GDT: Game 44: Sharks @ Utah 6:00pm NBCSCA

[Sharksfan66]

If you had more expectations then a 30 point player then that is on you, and that is exactly what he is performing at.

I'm not so concerned with points as I am his ability to participate in the play. The contrast with Celebrini tonight is a perfect example.

Celebrini was all over the puck, per usual. Making plays and just generally looking like a threat when he's on the ice.

Smith was behind the play, almost seemed to freeze when trying to make decisions, and the play died on his stick.

Did you expect to see this gulf between Celebrini & Smith in terms of play (scoreboard aside)?

 

[karltonian]

I don’t buy that he’s neutered the line. I think you’re seeing Celebrini hit a bit of a slump and it happens to line up with Smith being on his line. Kunin was blessed to play with Celebrini today and he also looked like dog shit, but I’m guessing that’s on Smith as well who wasn’t on the ice for either goal against.

While I agree Smith should be in the AHL this year, he’s not and he won’t be so continuously calling him AHL Smith and blaming all of the team’s problems on him is getting a bit redundant

I dunno, if you're not seeing the play die on his stick constantly then I can't help you.
For everyone else it was pretty obvious and had a flashing strobe light on it on that 6 on 4. That's Smith in a nutshell. Get the puck with plays in front of him and somehow fail to make any of them.

 

[Tw1ster]

Relative to expectations, I would say Smith is our greatest underperformed this season. Is there anyone who has been more disappointing (again, relative to expectations)?

My expectations were that he would be developing in the NHL this year and that is what he’s done. He’s shown flashes of potential and has been poor at other times which is pretty much how a realistic rookie season goes. I think you’re comparing Smith to an outlier in Celebrini and that’s on you

 

[Barrie22]

I mean that's his job, it's literally all he can do. And he has to be so open to do it, it's no wonder he never scores. His line has to work so hard to get it to him, it kills total opportunities as well.

So it is smiths fault every other top 9 player decided not to shoot the puck for 50+ minutes?

I am also guessing it was smiths fault that Celebrini was scored against right?

 

[SJSharksfan39]

That was such a boring game. Sharks looked listless and I think Celebrini might need a day to clear his head. I expected a bounce back game from him after the end of the Vegas game and didn't really get it. Sharks just spent the game dumping and chasing and it was not fun to watch.

 

[Sharksfan66]

While I agree Smith should be in the AHL this year, he’s not and he won’t be so continuously calling him AHL Smith and blaming all of the team’s problems on him is getting a bit redundant

He's not going to the A but a development day or two might be good.

Why do people keep saying this? I haven't been super plugged in the last month or so but did Grier or Warso ever come out and straight up say they aren't going to send him down?

 

[Cas]

Relative to expectations, I would say Smith is our greatest underperformed this season. Is there anyone who has been more disappointing (again, relative to expectations)?

Smith is a 19-year-old rookie who projects as a good 2C/1RW. He's performing basically exactly to what our expectations should be - if you were expecting more, I think that's on you, not Smith.

 

[Sharksfan66]

Smith is a 19-year-old rookie who projects as a good 2C/1RW. He's performing basically exactly to what our expectations should be - if you were expecting more, I think that's on you, not Smith.

Again, I think you are scoreboard watching.

His points are fine. His ability to play with pace is not IMO.

 

[Cas]

His ability to play with pace is not IMO.

"Smith is a 19-year-old rookie who projects as a good 2C/1RW."

Being usually unable to handle NHL pace and competition as a 19-year-old rookie who projects as a future quality but complementary forward is exactly what anyone should expect.

Comparing him to Celebrini, who is annihilating all reasonable expectations, is a disservice.

 

[karltonian]

Why do people keep saying this? I haven't been super plugged in the last month or so but did Grier or Warso ever come out and straight up say they aren't going to send him down?

no but it is suspected that a condition of him signing his ELC was he would play in the NHL.

