it's a curse I wish all of us had lol

he def needs to hit the gym harder tho.. wonder why the blues don't have a trainer working with him in the offseason
 

Moose and Squirrel

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Then the coach's defensive structure is overly static and has a giant soft spot in the middle.

QwvL0hH.jpg


Right before this, Sanford disengages with Kaprizov to cover the backdoor pass through the middle, and because he and Faulk were right on top of him. At this point, everyone but faulk is in a useful position. Sanford as F1 covers the backdoor while applying back pressure, Schwartz was applying pressure to the puck carrier, Bozak was covering the point options, and Scandella was covering the net front and backdoor. Faulk, having been on Kaprizov not 5 seconds before, should have drifted with him towards the dot. that would have covered the passing lane in front and allowed him to disrupt the threat in the middle. Instead he's caught at the moment he's disengaging, and his feet aren't set to challenge the play at all. In fact, he was drifting towards the corner at that point, opening up the lane to the man in front too. You'd like Sanford to be a little closer, but the backdoor man was also on the far dot right before the pass was made. Scandella probably could have communicated better as well, but ultimately, that's Faulk's puck to challenge.
that far out is the Center's man
 
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Thallis

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that far out is the Center's man

It's not rigid. The events of the play dictate that Faulk should have stayed with him, because seconds before he was on him in the slot. There's not enough time for the center to recognize the movement, peel off, and react.

U5BNjtN.jpg


Here's where they are right after Sanford peels off from the crease. Sanford is covering the wing option as Fiala walks down. Faulk should be moving with Kaprizov as Kaprizov bumps up with the play, and Scandella should sink to the crease to deal with the backdoor option and the netfront presence. Without Faulk moving with Kaprizov, Sanford is making an either/or choice between 2 extremely dangerous options.
 
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Moose and Squirrel

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It's not rigid. The events of the play dictate that Faulk should have stayed with him, because seconds before he was on him in the slot. There's not enough time for the center to recognize the movement, peel off, and react.

U5BNjtN.jpg


Here's where they are right after Sanford peels off from the crease. Sanford is covering the wing option as Fiala walks down. Faulk should be moving with Kaprizov as Kaprizov bumps up with the play, and Scandella should sink to the crease to deal with the backdoor option and the netfront presence. Without Faulk moving with Kaprizov, Sanford is making an either/or choice between 2 extremely dangerous options.

and if he keeps going all the way to the blue line he keeps following him? at the point even with the face off dots he lets him go and the center needs to pick him up
they just found a soft spot and exploited it.
 
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Thallis

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and if he keeps going all the way to the blue line he keeps following him? at the point even with the face off dots he lets him go and the center needs to pick him up
they just found a soft spot and exploited it.

The slot is not the blue line, it's one of the most dangerous areas of the ice. The D and F1 typically are supposed to move fluidly and trade D responsibilities in the slot based on the flow of play. Defensemen should absolutely not be disengaging with their man while they're within the slot without someone else moving in to take the assignment.
 

MissouriMook

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Then the coach's defensive structure is overly static and has a giant soft spot in the middle.

QwvL0hH.jpg


Right before this, Sanford disengages with Kaprizov to cover the backdoor pass through the middle, and because he and Faulk were right on top of him. At this point, everyone but faulk is in a useful position. Sanford as F1 covers the backdoor while applying back pressure, Schwartz was applying pressure to the puck carrier, Bozak was covering the point options, and Scandella was covering the net front and backdoor. Faulk, having been on Kaprizov not 5 seconds before, should have drifted with him towards the dot. that would have covered the passing lane in front and allowed him to disrupt the threat in the middle. Instead he's caught at the moment he's disengaging, and his feet aren't set to challenge the play at all. In fact, he was drifting towards the corner at that point, opening up the lane to the man in front too. You'd like Sanford to be a little closer, but the backdoor man was also on the far dot right before the pass was made. Scandella probably could have communicated better as well, but ultimately, that's Faulk's puck to challenge.
That’s a lot to digest, but let me just say that I have a hard time believing that any coach would want one of the two defensemen he has on the ice to be at or above the dots when the opponent has 4-5 forwards on the ice and the puck is controlled by the opponent in the defensive zone.
 
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Thallis

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That’s a lot to digest, but let me just say that I have a hard time believing that any coach would want one of the two defensemen he has on the ice to be at or above the dots when the opponent has 4-5 forwards on the ice and the puck is controlled by the opponent in the defensive zone.

He doesn't have to be even with him to defend him, he just needs to be higher in the slot within range to get a stick on it, or able to at least square up and get in the shooting lane. Faulk was caught off guard and ended up trying to defend a pass to nowhere under what I think was an assumption the man in front was going to move down as the bumper, but that's the least dangerous option of the 3 most likely ones.
 

stl76

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Faulk played 30 minutes and fourty-four seconds last night. If folks was to focus in and dissect one split second decision while ignoring the rest of his game because Ranksu decided in November 2019 that Faulk was trash, then far be it for me to tell people to stop...personally, I thought Faulk played a solid game tho.
 

