Practice Notes April 5

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Duffalufagus

Monahan seems like he is sick almost as much as McDavid.

Really? How often has Monahan missed games because of being ill? McDavid misses time every season, and there are always a catalogue of ailments he is battling through every November.

[GranteedEV]

Originally Posted by Duffalufagus

Because you don't generally put rookies who haven't played the last 60 regular season NHL games out on defence in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

Maybe not generally, but you can't generalize with certain players, and I believe both Valimaki and Kylington are capable enough that they could make positive impacts in the playoffs (I'm not putting a lot of stock into the last couple of games for either guy, I think their body of work on a whole is positive and I believe Peters is cognizant of that).

And on that note, PK Subban 2010 and Charlie McAvoy 2017 should be good examples of why you don't generalize. Shea Theodore's another guy who's bounced between the AHL in the regular season and yet found himself in the NHL playoffs.

It's also looking like Dante Fabbro will be starting for the Preds in the playoffs.

[Textcritic]

Originally Posted by Bingo

A little worse than that.

The Flames are ranked 7th in terms of total powerplay production from the top five guys, and 22nd from everyone else as a total.

Colorado is 4th and 8th ... best be disciplined.

Thanks. I just took a cursory glance at the top power plays and noticed a precipitous drop from the first- to second-unit players, and not an especially significant difference between the Flames and others.

For example, the difference between the eighth-best Avalanche and the Flames is 4 goals and 9 points in 81 games. That does not seem significant enough of a difference to mean much of anything in a seven game series.

[Duffalufagus]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

Really? How often has Monahan missed games because of being ill? McDavid misses time every season, and there are always a catalogue of ailments he is battling through every November.

Flippant comment really. Seems like he has been sick a flair bit this year. Could be wrong.

[Duffalufagus]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

Maybe not generally, but you can't generalize with certain players, and I believe both Valimaki and Kylington are capable enough that they could make positive impacts in the playoffs (I'm not putting a lot of stock into the last couple of games for either guy, I think their body of work on a whole is positive and I believe Peters is cognizant of that).

And on that note, PK Subban 2010 and Charlie McAvoy 2017 should be good examples of why you don't generalize. Shea Theodore's another guy who's bounced between the AHL in the regular season and yet found himself in the NHL playoffs.

It's also looking like Dante Fabbro will be starting for the Preds in the playoffs.

Valimaki would almost certainly be in if he had played in the NHL at all in the last 5 months. But, he hasn't.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by EldrickOnIce

A thigh injury could have been the only lingering result of that hit. This is possible. So Peters says he will play before realizing the injury that actually occurred on the play was not a head injury.

I do not presume to know, nor assume coach is either deceiving or telling truth. We don't know.

What we know for certain is that team doctors did not have enough time to make a thorough evaluation when Peters made his statement after the game. And Peters was of course well aware of that fact.

And now Monahan is “sick”.

This time of year about the only way to guess at a players health is how (and if) they are playing. Yet some will continue to argue that coaches aren’t being deceptive and untruthful. Or at least our coaches aren’t.

Peters is old school. I wouldn’t believe a word out of his mouth this time of year as it won’t be possible to decipher truth from fiction. Everything he says will have a purpose and that purpose won’t be to inform those outside of the team of what is really going on..

[GioforPM]

Originally Posted by Duffalufagus

Flippant comment really. Seems like he has been sick a flair bit this year. Could be wrong.

Once earlier this season for a few games IIRC. After Smith was sick.

[Macindoc]

Originally Posted by Duffalufagus

Valimaki would almost certainly be in if he had played in the NHL at all in the last 5 months. But, he hasn't.

Also, with respect to tomorrow's game, I think I heard that if Valimaki played in it, he would lose his rookie status, at least WRT Calder eligibility. We may still see him in the playoffs when he gets up to game speed, likely as the first up if someone on the left side is injured or if Fantenberg stumbles a bit.

[CGY12]

Originally Posted by GranteedEV

I already said Brodie doesn't elect to shoot a lot. But that's a different story from saying his shot always gets blocked. And we've seen with Dougie Hamilton that mindless volume shooting doesn't make a better powerplay, either.

But you are only telling half the story.

I'd be curious to know shot attempts and shots on net numbers, for all 4 players.

I'd wager Brodie is dead last in shots on net on the PP. Which speaks to his shots either getting blocked or missing the net (since he hesitates out there and doesn't get his shot off quickly).

[Bingo]

Originally Posted by Strange Brew

What we know for certain is that team doctors did not have enough time to make a thorough evaluation when Peters made his statement after the game. And Peters was of course well aware of that fact.

And now Monahan is “sick”.

This time of year about the only way to guess at a players health is how (and if) they are playing. Yet some will continue to argue that coaches aren’t being deceptive and untruthful. Or at least our coaches aren’t.

Peters is old school. I wouldn’t believe a word out of his mouth this time of year as it won’t be possible to decipher truth from fiction. Everything he says will have a purpose and that purpose won’t be to inform those outside of the team of what is really going on..

I for one have certainly never suggested coaches and Peters won't hold some information or fudge the issues. That's a given.

His specific nature for Bennett though seemed like a silly course of action if he knew the player was concussed and out for an undetermined amount of time.

Monahan is sick is exactly the type of thing I expect when a player is either a) sick or b) nursing something that they don't want out.

Bennett will play again in the regular season hems him in too much, it was an odd comment that led me to believe that's what he actually thought.

[Strange Brew]

Originally Posted by Bingo

I for one have certainly never suggested coaches and Peters won't hold some information or fudge the issues. That's a given.

His specific nature for Bennett though seemed like a silly course of action if he knew the player was concussed and out for an undetermined amount of time.

Monahan is sick is exactly the type of thing I expect when a player is either a) sick or b) nursing something that they don't want out.

Bennett will play again in the regular season hems him in too much, it was an odd comment that led me to believe that's what he actually thought.

Oh I think we see it the same way. I just think it's a bit of a fool's errand to try to discern the truth when you know for a fact someone is not going to be transparent. He is telling 75% of the truth? 50%? Is he choosing his words so it's not technically a lie, but it's misleading? We don't know.

My personal guess?

Highly unlikely that Monahan has suffered an "illness" for the second time in a matter of weeks. He is nursing something but his play in his last game looked pretty good.

Peters didn't know the extent of Bennett's injury, or if he was even injured at all and so his first instinct was to send out a positive message.

Were/are both players suffering the effects of concussions? Possible. It's clear at this point in the season Flames aren't going to tell us.

This organization sent Giordano out for a pre-game skate after suffering a season ending injury. He wasn't out there to test out his ability to play.

[Flamenspiel]

I would say that they are simply resting these players, NHL rules prevent that so they have to say that they are injured. Bennet is the only one i have concerns about.

Dallas sat half their team last night.

[browna]

Be interesting to see in the years ahead if the NHL embraces gambling like is planned, how injuries late in the year and playoffs are to be handled then. NFL has a strict protocol around that, even though it’s not for *wink* gambling purposes.