Nashville Predators Talk - 2024/2025 Season

nine_inch_fang

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Oct 8, 2004
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That's ok, I'll be kicked back with a bowl of chili so its all good.

Apparently we all had the same idea. I'm making chili tonight, too. And I've seen a few people on other social sites say they're making chili, too! :laugh:
Gotta coach hockey practice tonight or I'd be all over making a pot of chili. It's definitely hockey and chili season!
 

ShagDaddy

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Nov 24, 2021
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On the bright side of starting 0-3, at least they have the Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins are rolling into town next so those should be two easy wins………
 

Top 6 Spaling

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Jun 23, 2010
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Our advanced stats so far are shockingly good and disagree strongly with my eye test - I think Stamkos has been invisible, but he leads our team in xG at this point. Moneypuck has us at 11 in their Power Rankings despite being 0-3, with bad "puck luck" and bad goaltending weighing us down. There's reason for hope, but man, that does not agree with what I've seen on the ice.
 

wmupreds

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Dec 15, 2022
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Our advanced stats so far are shockingly good and disagree strongly with my eye test - I think Stamkos has been invisible, but he leads our team in xG at this point. Moneypuck has us at 11 in their Power Rankings despite being 0-3, with bad "puck luck" and bad goaltending weighing us down. There's reason for hope, but man, that does not agree with what I've seen on the ice.
Sounds plausible to me based on the first two games but I missed last night's.
 

glenngineer

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Jan 27, 2010
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Franklin, TN
For the people talking about Saros and his big contract, that doesn't kick in until next season, as will his NMC. He's still getting paid $5 mil a season as of now.

I didn't think he looked all that great in Bruno's system last year and it was a concern of mine, which is why I wasn't a fan of the contract he was given, although I understood the logic with the signings they were making.

On the flip side, the team will only get older and slower as the year progresses. Time to move out some of the dead weight and inject some youthful legs onto the roster.

Not sure why Pars got benched for the majority of the third when McC, Sissons and Smith in some variation were on the ice with him for the majority of the Kraken goals. This is what drives me nuts, vets on the ice for goals against get the same ice time. Youngsters on the ice for goals against ride the pine. Stop f'in with Pars and Tomasino. Let them play already. I'm sick of watching Smith suck. Twice he's coming down the wing last night and can't get a shot off. But hey, he's got grit. And whoopty do - McC got a goal - he was on the ice for how many against last night? And please don't get me started on Schenn and his inability on one of the first two goals scored. Terrible coverage as Josi took one guy and Schenn just watched as his guy got the puck and went to the net for a goal.

Sorry, coffee kicked in.
 

vipera1960

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Aug 1, 2007
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For the people talking about Saros and his big contract, that doesn't kick in until next season, as will his NMC. He's still getting paid $5 mil a season as of now.

I didn't think he looked all that great in Bruno's system last year and it was a concern of mine, which is why I wasn't a fan of the contract he was given, although I understood the logic with the signings they were making.

On the flip side, the team will only get older and slower as the year progresses. Time to move out some of the dead weight and inject some youthful legs onto the roster.

Not sure why Pars got benched for the majority of the third when McC, Sissons and Smith in some variation were on the ice with him for the majority of the Kraken goals. This is what drives me nuts, vets on the ice for goals against get the same ice time. Youngsters on the ice for goals against ride the pine. Stop f'in with Pars and Tomasino. Let them play already. I'm sick of watching Smith suck. Twice he's coming down the wing last night and can't get a shot off. But hey, he's got grit. And whoopty do - McC got a goal - he was on the ice for how many against last night? And please don't get me started on Schenn and his inability on one of the first two goals scored. Terrible coverage as Josi took one guy and Schenn just watched as his guy got the puck and went to the net for a goal.

Sorry, coffee kicked in.
It’s likely the NMC is already in effect. When a player signs an extension with trade protection in the first year, the trade protection can be retroactively applied to the final year of the current contract (unless it’s an RFA year). I can’t imagine any agent who gets a NMC not asking for this.
 

glenngineer

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Jan 27, 2010
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It’s likely the NMC is already in effect. When a player signs an extension with trade protection in the first year, the trade protection can be retroactively applied to the final year of the current contract (unless it’s an RFA year). I can’t imagine any agent who gets a NMC not asking for this.
Found this. Doesn’t look like the NMC kicks in until the extension does.

