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Aaron Ekblad will one day be the best Dman in the NHL. He's only 20, it's unreal how good he is at this age.
 
Caitlyn Jenner said:
How about when the going got tough last season? He vanished

How are his playoff performances? Absolutely pathetic.

He's not a guy that can step up when he needs to. Pretty obvious.

I give it 4 months before Weber is the habs captain
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This coming from a Leafs fan. He has 18pts in his last 28 playoff games, which is below his regular season PPG but very far from "Absolutely pathetic". Especially when you factor in Therrien's grind-it-out playoff style and the fact he missed the first part of the 2015 playoffs with a concussion. There were serious questions about whether or not he was even ready to come back at the time.

As for Weber being captain in 4 months, I'll gladly take that bet.
 
Even tho it's only exhibition, I feel like Eichel is overrated and Matthews will be a better player.
 
I wouldn't consider the team Europe stars to be washed up yet, Chara is for sure. but Hossa, and Gaborik are two beasts who are still very dangerous. Gaborik just scored 2 goals last game, had a 4 goal all star game a year or two ago where he easily beat Lundqvist 4 times and is just a hell of an underrated sniper. He might be one of the top 5 goal scorers of the whole tourney. Kopitar is a bull on skates who controls the flow of the game when he's on the ice, and Mats Zuccarello is one of the games elite playmakers who just made a beautiful play with Josi who passed to Frans Nielsen I believe for a tap in goal. These are all legit stars playing on Team Europe, they have the ability and firepower to beat anyone if Halak gets hot.
 
Ryan Mcdonough has been one of the best D man in the tournament in my opinion. Him and Carlson are fantastic together. He does it all, breaks up plays, moves the puck, jumps up and creates offense.

All Kucherov does is score.

Its funny how everyone kinda forgot about Nate Mackinnon. What a tank! D men must hate him, the way he puts pressure on, and the battles combined with dangerous skill.
 
I havent realized anything new, but Barkov just continues to reaffirm that:

A) His contract is absolute larceny

B) Hes going to be joining the ranks of Bergeron, Toews and Kopitar very soon
 
I realized I'm not alone in my belief that, at the moment, Ryan Murray is better than Seth Jones. Jones obviously has a higher ceiling, but I really like what Murray does defensively and breaking out of his zone. Very solid and smooth.
 
Drew4u said:
Even tho it's only exhibition, I feel like Eichel is overrated and Matthews will be a better player.
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I feel like Eichel has been much better and people are talking about Matthews with rookie blinders on. Every time he touches the puck, it's some miraculous moment. Any poor play, well, he's a rookie. For perspective, Eichel has 3 assists and 9 shots through two games and a 60% corsi. Matthews has one point, 3 shots, and the worst corsi on the team. Reading this forum, you would think the opposite. Yeah, I'm a Sabres fan, so it of course comes across as homerish, but it's also right.
 
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Tickarski said:
This coming from a Leafs fan. He has 18pts in his last 28 playoff games, which is below his regular season PPG but very far from "Absolutely pathetic". Especially when you factor in Therrien's grind-it-out playoff style and the fact he missed the first part of the 2015 playoffs with a concussion. There were serious questions about whether or not he was even ready to come back at the time.

As for Weber being captain in 4 months, I'll gladly take that bet.
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Trivia:

Name the only current NHL captain that has been called "the worst captain in team history" by his very own coach.
 
Caitlyn Jenner said:
Trivia:

Name the only current NHL captain that has been called "the worst captain in team history" by his very own coach.
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Who is it ? Most of the guys I would of guessed have been removed of captaincy already. Is it montreal??


There captain history is pretty good tho so not the worst insult but weber isn't French do they have non French captains oh whoops koivu
 
5 4 Fighting said:
I wouldn't consider the team Europe stars to be washed up yet, Chara is for sure. but Hossa, and Gaborik are two beasts who are still very dangerous. Gaborik just scored 2 goals last game, had a 4 goal all star game a year or two ago where he easily beat Lundqvist 4 times and is just a hell of an underrated sniper. He might be one of the top 5 goal scorers of the whole tourney. Kopitar is a bull on skates who controls the flow of the game when he's on the ice, and Mats Zuccarello is one of the games elite playmakers who just made a beautiful play with Josi who passed to Frans Nielsen I believe for a tap in goal. These are all legit stars playing on Team Europe, they have the ability and firepower to beat anyone if Halak gets hot.
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I like Gaborik, but that game was 4+ years ago at this point, it was an all star game when nobody cared or really tried, only two of his goals were against Lundqvist and he only scored 3 total, not 4.

Pretty odd to use that as a point for Gaborik being good considering he more recently had a very good/borderline Conn Smythe worthy Cup run for the Kings.
 
stokes84 said:
I feel like Eichel has been much better and people are talking about Matthews with rookie blinders on. Every time he touches the puck, it's some miraculous moment. Any poor play, well, he's a rookie. For perspective, Eichel has 3 assists and 9 shots through two games and a 60% corsi. Matthews has one point, 3 shots, and the worst corsi on the team. Reading this forum, you would think the opposite. Yeah, I'm a Sabres fan, so it of course comes across as homerish, but it's also right.
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I'm a fan of neither but I think Eichel has been better as well. Which is to be expected IMO given the experience gap. I didn't think McDavid looked superstarish his first handful of games vs NHL talent either.

Not a revelation really, but I don't get a lot of exposure to Calgary games: every time i watch Johnny Hockey play it's like i've forgotten how much fun he is to watch. Very much like Kane.
 
stokes84 said:
I feel like Eichel has been much better and people are talking about Matthews with rookie blinders on. Every time he touches the puck, it's some miraculous moment. Any poor play, well, he's a rookie. For perspective, Eichel has 3 assists and 9 shots through two games and a 60% corsi. Matthews has one point, 3 shots, and the worst corsi on the team. Reading this forum, you would think the opposite. Yeah, I'm a Sabres fan, so it of course comes across as homerish, but it's also right.
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After reading the last few pages I was actually about to post in defense of Eichel, until I read your post.

