Player Discussion: The Elvis Thread

[tunnelvision]

Yup. But we should be nowhere near the limit the next couple of years. We are a bottom 5 team in the Eastern conference this upcoming season. I am not buying the guy out too early and hurting the team when we might be competitive in a few seasons.

Offtopic but I'd like to hear which 11 teams in the East are certainly better than CBJ and the reasoning for that.

 

[koteka]

Offtopic but I'd like to hear which 11 teams in the East are certainly better than CBJ and the reasoning for that.

Definitely better than the Jackets
Devils
Rangers
Canes
Islanders
Penguins
Lightning
Bruins
Leafs
Panthers
Sabers

Probably better than the Jackets
Senators
Capitals
Red Wings

Hopefully worse than the Jackets
Canadiens
Flyers

Our goalie situation sucks. Everyone blames the injuries for how bad the defense was last year, but that was a bad defense before the injuries. I don’t think we have a single defensive defensemen. I don’t think we will be able to hold leads or maintain ties in the third period. I don’t think the team (hey, lots of young guys) will come together quickly as a new system is implemented. Oh, and should we talk about centers?

 

[CBJx614]

Definitely better than the Jackets
Devils
Rangers
Canes
Islanders
Penguins
Lightning
Bruins
Leafs
Panthers
Sabers

Probably better than the Jackets
Senators
Capitals
Red Wings

Hopefully worse than the Jackets
Canadiens
Flyers

Our goalie situation sucks. Everyone blames the injuries for how bad the defense was last year, but that was a bad defense before the injuries. I don’t think we have a single defensive defensemen. I don’t think we will be able to hold leads or maintain ties in the third period. I don’t think the team (hey, lots of young guys) will come together quickly as a new system is implemented. Oh, and should we talk about centers?

So you don't think replacing Berni and Beyreuther with Severson and and Provorov for 50 games isn't a significant improvement? What about Werenski for Christiansen and Bjork?

The defense was LITERALLY AHL level because it was literally half comprised of AHL defenseman.

You saying the D was bad the year before is irrelevant because we have replaced those players with Severson and Provorov.


2021-2022 defenseman.

Werenski - 69 gp
Gavrikov - 80 - Gone
Bean - 67 - forced to 3rd pair at best.
Boqvist - 52
Peeke - 82
Kukan - 42 - Gone. AHL/Euro dman
Carlsson - 38 - Gone. AHL dman
Beyreuther - 43 - AHL dman
Blankenberg, Christiansen, Harrington combined played 22 games. Harrington and Blanks are tweeners, Christiansen is AHL dman.

Peeke is our (hopeful) replacement of Gavrikov.
Boqvist took big steps last season, we'll see if he's healthy but he should continue to thrive if he's properly used. Bean I'm assuming will be on the third pairing unless there's injuries(which there will be) or he's passed on the depth chart. And we have replaced AHL Dmen with legitimate top 4 dmen in Severson and Provorov, with the lack of a defensive system for the last two seasons and a experienced coach behind the bench.... It's hard to not expect some improvement moving forward.

Edit: our centers don't need to be world beaters and we shouldn't make any major moves until we know what he have in Fantilli/Johnson. For all we know Jenner could be forced to 3rd line duties by the start of next season.

 

[koteka]

So you don't think replacing Berni and Beyreuther with Severson and and Provorov for 50 games isn't a significant improvement? What about Werenski for Christiansen and Bjork?

The defense was LITERALLY AHL level because it was literally half comprised of AHL defenseman.

You saying the D was bad the year before is irrelevant because we have replaced those players with Severson and Provorov.

Our goals against last season was horrible. 330 goals against. 4.01 goals per game. I think it won’t be that bad this season. I predict it will be significantly lower. Maybe we get it down to 3.60 goals per game and our defense is Vancouver/Arizona level bad. That would be a huge improvement. I think that is possible. Maybe we get it down to 3.30 goals per game. But don’t tell me we have a good defense. We have had good defense before and a Vezina winning goalie. We are nowhere close to that.

I don’t see a defense that can hold leads. I don’t see a defense that gives you any confidence in the 3rd period of a tight game. I think the defensive changes we made will help our scoring. Severson is more of a passer than a shut down guy, but he is prone to giving up the puck. I have no idea which guys you throw out there on PK1 and PK2, especially on the right side. I started a poll to ask who you put in at the end of a game to hold a lead and the responses didn’t make me feel any better about our defensemen.

 

[koteka]

Edit: our centers don't need to be world beaters and we shouldn't make any major moves until we know what he have in Fantilli/Johnson. For all we know Jenner could be forced to 3rd line duties by the start of next season.

Jackets fans: “We need to stop rushing our prospects and ruining their development.”

