Pre-Game Talk: Week of Afternoon Delights (Mon vs. MIN, Wed vs. WPG, Sat @ BOS, Sun @ NYR)

[Bill Peckerskull]

I figured it was cheaper for Stan to force the guys to drive themselves and reimburse them for mileage. Problem makes 'em carpool too save a little bit more as well.

They take the bus

 

[Ceremony]

Doing some twitter auditing since the forum is slow

 

[the_fan]

Doing some twitter auditing since the forum is slow

Piano Man is a folk song. Thanks to never ending information you can get from google

 

[lionsDen]

It’s a holiday for the Americans.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

If I don’t get the day off it’s not a holiday, dems the breaks

 

[RoyIsALegend]

We didn't practice today, although we had a pathetic effort in an afternoon game yesterday.

You can't make this shit up, I'd love to hear why we didn't practice.

That's 3 optional practices + 1 soft, 40 minute practice in the past 10 days.

Watch us somehow come out flat with no legs again tomorrow against Winnipeg.

 

[cccoltsicehockey]

At this point I would be more shocked if we don't come out flat. Almost like they are in some sort of rut for bothering to give effort. Not sure why since they have goaltending now.

 

[Moloch]

does nuke play tomorrow?

 

[RoyIsALegend]

does nuke play tomorrow?

Won’t know until tomorrow.

The Avs sent down Innala and Ivan after yesterday’s game. Some assume Nuke takes the spot of one of them, but we have also been doing lots of paper transactions to save $$$.

We should know if one or both of them get recalled and/or practice tomorrow. Or we see Nuke do the full practice and skate on one of the lines.

 

[Balthazar]

We didn't practice today, although we had a pathetic effort in an afternoon game yesterday.

You can't make this shit up, I'd love to hear why we didn't practice.

That's 3 optional practices + 1 soft, 40 minute practice in the past 10 days.

Watch us somehow come out flat with no legs again tomorrow against Winnipeg.

The team is very tired, they need some rest.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I can get the big 5 getting treated with baby gloves and given the "option" to skip a lot of practices. But there should be no such thing as optional for damn near everyone else.

 

[forsbergavs32]

These optional practices and light practices are no good IMO. With the way this team is playing, especially on the PP, these guys need to be working on things a lot. Only exceptions right now for me are Makar and Manson as they’re both nursing injuries.

 

[the_fan]

The team is very tired, they need some rest.

They need to call Val’s connection

 

[Spilot23]

 

[Metallo]

The team is very tired, they need some rest.

I very doubt that this argument is used by other teams in the league. Boo hoo we are tired. This team is a bunch of snowflakes, not surprising they are the Avalanche.

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

HFAvs: Bednar is running our guys into the ground what a f***ing idiot fire this clown

Also HFAvs: how dare Bednar give them a day off from skating


Sometimes rest is best. At this point I feel like people are just looking for reasons to be angry. Teams get days off. They aren't robots.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

HFAvs: Bednar is running our guys into the ground what a f***ing idiot fire this clown

Also HFAvs: how dare Bednar give them a day off from skating


Sometimes rest is best. At this point I feel like people are just looking for reasons to be angry. Teams get days off. They aren't robots.

A few points.

First, I would argue the team took off 45 minutes of the 60 minutes against Minnesota. Barely skated, generated nothing offensively. Flat for more than two-thirds of the game.

Second, maybe Bednar didn’t need to play Makar 30 minutes or literally half the game? Girard didn’t even play 18 minutes. Surely 3-4 of those Makar minutes could’ve done to G.

Third, we have barely practiced over the past two weeks. This home stretch has literally been days off, optional practices, and light skates. Considering how bad our PP has been, we couldn’t have had a 30 minute special teams practice just working on some things? I find that hard to believe.

To me, it’s clear Bednar is recognizing the team is checking out on him and he’s trying to win them over with off days and optional skates. They’re responding to the kindness by laying big fat eggs on rested legs.

Something is seriously wrong.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

 

[dahrougem2]

HFAvs: Bednar is running our guys into the ground what a f***ing idiot fire this clown

Also HFAvs: how dare Bednar give them a day off from skating


Sometimes rest is best. At this point I feel like people are just looking for reasons to be angry. Teams get days off. They aren't robots.

I'd rather they go out and practice hard to improve on things they're clearly struggling rather than resting then Bednar overplaying the f*** out of his top guys.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Both Innala and Ivan are back after missing out on a couple of days of NHL pay so that Stan could save a few thousand bucks.

 

[SirLoinOfCloth]

I'd rather they go out and practice hard to improve on things they're clearly struggling rather than resting then Bednar overplaying the f*** out of his top guys.

