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Post by The OC on Jan 24, 2024 5:45:54 GMT
Fixed it for you.
You may call it "hate". I wouldn't, because I know why I am relentless in posting my opinion about #48 (in which I am definitely not alone). If the coaches and GMs involved in this were a little more reasonable and didn't stubbornly treat Grz like he's a good defenseman (which he definitely isn't - he's not even an NHL caliber defenseman, he's a below-average minor leaguer), I wouldn't even think about being so harsh. "He was even on the night", okay, that wasn't too hard as the Jets only scored one goal. But wasn't he supposed to provide assists and a few goals from the blue line, basically replacing the a million times more capable Torey Krug? Graesslich has two goals and five assists this season, and he's +6 because he gets all the protection Montgomery can muster. Why, FFS, why? A much more talented kid like Mason Lohrei has to feel something stinks when he has to sit out games while #48 can commit all kinds of lousy mistakes without being called to the floor.
Sorry, I am an emotional guy, always have been. And I won't calm down about it. Look, I'm not here to praise Caesar or to bury him, but one of the things that makes me shake my head is when people get Larry Murphy syndrome. It's a particular kind of confirmation bias about a player where you only notice the things that confirm your judgement of him, the coaching staff for playing him, management for paying him and his mother for giving birth. Calling a guy who has played 6+ seasons on the team with the best points% in the league over that stretch, and who has scored about 1 point/3 games over that time despite not being on the PP regularly a "below-average minor leaguer" just wrecks your credibility on this. It's an emotional statement, not a reasonable one. He has 101 ES points since he became a regular. There is no defenseman who has played the same TOI or less who has more points at even strength. But because he doesn't produce as much as guys who play 20-25% more than he does, including on the PP, people say he doesn't contribute on offense. I don't know why anyone gives any credibility to the narrative that he was supposed to replace Krug's production, either. There's absolutely no reason to have thought that other than they're both short. I don't recall the team saying that when they let Krug go, or at least, not specifically saying "we let Torey go because we have Grz". Maybe "we have other guys who can pick up the slack including Grz". The "we'll have one short NCAA D replace another!" narrative was always a fan site narrative and not real. Now we're into conspiracy theory territory on him. The only reason he's still in the lineup is his dad, his relationship with McAvoy, his wife, Sweeney's got mad cow.... Watch Ottawa for a few games and tell me they wouldn't rather have Grz over Brannstrom, or Hamonic, or Bernard-Docker - who they already risked losing for nothing and no one took him. Watch the 5-6 for Montreal. Watch the shitshow that is Rasmus Dahlin's decision-making this year. 5-6 D are a shitshow league wide. Clifton's getting just slightly more TOI in Buffalo and he's a hot mess. I don't see a conspiracy. What I see is something that coaches say all around the league - guys are going to make mistakes. We'll live with mistakes as long as you also make plays, and Grz makes a lot of plays for a guy in his role. Or he has for most of his career. I think he's been worse than usual this year, and maybe that's a good thing because they can walk at the end of the year and not get caught with him becoming a crapfest. I mean, I get it. He's not a great player. He's a #6 maybe #7 on a contender, and in the playoffs, we know he becomes a liability against heavy teams. Again, not here to praise Caesar. But he's capable enough that if he's their #6, they will be just fine until the playoffs. Replacing him is not an issue, and running him out of town for the cost of a tank of gas and some feathers is silly. That line about it not being hard for him to be even on the night is a good example of the confirmation bias. The Jets only got one goal, so easy enough not to be a minus. Sure. But the Bruins shut down the Jets shot attempts for most of the game and he was part of that. They limited the Jets chances by being faster to pucks and making smart moves to keep possession. They didn't get hemmed in by a team that ate their lunch recently. Oh, and you know who didn't play in that game? Grz. And lastly, money. I don't care about the actual dollars for this year because it's a contract over X number of years. I don't think about guys getting the same $10K or whatever they make per day on game days and on off days during the season for the same reason. It's a 4 year contract that breaks down to $3.687M per season, and that's also his cap hit. So however they break it up to pay the total is just flucky fluck to me. Now look at his stats relative to guys who make about the same amount of cash. Take out the guys who are too young to have signed contracts that cover UFA years like Byram and Miller. And look both at his current 0.22 points/game and +/- and his career 0.32. And you'll see he produces similar stats despite playing less as guys who make similar coin. He will make less after this. If he's a Bruin next year, I would be surprised if it's for more than $1.25M. That's because he's over 30 now and there's not the market for him to drive his price and his term. But he'll play. FFS, Mike Reilly is playing. Matt Irwin played for years. And a last thought - I get emotional when I have to hear about how I should worry some rookie who has proven the square root of balls is going to be butthurt because the coach trusts another player more than him. If Lohrei thinks he's significantly better than Grz and should be playing ahead of him, I hope they trade him to Ak-Bars Kazan because I don't want that prima donna on this team. Fuck him. But of course, he doesn't because he probably knows he didn't make the plays the coaches told him to make in certain situations. It wasn't an obvious mistake like being out of position but it was a mental mistake that undermines the coach's faith that you understand what's being asked of you. And there's probably a lot of that we don't know about because we don't hear the coach's instructions. I tend to have faith that the coach is going to do what's best for his job, and that he knows what's best for his job - winning, but also the players who are most likely to get there. If he doesn't, he gets fired and another guy comes in and tried to do just that - what's best to keep the job. If Montgomery though Lohrei was ready, or that it would be better for him to play against NHL competition so he'd be the best option by the playoffs, he'd play him in Boston. Barring being told he can't have him for Cap reasons, of course. Larry Murphy was almost 40, a 2-time champ (and the top D on said champ) when he was "Larry Murphied". He went on to win a couple more champs and play a huge role post-Murphying. But let's not compare Gryz to Murph. Larry was an elite player his whole career, 4X champ, scored 1000+ points (crazy!) and is in the hall of fame; Gryz has been average to third pairing and has pretty much sucked every playoff. We're not blind. Gryz is an OK NHL D but sucks under pressure and brings nothing to a team when he's the #3 or 4 or 5 option on the PP. We all know it. He's a clear weak point on the team. I hope he's dealt, but if he's not he will definitely be reduced to the role of spare come playoffs when keeping him legit for a trade doesn't matter. Lolo and the Wither are both better options now and into the future and Matt won't get another Bruins contract no matter how hard his dad works, no matter how much Charlie likes him and no matter how hot his wife is.
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Post by MrHulot on Jan 24, 2024 7:42:57 GMT
Fixed it for you.
You may call it "hate". I wouldn't, because I know why I am relentless in posting my opinion about #48 (in which I am definitely not alone). If the coaches and GMs involved in this were a little more reasonable and didn't stubbornly treat Grz like he's a good defenseman (which he definitely isn't - he's not even an NHL caliber defenseman, he's a below-average minor leaguer), I wouldn't even think about being so harsh. "He was even on the night", okay, that wasn't too hard as the Jets only scored one goal. But wasn't he supposed to provide assists and a few goals from the blue line, basically replacing the a million times more capable Torey Krug? Graesslich has two goals and five assists this season, and he's +6 because he gets all the protection Montgomery can muster. Why, FFS, why? A much more talented kid like Mason Lohrei has to feel something stinks when he has to sit out games while #48 can commit all kinds of lousy mistakes without being called to the floor.
