Thanks for posting these. It's interesting, also, that Perfetti seems to spray them similarly to Ehlers. Is it possible that Ehlers and Perfetti, both relatively small players, have more trouble getting into the "harder" areas (e.g., the slot)?
Player Discussion: Ehlers
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While Cole does spray them from everywhere he does get to the slot and the majority of his shots are from that location which is unlike Ehlers.
I thinknits more about will as Conner is small and he gets there constantly.
Gabe Kupari
Registered User
I think we'd see a different nik if he wasn't injured for 40 something games to start the year. Dude is a bit behind it seems In terms of just playing within the system. Perhaps the Maurice bad habits that you still see with Scheifele Connor Blake Adam and the gang are difficult habits to break in 10 20 games
- Dec 29, 2016
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Good points - there is no doubt he is a volume shooter -
His default seems to be to gain the zone and find a shot option - it doesn't really matter than much if it is good one or not.
When he is down a bit, or in a bit of a slump, this gets magnified and he'll almost forget he has line mates out there.
That's his weakness - and it doesn't show up much in the stats.
I hate it when he's slumping - mainly because he feels the need to change his game - I wouldn't be surprised if the org sees it the same way.
And maybe that's why he gets moved around so much - they are trying to get him to settle down and play a consistent game without the top 6 pressure (or top line pressure).
Unfortunately, when he is playing this way, it impacts the line and gets him into trouble - it's disruptive to an extent.
The good news is, he always finds his way out of it and gets back on track - and the injury and missed time isn't helping any.
Looking forward to him sorting it out - you can tell it really impacts his mentality when he is struggling.
He's definitely an enigma. It's just me I'm sure but Nik often leaves me wanting more, and expecting more from him.
He has incredible tools - skating, passing, shooting, but I don't think he has the highest hockey IQ.
IDK if his IQ is a problem really -- I mean sure, he generally sucks at breakaways but pretty much every game he's taking routes and making deft passes that show pretty solid HiQ. His takeaways last night were more about anticipation than speed and he can clearly think to a high level on the PP while still being creative and quick, as his assist last night showed also.
I tend to think that Nik prefers a rush game where as puck carrier he can gain the zone and either shoot or pass off quickly, then use his speed to continue to back off defenders as options often up. I'm not sure that the more cerebral cycle game that 55, 26 and 81 tend to settle into really suits him. He meshes well with speed and with players who can get into position to pick up passes or get into shooting lanes.
He's been a strong complementary player on quite a few lines, and seems to work well with Dubois and another shooter, but also looked great with 55 and 81 earlier. And as @surixon noted above, he's a volume shooter who needs to shoot -- hadn't realized just how much he shot from anywhere until I saw that data, but it helps that when healthy he has a wicked shot arsenal.
He's a unique talent who can play well with some but not all and can also drive a line and generate chances on his own. He's also pure entertainment when he's on.
I get wanting more from Ehlers given his outrageous talent, but I feel like he ticks a ton of boxes as an elite winger on a very reasonable contract, is one of the team's few genuine gamebreakers and is also a class act.
Yeah it would be great if he were 6'4" and hit like a train and could spend an afternoon cycling the puck round the OZ -- but none of the guys we have who fit that bill can create or score anywhere like Ehlers.
BarnabyJones PI
I'd kindly settle for a tall glass of milk.
Just to push back a bit at JetsUK's post...
[X] Great looking shot
[ ] Takes great shots; ~11.8% career shooting percentage for his career
[X] Complimentary Player
[ ] Strong Complimentary Player; can be though
[X] Drives a line; can but not as much as most people believe he does - or to the extent that think he does
[ ] Drives a line in the playoffs; no - puzzling that 3 people here were impressed by Ehlers in that Montreal series where he was a minus in each game, registered 1 assist (Scheifele's lone game), and one of the main issues is that they couldn't generate offense (supposed "line-driver" had carte blanche once Scheifele went down) coupled with Montreal knew exactly what the Jets were doing whenever Ehlers had the puck
[ ] Good along the boards; worst on the team - by far
[ ] Solid forechecker; though someone's analysis will suggest that he was his line's best forechecker 2 games ago (phantom analysis)
[ ] Solid backchecker; hard no - he's either overselling a dive (or being hurt) or is clever enough to be going for a line change
[X] Takes solid routes with the puck; yes but not as often as most people here want to believe (and it's predictable once the playoffs starts)
[ ] Takes solid routes without the puck; has a tendency to drift wherever in the O and D zones, hard no
[X] Predictable routes; hard yes and sort of unpredictable (unfortunately) at times for his linemates
[ ] One of the team's Top 3 passers; he's around there but not IN that tier
[ ] Good in his own end defensively; hard no The "at least he's better than Kyle Connor" is the equivalent of looking two guys who both weigh over 500 lbs, and saying "At least this guy is leaner than the other one."