That was such a boring game. Sharks looked listless and I think Celebrini might need a day to clear his head. I expected a bounce back game from him after the end of the Vegas game and didn't really get it. Sharks just spent the game dumping and chasing and it was not fun to watch.

he looked ok to me but his line talent is getting ridiculously bad. they f***ing put luke kunin on his line. I didn't see him dumping and chasing much but his linemates literally can't do a damn thing with his playmaking.

 

[Tw1ster]

I dunno, if you're not seeing the play die on his stick constantly then I can't help you.
For everyone else it was pretty obvious and had a flashing strobe light on it on that 6 on 4. That's Smith in a nutshell. Get the puck with plays in front of him and somehow fail to make any of them.

To be fair I saw the puck die on everyone’s stick today, including Celebrini. The one glaring one on Smith definitely sticks out but beyond that, he looked no worse than the rest of the team tonight and actually had a few decent shots on net.

 

[Barrie22]

I'm not so concerned with points as I am his ability to participate in the play. The contrast with Celebrini tonight is a perfect example.

Celebrini was all over the puck, per usual. Making plays and just generally looking like a threat when he's on the ice.

Smith was behind the play, almost seemed to freeze when trying to make decisions, and the play died on his stick.

Did you expect to see this gulf between Celebrini & Smith in terms of play (scoreboard aside)?

Yes i expected to see a drastic difference between smith and celebrini. Anyone who actually watched either play at any point in the past 2 years knew that smith would take time to adjust to the nhl and that celebrini would fit right in. Did many expect celebrini to actually be this good so early? Nope nobody did.

The fact that people like you and karl keep comparing him to celebrini is what is driving the majority of the members on this board insane. You both have extremely high expectations for what smith should be today and are expecting today what most project his top end potential will be at the end of his career.

 

[Tw1ster]

Why do people keep saying this? I haven't been super plugged in the last month or so but did Grier or Warso ever come out and straight up say they aren't going to send him down?

I believe Grier outright said he’s here for the season in the first couple of weeks of the season

 

[karltonian]

Yes i expected to see a drastic difference between smith and celebrini. Anyone who actually watched either play at any point in the past 2 years knew that smith would take time to adjust to the nhl and that celebrini would fit right in. Did many expect celebrini to actually be this good so early? Nope nobody did.

The fact that people like you and karl keep comparing him to celebrini is what is driving the majority of the members on this board insane. You both have extremely high expectations for what smith should be today and are expecting today what most project his top end potential will be at the end of his career.

well it is probably partly on the coaches as well that they keep playing smith with celebrini which is at this point stale. teams have figured it out and smith has no chance of beating the adjustment.

 

[Sharksfan66]

"Smith is a 19-year-old rookie who projects as a good 2C/1RW."

Being usually unable to handle NHL pace and competition as a 19-year-old rookie who projects as a future quality but complementary forward is exactly what anyone should expect.

Comparing him to Celebrini, who is annihilating all reasonable expectations, is a disservice.

Well, to be fair, I compared him to Celebrini on on off night for him.

But ok, Celebrini aside, as I think about talented complementary pieces that have broken in with the Sharks, Eklund, Couture, Setoguchi all looked better than this. To a lesser degree, I would say Hertl too, though he struggled more than the first 3.

And again, I'm not talking about points on the scoreboard (I think Smith is on track to match or beat their rookie scoring paces), I'm talking about ability to stick with and participate in the play. Smith just doesn't look dangerous to me at all when he's out there and that's the disappointment.

 

[karltonian]

anyway so as to end on a somewhat productive note, I thought these lines are proper:
72-64-2
20-71-73
51-21-15/11
dregs

eklund and granlund are a good enough duo to work around AHL Smith
giving celebrini some NHL talent gives an actual chance for a 2nd scoring line. this is a very sensible f1-f2-f3 setup.
the 3rd line being defeisive-y with a bit of offensive pop if they get ahead of the play is exactly what they should have rather than trying to play celebrini there or making it a partial scoring line.

though I am kind of scared that warsofsky views the wennberg line as the 2nd line.