Sorry, I am an emotional guy, always have been. And I won't calm down about it. Look, I'm not here to praise Caesar or to bury him, but one of the things that makes me shake my head is when people get Larry Murphy syndrome. It's a particular kind of confirmation bias about a player where you only notice the things that confirm your judgement of him, the coaching staff for playing him, management for paying him and his mother for giving birth. Calling a guy who has played 6+ seasons on the team with the best points% in the league over that stretch, and who has scored about 1 point/3 games over that time despite not being on the PP regularly a "below-average minor leaguer" just wrecks your credibility on this. It's an emotional statement, not a reasonable one. He has 101 ES points since he became a regular. There is no defenseman who has played the same TOI or less who has more points at even strength. But because he doesn't produce as much as guys who play 20-25% more than he does, including on the PP, people say he doesn't contribute on offense. I don't know why anyone gives any credibility to the narrative that he was supposed to replace Krug's production, either. There's absolutely no reason to have thought that other than they're both short. I don't recall the team saying that when they let Krug go, or at least, not specifically saying "we let Torey go because we have Grz". Maybe "we have other guys who can pick up the slack including Grz". The "we'll have one short NCAA D replace another!" narrative was always a fan site narrative and not real. Now we're into conspiracy theory territory on him. The only reason he's still in the lineup is his dad, his relationship with McAvoy, his wife, Sweeney's got mad cow.... Watch Ottawa for a few games and tell me they wouldn't rather have Grz over Brannstrom, or Hamonic, or Bernard-Docker - who they already risked losing for nothing and no one took him. Watch the 5-6 for Montreal. Watch the shitshow that is Rasmus Dahlin's decision-making this year. 5-6 D are a shitshow league wide. Clifton's getting just slightly more TOI in Buffalo and he's a hot mess. I don't see a conspiracy. What I see is something that coaches say all around the league - guys are going to make mistakes. We'll live with mistakes as long as you also make plays, and Grz makes a lot of plays for a guy in his role. Or he has for most of his career. I think he's been worse than usual this year, and maybe that's a good thing because they can walk at the end of the year and not get caught with him becoming a crapfest. I mean, I get it. He's not a great player. He's a #6 maybe #7 on a contender, and in the playoffs, we know he becomes a liability against heavy teams. Again, not here to praise Caesar. But he's capable enough that if he's their #6, they will be just fine until the playoffs. Replacing him is not an issue, and running him out of town for the cost of a tank of gas and some feathers is silly. That line about it not being hard for him to be even on the night is a good example of the confirmation bias. The Jets only got one goal, so easy enough not to be a minus. Sure. But the Bruins shut down the Jets shot attempts for most of the game and he was part of that. They limited the Jets chances by being faster to pucks and making smart moves to keep possession. They didn't get hemmed in by a team that ate their lunch recently. Oh, and you know who didn't play in that game? Grz. And lastly, money. I don't care about the actual dollars for this year because it's a contract over X number of years. I don't think about guys getting the same $10K or whatever they make per day on game days and on off days during the season for the same reason. It's a 4 year contract that breaks down to $3.687M per season, and that's also his cap hit. So however they break it up to pay the total is just flucky fluck to me. Now look at his stats relative to guys who make about the same amount of cash. Take out the guys who are too young to have signed contracts that cover UFA years like Byram and Miller. And look both at his current 0.22 points/game and +/- and his career 0.32. And you'll see he produces similar stats despite playing less as guys who make similar coin. He will make less after this. If he's a Bruin next year, I would be surprised if it's for more than $1.25M. That's because he's over 30 now and there's not the market for him to drive his price and his term. But he'll play. FFS, Mike Reilly is playing. Matt Irwin played for years. And a last thought - I get emotional when I have to hear about how I should worry some rookie who has proven the square root of balls is going to be butthurt because the coach trusts another player more than him. If Lohrei thinks he's significantly better than Grz and should be playing ahead of him, I hope they trade him to Ak-Bars Kazan because I don't want that prima donna on this team. Fuck him. But of course, he doesn't because he probably knows he didn't make the plays the coaches told him to make in certain situations. It wasn't an obvious mistake like being out of position but it was a mental mistake that undermines the coach's faith that you understand what's being asked of you. And there's probably a lot of that we don't know about because we don't hear the coach's instructions. I tend to have faith that the coach is going to do what's best for his job, and that he knows what's best for his job - winning, but also the players who are most likely to get there. If he doesn't, he gets fired and another guy comes in and tried to do just that - what's best to keep the job. If Montgomery though Lohrei was ready, or that it would be better for him to play against NHL competition so he'd be the best option by the playoffs, he'd play him in Boston. Barring being told he can't have him for Cap reasons, of course. Book, I'm looking at what I'm seeing when I watch Bruins games this season, #48's contract year btw, and this season Matt Grzelcyk is playing like he's a below-average minor league defenseman. I don't care if he had fantastic stats the previous seasons, or if he's from the Boston area, or if the Senators have worse defensemen than him, because what I'm seeing this season is that somehow he always seems to be the one who appears to be totally in over his head and screws up on a regular basis. And I personally don't like his approach in the B's own end, positioning himself religiously at the far goal post, preferably when there is no opposing player anywhere near for him to cover, and apparently trying to supply Linus or JS, whoever is in the Bruins net that night, with fresh air by waving his stick around. Why do the Bruins have to carry a 5'10" defenseman who quite obviously shies away from contact on their roster anyway? There's a guy by the name of Steven Kampfer (he's still playing, but in the AHL, btw) who according to nhl.com is even one inch taller than Grz, and he played for the B's because they then needed a puck-moving defenseman, but he was constantly criticized for being "not tall or physical enough", and his NHL career suffered for it - but it's okay for Herr Graesslich to be "not tall or physical enough" because he's Charlie McAvoy's buddy, and part of his family works at TD Garden, and he got slightly better stats than Kampfer because the coaches protect him like a bunch of raw eggs in the lineup? The B's do have some pmds on their roster they don't need to protect and who can do the job at least just as good as Grzelcyk, no, they're even better at it. "I tend to have faith that the coach is going to do what's best for his job, and that he knows what's best for his job" - after last year's playoff disaster for which he shares a considerable part of blame I'm a little sensitive to what Montgomery is doing, especially when I have the feeling that he keeps messing around with his dmen formation just to keep our beloved little mascot Matty G. in the lineup so Sweeney can maybe re-sign him after this season. And lastly I really don't see why the Bruins should re-sign him, not even for the league minimum. He's a disaster waiting to happen whenever he's on the ice this season, and I think it's going to be telling that absolutely no other team will be even remotely interested in his services.