[ ] Good at clearing the puck out of his own end; he's worse than Kyle Connor in this regard - he gets pushed/ moved off of the puck so easily
[X] Great skater
[X] Great speed
[X] Great stickhandling at high speeds
[X] Great edgework; good but not as great as one would think
[ ] Great motor; hard no (one of the worst motors I've ever seen) - gets gassed after one burst (and this isn't a trend that's just suddenly developed because of his recent injury)
[X] Great at O-Zone entries; yes, but... I noticed that on a number of breakouts (3v2, 2v1) when he first came back, he wouldn't make cross-ice-passes and would pull up (speed-wise) to make sure that HE crossed the line first; and I highly doubt that the coaching staff (or ANY coaching staff) cares for that kind of crap
[X] Great at D-Zone exits; yes, BUT... not when he's under duress, so the whole concept of what D-Zone Exits is questionable IMO
[X] Power Play; I can also understand why coaches don't love him on the 1st unit though. Again, he's terrible along the boards (weird how often the puck gets caught up in his stakes), isn't good at keeping the puck in if he's covering the blue line (he's really bad at this), has a tendency to make errant passes or take wild shots that if they miss will whip around the boards and leave the O-Zone. Also drifts to the strong-side, congested areas, for whatever reason? Really good on entries on the power play, but his decision making once he gets in is generally not in sync with the rest of his team. Does better at high speeds, not so good when the game slows down to a crawl; which is what the PP generally ends up being. The opposite of Cole Perfetti frankly; who's a much better skater than most people say (he's smart and has gears). He can't protect the puck.
[ ] Great at line-changes; hard no unless we're saying he's great at getting off of the ice as the puck is going towards the Jets D-Zone (then he's A+ at protecting that great career +/- of his)
[X] Great at drawing penalties - but also takes too many dives and puts his team in compromising positions (cries wolf and even his teammates generally think he's faking it because they never go over to see if he's fine)
[ ] Strong playoff performer; it's so laughable those who have been impressed by his playoffs, my favorite when someone said that they were impressed by his last two series which he missed 25% of two sweeps (2 wins!)
[X] High skill level; yes. Great speed. Nice looking shot (save for his blah % and his shot selection). Nice passer.
[X] Fancy play syndrome
[ ] Easily coachable; I highly doubt that he is - seems moody, lost in his own world (lots of 1,000-yard stares)
Line driver < Complimentary player
Smart < Clever
Feisty > Tough
Nifty > Great
The problem with Ehlers will always be, that if you're serious about building towards the playoffs, if he's the "line driver" and Mr. Everything that a number of people here seem to think that he is, it's a recipe for a quick exit. Ehlers is a dynamic player, but the team was more dynamic as a team before they lost Perfetti and Wheeler earlier this season, and there was more continuity. It's also interesting that PLD and Scheifele are back into their own ways of bad body language, and talking with their gloves covering their mouths. There was more of a 1-for-All vibe that's seemingly not there anymore.
Ehlers loves the perimeter so much he bought a house in Oak Bluff.
JetsFan815
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A couple of years from now when he is gone from the Jets we are gonna look back at such posts and reflect how foolish we were in undervaluing him (esp at that contract) and how much his years here were wasted by the coaching staff. Not unlike how no one acknowledges that there was a sizable contingent of posters here who didn't like Buff on D.
JetsFan815
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Patrick Laine would should from above the hashmarks and noway near the slot and be a rocket richard candidate when he was here. No one on the Jets is better than Lowry or Barron in terms of shot distance per shot attempt yet those guys can't score. Ehlers scores on an above average percentage of his shots therefore it seems to me that the shots he is taking are good (it'd be a different story if he was shooting 4-5%). The coach needs to utilize what a player is best at, if a guy like 27 who generates as much offense as he doesn't is playing 13 mins a night, that's completely unacceptable.
not many had a shot like laine. so he could shoot from there and score. it's like in basketball steph curry or lillard taking 30+ ft threes is seen as a fine shot since theyre elite shooters, but on average it's categorized as a a poor shot since 99% of ppl cannot shoot like them (this is why guys like laine used to destroy GF vs xGF).
i do agree on your lowry point. those 2 are below average finishers. and even with prime opportunities they usually cannot capitalize.
ehlers has been customarily a 12-14% shooter on a per game SOG average from 2.32 to 3.95 (excluding this year) through his career. his average shot-distance this season isn't really much different from his career. i think you'll see his finishing rebound closer to his career average.