I'm going to go against what a lot of people are saying, and say that I don't actually think our top guys are being that overplayed. Given the context of being obliterated by injuries especially in the Top-6, and being unable to rely upon our AHL call-ups.

Since 2019-20 (so 5 years) the top forwards TOI/G are:

McDavid 21:58
Mack 21:52
Drai 21:50
Rants 21:29
Marner 21:26
Scheifele 20:50

If we isolate to just this year

Mack 23:10
Kaprizov 22:37
Rants 22:29
McDavid 21:58
Trochek 21:33
Drai 21:33

So Mack is up 1:20 per game over his 5 year average. Rants is up 1 minute on his average. Over the course of a whole year that will be like an 85 or 86 game season vs an 82. Relative to their peers Mack is ~1 min more than McDavid, and Rants is ~30 seconds more and the Oilers have barely half the level of injuries we have had to suffer.

What is really affecting their TOI is how much time they are spending on the PP per game. PP2 gets basically no time whatsoever. And our PP is abysmal. Give PP2 half of each PP, and you'll likely see Mack's TOI/G drop down closer to his average. Rants gets 4:06 of PP time per game, and Mack 3:57. McDavid is nearly a minute less of PP per game, for example.

A few extra days off resting rather than practicing probably balances these things out.

 

[dahrougem2]

I'm going to go against what a lot of people are saying, and say that I don't actually think our top guys are being that overplayed. Given the context of being obliterated by injuries especially in the Top-6, and being unable to rely upon our AHL call-ups.

Since 2019-20 (so 5 years) the top forwards TOI/G are:

McDavid 21:58
Mack 21:52
Drai 21:50
Rants 21:29
Marner 21:26
Scheifele 20:50

If we isolate to just this year

Mack 23:10
Kaprizov 22:37
Rants 22:29
McDavid 21:58
Trochek 21:33
Drai 21:33

So Mack is up 1:20 per game over his 5 year average. Rants is up 1 minute on his average. Over the course of a whole year that will be like an 85 or 86 game season vs an 82. Relative to their peers Mack is ~1 min more than McDavid, and Rants is ~30 seconds more and the Oilers have barely half the level of injuries we have had to suffer.

What is really affecting their TOI is how much time they are spending on the PP per game. PP2 gets basically no time whatsoever. And our PP is abysmal. Give PP2 half of each PP, and you'll likely see Mack's TOI/G drop down closer to his average. Rants gets 4:06 of PP time per game, and Mack 3:57. McDavid is nearly a minute less of PP per game, for example.

A few extra days off resting rather than practicing probably balances these things out.

Don't go back that far, because Bednar didn't start doing this until after the cup win.

If we start in 22-23, the top-10 TOI/GP seasons in order are:

1) Nathan MacKinnon (23:10; 2024-2025)
2) Mikko Rantanen (22:54; 2023-2024)
3) Nathan MacKinnon (22:49; 2023-2024)
4) Kirill Kaprizov (22:37; 2024-2025)
5) Mikko Rantanen (22:39; 2024-2025)
6) Connor McDavid (22:23; 2022-2023)
7) Nathan MacKinnon (22:19; 2022-2023)
8) Mikko Rantanen (22:13; 2022-2023)
9) Connor McDavid (21:58; 2024-2025)
10) Leon Draisaitl (21:44; 2022-2023)

These two are playing way more hockey than every other forward in the league and it shows both during the dog days of the regular season and come playoff time.

I calculated last year that by the time we lost game 6 to Dallas, MacKinnon and Rantanen had each played the equivalent of 17 more games than Dallas' leading TOI/GP forward Jason Robertson. People watching that game and series kept wondering why Dallas looked so much faster than us, especially our top guys. It's because they were exhausted - MacKinnon admitted to exhaustion after game 5.

Fact is this: it's not a long-term successful strategy. Bednar clearly doesn't give a f*** and wants to win every game no matter the cost, long term be damned.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

Both Innala and Ivan are back after missing out on a couple of days of NHL pay so that Stan could save a few thousand bucks.

I think you know that has more to do with trying to save cap space....

Oh and...

 

[hockeyfish]

I think you know that has more to do with trying to save cap space....

Oh and...

It's not about cap space. They team has been into the LTIR pool almost the entire year. Dropping two guys down at this point doesn't do anything.

 

[Ceremony]

There's absolutely no reason Girard should be under 20 minutes a night.

I think the time on ice figures can be misleading though because they'll be bumped up by powerplays and empty net situations. The powerplay is a lot of standing about, the end of a game is equally stop start. Didn't we have a game a few weeks ago where Makar played the full last 5 minutes but it took about 10 to actually get through them? I think just looking at the final total doesn't give you a clear picture of what's actually happening.

 

[RoyIsALegend]