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Post by bookboy007 on Jan 24, 2024 12:49:59 GMT
Look, I'm not here to praise Caesar or to bury him, but one of the things that makes me shake my head is when people get Larry Murphy syndrome. It's a particular kind of confirmation bias about a player where you only notice the things that confirm your judgement of him, the coaching staff for playing him, management for paying him and his mother for giving birth. Calling a guy who has played 6+ seasons on the team with the best points% in the league over that stretch, and who has scored about 1 point/3 games over that time despite not being on the PP regularly a "below-average minor leaguer" just wrecks your credibility on this. It's an emotional statement, not a reasonable one. He has 101 ES points since he became a regular. There is no defenseman who has played the same TOI or less who has more points at even strength. But because he doesn't produce as much as guys who play 20-25% more than he does, including on the PP, people say he doesn't contribute on offense. I don't know why anyone gives any credibility to the narrative that he was supposed to replace Krug's production, either. There's absolutely no reason to have thought that other than they're both short. I don't recall the team saying that when they let Krug go, or at least, not specifically saying "we let Torey go because we have Grz". Maybe "we have other guys who can pick up the slack including Grz". The "we'll have one short NCAA D replace another!" narrative was always a fan site narrative and not real. Now we're into conspiracy theory territory on him. The only reason he's still in the lineup is his dad, his relationship with McAvoy, his wife, Sweeney's got mad cow.... Watch Ottawa for a few games and tell me they wouldn't rather have Grz over Brannstrom, or Hamonic, or Bernard-Docker - who they already risked losing for nothing and no one took him. Watch the 5-6 for Montreal. Watch the shitshow that is Rasmus Dahlin's decision-making this year. 5-6 D are a shitshow league wide. Clifton's getting just slightly more TOI in Buffalo and he's a hot mess. I don't see a conspiracy. What I see is something that coaches say all around the league - guys are going to make mistakes. We'll live with mistakes as long as you also make plays, and Grz makes a lot of plays for a guy in his role. Or he has for most of his career. I think he's been worse than usual this year, and maybe that's a good thing because they can walk at the end of the year and not get caught with him becoming a crapfest. I mean, I get it. He's not a great player. He's a #6 maybe #7 on a contender, and in the playoffs, we know he becomes a liability against heavy teams. Again, not here to praise Caesar. But he's capable enough that if he's their #6, they will be just fine until the playoffs. Replacing him is not an issue, and running him out of town for the cost of a tank of gas and some feathers is silly. That line about it not being hard for him to be even on the night is a good example of the confirmation bias. The Jets only got one goal, so easy enough not to be a minus. Sure. But the Bruins shut down the Jets shot attempts for most of the game and he was part of that. They limited the Jets chances by being faster to pucks and making smart moves to keep possession. They didn't get hemmed in by a team that ate their lunch recently. Oh, and you know who didn't play in that game? Grz. And lastly, money. I don't care about the actual dollars for this year because it's a contract over X number of years. I don't think about guys getting the same $10K or whatever they make per day on game days and on off days during the season for the same reason. It's a 4 year contract that breaks down to $3.687M per season, and that's also his cap hit. So however they break it up to pay the total is just flucky fluck to me. Now look at his stats relative to guys who make about the same amount of cash. Take out the guys who are too young to have signed contracts that cover UFA years like Byram and Miller. And look both at his current 0.22 points/game and +/- and his career 0.32. And you'll see he produces similar stats despite playing less as guys who make similar coin. He will make less after this. If he's a Bruin next year, I would be surprised if it's for more than $1.25M. That's because he's over 30 now and there's not the market for him to drive his price and his term. But he'll play. FFS, Mike Reilly is playing. Matt Irwin played for years. And a last thought - I get emotional when I have to hear about how I should worry some rookie who has proven the square root of balls is going to be butthurt because the coach trusts another player more than him. If Lohrei thinks he's significantly better than Grz and should be playing ahead of him, I hope they trade him to Ak-Bars Kazan because I don't want that prima donna on this team. Fuck him. But of course, he doesn't because he probably knows he didn't make the plays the coaches told him to make in certain situations. It wasn't an obvious mistake like being out of position but it was a mental mistake that undermines the coach's faith that you understand what's being asked of you. And there's probably a lot of that we don't know about because we don't hear the coach's instructions. I tend to have faith that the coach is going to do what's best for his job, and that he knows what's best for his job - winning, but also the players who are most likely to get there. If he doesn't, he gets fired and another guy comes in and tried to do just that - what's best to keep the job. If Montgomery though Lohrei was ready, or that it would be better for him to play against NHL competition so he'd be the best option by the playoffs, he'd play him in Boston. Barring being told he can't have him for Cap reasons, of course. Larry Murphy was almost 40, a 2-time champ (and the top D on said champ) when he was "Larry Murphied". He went on to win a couple more champs and play a huge role post-Murphying. But let's not compare Gryz to Murph. Larry was an elite player his whole career, 4X champ, scored 1000+ points (crazy!) and is in the hall of fame; Gryz has been average to third pairing and has pretty much sucked every playoff. We're not blind. Gryz is an OK NHL D but sucks under pressure and brings nothing to a team when he's the #3 or 4 or 5 option on the PP. We all know it. He's a clear weak point on the team. I hope he's dealt, but if he's not he will definitely be reduced to the role of spare come playoffs when keeping him legit for a trade doesn't matter. Lolo and the Wither are both better options now and into the future and Matt won't get another Bruins contract no matter how hard his dad works, no matter how much Charlie likes him and no matter how hot his wife is. The syndrome is names after Murphy; I'm not comparing Grz to Murphy. When someone has a "Gordie Howe Hat Trick", there's no need to remind people the player is no Gordie Howe. My point is that yes, the #6 or #7 D on the team is going to be one of their weakest players. But their impact either way tends to be marginal unless they're specialists like FoBo and PK. Same thing with Steen or Boqvist. They are at the bottom of the roster. They don't play in the third period of close games. Fixating in them as though the team would be significantly better if only they'd get rid of the dead weight is just going to bring in the next irritant. As for the Lohrei dimension, or the Wotherspoon conundrum...the lesson of last season was not to care so much about the minutia of the regualr season record. I want both guys to play and I think Lohrei is better playing 23 a night in all situations in the A than 15 in Boston. I think he's in for Grz come the playoffs, and if not him, Wotherspoon. It doesn't have to be right now.
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Post by chappy28 on Jan 24, 2024 13:15:12 GMT
Larry Murphy was almost 40, a 2-time champ (and the top D on said champ) when he was "Larry Murphied". He went on to win a couple more champs and play a huge role post-Murphying. But let's not compare Gryz to Murph. Larry was an elite player his whole career, 4X champ, scored 1000+ points (crazy!) and is in the hall of fame; Gryz has been average to third pairing and has pretty much sucked every playoff. We're not blind. Gryz is an OK NHL D but sucks under pressure and brings nothing to a team when he's the #3 or 4 or 5 option on the PP. We all know it. He's a clear weak point on the team. I hope he's dealt, but if he's not he will definitely be reduced to the role of spare come playoffs when keeping him legit for a trade doesn't matter. Lolo and the Wither are both better options now and into the future and Matt won't get another Bruins contract no matter how hard his dad works, no matter how much Charlie likes him and no matter how hot his wife is. The syndrome is names after Murphy; I'm not comparing Grz to Murphy. When someone has a "Gordie Howe Hat Trick", there's no need to remind people the player is no Gordie Howe. My point is that yes, the #6 or #7 D on the team is going to be one of their weakest players. But their impact either way tends to be marginal unless they're specialists like FoBo and PK. Same thing with Steen or Boqvist. They are at the bottom of the roster. They don't play in the third period of close games. Fixating in them as though the team would be significantly better if only they'd get rid of the dead weight is just going to bring in the next irritant. As for the Lohrei dimension, or the Wotherspoon conundrum...the lesson of last season was not to care so much about the minutia of the regualr season record. I want both guys to play and I think Lohrei is better playing 23 a night in all situations in the A than 15 in Boston. I think he's in for Grz come the playoffs, and if not him, Wotherspoon. It doesn't have to be right now. Then there's just the reality of who can get sent down without waivers. Wotherspoon was up on emergency recall which is the only reason they could send him down without waivers. Lohrei can still be sent down without waivers at his stage of his career. Gryz can't make it through waivers and neither can Forbert, not that anybody is calling for his head. Sweeney is playing it smart. When everyone's healthy the guys who can go to Providence, do go to Providence. Hopefully this is just how we preserve depth for the playoffs since we don't really have the draft capital to stock up on depth like we tend to do at the deadline each year. On the bright side, when you are 8 deep with legit NHL defensemen and arguing who over who should play because #7 and #8 have played well enough to make it a debate then that's a good problem to have. McAvoy Carlo Lindholm Forbert Shatty Gryz Lohrei Wotherspoon Zboril Almost forgot about Zboril, is he even here anymore? Also, I haven't seen the games, but when you look at the Providence roster and player stats, Regula and Renouf are way out in front with a plus 26/21 respectively with the next closest player at +14. So even if we get through our 7-8 depth guys at the NHL level, it at least seems like we have another option or two in Providence that could fill in if needed.
