hedman gets the absolute worst partners to play with. The lightning make him drag a rookie, a scrub or a corpse around. He did have a 10 or so game stretch 5-15 games ago where he was poor. He had some insanely awful numbers during that stretch. Not surprised the numbers look like that. I also wouldn’t be surprised if he wins the Norris even if he’s had better regular seasons because I think hockey people believe he deserves a 2nd Norris for his career. You can argue the validity of that but hockey people do that kind of shit all the time.
Another writer posted data showing that Hedman isn’t even on the matchup pair this year either. He’s playing quite a bit worse with easier deployment.
awful to hear about drouin. I loved that trade for us but I never liked to it for him. As you or someone else said, put him in a smaller market in the US and I think he would be a good player. Maybe not great because his all around game is not up to par but he’d pile up points. I never felt his personality would do well with the media spotlight of Montreal as a French Canadian from Quebec.
he’s never been on the matchup pair with this current roster although he was for a period this season because mcdonagh and cernak were both out. They’re still trying to figure things out with the addition of savard but cernak/mcdonagh have great chemistry and act as the more defensive pairing. Hedman plays mostly with our 5th, 6th or 7th defenseman. Once we got mcdonagh, he was the shutdown guy. Much better use of their two skill sets. I’ve always felt that as long as we keep mcdonagh, sergachev should be playing more on the right side and playing more with hedman but they didn’t even do that much in the playoffs. With the addition of savard, maybe it’s not necessary now. hedman has dragged around some incredibly bad defensive partners and put up great numbers. I’d be curious to see what the advanced stats are minus that one awful stretch but he hasn’t been as good this regular season. We will see what he looks like in the playoffs.
- I think Hedman is the best defenseman in the NHL - I don’t think Hedman has had the best year for a defenseman this season - I think Hedman will win the Norris due to the first point, despite the second point. I think Fox is the most deserving for this season. But the NHL is an old boys club that awards these things more on long-term reputation generally.
Fox will have to “wait his turn”. Haven’t watched too much outside of North hockey but the guy in my pool who drafted Fox chirps me every day the I passed on him for Suzuki.
Idk if he will qualify if he plays the rest of the way, but is it actually in the Kings’ best interest to burn Byfield’s first year of his ELC? I feel like as a guy with a ton of tools that’s a bit rough around the edges they may want to get to RFA a year earlier in case he explodes right before then.
stole the first game and almost the second one, best player in the tournament by a wide margin i was a nervous wreck with him being lights out and Luongo in Canada’s net.
Our former Penguins on minimum contracts having monster seasons Sprong 2nd in es g/60 before tonight and scored again
Next year’s UFA class feels like the weakest in a long time. https://www.capfriendly.com/browse/free-agents/2022/caphit/all/all/ufa
Ovi basically doesn’t count bc he’s either re-signing with the caps or going back to Russia. taylor hall is less valuable than he was last year. Nuge almost seems like the crown jewel of the offseason.
I hope to god that the new TV deal helps the NHL learn how to schedule better. There’s 15 games today on a Saturday. It should be a great day of hockey. Instead we get 2 likely beatings of games with Bruins Sabres and lightning Wings at noon and 2 and then 10 games starting at 6 or 7
Shitty GM forces second year coach to play a bunch of old and slow plugs. 2-12-1 in first 15. Rest of season will be over .500. I want the Sens to lose but they keep beating teams.
i am always on the fence on that issue, if I am a sens fan I think I am happy that they show pride and win some games. At this point another franchise player would be nice but you have a good young nucleus that needs to build some winning momentum
Too bad no elite player in this draft. I do expect Sanderson to step in right away next spring and be top 4. One more high end forward is needed.
you are being greedy, but yeah a top end forward would solidify your team. I agree with you on Sanderson. That guy will be a top 3 for 10 years. Not that flashy but good all the time.
I was just thinking of a comparison for Sanderson and I think he could be a better version of Jeff petry. Smooth skating tall defenseman that can move the puck, can play physical sometimes and can also score and defend well.