Also Jackets fans: “I am going to pencil in Fantilli as 1c and Johnson as 2c and Jenner can be on the third line.”

 

[CBJx614]

Our goals against last season was horrible. 330 goals against. 4.01 goals per game. I think it won’t be that bad this season. I predict it will be significantly lower. Maybe we get it down to 3.60 goals per game and our defense is Vancouver/Arizona level bad. That would be a huge improvement. I think that is possible. Maybe we get it down to 3.30 goals per game. But don’t tell me we have a good defense. We have had good defense before and a Vezina winning goalie. We are nowhere close to that.

I don’t see a defense that can hold leads. I don’t see a defense that gives you any confidence in the 3rd period of a tight game. I think the defensive changes we made will help our scoring. Severson is more of a passer than a shut down guy, but he is prone to giving up the puck. I have no idea which guys you throw out there on PK1 and PK2, especially on the right side. I started a poll to ask who you put in at the end of a game to hold a lead and the responses didn’t make me feel any better about our defensemen.

Jackets fans: “We need to stop rushing our prospects and ruining their development.”

Also Jackets fans: “I am going to pencil in Fantilli as 1c and Johnson as 2c and Jenner can be on the third line.”

We have absolutely no idea how good or bad our defense will be next season because we have no idea what kind of system we're gonna run outside of Babcock running LD/RD pairings. A team that buys into the right system can cover up a lot of flaws.

And as far as center did you miss the part where I said could. And there's more than just Johnson and Fantilli, although most fans wanted to see Johnson get more minutes at center last year and if Fantilli is as he's hyped he has borderline PPG potential as a rookie.. it's not rushing anything. They'll get minutes as they prove they can take it. Is it likely they be 1/2 by the end of the season, probably not, but it's not unthinkable. We also don't know what guys like Texier, Laine, Danforth and Voronkov will do. All of those guys are capable of playing center given the opportunity. We need to give these guys reps and go throw the growing pains so that we can finally stop being the youngest team in the league for once.


We don't need them to be world beaters this year, we need them to be competitive.

 

[koteka]

We don't need them to be world beaters this year, we need them to be competitive.

I don’t think they will be competitive. I just hope they show improvement. They can improve a lot on defense and still be bad at defense. They can get better goal tending and still have bad goalies. They can learn a new system and start to understand it, but it might take several months because (as usual) we have one of the youngest teams in the league. I fully expect this team to be one of the worst in the league. I just hope they show growth as the season goes along and don’t rush anyone.

 

[MoeBartoli]

Our goals against last season was horrible. 330 goals against. 4.01 goals per game. I think it won’t be that bad this season. I predict it will be significantly lower. Maybe we get it down to 3.60 goals per game and our defense is Vancouver/Arizona level bad. That would be a huge improvement. I think that is possible. Maybe we get it down to 3.30 goals per game. But don’t tell me we have a good defense. We have had good defense before and a Vezina winning goalie. We are nowhere close to that.

I don’t see a defense that can hold leads. I don’t see a defense that gives you any confidence in the 3rd period of a tight game. I think the defensive changes we made will help our scoring. Severson is more of a passer than a shut down guy, but he is prone to giving up the puck. I have no idea which guys you throw out there on PK1 and PK2, especially on the right side. I started a poll to ask who you put in at the end of a game to hold a lead and the responses didn’t make me feel any better about our defensemen.

Last year‘s defense was indeed horrible. Giving up 330 goals was abysmal. I am far more optimistic about this years prospects though my bubble could burst based on one issue - Elvis. Even though the team D and D corp was poor last year, Korpi posted respectable numbers. If Elvis could provide average goaltending - admittedly a huge IF - I could foresee a 250-260 GA, a 3.10-3.20 range.

 

[CBJx614]

I don’t think they will be competitive. I just hope they show improvement. They can improve a lot on defense and still be bad at defense. They can get better goal tending and still have bad goalies. They can learn a new system and start to understand it, but it might take several months because (as usual) we have one of the youngest teams in the league. I fully expect this team to be one of the worst in the league. I just hope they show growth as the season goes along and don’t rush anyone.

It also means another year of growth for our older players, it's better chemistry for Gaudreau and Laine. Gaudreau now feels at home in the town and doesn't have to many new people, places and doesn't have as much stress about being in a new town with a newborn child while he's traveling. Laine seems to have fully bought into the city and team. Werenski is fully healthy and motivated. These guys truly hate losing and I think that's just as much of a reason to expect growth as is all the young guys taking another step.

An arguably just as bad team finished just outside the playoff spot the year before last. I just don't see how this team could be a bottom lottery team(bottom 10) next season if everyone is healthy. That defense while it should be able to prevent more goals, it should be able to generate A LOT more offense.



Also just realized this is all super off topic so feel free to move it wherever mods.

