wprager
Administrator
Number of posts : 52870
Age : 63
Location : Kanata
Favorite Team : Ottawa
Registration date : 2008-08-05
Ev wrote: dennycrane wrote:Was at the game. Spezza really had a great game for Dallas. Bobby Ryan was good too but was saddled with Gomez and Dzingel. What a waste of a player and such a telling statement that Gomez is the best center you can find for Bobby Ryan. Dzingel isn't bad but he is no more than a 4th liner.
What Dallas did was essentially double-cover Ryan and Hoffman. They were both saddled with inferior linemates. Bad coaching.
I disagree. I thought Gomez was an excellent centre for Ryan because of his playmaking. Also thought Hoffman should have been scratched for the game. He was terrible again yesterday and cost us a couple of goals or chances.
Spezza was only noticeable on the pp i found
Only 7 players in the entire league have more even-strength goals over the last two seasons than Hoffman. I would bet none of those players are defensive stalwarts, placed on the 4th line, sat out for an entire period of a game you are trailing, not seeing regular PP time.
I'm not saying Hoffman should get a pass, I'm not saying we should not be trying to get every one to buy in on solid defensive play, I am not saying any of this. But what I am saying is that Dave Cameron is not getting the message through -- it's not just Hoffman. Cameron doesn't say anything about Borowiecki who regularly leaves his partner all alone while he tries to go for a huge hit. I love what Borowiecki brings but he is far from perfect. He has caused just as many turnovers from being *BAD* at handling the puck as Hoffman has simply by being so good that he does it so much of the time. Boro has created probably *more* scoring chances against by being out of position than Hoffman has (big difference, of course, is that at least he gets a lick in on someone, whereas Hoffman is just not in the right place).
But the bottom line in all of this is that this isn't all on Hoffman. Ryan has not bee very good for quite a while. Zibanejad has been not very good for quite a while. Lazar has made plenty of mistakes but, hey, he's just a kid. All those callups have made tons of mistakes. Chiasson has been horrawful for the last two years. Wiercioch and Cowen sucked! Wideman has made mistakes. Karlsson -- OMG, he has made some horrible plays. You can go up and down the lineup and, with very few exceptions, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of Hockey, but it seems Hoffman is the only being singled out by Cameron.
And that is just bad coaching.
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