GDT: Game 77: Sharks vs. Flames 7:30pm NBCSCA

[Chinaski89]

The DEL2.

Del the Funky Homosapien from Oakland???

 

[Star Platinum]

Boy it's nice to have a goalie that doesn't turn every chance into a disaster.

Let's get two like that for next year

 

[Jargon]

How come Kovalenko was benched for so long earlier? Is it known? He seemed fine this game.

Something about trying to play a possession game or I don’t know. He got moved down the lineup, wasn’t performing as well, got injured, got benched. He and Mack have obvious chemistry and I think it’s worth keeping them together.

 

[StrawHatEklund]

Man that was a letdown after a solidish 2 first periods (albeit felt slow/boring at times). Glad to see Smith get 2 goals and Celebrini add 2 assists. Hoping to end the season 2-3 now.

 

[Star Platinum]

Okay, Wennberg is mostly a stud. Even the Handsome fail sometimes.

Wennberg is a stud only in #BookTok

 

[karltonian]

Something about trying to play a possession game or I don’t know. He got moved down the lineup, wasn’t performing as well, got injured, got benched. He and Mack have obvious chemistry and I think it’s worth keeping them together.

Celebrini is great at reading opportunities arising from other teams' reactions, so a player that can jump on a puck and make the other team react is a huge boon to him. Smith and Toffoli can't do that but Kovalenko can when he's on his horse.

 

[Star Platinum]

Can't get a better result than that. Smith & Celebrini produced. Regulation time loss with no stupid bonus point. They just need to do no better than 2-3 in their last 5 games to make this a successful tank.

Really what I wanted most of the games to be this year. Young kids scoring in close losses. At least tonight's game was competitive, if a bit dull until the third.

 

[Star Platinum]

Something about trying to play a possession game or I don’t know. He got moved down the lineup, wasn’t performing as well, got injured, got benched. He and Mack have obvious chemistry and I think it’s worth keeping them together.

He's one of our few players who can pass the puck well from behind the net. Eklund is the other who's done well in that spot.

 

[timorous me]

God this f***ing team. Smith with 40 points on the year and Mack with 2 points at least

As frustrating as things have been to watch for much of this season, it really has been something of a smashing success: Smith reaching 40 points in 69 games (especially after his slow start), Celebrini being on the verge of reaching 60 (57 in 65 games, while playing so often against opponents' top players), and being in pole position for the best odds in the draft and a top 3 pick?

It's easy to complain night-to-night, but big picture-wise, this is the stuff that really matters.

 

[Star Platinum]

As frustrating as things have been to watch for much of this season, it really has been something of a smashing success: Smith reaching 40 points in 69 games (especially after his slow start), Celebrini being on the verge of reaching 60 (57 in 65 games, while playing so often against opponents' top players), and being in pole position for the best odds in the draft and a top 3 pick?

It's easy to complain night-to-night, but big picture-wise, this is the stuff that really matters.

They unloaded a decent amount of talent along the way. Now is the time to cash in what they got back and turn it into help for the team. Next year's October squad needs to be better than this year's October squad. I'm not expecting miracles, but we can't just be exclusively dumpster diving this year.

 

[matt trick]

They unloaded a decent amount of talent along the way. Now is the time to cash in what they got back and turn it into help for the team. Next year's October squad needs to be better than this year's October squad. I'm not expecting miracles, but we can't just be exclusively dumpster diving this year.

Agreed, more talent unloaded than I would have liked, but it looks like every piece (other than Kunin!) moved out was a necessary one to get the required record.

Walman, Ceci, Granny, Zetts, Blackwood, and Sturm is a lot to replace. Ostapchuk, Dickinson, and Askarov may all be even or slight downgrades on Blacky, Ceci, and Sturm next year, but that still leaves us with Walman, Granny, and Zetts. That’s an awful lot, and I don’t see many helpful cap dumps out there (Dallas?).

If Grier pulls the team out of the bottom 3-5 by the deadline, it’ll be a monumental effort. Luckily, I do think next years top 5-7 draft picks will be very good and heavy on things we could really use (RHD, big forwards, Gavin McKenna).

 

[matt trick]

Rough finish to that game, but I agree with those sayings it’s the ideal outcome. I guessed in the prediction thread, we’d get 100 points from Smith and Celebrini. That looks to be spot on, but they’ve been better than I had hoped for, and are doing it in a few less games- and with less talent.

