GDT: SKA versus Ak Bars - November 15th, 11:00 AM

[dackelljuneaubulis02]

Limited minutes was expected today. Maybe Demidov will receive more ice time after the loss vs Ak Bars.

From Rotenberg's post-game interview after Wednesday's win against Sibir:

Since this past summer you've been talking about a joint plan with Montreal to develop Ivan Demidov. Today he was taken off Kuznetsov's line and not allowed to play the third period. Does this conflict with that plan?

We spent two hours on Zoom with the Montreal management this summer. We are always open to communication and I am also interested in learning. I am constantly communicating with everyone I can, including NHL representatives and players. I won't name names, but many of our players tell us what kind of video meetings they have and how they prepare for games.
We have access to a database where we watch how they analyze opponents and what kind of analytical work they do. We collect from the best and implement it taking into account our own culture, team and players.

So yes we are in constant contact with Montreal. Good luck to them. They are losing a lot right now and need to find a way to win. We wish good luck to their coaches and staff, as well as to all other NHL teams. We follow everyone.

As for Ivan Demidov, he is developing and growing with the team. He has improved his game and is improving with each game. However for the sake of balance we decided to do this today and it worked 100%. To win in hockey, football, or any sport you always need balance. Today we found this balance. God willing, there will be no injuries and we will continue to play with these lines.

This guy’s wild. He doesn’t even try to hide it.

 

[BLONG7]

Poor kid has an absolute moron for a coach.................we all know why they are doing it, but it's hurting their chances of winning games, so...........................

 

[Kennerback]

Hutson is playing 23:03 a game (2nd on the team) including 2:25 on the PP (2nd on the team for D, 7th total).

Comparing both situations is crazy and frankly insulting.

Matheson QBing the 1st PP with the team’s best forward, 5 on 3s and critical last minutes is not based on merit. It’s become a universal belief in the hockey world that it’s a mistake. And like in the Demidov situation, it sends the wrong message to the rest of the team.

 

[Natey]

Barely played last two games.. the whole team is struggling to score and Rottenturd is taking it out on him.

He should just pull a Kovalev and play like 3 minutes straight. Maybe Rottenturd will leave him on for 9 mintues or whatever it was lol

 

[Treb]

Matheson QBing the 1st PP with the team’s best forward, 5 on 3s and critical last minutes is not based on merit. It’s become a universal belief in the hockey world that it’s a mistake. And like in the Demidov situation, it sends the wrong message to the rest of the team.

But the thing is for your comparison to make any sense whatsoever, you would have to compare Demidov to Justin Barron.

But you don't.

 

[Estimated_Prophet]

Matheson QBing the 1st PP with the team’s best forward, 5 on 3s and critical last minutes is not based on merit. It’s become a universal belief in the hockey world that it’s a mistake. And like in the Demidov situation, it sends the wrong message to the rest of the team.

The PP is fine and while I agree that Hutson is better than Matheson on the PP, Matheson is still very effective and Hutson makes the second unit dangerous which is a huge boost to overall PP success.

 

[Kennerback]

But the thing is for your comparison to make any sense whatsoever, you would have to compare Demidov to Justin Barron.

But you don't.

I believe the key driver for personnel decisions by NHL coaches is merit and winning. I believe Carbonneau, Torts or Therrien might make mistakes, but it’s because they misevaluate talents.

I think in both cases here it’s non-hockey factors that are driving the decisions.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Barely played last two games.. the whole team is struggling to score and Rottenturd is taking it out on him.

 

[Grate n Colorful Oz]

Matheson QBing the 1st PP with the team’s best forward, 5 on 3s and critical last minutes is not based on merit. It’s become a universal belief in the hockey world that it’s a mistake. And like in the Demidov situation, it sends the wrong message to the rest of the team.

It's a simplistic view and having a majority of pundits parroting it doesn't mean anything.

As much as I wanna see Lane on the 1st PP and used with the the first line at 5v5, there are also advantages in taking it slow. Matheson's value needs to be maintained for an eventual trade, but more importantly, Lane has only one season left on his contract come next July, meaning we can already sign him to what is imo the most important contract for an impact player when team building, which is the post-ECL contract. Keep his stats low might be the difference between a 6 or 8 mil per (just spitballing numbers) contract over 8 years.