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Post by bookboy007 on Jan 24, 2024 13:28:22 GMT
Book, I'm looking at what I'm seeing when I watch Bruins games this season, #48's contract year btw, and this season Matt Grzelcyk is playing like he's a below-average minor league defenseman. I don't care if he had fantastic stats the previous seasons, or if he's from the Boston area, or if the Senators have worse defensemen than him, because what I'm seeing this season is that somehow he always seems to be the one who appears to be totally in over his head and screws up on a regular basis. And I personally don't like his approach in the B's own end, positioning himself religiously at the far goal post, preferably when there is no opposing player anywhere near for him to cover, and apparently trying to supply Linus or JS, whoever is in the Bruins net that night, with fresh air by waving his stick around. Why do the Bruins have to carry a 5'10" defenseman who quite obviously shies away from contact on their roster anyway? There's a guy by the name of Steven Kampfer (he's still playing, but in the AHL, btw) who according to nhl.com is even one inch taller than Grz, and he played for the B's because they then needed a puck-moving defenseman, but he was constantly criticized for being "not tall or physical enough", and his NHL career suffered for it - but it's okay for Herr Graesslich to be "not tall or physical enough" because he's Charlie McAvoy's buddy, and part of his family works at TD Garden, and he got slightly better stats than Kampfer because the coaches protect him like a bunch of raw eggs in the lineup? The B's do have some pmds on their roster they don't need to protect and who can do the job at least just as good as Grzelcyk, no, they're even better at it. "I tend to have faith that the coach is going to do what's best for his job, and that he knows what's best for his job" - after last year's playoff disaster for which he shares a considerable part of blame I'm a little sensitive to what Montgomery is doing, especially when I have the feeling that he keeps messing around with his dmen formation just to keep our beloved little mascot Matty G. in the lineup so Sweeney can maybe re-sign him after this season. And lastly I really don't see why the Bruins should re-sign him, not even for the league minimum. He's a disaster waiting to happen whenever he's on the ice this season, and I think it's going to be telling that absolutely no other team will be even remotely interested in his services. I care even less that he's related to the janitor. This team gave no shits at all that Chris Bourque's dad had worked for the team, so I doubt the janitor has much say in this. That's part of my point. All that conspiracy garbage is just a way of explaining away something I don't think is that hard to understand, which is that in the eyes of the coaches, Grz makes more plays than errors. He plays the system the way they want him to play the system. It's the old line about mental vs. physical errors; coaches will forgive physical errors and Grz has a lot of room to be out-physicalled. As for Grz's approach in his own end, I don't think he gets to have his own personal approach. I think he does what they tell him to do. That's part of why they keep playing him. And the reason I bring the stats into it is that they show his mistakes don't end up in the net as often as you'd think from the way people here fixate on him. Less than the vast majority of #6 or #7 D. And I bring them in because if you don't look at the supply of D talent around the league and how teams are coping with the lack, you expect the Bruins to have a #3 or #4 D based on quality of talent at a #6 spot. It can happen, but it's tough to do, and they get scooped the second someone else can give them a spot higher in the lineup. The comparison to Kampfer is a huge stretch and you know it, and I really wish we would stop talking about his fucking height or comparing him to short guys. Ray Bourque was 5'11. Height only really matters when it's Chara or Carlo or Pronger and they can reach out and touch the boards on one side of the ring, do one crossover, and reach out and touch the other side. NOT being able to do that isn't a fault; it's just an advantage you don't have that a few taller guys do. And can we also chuck out the idea that if you're not 6'5" you are automatically a PMD and expected to put up 40 points? Kampfer never came close to .5 points/game in college. The idea that he was a PMD was laughable from the start and he had double digits in points once in his NHL career. He hit .5 points/game in the AHL once, two years ago in Grand Rapids. Grz's stats are good enough that I don't think you could have them and be anywhere near as bad as you've described even if you were protected by playing only on O-Zone starts paired with Orr on a 76 Canada Cup line. Kampfer is different than Grz because he didn't play a very smart game. He wasn't very good at adjusting to what the coaches asked of him. He was game, and obviously teams thought he was an effective veteran spare part. But in just about every way, Grz is a better player and has shown that at every level, not just in Boston where his daddy is the janitor. And I am not advocating re-signing him. I don't think the Bruins will re-sign him. But someone will because the pool of D talent is thin and he's a 30 yr old with 7-8 years of experience and a lot of winning under his belt. Ian Mitchell got a contract. Dan Renouf got a contract. There will be teams, maybe multiple. Foligno got more from Chicago twice than from Sweeney despite 3 years of hate in Boston. As for questioning Montgomery...I hear your point. But I think we're talking about two separate things. Like, my sommalier friend who keeps dating women who are terrible for him, I will take his advice on wine even if I think he's an idiot for other reasons. I think Montgomery has done a terrific job of getting the most out of a lot of players on this roster. Freddy, Geekie, Zacha (who I know isn't your favourite, but he's been way better in Boston than he ever was in Jersey, and cost just Erik Haula to acquire), even JDB is playing much better over the last two years in most facets of the game so that he's valuable even when he's in a slump. He's made Heinen into a contributor whether people like his game or not. I look at the playoff failure last year - and that's really the only blemish but it's a huge one, like a full face birthmark - as an organizational one and not just a coaching fail. Too many new pieces too soon, too much change, not enough time to test out the options, combined with the obvious failing of not managing your advantage of having two elite goalies in a way that would carry you past the idiots who, conspicuously, DID change goalies and change their fortunes. I just don't think Grz matters enough to warrant all of the concerns over him. He's fine. He'll be gone at the end of the year. Let the other guys develop and acclimate, and eventually replace him in the playoffs.
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Post by dannycater on Jan 24, 2024 14:10:55 GMT
Fixed it for you.
