I disagree. It was his answer to a direct question. And, I disagree, not all Habs players had all bad advanced stats.
It's funny how if all the quotes he provided on the topic, that's the one you not only chose to focus on but you've intentionally taken out of context.
If you only look at CF%, CF/60 and CA/60 then sure. But if you put it into perspective with QoC rel Corsi For %, GF%, GA/60, GF/60 , then… the picture is different. Not all Habs had a bad year.
We must have watched a different bottom 5th placed team.
Suzuki: drove possession against pretty tough opposition. Sure his ratio of GF/60 vs GA/60 could be better. Sure his CF/60 vs CA/60 was below expectations. But the overall picture isn’t that bad. It tells me that as a #2C, he would rip face.
Suzuki was fine, you're missing the point here.
How can you on one hand apply the correct context with Suzuki but not Slaf?
Guhle: very few players in the league face the toughness of opposition he faced. Could he do better? Absolutely. In perfect conditions would he have faced easier toughness of opposition, yes. I think he did ok, all things considered.
Slafkovsky's: no other 18 year old played any meaningful minutes in the NHL or faced the opposition he faced with the linemates he had. Could be be better? Absolutely. In perfect conditions he would have faced this tougher opposition with better linemates and deployment. I think he did ok, all things considered.
But I guess because he's 18 and a 1st overall pick, the expectation is that he should have put up at least 25pts in the 39 games he played at 12:00 mins per game, playing with Christian Dvorak.
Makes sense.
When looking at the combination of advanced stats, Slaf had the worse year and Dvorak not too far behind. I don’t count Tierney though.
Dach and Monahan had pretty decent.
Let’s compare Guhle and Slafkovsky.
One played insanely tough opposition. The other played easy toughness of opposition. Both didn’t do that well.
He's 3 years older lol where was Kaiden Guhle when he was 18 years old?
More importantly, where will Slafkovsky be when he's 21 years old?
Oh I forgot, his career was sabotaged because he played 39 NHL games this year and wasn't in contention for the Calder.
For them to be effective, they need to face toughness of opposition that is down a notch. ( A little easier. )
Says who?
Steel sharpens steel. There's nothing wrong with that approach and just because it's foreign to you, doesn't mean it's destined to fail.
If people’s expectations weren’t completely out of whack, they'd step back and have perspective on his season and realize that there were actually gains made this year and that just because the output or just because he wasn't in contention for the Calder, it doesn't mean his year was wasted.
To me, that means one needs to play 2nd pair toughness of opposition to hold his own. The other needs to play a weaker league because there isn’t a 5th line.
To me it means you're reading too much into small samples.
Guhle and Slafkovaky both gained a ton of experience this year which “should” have them well prepared for when the Habs are a more competitive team down the line.
Btw, pace, timing, functional strength are all things he can easily work on in the AHL.
Also things he can easily work on in the NHL which is really the ultimate level he needs to be at.
AHL pace, timing and functional strength is cute and all but we didn't draft him to play in the AHL