 

[Sharksfan66]

Yes i expected to see a drastic difference between smith and celebrini. Anyone who actually watched either play at any point in the past 2 years knew that smith would take time to adjust to the nhl and that celebrini would fit right in. Did many expect celebrini to actually be this good so early? Nope nobody did.

The fact that people like you and karl keep comparing him to celebrini is what is driving the majority of the members on this board insane. You both have extremely high expectations for what smith should be today and are expecting today what most project his top end potential will be at the end of his career.

Honest question: how much did you watch them play before they came to SJ?

I saw them play head to head a couple of times last season, and while I expected Celebrini to be more, I didn't expect Smith to be lagging this far behind.

I believe Grier outright said he’s here for the season in the first couple of weeks of the season

Well that explains that. Thank you.

 

[Barrie22]

Well, to be fair, I compared him to Celebrini on on off night for him.

But ok, Celebrini aside, as I think about talented complementary pieces that have broken in with the Sharks, Eklund, Couture, Setoguchi all looked better than this. To a lesser degree, I would say Hertl too, though he struggled more than the first 3.

And again, I'm not talking about points on the scoreboard (I think Smith is on track to match or beat their rookie scoring paces), I'm talking about ability to stick with and participate in the play. Smith just doesn't look dangerous to me at all when he's out there and that's the disappointment.

There was nothing that hertl struggled with in his rookie season (but pretty easy not to when you are playing with a generational playmaking and puck possession center and a defensive high iq center/winger goal scorer) Eklund on the other hand struggled for 80% of the season until the last couple games.

 

[LadyStanley]

Doesn't mean I have to like it

 

[Star Platinum]

For the love of God can we give Celebrini some actual NHL caliber talent on the wing? It's depressing

No because the top priority of the team is keeping the Lund line together

 

[Star Platinum]

I'm not so concerned with points as I am his ability to participate in the play. The contrast with Celebrini tonight is a perfect example.

Celebrini was all over the puck, per usual. Making plays and just generally looking like a threat when he's on the ice.

Smith was behind the play, almost seemed to freeze when trying to make decisions, and the play died on his stick.

Did you expect to see this gulf between Celebrini & Smith in terms of play (scoreboard aside)?

Two things.

One, from the moment I first got a chance to see Celebrini and Smith play against NHL competition in the preseason, I 100% had different expectations of each guy based on what I saw there.

Two, this was one of Celebrini's worst games as a Shark. Let's not pretend he was all over the place making plays tonight because he wasn't.

 

[LilLeeroy]

Two things.

One, from the moment I first got a chance to see Celebrini and Smith play against NHL competition in the preseason, I 100% had different expectations of each guy based on what I saw there.

Two, this was one of Celebrini's worst games as a Shark. Let's not pretend he was all over the place making plays tonight because he wasn't.

The underlying statistics seem to support this. Smith isn't dragging down Celebrini, Celebrini has just been playing poorly recently.

 

[coooldude]

I hate our penalty kill too, which has been getting totally undeserved credit. They retreat into a small bunched formation, pray the other team fumbles the puck or that they get a lucky bounce that enables them to clear the puck while every other team applies pressure to the guy with the puck to pressure him into making a mistake.

Our PK is middle of the pack in the NHL, and given our talent, I think you have to credit the PK for being pretty effective, actually.

As for the rest of the game, a bit disconcerting that this is the effort after three days. I was hoping the kids especially would look a bit more energized, but it seems like the long grind is really wearing on especially macklin. He looked so much less intense out there.

Two games in a row where Georgiev amazingly played well but also gave up at least one soft goal. That last goal probably should be a glove save. Still, not his fault we lost, just also didn't earn us a point/win.

Only other positive I can take away from tonight is that even though Mukh had two rough giveaways in the DZ, he generally looked passable and solid at times, and seems like his confidence is increasing.

 

[Star Platinum]

Our PK is middle of the pack in the NHL, and given our talent, I think you have to credit the PK for being pretty effective, actually.

 

[coooldude]

I mean, nobody likes being down 4v5 ... Except like the best 5 in the league.