You may call it "hate". I wouldn't, because I know why I am relentless in posting my opinion about #48 (in which I am definitely not alone). If the coaches and GMs involved in this were a little more reasonable and didn't stubbornly treat Grz like he's a good defenseman (which he definitely isn't - he's not even an NHL caliber defenseman, he's a below-average minor leaguer), I wouldn't even think about being so harsh. "He was even on the night", okay, that wasn't too hard as the Jets only scored one goal. But wasn't he supposed to provide assists and a few goals from the blue line, basically replacing the a million times more capable Torey Krug? Graesslich has two goals and five assists this season, and he's +6 because he gets all the protection Montgomery can muster. Why, FFS, why? A much more talented kid like Mason Lohrei has to feel something stinks when he has to sit out games while #48 can commit all kinds of lousy mistakes without being called to the floor.
Sorry, I am an emotional guy, always have been. And I won't calm down about it. Look, I'm not here to praise Caesar or to bury him, but one of the things that makes me shake my head is when people get Larry Murphy syndrome. It's a particular kind of confirmation bias about a player where you only notice the things that confirm your judgement of him, the coaching staff for playing him, management for paying him and his mother for giving birth. Calling a guy who has played 6+ seasons on the team with the best points% in the league over that stretch, and who has scored about 1 point/3 games over that time despite not being on the PP regularly a "below-average minor leaguer" just wrecks your credibility on this. It's an emotional statement, not a reasonable one. He has 101 ES points since he became a regular. There is no defenseman who has played the same TOI or less who has more points at even strength. But because he doesn't produce as much as guys who play 20-25% more than he does, including on the PP, people say he doesn't contribute on offense. I don't know why anyone gives any credibility to the narrative that he was supposed to replace Krug's production, either. There's absolutely no reason to have thought that other than they're both short. I don't recall the team saying that when they let Krug go, or at least, not specifically saying "we let Torey go because we have Grz". Maybe "we have other guys who can pick up the slack including Grz". The "we'll have one short NCAA D replace another!" narrative was always a fan site narrative and not real. Now we're into conspiracy theory territory on him. The only reason he's still in the lineup is his dad, his relationship with McAvoy, his wife, Sweeney's got mad cow.... Watch Ottawa for a few games and tell me they wouldn't rather have Grz over Brannstrom, or Hamonic, or Bernard-Docker - who they already risked losing for nothing and no one took him. Watch the 5-6 for Montreal. Watch the shitshow that is Rasmus Dahlin's decision-making this year. 5-6 D are a shitshow league wide. Clifton's getting just slightly more TOI in Buffalo and he's a hot mess. I don't see a conspiracy. What I see is something that coaches say all around the league - guys are going to make mistakes. We'll live with mistakes as long as you also make plays, and Grz makes a lot of plays for a guy in his role. Or he has for most of his career. I think he's been worse than usual this year, and maybe that's a good thing because they can walk at the end of the year and not get caught with him becoming a crapfest. I mean, I get it. He's not a great player. He's a #6 maybe #7 on a contender, and in the playoffs, we know he becomes a liability against heavy teams. Again, not here to praise Caesar. But he's capable enough that if he's their #6, they will be just fine until the playoffs. Replacing him is not an issue, and running him out of town for the cost of a tank of gas and some feathers is silly. That line about it not being hard for him to be even on the night is a good example of the confirmation bias. The Jets only got one goal, so easy enough not to be a minus. Sure. But the Bruins shut down the Jets shot attempts for most of the game and he was part of that. They limited the Jets chances by being faster to pucks and making smart moves to keep possession. They didn't get hemmed in by a team that ate their lunch recently. Oh, and you know who didn't play in that game? Grz. And lastly, money. I don't care about the actual dollars for this year because it's a contract over X number of years. I don't think about guys getting the same $10K or whatever they make per day on game days and on off days during the season for the same reason. It's a 4 year contract that breaks down to $3.687M per season, and that's also his cap hit. So however they break it up to pay the total is just flucky fluck to me. Now look at his stats relative to guys who make about the same amount of cash. Take out the guys who are too young to have signed contracts that cover UFA years like Byram and Miller. And look both at his current 0.22 points/game and +/- and his career 0.32. And you'll see he produces similar stats despite playing less as guys who make similar coin. He will make less after this. If he's a Bruin next year, I would be surprised if it's for more than $1.25M. That's because he's over 30 now and there's not the market for him to drive his price and his term. But he'll play. FFS, Mike Reilly is playing. Matt Irwin played for years. And a last thought - I get emotional when I have to hear about how I should worry some rookie who has proven the square root of balls is going to be butthurt because the coach trusts another player more than him. If Lohrei thinks he's significantly better than Grz and should be playing ahead of him, I hope they trade him to Ak-Bars Kazan because I don't want that prima donna on this team. Fuck him. But of course, he doesn't because he probably knows he didn't make the plays the coaches told him to make in certain situations. It wasn't an obvious mistake like being out of position but it was a mental mistake that undermines the coach's faith that you understand what's being asked of you. And there's probably a lot of that we don't know about because we don't hear the coach's instructions. I tend to have faith that the coach is going to do what's best for his job, and that he knows what's best for his job - winning, but also the players who are most likely to get there. If he doesn't, he gets fired and another guy comes in and tried to do just that - what's best to keep the job. If Montgomery though Lohrei was ready, or that it would be better for him to play against NHL competition so he'd be the best option by the playoffs, he'd play him in Boston. Barring being told he can't have him for Cap reasons, of course. Sweeney has mad cow? Wait, let me run to BostonInsiders, here's the headline boys "Sad News To Report On Bruins GM Suffering From Brain Illness"
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Post by 50belowzero on Jan 24, 2024 15:36:09 GMT
That's precisely why i don't watch, pathetic commentary. They're getting older? Their two oldest players retired last summer. Every team gets another year older, duh, like really , that's the best they can come up with? They're slow? They've beat some pretty so called fast teams Avs, Scabs, Wings, Devils, LeRfs, Bolts...where do they come up with this shit, maybe they should do their homework. They want to see them in the playoffs?! You can say that about any team, geezus, hopefully Sportsnet loses the hockey rights next bid but unfortunately i don't know who has the money to outbid them. They're horrible.
*by the way, out of curiosity who was on the panel along with Amber?
Sad to say it, but Anson Carter was the biggest dope along with Jason Williams and Gasdick? Whoever that turkey is. Wow, thought it would be the usual Bruin haters Hrudey, Bieksa or Kypreos, huh, the hate runs deep i see, goood goood !
