there was a discussion on #twitter about the camera panning to semin after the loss to NYR. there's an obvious narrative attempting to be pushed. they did with pitkanen, too, during the lockout season. almost every icing/penalty with him on the ice was followed with a close-up of him regardless if he was the responsible. it's shameless and classless attempting to further incite hatred towards the designated whipping boys. combined with tripp it's almost intolerable. FSC is a joke. i guarantee they have camera operators instructed to track semin so they can cut to him at the appropriate moment to stir up anger. it's pure propaganda.The best part if the 5on 3 trip is that the camera immediately panned to semin.
Skinner works his butt off to change his style for Peters'.
Skinner's scoring plummets because the creativity aspect of his game is destroyed in this system.
Skinner digs in and continues to try despite the system being detrimental to his scoring and health.
Peters healthy scratches for being ineffective offensively.
????
Profit
Is he hoping that scratching him makes him try harder? I don't see it. Have said for weeks that Skinner is an awful fit in this system. Peters obviously isn't going to give an inch despite Skinner putting in a lot of work and heart.
Just seems like a bad move to me. The problem isn't Skinner. The problem is that his play style (along with Semin) is the polar opposite of what Peters is requiring.
Either Peters needs to coach to the players he has or Skinner needs to be traded. He will never be successful in this system and his value only drops with each healthy scratch and scoreless game.
Scoring chances against per 60 minutes, Skinner is better than McClement, Harrison, Dwyer, Sekera, Faulk, Rask, Boychuk, Malone, Bellemore, and Lindholm.
Attempts against per 60, Skinner is better than Dwyer, McClement, Bellemore, Malone, Boychuk, Harrison.
Goals against per 60, Skinner is better than Semin, Faulk, Gleason, Murphy, McClement, Sekera, Dwyer, Tlusty, Lindholm, Jordan, Hainsey, Eric, Gerbe, Rask.
He's far from good. But he's not a "huge liability".
ES graph from Jan 2
OR perhaps "defense" isn't limited to play without the puck and that skinner's ability to do things with the puck helps limit scoring chances/shots against.Conclusion: Either Jeff Skinner is in some way comparable defensively to Justin Faulk/Patrick Dwyer, or your metric is useless.
Goals against is not a metric. It's a simple statistic we use every day adjusted for ice-time. It's a way of comparing a guy who gets 10 minutes of ice-time to a guy who gets 20. That's all per 60 means whenever you see it.
If a guy ranks in the middle of the team in a number of defensive categories, he can't possibly be a "huge liability". Opponents are not getting shots, chances, or goals while Skinner is on the ice. Does he have egregious lapses? Of course he does. More than others? Probably. Is he so badly defensively that he's not worth dressing despite what offense he (usually) brings? Not really. Am I going to keep asking myself questions and then answering them? Tune in next week to find out.
Or maybe you're just wrong?
Last night, Skinner harpooned a 5 on 3, came out on the ice after it and let his point man walk in uncontested to set up the goal that tied the game. And he hasn't had a point in 8 games. That's why he's benched.
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/showthread.php?t=1749771&page=3#respuesta
When adjusting for ice time, I'm sure we'd see the McClements and such clustered around Skinner's 9 minuses, without the offense. And to reiterate what impeach estallo said, playing in the offensive zone and creating chances of your own is another way to play "defense". He's still not an outlier.
I'm not claiming he's good. I'm claiming he's not completely horrible and that he is getting better over his career (though that's not saying much). Last night not withstanding.
In truth though, I have never seen a coach scratch so many valuable players on any given night. Semin, Lindholm, and Skinner all Healthy Extras in the past three games speaks to..... something. I don't know exactly what. I think these moves are the moves of a desperate man.