Not sure what to say about this — you’ve put in your work, lord knows.
I suspect it’s hard to think of many players active or otherwise who tick your boxes in the ways you prefer. But if you can dig up a player on an Ehlers salary with Ehlers+ numbers and no comparable weaknesses then maybe send it up the chain to Chevy and bring ‘er home?
I don’t think anyone here would argue that Ehlers is a flawless player who can’t improve. We saw that in the off-season where he watched every single game tape and worked on the areas of weakness he found there — and got noticeably better.
The argument is that he’s an important player for this team whose strengths might be better utilized. But if they ain’t, and he ain’t, so be it.
I love Ehlers, very fun to watch, but I've thought the same thing myself, and I think considering he has all the tools, it may come down to hockey IQ ? I have to wonder if he can think the game fast enough, and then make the best decisions, and I don't think that's fully there. I do think he's got his speed back tho.
gojetsgo
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- Nov 1, 2015
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Chatted just now with #NHLJets Nikolaj Ehlers about his reduced ice time lately. He said he needs to “play better” to earn more time, and admitted coming back from 3-month absence due to sports hernia/surgery is a “work in progress.
from mcintyre. tweet wouldn't work
from mcintyre. tweet wouldn't work
Yup, just basically admitted he's not 100% - which is entirely understandable. Seems very self aware that he has to be better.
I have faith that he will find a way to be impactful despite his current limitations.
I'm really pulling for him - I think any success in the playoffs will need some fly in the ointment
Not sure you got the "fly in the ointment" meaning correct but I know what you mean
I just crammed it in there hoping that people would just accept it hahaNot sure you got the "fly in the ointment" meaning correct but I know what you mean
Certainly not ideal. I think it might be until next season before he is fully recovered.
None
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The article mentioned above comes to a lot of the same conclusions that I think a lot already have on here. Ehlers offensive contributions outweigh his defensive shortcomings but he's held to a higher standard defensively than any of our other top 6 forwards with similar or worse metrics.
Murat Ates said:
It tries to rationalize and explain comments from both Ehlers and Bowness with regards to his usage and probably gives Bowness' words a little more weight than many on here. I think the conclusion that Bowness is only looking at the 25 games Ehlers has played for him is a pretty shallow way to rationalize his usage and I don't think anyone should be satisfied with that kind of excuse.
tbcwpg
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- Jan 25, 2011
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I think there's a visual component with Ehlers that's different than players like Connor. I'm not saying Bowness ignores the data, because I doubt there's any coach in the NHL now that ignores it completely, but I can see where someone just using the "eye test" thinks Ehlers is a bit overrated because they don't see what the stats are saying.
The difference really is Ehlers creates and Connor finishes. Connor is known as a sniper - if he doesn't score, it can be waived away as "Oh it's just puck luck", "We need to get him in better positions" etc etc. Ehlers is great at creating, but if it falls apart because of either his own decisions, or his linemates inability to finish, it looks a lot like he skated really fast into the offensive zone (great zone entry numbers) and then the play went nowhere.
Really it seems like Ehlers is shouldering the blame for his linemates inability to mesh with him - there is something to be said that, if Ehlers has difficulty with many linemates, then maybe he's not as impactful as we'd like, but I think he's getting some blame from coaches that see a lot of flash but no finish.
The difference really is Ehlers creates and Connor finishes. Connor is known as a sniper - if he doesn't score, it can be waived away as "Oh it's just puck luck", "We need to get him in better positions" etc etc. Ehlers is great at creating, but if it falls apart because of either his own decisions, or his linemates inability to finish, it looks a lot like he skated really fast into the offensive zone (great zone entry numbers) and then the play went nowhere.
Really it seems like Ehlers is shouldering the blame for his linemates inability to mesh with him - there is something to be said that, if Ehlers has difficulty with many linemates, then maybe he's not as impactful as we'd like, but I think he's getting some blame from coaches that see a lot of flash but no finish.
cbcwpg
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sipowicz
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- Mar 16, 2011
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Nice to see Ehlers playing for Denmark as apparently Dutchland doesn't seem to have men's hockey team!