 

ShagDaddy

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Nov 24, 2021
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I highly doubt it matters when the NMC kicks in. Is there a team that would actually trade for Saros this season knowing the contract that comes with him at this point.
 

Scoresberg

Perpetual Mediocrity
May 28, 2015
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I'm still not too worried about our start in terms of our players. I think Forsberg, Josi and O'Reilly will be better as will Stamkos, Marchessault and Skjei once they fully settle in. Saros is having is usual slow start and he will be better as well.

What I am worried about is our coaching staff. Putting Cole Smith as your 2LW after two games reeks of desperation and cluelessness. Swapping Pärssinen into the lineup and then only playing him 5 minutes leads me to believe that they are truly going to fumble his development as they did with Tolvanen. Yes, I still know they aren't the second comings of Gretzkys but nonetheless it's a not a good look for the organization's ability to develop.
 

Armourboy

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Jan 20, 2014
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I'm still not too worried about our start in terms of our players. I think Forsberg, Josi and O'Reilly will be better as will Stamkos, Marchessault and Skjei once they fully settle in. Saros is having is usual slow start and he will be better as well.

What I am worried about is our coaching staff. Putting Cole Smith as your 2LW after two games reeks of desperation and cluelessness. Swapping Pärssinen into the lineup and then only playing him 5 minutes leads me to believe that they are truly going to fumble his development as they did with Tolvanen. Yes, I still know they aren't the second comings of Gretzkys but nonetheless it's a not a good look for the organization's ability to develop.
Thing is it was done to try and get the 2nd line going. They sent Parssinen down last season to get work at center so all he had to do was plug Parssinen in with Stamkos, move Sissons to the 4th, sit McCarron and see how it looks. If it didn't go well you bump Sissons back up and finish the night.

Instead he moves Stamkos to center, Smith to the 2nd line, Jankowski to the third, Sissons to the 4th, put Parssinen on the 4th and benched Tomasino.

We hadn't been off enough in the first two games to make that big of adjustment. Heck if it wasn't for Wedgewood you probably win the opener.
 

Predsanddead24

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Mar 7, 2019
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I still just find it strange we mostly stuck with the same four lines for the entirety of camp then the minute they hit some adversity it was time to mix them all up. I think it’s especially strange when we play such a system heavy offense where everyone needs to work as one unit to not give time for guys to acclimate to each others tendencies.
 

Kat Predator

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Nov 28, 2019
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Thing is it was done to try and get the 2nd line going. They sent Parssinen down last season to get work at center so all he had to do was plug Parssinen in with Stamkos, move Sissons to the 4th, sit McCarron and see how it looks. If it didn't go well you bump Sissons back up and finish the night.

Instead he moves Stamkos to center, Smith to the 2nd line, Jankowski to the third, Sissons to the 4th, put Parssinen on the 4th and benched Tomasino.

We hadn't been off enough in the first two games to make that big of adjustment. Heck if it wasn't for Wedgewood you probably win the opener.
It's clear that they're not sure about the second line. As soon as the first game they were juggling between Novak and Sissons. They had McCarron and Jankowski already in the lineup who can play center. And they have Parssinen.

On the one hand, that's plenty of options. On the other, none of those options looks like instant offense.

But then we don't trust young players and would rather have more two-way or defensive veterans on scoring lines and on the ice in crunch times than use the younger guys. So really we have Parssinen and Tomasino on leashes about 1 inch long, Evangelista gets a slightly longer leash, Novak (who is cemented in as one of the 4 centers apparently) gets another short leash then throw in AHL/NHL tweeners and a shortened bench becomes really, really short. And not young.

For contrast only, it is possible to move Novak to wing if he's a liability at center. It is possible to split up the younger players and put Tomasino, Evangelista, and Parssinon on different lines. It is also possible to balance lines, distributing the scorers and defensive forwards, etc. (and to be fair putting Scoring Machine Smith on a scoring line is an example of that).
 
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101st_fan

I taught Yoda
Oct 22, 2005
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The second line has been in a state of constant flux throughout the first three games. Just over 10 minutes of 5on5 time with Marchassault, Stamkos and Sissons .... just under 8 minutes with Novak and the recent acquisitions ... about 11.5 minutes of March, Stammer, and some other forward on that line (the Smith, Stammer, March combo accounting for a little over six minutes of that).
 

