Predators Hockey Discussion 22-23

[nine_inch_fang]

Carrier out 4-6 weeks. Apparently the mugging he took Tuesday was pretty serious. I give him props for standing up for Glass but it was not a great decision to take on a heavyweight like Stanley.

His leg was stretched out in a weird position when he got pushed down to the ice. Wouldn't be surprised if it was a knee or hip.

Any word on the call up?

 

[Flgatorguy87]

Carrier out 4-6 weeks. Apparently the mugging he took Tuesday was pretty serious. I give him props for standing up for Glass but it was not a great decision to take on a heavyweight like Stanley.

That really blows. Kudos for doing it, but I guess that's how courage gets rewarded sometimes.

His leg was stretched out in a weird position when he got pushed down to the ice. Wouldn't be surprised if it was a knee or hip.

Any word on the call up?

They are calling it upper body. Maybe a hand or shoulder?

 

[Predsanddead24]

Damn that sucks and really totally unnecessary. I hate fighting after clean hits and especially when all they accomplish is letting they guy who laid the big hit kick someone else’s ass.

 

[ShagDaddy]

His leg was stretched out in a weird position when he got pushed down to the ice. Wouldn't be surprised if it was a knee or hip.

Any word on the call up?

Gravel. Looks like FN Fabbro will move up with Ekholm.

 

[Predsanddead24]

Also havent had time to listen to this whole thing yet, but the headline quote sure makes it sound like Boro won't be back any time soon if ever.

Borowiecki: Even if I don't get back on the ice there are other ways I can contribute to the team

Steve and Marc are joined by former Ottawa Senator and current Nashville Predators defenceman Mark Borowiecki to talk about dealing with a severe concussion, the mental health impact of the concussion, drawing on past experiences to help get him through and they talk about Bell Lets Talk.

www.tsn.ca

 

[hockey diva]

Boro needs to go on LTIR

 

[nine_inch_fang]

Boro needs to go on LTIR

I think that's a label only given to someone on IR if the team is over the cap.

 

[herzausstein]

Id be shocked if Boro ever comes back. Hopefully, he can get his quality of life back up. He can still be a good mentor and help the young fellas

 

[nine_inch_fang]

I didn't get to watch the LA game over the weekend so I watched earlier this week and something jumped out at me during play as the potential start of something bad happening and sure enough, that situation culminated in LA's second goal. I took a series of pictures to demonstrate how this play broke down and just now getting around to posting it.

The play starts with an offensive zone faceoff that the Preds didn't win clean but kept in the zone, after several seconds Johansen tries to send the puck low but Doughty picks it up on the boards

This picture shows good forechecking that takes away passing options

Still good positioning and Nino is also in a position to now apply pressure to the puck.

Johansen with good position, Nino has made them reverse to behind the net and you can see Granlund accelerating to cut off the path out the other side of the net. Still all good.

This is where the first mistake takes place. As the puck is trapped behind the net with Nino waiting in front, Granlund floats away from the puck to play a passing lane rather than an aggressive forecheck at this point he should back into the 1-3-1 or at least a 1-2-2 but as you'll see he stands in the middle of nowhere doing nothing. We also see Johansen following his man into the zone to take away time and space.

You can see here that Johansen's guy came into the zone as a decoy that allows Kopitar to skate out of the corner unnoticed. This has to be Granlund's man but he's floated so far outside instead of staying toward the middle of the ice he's already out of the play.

Kopitar has not only beat Granlund to the center of the ice but he is already "goal side" of him. Granlund is 100% out of this play now and Doughty hasn't even passed the puck. Johansen is still in good position, goalside and to the inside of his mark. If Granlund was standing in relatively the same position as Johansen but in the other circle the goal never happens.

The pass is made and you see the aftermath. This is when you can identify the next mistake. Johansen is in good position, Nino trailing the play as well he should, and Granlund still being useless.

The fourth Pred, one of my favorites, is completely screwing the pooch here. He should either be turned and skating backwards or taking a good angling path to prevent any cut back and force him into a trap at the blueline where Carrier and his mark are in the way, like this

He does neither, instead he skate to a spot on a straight intercept path and allows the cut back.

To make matters worse he is a lefty on the right side of the ice and has no reach with his stick.
Johansen and Carrier still in good position.

Now that Ekholm has lost his guy Carrier moves away from his mark and Johansen starts puck watching.

Carrier and Ekholm should have switched players since Carrier still has defensive position, it's on him to assert himself and call for the switch, right now neither are doing much except forcing Johansen to think about playing the puck.

Johansen was about to turn backwards to defend his man like he should but starts to do too much and adjusts to go to the puck because of the defensive indecision.

