#26 — Vanek! with a Jurco

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This is the twenty-sixth post of Deke Dangle RPF Anon, a community for all your ice hockey anon meme needs.

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Comments

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

These announcers are fucking relentless with finding new ways to praise him. People joke about Pierre/NBC having a huge boner for Crosby, but I feel like even that is more tolerable than this tbh.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

Crosby is usually doing something to warrant it, even the little things. McDavid just...goes fast sometimes and they go apeshit.

📣 Mackinnon has outplayed McDavid 📣 and it's really not as close as ESPN would like you to believe.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

The Drouin-RNH-Mackinnon line was their best by far (until Drouin got banished to the bench for unknown reasons). RNH has been quietly excellent as well.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

Gaudreau didn't exactly hurt that line, but I have no idea why Drouin got benched.

What killed me was the entire line got virtually benched in the third. Their line was responsible for two of the three goals (Mackinnon especially) and one on the PP, and they had to watch McDavid and the rest of the chosen ones play monkey in the middle for 2 minutes on that 5-on-3. Garbage. They drew the first penalty, they should have been out to start.

If Gaudreau is mad about his ice time, he has a point.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

I think the team is talented enough to win the tournament. I also think McLellan has proved he'll make decisions that can lose it.

I suspect Larkin was benched because of the two goals against in the second, and if they're not starting a tired goalie, it's probably not an issue.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt
The crazy line shuffling McLellan's doing is killing me, honestly. The lines he had versus Finland were good! They worked! I don't understand what the point is of making weird shifts in the middle of the game, usually for no discernible reason other than "McJesus hasn't scored yet, why?". I know they're young and adaptable, but LET IT BE, TODD.

And don't even get me started on the ice time. Gaudreau has been playing practically perfectly and sits. Drouin has been good too, and hardly even touched the ice in the third!

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

I'm relatively new to hockey and I know there are lots of reasons to put people on the ice other than how many points they score, but wasn't Gaudreau tied for highest scorer in the preliminary round of the tournament and haven't five people on Team NA scored more than McDavid and only one of those guys is on his line? Is this asshole coaching or is this these "intangibles" I keep hearing about?

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

It's kind of a weird combination because McLellan is heavily favoring his own star player (which is an asshole move) even when it doesn't make the most sense and is not backed up by numbers, which is probably at least partially caused by the intangibles which leak from every pore of Mr. Youngest Captain Ever.

I think it's mostly just McLellan being blinded by McJesus, though.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

DA

I wouldn't be surprised if the NHL also wanted McDavid featured. They seem heavily invested in the "next one" narrative.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

This is why I want him to fall flat on his face. The league would deserve that.

At least this is all proof the Oilers will be trash again this year. That coaching, woof.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

As a fan of the Flames, this shit will be hilarious when it's Lucic and Maroon on the ice.

(Assuming Gaudreau gets signed, that is.)

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

I will laugh for days if he doesn't get signed. Because for months all the news was "it's a slam dunk," and "he's the future and everyone knows it so they'll give him what he wants" and "he and Monahan are going to be like Kane and Toews with identical contracts and probably a happy days joint press conference," and now it's like "whoaaaaa he wants all the monies," and "back the truck up" and "it's not close and it's not getting closer"

/the battle of Alberta is real yo.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

Devils fans on reddit are half joking about the plausibility of offer sheeting sheet him. Their delusion is hilarious and I know why they never happen but I want offer sheet drama so bad.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

DA I would feel too bad for McDavid to wish that on him

Actually a lot of meme's comments already having me feeling bad for McDavid

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

DA

I feel bad because I think he won't be able to lead up to the level of hype heaped on him.

That being said, I don't think he should be excused from critical analyses of his play because of the hype.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

DA

IA. The hype is so huge though. So many people expect him to win the Art Ross next year. He could, but I don't think he will. But so what if he doesn't. He's got nearly a decade before he's even considered in his prime.

Everyone just wants it for him so badly. I think it'd just be better for him if they just gave him regular hockey player chances instead of "It's okay, you're so great, buddy" ones.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

na

Yeah, I get why people are sick and tired of the media narrative, but the guy himself has already had a pretty rough start, really. I wouldn't wish more on him.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

What numbers? I'm seeing that the first line + RNH are the only NA forwards with >50 score-adj SF%.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

NA, but would you be willing to share where you got those stats? I'm dying over here with the barebone box scores.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

I don't have the raw data, but I've been looking at @IneffectiveMath's charts from the game: https://twitter.com/IneffectiveMath/status/778065966387331072

(Also this isn't to say that people shouldn't question the decision to shorten the bench -- Matthews and McDavid are young guys, with very little NHL experience, playing back to back, and the team is stacked with talent. But I haven't seen stats yet that bear out that another line was more effective.)

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

The whole team played better in the third, though - Larkin was benched when none of them were, so we don't know if he would have had the chance to be better.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Again, I'm not saying the benching was the right decision (I think it was silly), but Larkin along with Eichel had the lowest possession % (~20%) among NA forwards through two periods. (The Drouin benching was more of a mystery to me, totally unfathomable.)

My only point is that there are stats suggesting that McDavid's line was the best one, so I think it's unfair to answer the question "Are there legitimate reasons to play McDavid more than others or is this just asshole coaching?" with the assumption that the only reason McLellan gave more time to McDavid was because of favoritism of a player on his NHL team, and to say that "numbers" don't back it up.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

ayrt

Thanks! That's much more info than I had before.

Also, ouch, that graph seems to be suggesting Eichel should have been benched over Drouin. I thought he looked a little rough during the second period, but not worse than anyone else.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

This is score-adjusted and even strength, though, he looked better on the PP. I'm not sure how many minutes he got EV.

Wonder if the two big hits took a while to shake off, too.

Re: Game day thread 19 Sept 2016

[(Anonymous)]

And the thing about this team is that a lot of them go fast sometimes! They are all fast!