Pre-Game Talk: Week of the New Year at home! Vs Jets, vs Sabers, vs Canadians.

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Well what the f*** is this

I get Bednar not wanting to break up the two lines, but I'd swap Pärssinen and Colton in a heartbeat. Though I guess having Pärssinen just flown in, natural that he's not slotting straight away into the top-6.

Parssinen has been a healthy scratch most of the year and his underlyings are brutal, and you want him in the top 6?

 

[hockeyfish]

Bednar: "Hey Casey, we're going to set you up with a more relaxing opportunity while you get your shit together. We think that this will get you going offensively. I would expect like 5-6 minutes a night and you'll be playing with.....hold on give me a sec while I check..... Oh yeah, the new guy Pärssinen and some guy named Innala."

I'm playing with an iguana?

 

[MacKaRant]

It should be. But also in October Kyper reported that the Avs had not been interested in going anywhere near the MacKinnon contract for Rantanen, whatever that means. Are the Avs offering him something starting with a 10?

I really don't think we should take anything that Kypreos says, especially about an organization as secretive as the Avs, as gospel

 

[Hinterland]

Parssinen has been a healthy scratch most of the year and his underlyings are brutal, and you want him in the top 6?

I'd want him at C for sure. He has always been pretty good at C but rather underwhelming on the Wing.

 

[The Mars Volchenkov]

Essentially Nashville was creating zero offense and getting crushed defensively with Parssinen out there.

 

[Ceremony]

Do I need to go and find my Kadri replacement post? Pretty sure it's on at least ten likes by now.

 

[LOFIN]

Parssinen has been a healthy scratch most of the year and his underlyings are brutal, and you want him in the top 6?

Like I said, I suppose it's understandable they want to ease him in. But he should be played at center ASAP, and I don't think playing him next to Rantanen would be a bad choice either to acclimate him.

I'm not really going to fully judge Pärssinen based on his performance under Brunette, because according to a lot of Preds fans there were serious issues with his utilization under him. This guy scored at almost 0.5PPG clip when he entered the league. I've seen him play, and I don't think it's overselling him saying there is still a small potential of him becoming a 2nd line C in this league even. If anyone is to unlock that potential with him, it's the Avs.

But for the Avs, it's about giving him a proper look to see if he could actually work at that #3C spot. Because he could make Colton expendable next summer.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

Yeah, trying to get Mitts out of his funk by demoting him to the 4th line seems kinda dumb.

 

[LOFIN]

Well, the good thing about Bednar is that as soon as we play shit for like 30mins straight, the Blendnar comes out and we will have a completely new look.

 

[hockeyfish]

Made the mistake of looking at Mittelstat's Natural Stattrick page. Wow, literally everything has crashed this year.

Corsi has dropped from 52% ish is the past two years to 48%.
xGF from 51% ish to 43%.
HDCF% from 50% ish to 42%.
Faceoff% from 45-48% to 40%.
He's already set a career high in giveaways.

The only that hasn't cratered is penelties. I'm fairly certain this isn't just a slump, but is instead some injury or illness he is trying to play through.

 

[Avs_19]

Bednar went from "we have to be patient and work through it with Casey" to "I've had enough, **** this guy." Lol.

 

[Ceremony]

Manson sees out his contract, thanks.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Parssinen has been a healthy scratch most of the year and his underlyings are brutal, and you want him in the top 6?

Finnish bias lol

There was no chance he was thrown into the top 6. 4th line was always the only option.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Yeah, trying to get Mitts out of his funk by demoting him to the 4th line seems kinda dumb.

Bednar was very clear on Saturday. Mitts has to get himself out of this funk and it’s gone on far longer than the coaching staff expected or would’ve liked.

We need to win hockey games and putting Mitts out there for 17 minutes of absolutely nothing… can’t skate, doesn’t engage physically, won’t shoot the puck, is an absolute ghost other than giving the puck away… isn’t conducive to winning.

He needs to figure it out himself in limited minutes and regain the trust of the coaching staff.

I love the move.

 

[Vaslof]

Parssinen has been a healthy scratch most of the year and his underlyings are brutal, and you want him in the top 6?

He debuted as 1C for the Preds and apparently performed well! Must have been hell of a ride between that and getting traded for a 3rd rounder.

Yeah, trying to get Mitts out of his funk by demoting him to the 4th line seems kinda dumb.

I think it's good as long as the 4th line gets some ice time in. No pressure to perform may help.

 

[LOFIN]

Finnish bias lol

There was no chance he was thrown into the top 6. 4th line was always the only option.

I knew top-6 was a long stretch, but it would be a better option than playing him on the wing and Colton at center IMO.

As for Mittelstadt, I'm kinda in the meh territory. It's annoying, but I'm also confident he will figure it out at some point. Right now, we can afford his slump, but that might not last.

 

[hockeyfish]

Bednar was very clear on Saturday. Mitts has to get himself out of this funk and it’s gone on far longer than the coaching staff expected or would’ve liked.

We need to win hockey games and putting Mitts out there for 17 minutes of absolutely nothing… can’t skate, doesn’t engage physically, won’t shoot the puck, is an absolute ghost other than giving the puck away… isn’t conducive to winning.

He needs to figure it out himself in limited minutes and regain the trust of the coaching staff.

I love the move.

Should just rip the bandaid off and scratch or IR him.

 

[RoyIsALegend]

PP units:

 

[dahrougem2]

Told ya'll. The 4th line for 1-2 games is where Mittelstadt belongs right now.

It's one thing if a player is engaged, battling, skating, doing ANYTHING to help win games.

That isn't the case and Bednar is clearly frustrated with him. First he got benches, then removed from PP1, now demoted.

 

[Avs_19]

If you take out the fourth liners, Mittelstadt has a team worst 37.61% xGF at 5v5 since December 1st. You can take it back to November 1st and it's still team worst at 40.89%.

The with/without stats aren't great and don't tell the entire story but pretty much every player is better when they're away from him. Surprisingly, Nichushkin is slightly worse but basically a wash. Although, Mittelstadt's numbers are even worse when Nichushkin isn't out there with him.

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

 

[LOFIN]

Interesting. I don't think Pärssinen has done PK that much, but maybe he could?

 

[Bill Peckerskull]

 

[RoyIsALegend]

Welcome back to Loveland, Ivan.

 

[dahrougem2]

Innala has been playing better IMO since he's been called up than Ivan has. He's been harder on the forecheck and has created a couple of good chances that haven't found the back of the net.

Makes sense to me why Bednar wants him in. Ivan is slowing down and has been for a while.