Robb_K

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some people have a hard time putting on weight.. it's a curse I wish all of us had lol

he def needs to hit the gym harder tho.. wonder why the blues don't have a trainer working with him in the offseason
I know that very well. They used to say I have a tape worm, definitely a superfast metabolism. From young childhood I ate about as much as four adult lumberjacks. I also had a fairly small frame for my height, with not very wide shoulders. So, it was a frame that wouldn't hold a lot of weight well. Back in Midgets in 1962, I was a skinny 6' 160 lb and after weight training and diet changes, by 1964, I was able to build up to 185. So, if I can do that, I KNOW Mikkola can. And the weight training and food science is MUCH better now than back in my youth 60 years ago, when we played with no helmets! :wally:
 

Reality Czech

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Faulk played 30 minutes and fourty-four seconds last night. If folks was to focus in and dissect one split second decision while ignoring the rest of his game because Ranksu decided in November 2019 that Faulk was trash, then far be it for me to tell people to stop...personally, I thought Faulk played a solid game tho.

In the past two games Faulk has had over one hour of ice time in two key wins against a divisional opponent. The guy is playing like a superhero right now, so anyone critficising him is frankly not worth listening to. He's more than earned his salary this year and has done about as much as we can ask of him, especially considering the injuries we've had.

One reason Faulk has to play so much is that Berube doesn't trust guys like Mikkola, and I can see why. He was a -2 in less than 13 minutes of ice time in the past game. He's relying on his top 4 guys as much as possible, and it's kind of pointless to analyze every single mistake when a guy is playing half of the freakin' game.
 

Cotton McKnight

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Surprised at all the hate for Husso. I thought he played a great game and the Wild just had some pretty nice goals especially the Eriksson Ek one.

I don't have hate for Husso, I believe in the Wild game he played better than most of his other games this season.

Honestly, I don't tlhink we've seen his full potential. The question is: will he ever get to his full potential?
 
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MissouriMook

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He doesn't have to be even with him to defend him, he just needs to be higher in the slot within range to get a stick on it, or able to at least square up and get in the shooting lane. Faulk was caught off guard and ended up trying to defend a pass to nowhere under what I think was an assumption the man in front was going to move down as the bumper, but that's the least dangerous option of the 3 most likely ones.
My point is (and has been) that the coaching staff, under those circumstances, would not want him to chase out as far as he would have needed to in order to reasonably be able to defend the shot from Kaprizov. Connecting the dots, at that spot on the ice (i.e. - above the dot), the job of defending Kaprizov would have fallen to one of the forwards so that the D could stay lower in the zone in a 6-on-5 situation. You may disagree, at which point we're just going to have to agree to disagree.
 

Ranksu

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Faulk played 30 minutes and fourty-four seconds last night. If folks was to focus in and dissect one split second decision while ignoring the rest of his game because Ranksu decided in November 2019 that Faulk was trash, then far be it for me to tell people to stop...personally, I thought Faulk played a solid game tho.



Isn't great thing that Faulk play almost 30min a night and I found only one situation where he plays badly?


giphy.gif
 

stl76

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Isn't great thing that Faulk play almost 30min a night and I found only one situation where he plays badly?


giphy.gif
If you want to spend your time combing thru every minute Faulk plays looking for the slightest mistake he makes to post in the GDT and feel good because you decided a long time ago that Faulk was trash and are unwilling (or unable) to re-examine your beliefs, that's your business.

FWIW I though Husso played a pretty solid game overall. Still plenty of room for improvement, but he made a lot of good saves and got the win despite the team dropping the ball in front of him several times in the 3rd. The amount of crap Husso gets in GDT is silly IMO (just as your obsession with finding Faulk's mistakes is silly IMO).
 

Moose and Squirrel

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I know that very well. They used to say I have a tape worm, definitely a superfast metabolism. From young childhood I ate about as much as four adult lumberjacks. I also had a fairly small frame for my height, with not very wide shoulders. So, it was a frame that wouldn't hold a lot of weight well. Back in Midgets in 1962, I was a skinny 6' 160 lb and after weight training and diet changes, by 1964, I was able to build up to 185. So, if I can do that, I KNOW Mikkola can. And the weight training and food science is MUCH better now than back in my youth 60 years ago, when we played with no helmets! :wally:

playing with no helmets...lol.. remember that all too well.. and when we DID get helmets, they weren't very good..

here's hoping Mik gets some lbs on that frame. he needs it to play his 'style'. as he is, he's way too light
 
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