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Post by islamorada on Jan 24, 2024 16:15:18 GMT
Book, I'm looking at what I'm seeing when I watch Bruins games this season, #48's contract year btw, and this season Matt Grzelcyk is playing like he's a below-average minor league defenseman. I don't care if he had fantastic stats the previous seasons, or if he's from the Boston area, or if the Senators have worse defensemen than him, because what I'm seeing this season is that somehow he always seems to be the one who appears to be totally in over his head and screws up on a regular basis. And I personally don't like his approach in the B's own end, positioning himself religiously at the far goal post, preferably when there is no opposing player anywhere near for him to cover, and apparently trying to supply Linus or JS, whoever is in the Bruins net that night, with fresh air by waving his stick around. Why do the Bruins have to carry a 5'10" defenseman who quite obviously shies away from contact on their roster anyway? There's a guy by the name of Steven Kampfer (he's still playing, but in the AHL, btw) who according to nhl.com is even one inch taller than Grz, and he played for the B's because they then needed a puck-moving defenseman, but he was constantly criticized for being "not tall or physical enough", and his NHL career suffered for it - but it's okay for Herr Graesslich to be "not tall or physical enough" because he's Charlie McAvoy's buddy, and part of his family works at TD Garden, and he got slightly better stats than Kampfer because the coaches protect him like a bunch of raw eggs in the lineup? The B's do have some pmds on their roster they don't need to protect and who can do the job at least just as good as Grzelcyk, no, they're even better at it. "I tend to have faith that the coach is going to do what's best for his job, and that he knows what's best for his job" - after last year's playoff disaster for which he shares a considerable part of blame I'm a little sensitive to what Montgomery is doing, especially when I have the feeling that he keeps messing around with his dmen formation just to keep our beloved little mascot Matty G. in the lineup so Sweeney can maybe re-sign him after this season. And lastly I really don't see why the Bruins should re-sign him, not even for the league minimum. He's a disaster waiting to happen whenever he's on the ice this season, and I think it's going to be telling that absolutely no other team will be even remotely interested in his services. I care even less that he's related to the janitor. This team gave no shits at all that Chris Bourque's dad had worked for the team, so I doubt the janitor has much say in this. That's part of my point. All that conspiracy garbage is just a way of explaining away something I don't think is that hard to understand, which is that in the eyes of the coaches, Grz makes more plays than errors. He plays the system the way they want him to play the system. It's the old line about mental vs. physical errors; coaches will forgive physical errors and Grz has a lot of room to be out-physicalled. As for Grz's approach in his own end, I don't think he gets to have his own personal approach. I think he does what they tell him to do. That's part of why they keep playing him. And the reason I bring the stats into it is that they show his mistakes don't end up in the net as often as you'd think from the way people here fixate on him. Less than the vast majority of #6 or #7 D. And I bring them in because if you don't look at the supply of D talent around the league and how teams are coping with the lack, you expect the Bruins to have a #3 or #4 D based on quality of talent at a #6 spot. It can happen, but it's tough to do, and they get scooped the second someone else can give them a spot higher in the lineup. The comparison to Kampfer is a huge stretch and you know it, and I really wish we would stop talking about his fucking height or comparing him to short guys. Ray Bourque was 5'11. Height only really matters when it's Chara or Carlo or Pronger and they can reach out and touch the boards on one side of the ring, do one crossover, and reach out and touch the other side. NOT being able to do that isn't a fault; it's just an advantage you don't have that a few taller guys do. And can we also chuck out the idea that if you're not 6'5" you are automatically a PMD and expected to put up 40 points? Kampfer never came close to .5 points/game in college. The idea that he was a PMD was laughable from the start and he had double digits in points once in his NHL career. He hit .5 points/game in the AHL once, two years ago in Grand Rapids. Grz's stats are good enough that I don't think you could have them and be anywhere near as bad as you've described even if you were protected by playing only on O-Zone starts paired with Orr on a 76 Canada Cup line. Kampfer is different than Grz because he didn't play a very smart game. He wasn't very good at adjusting to what the coaches asked of him. He was game, and obviously teams thought he was an effective veteran spare part. But in just about every way, Grz is a better player and has shown that at every level, not just in Boston where his daddy is the janitor. And I am not advocating re-signing him. I don't think the Bruins will re-sign him. But someone will because the pool of D talent is thin and he's a 30 yr old with 7-8 years of experience and a lot of winning under his belt. Ian Mitchell got a contract. Dan Renouf got a contract. There will be teams, maybe multiple. Foligno got more from Chicago twice than from Sweeney despite 3 years of hate in Boston. As for questioning Montgomery...I hear your point. But I think we're talking about two separate things. Like, my sommalier friend who keeps dating women who are terrible for him, I will take his advice on wine even if I think he's an idiot for other reasons. I think Montgomery has done a terrific job of getting the most out of a lot of players on this roster. Freddy, Geekie, Zacha (who I know isn't your favourite, but he's been way better in Boston than he ever was in Jersey, and cost just Erik Haula to acquire), even JDB is playing much better over the last two years in most facets of the game so that he's valuable even when he's in a slump. He's made Heinen into a contributor whether people like his game or not. I look at the playoff failure last year - and that's really the only blemish but it's a huge one, like a full face birthmark - as an organizational one and not just a coaching fail. Too many new pieces too soon, too much change, not enough time to test out the options, combined with the obvious failing of not managing your advantage of having two elite goalies in a way that would carry you past the idiots who, conspicuously, DID change goalies and change their fortunes.I just don't think Grz matters enough to warrant all of the concerns over him. He's fine. He'll be gone at the end of the year. Let the other guys develop and acclimate, and eventually replace him in the playoffs. Nice evaluation on Monty, Book. As for Gryz, playing along McAvoy is just not justified. Then again who is going to play aside McAvoy? Lindholm? Lindholm is a better fit for Carlo, despite Carlo's new offensive play. The third pairings are only a problem with the tougher opponents who have excellent 3rd or 4th lines. So it is the regular seasononward to the playoffs. It is then I would have issues. Lohrei is just a better offensive player than The Gryz. Defensively, in my eyes he has been better. Then again not having played organizationally on ice other than winter time fun as a teen is damning on what I can evaluate. I am not in any soothsayer. Just curious though, why is Lohrei evaluative as a defensiveman, while Beecher is not? As for women, your friend should not fall in love so easily. It is easy to do, see Sophia thread. I've been married and predominatedly loyal in two marriages. I am on my third, statutorily. It has taken me forty years to find the right woman for my not so easy personality. Cheers with a Basil Hayden tomorrow with my brother to talk of these Bs. His favorite football team is Dallas, dumas. That is thirty years of damnation.
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Post by sandogbrewin on Jan 24, 2024 16:38:53 GMT
"He's a #6 maybe #7 on a contender, and in the playoffs, we know he becomes a liability against heavy teams. Again, not here to praise Caesar. But he's capable enough that if he's their #6"
The problem is Grzelcyks cap hit does not equate to a #6. And Monty will keep playing Grizz as a top-4 Dman.
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Post by dannycater on Jan 24, 2024 16:43:50 GMT
"He's a #6 maybe #7 on a contender, and in the playoffs, we know he becomes a liability against heavy teams. Again, not here to praise Caesar. But he's capable enough that if he's their #6" The problem is Grzelcyks cap hit does not equate to a #6. And Monty will keep playing Grizz as a top-4 Dman. 100 Percent.
