Post-mortem on the season
- Thread starter Tweed
- Start date
Tweed
Registered User
- Jun 25, 2006
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I'm not arguing for or against your observation, just offering some numbers here... The Penguins were the best team in the league at icing the puck this year, if you go by this rating system Icings statistics for NHL teams
Gurglesons
Registered User
,
You serious? Backstrom was the puck carrier. Letang's job was to stop the pass. He belly flopped at Backstrom who passed it around him to Ovie.
You serious? Backstrom was the puck carrier. Letang's job was to stop the pass. He belly flopped at Backstrom who passed it around him to Ovie.
Gurglesons
Registered User
100 pt center passes to 50 goal scorer on a 2 on 1 successfully.
Sidney the Kidney
One last time
- Jun 29, 2009
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I'm not going to rehash whether or not Letang played that 2 on 1 well, but the general notion that there's nothing a defenseman in that situation could do because when an elite playmaker passes to an elite goal scorer, it's 100% unstoppable is kind of silly.
if only they had played sprong and he scored a few goals.......all these conversations about tanger and maatta wouldn't even be happing. 
Ogrezilla
Nerf Herder
There's a difference between "hard to stop" and "100% unstoppable". Sometimes the other guys make nice plays.
Gurglesons
Registered User
It’s not 100% unstoppable, but you shouldn’t blame a defenseman on a 2 on 1 unless he skates off the ice during it.
Especially when it’s literally one of the top five passers in the game with the puck.
Ogrezilla
Nerf Herder
but we're in a world where people blame the goalie for breakaway goals too
Gurglesons
Registered User
I mean, just as asinine, but honestly blaming the goalie has more merit than the defenseman.
ColePens
RIP Fugu Buffaloed & parabola
Gurglesons
Registered User
Why is Patton Oswald still acting like that dude from Superfan on YouTube?
If Murray is average for the next five years who cares? He brought back to back Cups.
Sidney the Kidney
One last time
- Jun 29, 2009
- 56,704
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I can think of 2 or 3 posters who probably should watch that, but who would instead just keep beating the drum about how Murray's at fault because every goal he lets in he should have stopped.
vodeni
Registered User
thaks for that and thas why I prefaced that I don't watch a whole a lot of other teams and it just seems to me that our guys were icing the puck like crazy...We were one of the top teams in possession so it does make sense that we are not icing as much, however against Caps with heavy foechecking they panicked way too often, I remember a few games against Flyers with Flyers sending only oone guy on forecheck, our d-man looked so much better, skating ou, against the Caps it was brutal except game 5 when they look like wel oiled machine and they lost that game....Go figure, hate hockey
So your idea is that How To Play a 2 on 1 involves calculating the Points of the players involved?
Dude you're so far in the weeds in this one, just stop already.
The D's job on a 2 on 1 is to stop the pass. If you don't know that, you should read up D 101.
Backstrom and Ovie are great players for sure.
But Letang did not do the one thing he had to do which is stop the pass.
Ogrezilla
Nerf Herder
How many times have Sid or Geno gotten passes across on a 2 on 1? Did the d-man screw up every single time it's happened? Your job as the d-man is to TRY to stop the pass. You make it difficult. You make them go slower or faster than they'd like. But sometimes the forwards make a good play. There isn't a d-man in the league who stops every pass from getting over on a 2 on 1. And the better the forwards are, the better they will be at getting the pass across. Backstrom is one of the best playmakers in the world. Letang forced him to a foot from the goal line. He slowed the play down enough that if Malkin is one step closer, he breaks up the play. Hell, Murray probably could have poke checked that pass. Not that I'm blaming either Malkin or Murray either.
If you're blaming the guy defending the 2 on 1 instead of the guy who caused the 2 on 1, you're wrong.
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Why are you so simplistic? It's not one or the other.
Maatta made a bad decision. He was then tripped w no call.
Leaving the Nbr 1 7.25 mil D with a 2 on 1, in which he failed to do the primary task.
Leaving the goalie to make a very difficult save on a pass across to an empty net.
A lot of people failed, including Letang.
Not a lot of people are paid that much and considered the top at their position.
Maatta made a bad decision. He was then tripped w no call.
Leaving the Nbr 1 7.25 mil D with a 2 on 1, in which he failed to do the primary task.
Leaving the goalie to make a very difficult save on a pass across to an empty net.
A lot of people failed, including Letang.
Not a lot of people are paid that much and considered the top at their position.
But for Godsakes stop pretending that Letang should have taken BACKSTROM.
That reveals a fundamental misunderstanding which calls all pixie's evaluations into question. His defense of Letang is just one.
That reveals a fundamental misunderstanding which calls all pixie's evaluations into question. His defense of Letang is just one.
Gurglesons
Registered User
Letang played Backstrom to the point which he had a bad pass nearly below the circles. Ovechkin took a bad angle shot, Murray blocked it. Ovechkin then hit a puck in mid air with his stick into the net.
2 on 1 defense says stick with the guy with the puck trying to disrupt the pass. It is hockey 101, Letang did that. I would also argue that Letang SHOULD be playing Backstrom because you know that guy isn’t taking a shot.
Letang waited as long as he could before committing. Backstrom set up a pass like he does because he’s an elite playmaker. Ovechkin scores like he does because he’s an elite scorer.
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Ogrezilla
Nerf Herder
Letang didn't "take Backstrom" he was clearly defending the pass the entire way. Do you really expect d-men to stop the pass from getting across every time?
Allie Kitsune
...and the Brawla Brawla Sewitt
No, you don't expect him to stop it every time.
It's just that I think a lot of people aren't happy with a $7.5M defenseman getting caught on as many critical scoring plays as he did in the WSH series.
Allie Kitsune
...and the Brawla Brawla Sewitt
There was already a thought that his best days are behind him, and all of that played into confirmation bias.
For me personally, that's it in a nutshell. You expect your big money defenseman to be on the ice from time to time when the opposition scores. You don't expect him to be at the center of several of the opposition's scoring chances/goals against on a nightly basis. Like pixies said in another thread, it just boils down to some people not thinking he's worth the risk--the bad outweighs the good. That's what it comes down to for me. I'd rather a safer option that didn't put up as many points and didn't have the (rarely seen lately) dynamic, game-changing ability as long as it meant not being responsible for so many game altering gaffes.
How many players are we sending to the crossroads?....lol....Letang, Maatta, Phil (rumors have him traded this offseason), Brassard (good as gone says Larry Brooks), and of course Sheary, Hags, Hunwick and maybe Rust....we’ll field 7 forwards and 4 D....unless of course, as is our right, every GM will be sending us their best players in return...
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right...
Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right...
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