Honestly, this team doesn't need a superstar scorer
Funny how every year the "we need a 50-goal sniper" crowd goes quiet right around round two when the top line gets glued to the wall and the D-corps is the only reason we're even in those games 😏 I'll take another rock on the blue line over a highlight-reel winger, and honestly the puck line agrees with me more often than the fanboys do. Clown takes incoming, I can already feel it 🤡
And when the D-corps keeps you in those games, who exactly puts the puck in the net? That's my problem with this whole love affair. Three straight round twos where we can't score, defence held serve every time and we still went home. Keeping a 2-1 game close only matters if someone buries the chance at the other end.
I'm not saying trade for any sniper with a fancy shot total, either. But the "the puck line likes the D" argument cuts both ways. Tight games are one bounce from losing. Show me a defenceman available who actually moves the needle more than a finisher does. Names, please.
Fanatic_Life gets it, keeping games 2-1 tight and losing 2-1 is still LOSING 😤 you just know a sniper changes those round twos. Defenceman again? nah...
On the terraces since I was a kid.
back in my day we watched the 2011 group win it all with depth and defence, no 50-goal man in sight. But i'll grant you all this: that team still had Marchand and Horton finishing when it mattered. keep a rock on the blue line by all means, but if nobody buries those 2-1 chances in round two, we're just writing nicer obituaries 😉 patience's fine, dying in round two forever isn't.
KevReds making my point for me there, mate 😄 2011 had finishing because the defence gave them the puck in the right spots - Chara and Seidenberg ate minutes so the forwards could skate. that's the whole trick.
watch as long as I have and you'll get it: a sniper gets fed by a good blue line, he doesn't conjure chances out of thin air. add a rocket up front and we're still watching him get pinned in round two with nobody breaking it out. defence first, always - build from the net out, same as back in the day. 😉
Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
DaveArmy's got it backwards - Chara and Seidenberg were the finishers' enablers, sure, but who created that 2011 offence from the back end? A defenceman who moves the puck IS the sniper upgrade.
Sample first, conclusions after.
DaveBeliever nails it, and I'd only add a caveat: a puck-mover only pays off if the forwards finish the chances he generates, which is exactly what's been missing three round twos running. I keep a spreadsheet every spring on this stuff, and the pattern in my own table matches what Jack_Fan sees, defence kept us alive, finishing ghosted us. So for me it's the defenceman first, then pray a depth forward pops off like Horton did in 2011.
Do the math before you argue.
RideOrDieZone hitting the nail on the head and everyone's still dancing around it 😂 Look, I dropped a fair bit on the puck line these last few playoffs and every single time the pattern was identical — the D-corps kept us in it, the forwards went cold, ticket dead. That tells you where the leak is. A sniper without service is just a name on the scoresheet getting shadowed by some second-pairing plug all night. Give me the defenceman who can exit the zone clean and suddenly your "mediocre" wingers look like finishers because they're actually receiving passes in stride instead of chipping it out off the glass every shift. DaveBeliever's basically said it but I'll be blunt about it: pay for the guy who creates, because finishers are a dime a dozen when the system feeds them. Anyone spending big on a 50-goal guy in this market is basically buying a lottery ticket and calling it a strategy 💸
It's a lottery, not sport.
Nah, puck-mover or no, if the forwards can't bury a rebound in round two, we're talking to ourselves again 🔥🤬 gimme the D, fix the leak where it actually is tbh
I've watched since the old barn days, 2011 had both ends humming, and the sniper-upgrade crowd forgets that. Trade for scoring help, not another D while Marchand's line starves.
Seen it all, lads.
Tape says the leak is at both ends of one chain: D generates, forwards can't finish. Small sample though. Three round twos isn't a career-long trend. Keep arguing 📊
Context beats a bare stat.
Tape says the leak is at both ends of one chain: D generates, forwards can't finish. Small sample though. Three round twos isn't a career-long trend. Keep arguing 📊
@ZoeTillIDie small sample? nah, three straight round twos with the forwards going quiet is a pattern no matter how you slice it 😤
watched my jets do this exact dance, defence holds the fort all series, forwards ghost, and suddenly everyone's screaming for a sniper like one guy fixes everything. if the D is generating and nobody buries it, that's a finishing problem, period. gimme a finisher, keep the back end stacked 💪
This thread kinda mirrors what Jets fans went through, so I get Sam's point 😅 maybe I'm wrong here, but if the defence is already solid, doesn't one guy who can finish count double when the games get tight? Still learning this stuff, thanks for the tape breakdown Zoe, that helped 🙏
Learn something new every day.