18 year old who was just drafted, playing against NHL talent and amongst most of the top 23 and under players in the world, out of position, and doing well... And your response is to knock the kid because some people think he's doing a bit better than your teams player? LOL. Maybe he's been marginally better, maybe he's been marginally worse, in either case he IS a rookie who's never faced this level of talent, he has earned his praise.

No, you come across as a homer because you are a giant homer.
 
Cotton said:
After reading the last few pages I was actually about to post in defense of Eichel, until I read your post.

18 year old who was just drafted, playing against NHL talent and amongst most of the top 23 and under players in the world, out of position, and doing well... And your response is to knock the kid because some people think he's doing a bit better than your teams player? LOL. Maybe he's been marginally better, maybe he's been marginally worse, in either case he IS a rookie who's never faced this level of talent, he has earned his praise.

No, you come across as a homer because you are a giant homer.
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He's been worse, as I demonstrated. He's 10 months younger, settle down fella. Someone needs to counter all the Leafs homerism running rampant. Sorry if it hurts your feelings.
 
stokes84 said:
I feel like Eichel has been much better and people are talking about Matthews with rookie blinders on. Every time he touches the puck, it's some miraculous moment. Any poor play, well, he's a rookie. For perspective, Eichel has 3 assists and 9 shots through two games and a 60% corsi. Matthews has one point, 3 shots, and the worst corsi on the team. Reading this forum, you would think the opposite. Yeah, I'm a Sabres fan, so it of course comes across as homerish, but it's also right.
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Yeah but you also have to take zone starts and linemates into the equation. Yeah Eichel has more points and higher corsi, but he also played with McDavid and Gaudreau and has a significantly higher percentage of his starts in the offensive zone than Matthews
 
Cotton said:
After reading the last few pages I was actually about to post in defense of Eichel, until I read your post.

18 year old who was just drafted, playing against NHL talent and amongst most of the top 23 and under players in the world, out of position, and doing well... And your response is to knock the kid because some people think he's doing a bit better than your teams player? LOL. Maybe he's been marginally better, maybe he's been marginally worse, in either case he IS a rookie who's never faced this level of talent, he has earned his praise.

No, you come across as a homer because you are a giant homer.
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They were just stating facts...? Eichel has been a shooting machine, has gotten points and has generated lots of chances. It's both unfair and removed from reality to claim he's been bad in the first two games.

People are free to praise Matthews and enjoy his dangles, but when many people claim he's been better than Eichel specifically and someone pulls up the stats to show that's not really the case, it's a bit rich to accuse them of homerism.

Since we're all comparing Eichel and Matthews for some reason, Matthews has clearly had more defensive assignments than Eichel so far, as his DZS% suggests. That means Matthews has been entrusted with more defensive duties and Eichel has had an easier time in terms of driving shot differentials, but it really doesn't mean Matthews has been good defensively, which he hasn't. He's been pretty mediocre.

You're right he's only 18 and has done very well for his age, but that's not what people are saying. They're saying he's been better than Eichel and that's just not the case so far.

I'm not a Sabres fan by any means, by the way.
 
stokes84 said:
I feel like Eichel has been much better and people are talking about Matthews with rookie blinders on. Every time he touches the puck, it's some miraculous moment. Any poor play, well, he's a rookie. For perspective, Eichel has 3 assists and 9 shots through two games and a 60% corsi. Matthews has one point, 3 shots, and the worst corsi on the team. Reading this forum, you would think the opposite. Yeah, I'm a Sabres fan, so it of course comes across as homerish, but it's also right.
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Possession stats in small samples mean little. Possession stats in 2 preseason, pre-tournament exhibition games for an All-Star tournament means jack **** -- and jack left town.

Eichel last year, in some of the most sheltered minutes on the Sabres, was the worst player besides Deslauriers in terms of score/zone adjusted possession stats. He was the worst on the Sabres in scoring chance for %. That's a full season of data. That's statistically significant. By no means is that an indictment on his talent level and future numbers which will improve as they always do (though those numbers for such a prospect are a bit disappointing), but please don't make it out like Eichel is some possession monster because the advanced stats in 2 preseason, pre-tournament exhibition games for an All-Star tournament say so. Perhaps we should also draw conclusions from the Coots-Trocheck line finishing as the worst possession line so far....and they're the #1 and #4 best possession players on the roster. :rolleyes:
 
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stokes84 said:
I feel like Eichel has been much better and people are talking about Matthews with rookie blinders on. Every time he touches the puck, it's some miraculous moment. Any poor play, well, he's a rookie. For perspective, Eichel has 3 assists and 9 shots through two games and a 60% corsi. Matthews has one point, 3 shots, and the worst corsi on the team. Reading this forum, you would think the opposite. Yeah, I'm a Sabres fan, so it of course comes across as homerish, but it's also right.
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This would be a compelling argument if you ignored context. Matthews has been relied upon in defensive situations. Matthews had a lot of zone starts in the defensive zone because McLellan thinks of Matthews as strong defensively (as he has stated many times in his comments), so of course his Corsi is going to be worse. Also, Matthews is forced to play wing (which is fair), a position he's not as familiar with. On the flip side, Eichel played top 6 the entire tournament to date and McLellan relies on him exclusively offensively. He's playing with McDavid and Gaudreau, obviously his stats are going to be better. Eichel isn't expected to start in the defensive zone as often, he's just expected to create offence, so yes, his offensive numbers are better.
 
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