Though Johansen's body is in "good position" he's not ready to play defense and is facing the wrong way because of his hesitation. Had he gotten turned around he'd see the puck and his mark at the same time and have a chance to slow him down, or just knock him on his ass as that puck arrives.

Johansen is now beat positionally and hoping to grab the puck. Ekholm finally caught up to Kopitar. Carrier has no idea where his mark is.

Johansen trying to take a penalty...

Goal is scored but if it wasn't and that puck goes to the player that used to be Carrier's mark, he scores. Again Granlund is out of position and just watching.

 

[BigFatCat999]

Boro needs to go on LTIR

There is Boro the man, we all love.

Then there is Boro's contract. Preds can't use it till they are over the cap BUT they can trade it to another team who WANT to LTIR.

At the deadline contracts for this year will be paid 75% off. Boro is getting paid BUT his cap is not moving at the point of injury. Boro has $374,595 of cap left for this year. With the way teams are scraping the cap ceiling, that could be useful. OR, the Preds could go over the cap and use it themselves.

 

[nine_inch_fang]

There is Boro the man, we all love.

Then there is Boro's contract. Preds can't use it till they are over the cap BUT they can trade it to another team who WANT to LTIR.

At the deadline contracts for this year will be paid 75% off. Boro is getting paid BUT his cap is not moving at the point of injury. Boro has $374,595 of cap left for this year. With the way teams are scraping the cap ceiling, that could be useful. OR, the Preds could go over the cap and use it themselves.

I still need someone to tell me how taking on an LTIR contract helps a team that is at the cap ceiling. It is a net zero proposition for them as far as the cap is concerned. The only way LTIR contracts are useful as I see it is for teams that need the salary to get to the cap floor.

 

[BigFatCat999]

I still need someone to tell me how taking on an LTIR contract helps a team that is at the cap ceiling. It is a net zero proposition for them as far as the cap is concerned. The only way LTIR contracts are useful as I see it is for teams that need the salary to get to the cap floor.

I might be wrong, would not be the first. LOL!

 

[nine_inch_fang]

I might be wrong, would not be the first. LOL!

A team with cap space that wants to buy picks could also be interested but Poile isn't sending away picks just to offload his salary.

 

[triggrman]

I didn't get to watch the LA game over the weekend so I watched earlier this week and something jumped out at me during play as the potential start of something bad happening and sure enough, that situation culminated in LA's second goal. I took a series of pictures to demonstrate how this play broke down and just now getting around to posting it.

The play starts with an offensive zone faceoff that the Preds didn't win clean but kept in the zone, after several seconds Johansen tries to send the puck low but Doughty picks it up on the boards

View attachment 641974
This picture shows good forechecking that takes away passing options
View attachment 641977
Still good positioning and Nino is also in a position to now apply pressure to the puck.
View attachment 641978
Johansen with good position, Nino has made them reverse to behind the net and you can see Granlund accelerating to cut off the path out the other side of the net. Still all good.
View attachment 641980View attachment 641981View attachment 641982
This is where the first mistake takes place. As the puck is trapped behind the net with Nino waiting in front, Granlund floats away from the puck to play a passing lane rather than an aggressive forecheck at this point he should back into the 1-3-1 or at least a 1-2-2 but as you'll see he stands in the middle of nowhere doing nothing. We also see Johansen following his man into the zone to take away time and space. View attachment 641987
You can see here that Johansen's guy came into the zone as a decoy that allows Kopitar to skate out of the corner unnoticed. This has to be Granlund's man but he's floated so far outside instead of staying toward the middle of the ice he's already out of the play.View attachment 641991
Kopitar has not only beat Granlund to the center of the ice but he is already "goal side" of him. Granlund is 100% out of this play now and Doughty hasn't even passed the puck. Johansen is still in good position, goalside and to the inside of his mark. If Granlund was standing in relatively the same position as Johansen but in the other circle the goal never happens.View attachment 641994View attachment 641995View attachment 641996
The pass is made and you see the aftermath. This is when you can identify the next mistake. Johansen is in good position, Nino trailing the play as well he should, and Granlund still being useless.

The fourth Pred, one of my favorites, is completely screwing the pooch here. He should either be turned and skating backwards or taking a good angling path to prevent any cut back and force him into a trap at the blueline where Carrier and his mark are in the way, like thisView attachment 641998
He does neither, instead he skate to a spot on a straight intercept path and allows the cut back.View attachment 641999
To make matters worse he is a lefty on the right side of the ice and has no reach with his stick.
Johansen and Carrier still in good position.
View attachment 642000
Now that Ekholm has lost his guy Carrier moves away from his mark and Johansen starts puck watching. View attachment 642002
Carrier and Ekholm should have switched players since Carrier still has defensive position, it's on him to assert himself and call for the switch, right now neither are doing much except forcing Johansen to think about playing the puck.