Armourboy

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Jan 20, 2014
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It's clear that they're not sure about the second line. As soon as the first game they were juggling between Novak and Sissons. They had McCarron and Jankowski already in the lineup who can play center. And they have Parssinen.

On the one hand, that's plenty of options. On the other, none of those options looks like instant offense.

But then we don't trust young players and would rather have more two-way or defensive veterans on scoring lines and on the ice in crunch times than use the younger guys. So really we have Parssinen and Tomasino on leashes about 1 inch long, Evangelista gets a slightly longer leash, Novak (who is cemented in as one of the 4 centers apparently) gets another short leash then throw in AHL/NHL tweeners and a shortened bench becomes really, really short. And not young.
The Novak move in the first game made sense as Novak wasn't playing his game, instead deferring to the other two. I kind of got the sense based on his comments that it wasn't the first time Brunette and Novak has had that conversation.

I definitely agree with the short leash issue. Trotz was bad about that with young players, especially when he started coaching, so its not a real shocker that a guy that played for Trotz and then hired by Trotz has much the same issue.

I still just find it strange we mostly stuck with the same four lines for the entirety of camp then the minute they hit some adversity it was time to mix them all up. I think it’s especially strange when we play such a system heavy offense where everyone needs to work as one unit to not give time for guys to acclimate to each others tendencies.
That's the part that blows my mind is camp. Its like Brunette had his mind made up coming into camp what his lines were going to be and he didn't seem to really try anything else. Thing is if that was the case then why the heck were we messing with these other guys in preseason? Could have been using that time to work on chemistry and to deal with issues that he is now needing to deal with on the fly.
 
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Predsanddead24

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The Novak move in the first game made sense as Novak wasn't playing his game, instead deferring to the other two. I kind of got the sense based on his comments that it wasn't the first time Brunette and Novak has had that conversation.

I definitely agree with the short leash issue. Trotz was bad about that with young players, especially when he started coaching, so its not a real shocker that a guy that played for Trotz and then hired by Trotz has much the same issue.
I get the reasoning to move Novak but he’s pretty clearly the second best center on the team so I think we need to give it more time to make it work. Im sure like you said it was something that had come up in camp but Novak got like 10 shifts with Stamkos and Marchessault in real game action before we gave up on it. I think just a bit more patience would be beneficial for everyone instead of constantly shifting linemates and roles.
 

Kat Predator

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I get the reasoning to move Novak but he’s pretty clearly the second best center on the team so I think we need to give it more time to make it work. Im sure like you said it was something that had come up in camp but Novak got like 10 shifts with Stamkos and Marchessault in real game action before we gave up on it. I think just a bit more patience would be beneficial for everyone instead of constantly shifting linemates and roles.
Honestly, even Marchessault appears to be playing at times with some star struck awe of his superstar line mate. So, yeah, it's self-defeating to assume it'll just snap together as quickly and easily as 3 Lego bricks, whichever ones you pull out of the box.
 

Armourboy

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Jan 20, 2014
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I get the reasoning to move Novak but he’s pretty clearly the second best center on the team so I think we need to give it more time to make it work. Im sure like you said it was something that had come up in camp but Novak got like 10 shifts with Stamkos and Marchessault in real game action before we gave up on it. I think just a bit more patience would be beneficial for everyone instead of constantly shifting linemates and roles.
Not going to disagree with that, but if you were Brunette it seemed like a pretty smart move at the time because Novak came alive in that game after the shift. I mean frankly before that the 3rd was just kind of mediocre itself. It really came alive when he move Novak and Sissons. So that I kind of get and don't really have an issue.

Now the problem becomes if this is something he had seen in camp he should have had a back up plan in the works. I don't know but I think had I seen it in camp I would have thrown Parsinnen in there for a few days and seen how that went, at least I would have known if that was an option if this came up.
 
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Armourboy

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Honestly, even Marchessault appears to be playing at times with some star struck awe of his superstar line mate. So, yeah, it's self-defeating to assume it'll just snap together as quickly and easily as 3 Lego bricks, whichever ones you pull out of the box.
I didn't feel that in the last game, but I get guys having that initial issue a bit.

I think I'm just shaking my head because it almost feels a bit like Brunette wasted camp. I would have been using those preseason games to play that top 6 in several different combos. Sure we know the first line worked from last season, but you added two 40 goal scorers, could it get even better and you have a second line that is great too?
 

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