Honest Bender Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 Well I hope i'm fully recovered now, missed a few games there... a nice win against Dallas and then a tough loss to the Hawks. Another division matchup is up tonight as the surprising Avalanche come to town. Injuries are the name of the game right now for the Predators and the morning skate lines reflect that... Forsberg - Johansen - Arvidsson Hartnell - Jarnkrok - Fiala Sissons - Gaudreau - Smith McLeod - Watson - Aberg Josi - Ekholm Emelin - Subban Irwin - Bitetto Rinne And for the Avalanche... Andrighetto - MacKinnon - Rantanen Kerfoot - Duchene - Yakupov Landeskog - Compher - Wilson Soderberg - Jost - Comeau Zadorov - Johnson Lindholm - Barrie Bigras - Barberio Varlamov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yave1964 Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 Saw that Josi looks ready to slot back in, kind of under the radar with Karlsson coming back for the Sens on the same night. Not sure what your opinion is, but my feeling is they are a one trick pony right now, line wise that is, and I wonder if splitting Forsberg and Arvidsson might not be a good idea. And a question for you, will Rinne keep the job or lose it to the young gifted saros, or possibly slip into a time share? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted October 17, 2017 Share Posted October 17, 2017 I thought the kid Samuel Girard looked good in Josi's place the other night versus my Flyers. He looks like a keeper just on the smaller side but still played a good game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honest Bender Posted October 18, 2017 Author Share Posted October 18, 2017 15 hours ago, yave1964 said: Saw that Josi looks ready to slot back in, kind of under the radar with Karlsson coming back for the Sens on the same night. Not sure what your opinion is, but my feeling is they are a one trick pony right now, line wise that is, and I wonder if splitting Forsberg and Arvidsson might not be a good idea. And a question for you, will Rinne keep the job or lose it to the young gifted saros, or possibly slip into a time share? Depth scoring is an issue right now, Hartnell has been okay but there really hasn't been anything else. We really need Fiala, Smith, Aberg, Bonino, Sissons and Jarnkrok to start contributing more. I wouldn't mind putting Arvidsson on the second line for a while, more than Forsberg or Johansen, Arvy seems to be the one who doesn't need elite linemates to succeed. His offense is mostly created individually on his speed and effort (His nickname is Arvy Hustle), and the Preds did experiment with that in the Preseason when they tried Fiala on the first line and it wasn't bad. The big problem right now is that it's starting to get into these guys heads, Fiala and Aberg especially you can see that they're really trying to do too much and overthink their game because they're trying so desparately to score. This time last year I would have said Rinne was dangerously close to losing his spot to Saros, but so far this season he's been really good. Had four or five incredible saves last night and just seems more focused. One contributing factor that i've never seen in the media is that Rinne got a new prescription for his contacts last March... that just happened to coincide with his surge in play and leading the Preds through the playoffs and now into this season. Saros on the other hand looked awesome in the first half of last season, but down the stretch he struggled and he hasn't looked great in the early part of this season. So for a guy who really seemed to be on the right track to becoming the starter, he's now firmly back in the question mark category. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Honest Bender Posted October 18, 2017 Author Share Posted October 18, 2017 On last night's game: First period... Pretty even, no scoring but plenty of chances each way. Second period... Preds allowed an early PP goal and then took over the game. Arvidsson, Josi and Sissons all scored and the Preds controlled play for the majority of the period, defensively they looked much more settled down. Josi makes a huge difference up and down the lineup in all situations, his presence totally changes the dynamics of how the Preds play, gives them a lot more confidence. A strange penalty occurred at the end of the period. Colton Sissons was crashing the net, in a bang-bang squence, he flies right in on net while getting shoved by an Avs forward (MacKinnon or Duchene?), scores the goal and then bowls over Varlamov. The goal is allowed to stand, but then Sissons is called for charging. Third period... Preds shut it down. Watson scored early to make it 4-1 and it was clear that Colorado didn't have any answer. The Preds have totally dominated the Avs recently. Forsberg and Rinne each have their career best statistics against the Avalanche and they each had a good night again. Special teams was a difference here. Each team had 7 power play chances, [Correction: too many 7's on my brain] The Preds had 5 PP's and 7.5 minutes of man-advantage but managed 14 shots including many high danger chances, while the Avs were limited to just 7 shots on 7 PP opportunities and none of them were particularly difficult stops for Rinne. Of course each side only scored once, but the way the Preds dominated on PP and PK really set up their momentum at ES. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OccamsRazor Posted October 19, 2017 Share Posted October 19, 2017 10 hours ago, Honest Bender said: Depth scoring is an issue right now, Hartnell has been okay but there really hasn't been anything else. We really need Fiala, Smith, Aberg, Bonino, Sissons and Jarnkrok to start contributing more. I wouldn't mind putting Arvidsson on the second line for a while, more than Forsberg or Johansen, Arvy seems to be the one who doesn't need elite linemates to succeed. His offense is mostly created individually on his speed and effort (His nickname is Arvy Hustle), and the Preds did experiment with that in the Preseason when they tried Fiala on the first line and it wasn't bad. The big problem right now is that it's starting to get into these guys heads, Fiala and Aberg especially you can see that they're really trying to do too much and overthink their game because they're trying so desparately to score. This time last year I would have said Rinne was dangerously close to losing his spot to Saros, but so far this season he's been really good. Had four or five incredible saves last night and just seems more focused. One contributing factor that i've never seen in the media is that Rinne got a new prescription for his contacts last March... that just happened to coincide with his surge in play and leading the Preds through the playoffs and now into this season. Saros on the other hand looked awesome in the first half of last season, but down the stretch he struggled and he hasn't looked great in the early part of this season. So for a guy who really seemed to be on the right track to becoming the starter, he's now firmly back in the question mark category. Wow you'd think scoring wouldn't be an issue with you guys after looking at your depth on paper. But i guess the game isn't played on paper. However the hockey season is full of ebs and flows...every team go through at some time during the season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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