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Post by bookboy007 on Jan 25, 2024 12:06:25 GMT
The syndrome is names after Murphy; I'm not comparing Grz to Murphy. When someone has a "Gordie Howe Hat Trick", there's no need to remind people the player is no Gordie Howe. My point is that yes, the #6 or #7 D on the team is going to be one of their weakest players. But their impact either way tends to be marginal unless they're specialists like FoBo and PK. Same thing with Steen or Boqvist. They are at the bottom of the roster. They don't play in the third period of close games. Fixating in them as though the team would be significantly better if only they'd get rid of the dead weight is just going to bring in the next irritant. As for the Lohrei dimension, or the Wotherspoon conundrum...the lesson of last season was not to care so much about the minutia of the regualr season record. I want both guys to play and I think Lohrei is better playing 23 a night in all situations in the A than 15 in Boston. I think he's in for Grz come the playoffs, and if not him, Wotherspoon. It doesn't have to be right now. Then there's just the reality of who can get sent down without waivers. Wotherspoon was up on emergency recall which is the only reason they could send him down without waivers. Lohrei can still be sent down without waivers at his stage of his career. Gryz can't make it through waivers and neither can Forbert, not that anybody is calling for his head. Sweeney is playing it smart. When everyone's healthy the guys who can go to Providence, do go to Providence. Hopefully this is just how we preserve depth for the playoffs since we don't really have the draft capital to stock up on depth like we tend to do at the deadline each year. On the bright side, when you are 8 deep with legit NHL defensemen and arguing who over who should play because #7 and #8 have played well enough to make it a debate then that's a good problem to have. McAvoy Carlo Lindholm Forbert Shatty Gryz Lohrei Wotherspoon Zboril Almost forgot about Zboril, is he even here anymore? Also, I haven't seen the games, but when you look at the Providence roster and player stats, Regula and Renouf are way out in front with a plus 26/21 respectively with the next closest player at +14. So even if we get through our 7-8 depth guys at the NHL level, it at least seems like we have another option or two in Providence that could fill in if needed. I had also stopped paying attention to the Zbo, and he's done. One of the worst plus/minus ranks in Providence by a mile. And not because he's trying to drive offense - or if he is, he's failing at that too. Too bad. I think there was something there and they kind of screwed his development.
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Post by MrHulot on Jan 26, 2024 12:49:12 GMT
"He's a #6 maybe #7 on a contender, and in the playoffs, we know he becomes a liability against heavy teams. Again, not here to praise Caesar. But he's capable enough that if he's their #6" The problem is Grzelcyks cap hit does not equate to a #6. And Monty will keep playing Grizz as a top-4 Dman. Where's the "I like this post a million times" button?
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Post by MrHulot on Jan 26, 2024 12:49:53 GMT
"He's a #6 maybe #7 on a contender, and in the playoffs, we know he becomes a liability against heavy teams. Again, not here to praise Caesar. But he's capable enough that if he's their #6" The problem is Grzelcyks cap hit does not equate to a #6. And Monty will keep playing Grizz as a top-4 Dman. 100 Percent. Wrong, Danny. 1 billion percent.
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Post by MrHulot on Jan 26, 2024 12:55:40 GMT
Book, I'm looking at what I'm seeing when I watch Bruins games this season, #48's contract year btw, and this season Matt Grzelcyk is playing like he's a below-average minor league defenseman. I don't care if he had fantastic stats the previous seasons, or if he's from the Boston area, or if the Senators have worse defensemen than him, because what I'm seeing this season is that somehow he always seems to be the one who appears to be totally in over his head and screws up on a regular basis. And I personally don't like his approach in the B's own end, positioning himself religiously at the far goal post, preferably when there is no opposing player anywhere near for him to cover, and apparently trying to supply Linus or JS, whoever is in the Bruins net that night, with fresh air by waving his stick around. Why do the Bruins have to carry a 5'10" defenseman who quite obviously shies away from contact on their roster anyway? There's a guy by the name of Steven Kampfer (he's still playing, but in the AHL, btw) who according to nhl.com is even one inch taller than Grz, and he played for the B's because they then needed a puck-moving defenseman, but he was constantly criticized for being "not tall or physical enough", and his NHL career suffered for it - but it's okay for Herr Graesslich to be "not tall or physical enough" because he's Charlie McAvoy's buddy, and part of his family works at TD Garden, and he got slightly better stats than Kampfer because the coaches protect him like a bunch of raw eggs in the lineup? The B's do have some pmds on their roster they don't need to protect and who can do the job at least just as good as Grzelcyk, no, they're even better at it. "I tend to have faith that the coach is going to do what's best for his job, and that he knows what's best for his job" - after last year's playoff disaster for which he shares a considerable part of blame I'm a little sensitive to what Montgomery is doing, especially when I have the feeling that he keeps messing around with his dmen formation just to keep our beloved little mascot Matty G. in the lineup so Sweeney can maybe re-sign him after this season. And lastly I really don't see why the Bruins should re-sign him, not even for the league minimum. He's a disaster waiting to happen whenever he's on the ice this season, and I think it's going to be telling that absolutely no other team will be even remotely interested in his services. I care even less that he's related to the janitor. This team gave no shits at all that Chris Bourque's dad had worked for the team, so I doubt the janitor has much say in this. That's part of my point. All that conspiracy garbage is just a way of explaining away something I don't think is that hard to understand, which is that in the eyes of the coaches, Grz makes more plays than errors. He plays the system the way they want him to play the system. It's the old line about mental vs. physical errors; coaches will forgive physical errors and Grz has a lot of room to be out-physicalled. As for Grz's approach in his own end, I don't think he gets to have his own personal approach. I think he does what they tell him to do. That's part of why they keep playing him. And the reason I bring the stats into it is that they show his mistakes don't end up in the net as often as you'd think from the way people here fixate on him. Less than the vast majority of #6 or #7 D. And I bring them in because if you don't look at the supply of D talent around the league and how teams are coping with the lack, you expect the Bruins to have a #3 or #4 D based on quality of talent at a #6 spot. It can happen, but it's tough to do, and they get scooped the second someone else can give them a spot higher in the lineup. The comparison to Kampfer is a huge stretch and you know it, and I really wish we would stop talking about his fucking height or comparing him to short guys. Ray Bourque was 5'11. Height only really matters when it's Chara or Carlo or Pronger and they can reach out and touch the boards on one side of the ring, do one crossover, and reach out and touch the other side. NOT being able to do that isn't a fault; it's just an advantage you don't have that a few taller guys do. And can we also chuck out the idea that if you're not 6'5" you are automatically a PMD and expected to put up 40 points? Kampfer never came close to .5 points/game in college. The idea that he was a PMD was laughable from the start and he had double digits in points once in his NHL career. He hit .5 points/game in the AHL once, two years ago in Grand Rapids. Grz's stats are good enough that I don't think you could have them and be anywhere near as bad as you've described even if you were protected by playing only on O-Zone starts paired with Orr on a 76 Canada Cup line. Kampfer is different than Grz because he didn't play a very smart game. He wasn't very good at adjusting to what the coaches asked of him. He was game, and obviously teams thought he was an effective veteran spare part. But in just about every way, Grz is a better player and has shown that at every level, not just in Boston where his daddy is the janitor. And I am not advocating re-signing him. I don't think the Bruins will re-sign him. But someone will because the pool of D talent is thin and he's a 30 yr old with 7-8 years of experience and a lot of winning under his belt. Ian Mitchell got a contract. Dan Renouf got a contract. There will be teams, maybe multiple. Foligno got more from Chicago twice than from Sweeney despite 3 years of hate in