Let me clarify, because you are mixing multiple posts in your replies and not understanding my messages while out of context.
I‘ve had zero problems understanding your points. Maybe you don’t realize you keep moving the goalposts.
With Power, the extra icetime tends to cause mental mistakes in young D that are working on positioning, communication, tracking, and their part within the team structure.
Power is a teenager that is dealing with learning a lot while carrying a substantial load for a team that the pressure is increasing due to the strings of losses. Looking at his icetime average does ignore the fact that he is probably playing too much for a player of his age and experience in a lot of the games. Here are some of his icetime totals from some games, I looked at half the season so far.
25:12
24:04
23:54
23:43
23:51
24:13
24:43
28:14
29:35
26:49
25:03
Now a lot of that time is PP time, which is substantially different than ES or PK time, so it is not as bad as it looks, but I have noticed that his mistakes lessened with his ice load, so it goes to suggest that the team would be better if they lightened his icetime a bit.
I’ve already posted in various debates about Power that I understand the concern over him breaking down physically. Since its his first time playing the grind of a pro season. But he’s the only one of the top 4 dmen I could see this concern cropping up.
But that said Power is NOT carrying a substantial load for this team. I’m not saying he has easy minutes but its like you forgot the other top 4 dmen on the roster. Even if you don’t like his total mintues played. He’s hardly playing the toughest minutes. He’s stepped into a pretty good situation, especially for someone with his pedigree.
Posting 11 of his 29gms is a pretty good way to misrepresent his overall workload.
Dahlin is a great player, but he should not be logging huge minutes all season if they don't want to see him crash mid-season, which historically is common with players logging the types of minutes he has seen.
28:22
26:21
28:39
28:08
26:43
27:37
26:58
29:25
25:57
26:23
27:48
26:07
27:05
Looking at those numbers, in Buffalo's non-OT wins, Dahlin played less than 25 minutes in 8 of the 11. And he has not played more than 26 minutes in any of those wins all season. Small sample size, but it is not surprising the team results are better when the defensive load is more balanced.
Whether the team is better or worse when Dahlin plays those minutes doesn’t answer if he can handle them. You claimed he would burn out. I pointed out that ice time is normal for a player of his caliber and it is.
So you moved the goal posts to how good or bad the team is when he plays those minutes. Which is not the same discussion and doesn‘t answer the question.
Specific to that question of whether they are better or worse when Dahlin’s playing that much. You have it backwards. Why he plays that much in any game is what matters. The minutes themselves don’t tell us enough.
I mean half the games you listed are from the 8gm losing streak. Which means he played that much due to Sammy/Joker/Boosh being out injured. To state the obvious the team isn’t as good with them out, regardless of how much Dahlin plays.
As far as Samuelsson and Jokiharju, what I was implying was that there is no way they should be playing 24-26 minutes with huge penalty kill responsibilities in a specific game. Yes, that is a limited case, but still reflects the depth problem.
Jokiharju 23:59 TOI 5:09 PKTOI
Samueslsson 26:04 TOI 7:06 PKTOI
Anyone that doesn't realize there is a monumental difference between PK icetime and ES and PP icetime has never played competitive hockey.
I understood what you said.
As I said previously, its perfectly normal for players like Joker/Sammy to play minutes like that in an individual game. Which is dictated by the circumstances of said game.
There is nothing remotely unusual about it. I’m confused as to why you think its a big deal.
What this all suggests is that this team has had major D depth issues this season. Looking at the season averages, it is easy to think that there is no problem, but with a few injuries, and looking at game specific numbers, it is clear that the team needed help.
Again moving the goalposts to a discussion about depth now. I haven’t talked about depth. I’ve also never claimed “there is no problem with our defensive depth”.
Hopefully the massive defensive injury bug is past, and we won't see the heavy loads continue, as the icetime balance was actually great when everyone was healthy to start the season, but I responded to your seasonal averages post just to point out that we can't ignore that there have been icetime issues during this injury stretch.
Not quite. I pointed out Dahlin, Sammy and Joker are playing normal workloads relative to the players they are. Something that can’t really be disputed.
So instead you‘ve attempted to use one of two games to say something normal (players playing a lot in one game) is somehow not normal. Plus conflating other things like depth and how good/bad we are when they play more with the original topic.