 

[LadyStanley]

 

[Juxtaposer]

Rough finish to that game, but I agree with those sayings it’s the ideal outcome. I guessed in the prediction thread, we’d get 100 points from Smith and Celebrini. That looks to be spot on, but they’ve been better than I had hoped for, and are doing it in a few less games- and with less talent.

I was hoping for 80 points between them and they're going to blow that out of the water even considering that they'll each have missed ~10 games with injuries/"development days" in Smith's case.

I think we also have to consider that as well as this team has played post-4 Nations, we might have played ourselves out of the best lottery odds if we'd kept even just Walman and Zetterlund.

 

[Star Platinum]

Warsofsky speaks about Kovalenko and Romanov's games

 

[sampler]

As frustrating as things have been to watch for much of this season, it really has been something of a smashing success: Smith reaching 40 points in 69 games (especially after his slow start), Celebrini being on the verge of reaching 60 (57 in 65 games, while playing so often against opponents' top players), and being in pole position for the best odds in the draft and a top 3 pick?

It's easy to complain night-to-night, but big picture-wise, this is the stuff that really matters.

I have to agree. Losing stinks, of course, but the two big kids, along with ek, have shown that they can be the real deal. Its fair to expect all three to be bona fide top 6F, possibly top 3F for a decade to come. That was the big win...

Also, a year ago today, the sharks had a lottery chance at Celly after truly historic ineptitude and the 14th overall pick which looked like a helenius-type pick. They also had just their own first this year ('25) and next ('26) and just their own seconds too.

Within this past calendar year:
1. they won the lottery and got celebrini
2. Got Dickinson, a consensus top 10 pick, who was then arguably the top defenseman in the whole CHL
3. Got Chernyshov, an approx #20 overall talent, who crushed the OHL better than expected, leading the league in Pts per game.
4. Got LSW, often considered another late 1st talent, who had a solid season at 18 years old against men in the FEL and SHL.
5. Signed Graf, the consensus top college FA.
6. Traded for Askarov, the consensus best goalie prospect on earth.
7. Had both Smith and celly producing at top 6F rates as rookie teenagers.
8. Added TWO first rounders and TWO second rounders by rehabbing and then trading away cap dumps.
9. Had the 3rd leading scoring defensemen in the AHL at age 19.
10. Made nearly every game close while still finishing last and getting the best lottery chances.
11. many other secondary prospects also took steps forward like Lund and Pohlcamp (or even laubach/muldowney/landen...)

Obviously many other moves were made that stunk (see goodrow, dyllandrea, grundstrom...). But, all in all, for the longer term that's a pretty good year organization wide.

Going forward, the cupbard is stocked with prospects and we have 8 picks in the first two rounds over the next two drafts, and a gagillion dolalrs in cap space.

The platform for liftoff is completely clear. The rocket is getting fueled. Now its just the countdown toward launch...

 

[sampler]

I was hoping for 80 points between them and they're going to blow that out of the water even considering that they'll each have missed ~10 games with injuries/"development days" in Smith's case.

I think we also have to consider that as well as this team has played post-4 Nations, we might have played ourselves out of the best lottery odds if we'd kept even just Walman and Zetterlund.

I agree, keeping walman and zetterlund coulda led to 2 more wins. I hated the walman trade at the time, but Ive come around a bit to it. keeping one more year of him is not worth a 1st and id rather the top lottery shot too. Of course, I wouldn't have minded keeping him for term, either. I think hes a very solid top 4D on a playoff team.

The zetterlund deal still does irk me. Ostapchuk was the crux of the deal according to Grier (moving a 4th to a 2nd is not a biggy). He spoke so highly of him, and really pencilled him in. I get that hes not yet 22, but Ive seen absolutely nothing that resembles a 3rd line C. I would expect a 3C to put up 15-20 goals, 35-40 pts, while shutting down the opposition. Wennberg fits the mold (if the top two lines and D were much better). Ostapchuk has shown absolutely nothing offensively. 53 NHL games, 4 pts, -10. The jury is still out, of course, but if he busts, the Zetterlund trade looks bad. Zetterlund was looking to be a 25- 30 goal scorer at 220lbs and physical. maybe the sharks can reacquire him for another 4th and resign him cheaper than they were. Cant see ottawa throwing the requested 5M at him given his struggles there, but I'd love to have him back, and ekky would go all giggly.