 

[traffic cone]

@koteka you need to maybe lighten up a bit.

 

[koteka]

@koteka you need to maybe lighten up a bit.

I avoid game day threads, so you won’t see me in those much this season, but you might want to save that comment for the game day threads in a few months.

 

[Doggy]

I feel really old now. I gave blood today and Suspicious Minds was playing on the speaker. I said to my phlebotimist (probably in her 20s): 'you know who sings this?' She said 'no'. So I said 'Elvis'. And she looked at me with a blank stare. She didn't know who Elvis was. I think that's the first time in my life I have spoken to another adult and they didn't know who Elvis was.

 

[thebus88]

It also means another year of growth for our older players, it's better chemistry for Gaudreau and Laine. Gaudreau now feels at home in the town and doesn't have to many new people, places and doesn't have as much stress about being in a new town with a newborn child while he's traveling. Laine seems to have fully bought into the city and team. Werenski is fully healthy and motivated. These guys truly hate losing and I think that's just as much of a reason to expect growth as is all the young guys taking another step.

As their therapist/mental health expert, I’m wondering where the confidentiality agreement comes in here.

I REALLY question how much some of these guys really care about winning or losing.

I also find it ridiculous that people think it’s all on Larsen’s shoulders. Even talking practices, this isn’t bantam travel or high school hockey, it’s the NHL. Way more of the “culture” and what the CBJ team has brought to the ice the last few years should be put on the players. Injuries and poor coaching are not adequate excuses for what has been brought over a long period, and quite literally 2 different styles of coach.

This year may be way more “house cleaning” and way different of a “rebuild” than some may think, IMO. That’s my prediction.

 

[CBJWerenski8]

You have a new goaltending coach, too. What has working with Backstrom been like?

Manny (Legace) was always … there’s nothing for me to hide, everybody knew it. He’s like my stepdad. I loved him. I love him very much. He’s the guy who brought me to the contract where I am right now. It’s just thanks to him. He changed a lot of me and taught me a lot. That’s the club’s decision and I take it. I’m always happy to learn something new from somebody else. With Nik, it’s awesome. There’s a lot of communication. We’ve discussed a lot of things. It’s different, a different kind of coaching. I don’t really know how to express myself to say how they are different. But they are both good, and I’m happy. I’m trying to focus it and try to be myself and find myself, the old Elvis.

Are these radical changes or suble changes?

How about if I meet you in the middle, because it’s just a different type of coaching and communication. It’s different. I don’t maybe want to answer this because I really like both coaches, and I don’t want to say that one guy was bad and this one is awesome. It’s working out.

Just a different flavor of ice cream.

Exactly. Oh, I love that. A different flavor of ice cream. There you go, yes.

What’s your relationship like with Vincent?

I’m really happy for Pazzy. He deserves his shot. He’s a great communicator. I’ve liked him since he came over here. He seems humble, smart. It’s fun to work with him. Now, it’s hard to judge right now because there are 900 people here (laughs) at the start of camp. It’s hard to judge something when you can’t see it. There’s a lot going on right now. But I’m happy for him. He’s a really smart man and he’s going to help us.

Did you change the focus of your off-season workouts this summer?

I did, yes. The main focus was my hips and groins. I found a new strength coach in Columbus and he did an amazing job. We worked really hard. He made me do drills and exercises that I’ve never done in my live. I’ve never even seen them. I was curious what they are, but I feel great. I feel stronger, more stable. I don’t want to jinx anything but for now everything is working like I planned, like we planned together. I’m happy and proud of the job I did this summer.

How motivating is the struggle that was last season? Or does it need to just be behind you.

It’s not about motivation. It was horrible. I can’t be happy about it. I’m never going to be happy. But now, looking back, it was a huge, ginormous life experience. It wasn’t going my way, and it was hard to get out of, and we never got out of it until the season ended. That’s an experience I never want to go through again. I don’t even like to think about it. It’s the taste, the feel. It’s horrible. But maybe it’s a good thing because it’s an experience. you know, of what can happen in an athlete’s life. It wasn’t one day, one week or a month off. It was a lot of games, a long time.
To me, motivation is different. I have my own plans in my head. That’s different. I have people who doubted me. They’ve doubted me, and I’m going to show they that they’re f—ing wrong. That’s my motivation. I’m not done here. I have a lot of plans here. I won’t tell you them. Enough talking. I’m not going to talk much, I just want to work. I just want to have fun. I want to enjoy happy moments with my family and my teammates. Other people who doubt me and they’ve showed me that, I will never forget them and I’m going to show them that they’re wrong.

Elvis, you’re one of many players on this roster who come into the season, I’m sure, believing they have more to show than what we saw last season. How obvious is that energy in the dressing room now as training camp gets underway?

