Pre-Game Talk: Week of Hopefully Home Wins (Tues vs. NYR, Thur vs. EDM, Sat vs. DAL)

[S E P H]

I am still so pissed off from yesterday's game I ain't watching the Saturday one. Biggest buzzkill you can ever have, totally killed my interest.

 

[expatriatedtexan]

I am still so pissed off from yesterday's game I ain't watching the Saturday one. Biggest buzzkill you can ever have, totally killed my interest.

I thought the Avs were playing Dallas tonight and then off until Minny on the 20th (Monday).

Regardless, I hope you get a fresh perspective and get to watch the Avs kcik the living shit out of both the Stars and Wild.

 

[22FUTON9]

I don’t want to go back to the Mack has low hockey IQ argument, because he doesn’t, but I think the powerplay really shows how much smarter McDavid and Draisaitl are compared to our guys.

They really know how and when to switch positions, and looks really flawless. We’ve seen Mackinnon move around a bit, but it always seems a bit forced and unnatural. I don’t know if it’s something coaching could fix, but I don’t think our guys are ever going to be good as edmonton on the PP, and we just have to accept that at this point.

 

[Avsfan1921]

I was watching attentively the Oilers' PP yesterday. OMG what a difference with ours. The main difference I saw is how much more McD moves compare to Mack. He is all over the offensive zone. Mack and Makar both move but they mostly stay within their own portion of the ice. The way McD moves creates a lot of chaos for the defenders which opens up passing lanes.

The worst offender on our PP IMO is Mikko. He is the worst about being stationary. He barely moves and on top of that he holds on to the puck way too long which gives plenty of time for the defenders to re-adjust their position and close all lanes. At least when Makar holds on to the puck longer he actually skates around to open up lanes. Mack on the other hand most often just makes a few 180 degree turns until he finally gets 2 defenders on him and loses the puck or makes a terrible pass (especially on his backhand).

They have got to create more movement.

While this is true, our pk was especially passive last night allowing the oil to sling the puck around without a lot of pressure. Not sure why, maybe they were concerned about mcdrai’s passing ability.

 

[The Kingslayer]

I don’t want to go back to the Mack has low hockey IQ argument, because he doesn’t, but I think the powerplay really shows how much smarter McDavid and Draisaitl are compared to our guys.

They really know how and when to switch positions, and looks really flawless. We’ve seen Mackinnon move around a bit, but it always seems a bit forced and unnatural. I don’t know if it’s something coaching could fix, but I don’t think our guys are ever going to be good as edmonton on the PP, and we just have to accept that at this point.

Mackinnon has low hockey IQ for an elite hockey player. Is it higher than most everyone else? Yes. Is it higher than someone like Kucherov? No.

 

[MacKaRant]

Tbf Lehky-Mitts-Parise(I think that was the line) was fantastic last playoffs.

Yes, I was going to say that bringing back Parise seems the only hope for Mitts. Somehow

The worst offender on our PP IMO is Mikko. He is the worst about being stationary. He barely moves.

Yeah, I think he's just trying to converse energy for skating after the puck during empty net opportunities

 

[RECKLESS]

Their showing the Stars game in a national broadcast here in Finland, so definitely feels like an auto-loss. For some reason they always play like shit when that happens. This time it will not even be a blip though with their current form being so underwhelming.

Oh well, the usual casual hockey follower here just likes to see their countrymen on the ice in whatever jersey so this is a good game for that.

Here's hoping the boys do bounce back!

 

[forsbergavs32]

Really good analysis from former NHL video coach Steve Peters on the Avs PP of late