Johansen was about to turn backwards to defend his man like he should but starts to do too much and adjusts to go to the puck because of the defensive indecision. View attachment 642004
Though Johansen's body is in "good position" he's not ready to play defense and is facing the wrong way because of his hesitation. Had he gotten turned around he'd see the puck and his mark at the same time and have a chance to slow him down, or just knock him on his ass as that puck arrives. View attachment 642005
Johansen is now beat positionally and hoping to grab the puck. Ekholm finally caught up to Kopitar. Carrier has no idea where his mark is.
View attachment 642006
Johansen trying to take a penalty...
View attachment 642007
Goal is scored but if it wasn't and that puck goes to the player that used to be Carrier's mark, he scores. Again Granlund is out of position and just watching.

Awesome breakdown

 

[nine_inch_fang]

9-4-0 for January
5-2-0 since the midway point of the season. On pace to get to that .600 points percentage.

 

[nine_inch_fang]

Anyone have those doom and gloom prognostications for January handy?

 

[BigFatCat999]

Anyone have those doom and gloom prognostications for January handy?

I was depressed and gave up...

is it now 'f*** Bedard, play hard.'?

 

[triggrman]

I think the young centers have changed our team. Also, that St Louis game and the meeting after

 

[nine_inch_fang]

I think the young centers have changed our team. Also, that St Louis game and the meeting after

They have for sure.

That game and the meeting seem to be the kick in the ass the "core" needed to get their shit together. Is that their trigger? Get diminished icetime have meeting(s) start playing good hockey, it worked summer of 21 and now so who knows.

 

[drwpreds]

Pretty productive night:

Preds win

Jets, Avs, Flames, Blues all lose in regulation (3 of the losses to Hawks/Coyotes/Ducks- yikes)

 

[Armourboy]

I'd like to see how they play after the long break before I think this team has turned any corner. A good 7-8 game run could be nothing more than that, a good 7-8 game run.

 

[Scoresberg]

I'm having fun watching this team again. They're playing with confidence and with some jam and it is starting to show. The last few games, it has not only been Saros that has led the team to victory.

 

[Porter Stoutheart]

I'd like to see how they play after the long break before I think this team has turned any corner. A good 7-8 game run could be nothing more than that, a good 7-8 game run.

Agreed, it's still an uphill battle, and to me it's disappointing it even has to be such a battle because they could have been in a much better position than this without the poor coaching. Odds are still around 40% and while their remaining schedule strength is about on par with Minnesota, all the other Pacific teams and the Avs have easier schedules. And that will probably only become further accentuated with the Trade Deadline, as the tanking teams get even weaker and the playoff teams make themselves even stronger.

Going something like 20-13-1 the rest of the way shouldn't be impossible and might get us in.

But the team is going to have to bank a lot of points in the first half of that return after the break, because the last 16 or so games is a REALLY tough schedule.

I'm sure many posters will continue to get giddy if they do get some points on the weaker first half of that stretch run schedule, but it won't get us out of the woods even so.

 

[nine_inch_fang]

Since that addition of Novak the team is 12-5-2. That's a pretty good stretch, 110ish point pace over a season but more importantly continuing that pace for the rest of the season puts them squarely in the playoffs.

You can't just throw away the poor beginning of the season but we can look at what tangible changes have been made that are yielding the results. As Trig pointed out earlier the young centers have changed this team, fussing about who gets what assignment and pared with whom aside, they are all producing points and helping this team win.

When Novak first came up, and it became the three musketeers, that's when the demotions for "the core" started. The wins may not have always be pretty and some of the loses were demoralizing but the overall record is a real thing.

The team we're seeing now doesn't happen without the demotions. These players just don't seem to get it until you take their icetime and special PP1 status away for a while. Whether these knuckleheads will sustain this type of play remains to be seen but you would think the positive feedback they're getting from the last three games would be a motivating factor. They've got to enjoy this much more than October and November.

 

[herzausstein]

Hanging on hard to the wildcard race. Luckily several teams infront of us loss in regulation last night.

Coming out of the break will be important. The string of games is a nice mix of division playoff teams, bottom feeders, and wildcard rivals.

Filbruary Games
G. Knights - Division
Flyers - Bottom 3rd
Coyotes - Bottom Feeder
Bruins - League Leader
Panthers - wild card
Wild - wildcard
Canucks - Bottom Feeder
Sharks - Bottom Feeder
Coyotes - Bottom Feeder
Penguins - wildcard

Good time to go on a run and i see no reason by Forsberg can celebrate Filbruaury in style