I won’t give you any promises. I won’t talk anymore. This summer, I changed mentally. But I got tired of listening to other people say how I should be or how I should act. I’m going to come back and I am already back to the Elvis that I am. I’m gonna be cocky and arrogant like I was when I showed up here, when I really didn’t give a s— about other peoples’ opinions. The opinions that matter are from my wife, my crazy son and my coaches.

Have you assigned any goals to this season?

(Smiles) I remember when you and I were sitting at the Starbucks (in New Albany for an interview two years ago) and I told you I was going to bring the Vezina (to honor the legacy of Matiss Kivlenieks). I will get that f—ing Vezina one day. The people like to make fun. They like to laugh. ‘Oh, horrible season, where’s the Vezina?’ I didn’t say next year. I didn’t say tomorrow. There’s work to do. Step by step. And the people who doubted me, I’m going to show them that they are wrong. This is on me. As you said, there are many of us with something to prove. We are happy to be back.

There have been a lot of changes in this organization. We are forgetting about the s—show that happened last year. We’re moving on. We’re trying to enjoy each single hockey moment while we are here. It’s working hard, practicing hard, playing hard. We’re going to help each other. We support each other. The locker room is awesome right now. So much positive energy. I’m happy that there is positive energy, finally. It’s not the s—show it was last season. Now it’s colorful and positive.

 

[Jovavic]

I mean, it's good to have confidence in yourself that you'll turn it around but yeesh, his critics live rent free in his head and a goalie's mind needs to be clear and not dwelling on things

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

I mean, it's good to have confidence in yourself that you'll turn it around but yeesh, his critics live rent free in his head and a goalie's mind needs to be clear and not dwelling on things

I agree and I don't like Elvis going to those comments often unprompted. Not a good look.

That said, I feel like Bobrovsky was in a bad mental place before the Vezina season and the playoff win. Not in any way predicting the same for Merzlikins, just saying we've seen it before.

 

[Monstershockey]

It would really help the team if he figures it out. I would hope he gets better here than somewhere else. He doesn't need to be a Vezina winner, just much better than he has been.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

I mean, it's good to have confidence in yourself that you'll turn it around but yeesh, his critics live rent free in his head and a goalie's mind needs to be clear and not dwelling on things

I agree and I don't like Elvis going to those comments often unprompted. Not a good look.

That said, I feel like Bobrovsky was in a bad mental place before the Vezina season and the playoff win. Not in any way predicting the same for Merzlikins, just saying we've seen it before.

While we know what motivates us, we don't know what motivates him. I can sympathize with him being motivated by people telling him he can't do something or he isn't good enough. Not all of us grew up being surrounded by people who were super supportive in our lives.

I also feel like most people have biased feelings against him to begin with based on comments I read in a preseason game 3 days after camp opened.

If he's confident, great. I'm going to let the process play out. You sure as hell can't go in the season with no confidence and be successful. Especially with this team.

 

[Sdrawkcab321]

Everyone’s a superstar in the offseason… try proving it this time.

 

[Iron Balls McGinty]

try proving it this time.

Isn’t that exactly what he’s trying to do? Why be so angry and negative about it to start a new season? Give it a chance.

 

[cbjthrowaway]

Isn’t that exactly what he’s trying to do? Why be so angry and negative about it to start a new season? Give it a chance.

if elvis really cared he would get the entire season moved up so that he could prove it RIGHT NOW. sounds like someone's afraid of the moment! he does not have that dawg in him!

It would really help the team if he figures it out. I would hope he gets better here than somewhere else. He doesn't need to be a Vezina winner, just much better than he has been.

true, but also, elvis going off and winning the vezina would be the coolest hockey story in years.

 

[koteka]

true, but also, elvis going off and winning the vezina would be the coolest hockey story in years.

Heck, 48 starts and a 2.75 goals against average would be a pretty cool story to me.

 

[squashmaple]

true, but also, elvis going off and winning the vezina would be the coolest hockey story in years.

And him getting some Vezina votes isn't even unprecedented. We have forgotten there is a good goalie in there... somewhere. He's had a very traumatic last few years.

 

[thebus88]

More Vezina talk that apparently never happens.

Who votes for that stuff??

A bunch of fat journalists who are looking at stats more than watching games and able to understand what they are watching.

He’s NEVER been a good goalie.

 

[Double-Shift Lasse]

More Vezina talk that apparently never happens.

Why would you even care about Vezina talk if it's meaningless because of fat journalists and whatnot?

Vezina Trophy

The Vezina Trophy is awarded to the best goaltender in the National Hockey League during the regular season. Created in 1927 in honour of Georges Vézina, who ...

www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca

"Since the 1981–82 season, the Vezina Trophy has been awarded to the league’s outstanding goalie, as determined by a poll of all NHL general managers."