Boston. As for questioning Montgomery...I hear your point. But I think we're talking about two separate things. Like, my sommalier friend who keeps dating women who are terrible for him, I will take his advice on wine even if I think he's an idiot for other reasons. I think Montgomery has done a terrific job of getting the most out of a lot of players on this roster. Freddy, Geekie, Zacha (who I know isn't your favourite, but he's been way better in Boston than he ever was in Jersey, and cost just Erik Haula to acquire), even JDB is playing much better over the last two years in most facets of the game so that he's valuable even when he's in a slump. He's made Heinen into a contributor whether people like his game or not. I look at the playoff failure last year - and that's really the only blemish but it's a huge one, like a full face birthmark - as an organizational one and not just a coaching fail. Too many new pieces too soon, too much change, not enough time to test out the options, combined with the obvious failing of not managing your advantage of having two elite goalies in a way that would carry you past the idiots who, conspicuously, DID change goalies and change their fortunes. I just don't think Grz matters enough to warrant all of the concerns over him. He's fine. He'll be gone at the end of the year. Let the other guys develop and acclimate, and eventually replace him in the playoffs. Hmm, something strange is happening to me, it started when I began reading this post... Some kind of vision or mirage. I keep seeing this guy:
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Post by bookboy007 on Jan 26, 2024 17:03:06 GMT
Nice evaluation on Monty, Book. As for Gryz, playing along McAvoy is just not justified. Then again who is going to play aside McAvoy? Lindholm? Lindholm is a better fit for Carlo, despite Carlo's new offensive play. The third pairings are only a problem with the tougher opponents who have excellent 3rd or 4th lines. So it is the regular seasononward to the playoffs. It is then I would have issues. Lohrei is just a better offensive player than The Gryz. Defensively, in my eyes he has been better. Then again not having played organizationally on ice other than winter time fun as a teen is damning on what I can evaluate. I am not in any soothsayer. Just curious though, why is Lohrei evaluative as a defensiveman, while Beecher is not? As for women, your friend should not fall in love so easily. It is easy to do, see Sophia thread. I've been married and predominatedly loyal in two marriages. I am on my third, statutorily. It has taken me forty years to find the right woman for my not so easy personality. Cheers with a Basil Hayden tomorrow with my brother to talk of these Bs. His favorite football team is Dallas, dumas. That is thirty years of damnation. Lol. Yep. I feel for him though. If you lived through the heyday of 70s NFL, and you were younger than 30 but old enough to understand the game in any minor way, you probably have a long-standing affinity for one of the Raiders, the Cowboys, the Steelers, the Chiefs, or the Vikings. Maybe the Sheep. And if you're old enough, the Fish. They might not be YOUR team if you lived in a city with a team, but there's an affinity with one of those franchises. Raiders and Vikings fans have it the worst since then, given that the Raiders last won when Marcus Allen was still in Al Davis's good books. Fish fans had their Marino era, so maybe they're in there, too. The Cowboys, Steelers, Chiefs and Sheep (depending on whether you followed them from city to city) have titles since, but the Fish and Boys have definitely joined the Raider, Fish and Viking pity party. I don't look at playing Grz with McAvoy as validation of Grz, and I don't think Montgomery does either. I look at TOI, both total TOI and situational TOI, to put the depth chart together, and Grz is basically neck-and-neck with Wotherspoon in TOI. Grz plays 17:46, Wotherspoon 17:20, and that's a small enough difference that it could be that Wotherspoon just takes more penalties or the Bruins take more PPs and he's now counted on to kill. Last night, Wotherspoon played over 18 minutes and Grz 17:21. Grz is only top 4 in terms of ESTOI. Overall, though...he's #6 right now. I think Montgomery plays him with McAvoy because they have a long working relationship that helps him get the most out of Grz and also helps McAvoy. Charlie's comfortable with him. But this is more Carlo or Boychuk or Charlie or whoever else over the years that they paired with Chara. Play your 1 with your 6 because your 1 elevates your 6's game.
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Post by bookboy007 on Jan 26, 2024 17:13:29 GMT
"He's a #6 maybe #7 on a contender, and in the playoffs, we know he becomes a liability against heavy teams. Again, not here to praise Caesar. But he's capable enough that if he's their #6" The problem is Grzelcyks cap hit does not equate to a #6. And Monty will keep playing Grizz as a top-4 Dman. As above, he doesn't play him as a top 4 D. He gets top 4 ES TOI but he gets almost zero special teams minutes, and his elevated TOI is mostly a function of that - he's on after the PK or the PP because everyone else is getting a rest. As for the Cap Hit...that's kind of spilled milk. They signed him to a 4 year deal after he had 21 points in 68 games, went +17, played in all situations and seemed to have improved year over year after the 2019 playoff debacle. Cassidy seemed to be getting the best out of him. They gambled that he'd be worth it. Right now, he's not. But I will say it again - look at the production or performance of defensemen making between 3 and 5 mil. He's not out of place if you consider the full range of players from guys like Toews and Dobson (both younger and on transitional contracts) to guys like Barrie and Zaitsev and Brodie. Is he worth what he's getting paid? No. Is it a really painful difference between what he's worth and what they're getting? Not really.
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Post by bookboy007 on Jan 26, 2024 17:17:12 GMT
Hmm, something strange is happening to me, it started when I began reading this post... Some kind of vision or mirage. I keep seeing this guy: That is strange. That's not usually how Godwin's Law works. And reading the posts leading up to this, I keep seeing this guy....
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Post by dannycater on Jan 26, 2024 17:32:00 GMT
Hmm, something strange is happening to me, it started when I began reading this post... Some kind of vision or mirage. I keep seeing this guy: That is strange. That's not usually how Godwin's Law works. And reading the posts leading up to this, I keep seeing this guy.... finally, a good photo of Admin1
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Post by bookboy007 on Jan 26, 2024 18:26:07 GMT
That is strange. That's not usually how Godwin's Law works. And reading the posts leading up to this, I keep seeing this guy.... finally, a good photo of Admin1 NAS took it with a telephoto lens.
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Post by MrHulot on Jan 26, 2024 23:17:45 GMT
"He's a #6 maybe #7 on a contender, and in the playoffs, we know he becomes a liability against heavy teams. Again, not here to praise Caesar. But he's capable enough that if he's their #6" The problem is Grzelcyks cap hit does not equate to a #6. And Monty will keep playing Grizz as a top-4 Dman. As above, he doesn't play him as a top 4 D. He gets top 4 ES TOI but he gets almost zero special teams minutes, and his elevated TOI is mostly a function of that - he's on after the PK or the PP because everyone else is getting a rest. As for the Cap Hit...that's kind of spilled milk. They signed him to a 4 year deal after he had 21 points in 68 games, went +17, played in all situations and seemed to have improved year over year after the 2019 playoff debacle. Cassidy seemed to be getting the best out of him. They gambled that he'd be worth it. Right now, he's not. But I will say it again - look at the production or performance of defensemen making between 3 and 5 mil. He's not out of place if you consider the full range of players from guys like Toews and Dobson (both younger and on transitional contracts) to guys like Barrie and Zaitsev and Brodie. Is he worth what he's getting paid? No. Is it a really painful difference between what he's worth and what they're getting? Not really. Come on book, the bold is not true at all, #48 regularly gets time on the PK, which makes no sense at all. And again, I don't care how much other dmen are making, or if they're as bad as he is (or even worse). (I have to admit that that's not really Chamberlainish. It sounds more like a typical used car salesman pitch.) The Bruins have better options on d. #48 is the worst defenseman on the team. He's overpaid and virtually completely useless. Guys like ShatnerKirk or Lohrei should never be HS instead of #48. And Wotherspoon is also much more likely to separate an opposing player from the puck than #48.
I can take it when someone whose posts have been mostly meh for me keeps criticizing JVR, for example, even though I think those users have got no leg to stand on. But it puzzles me that a guy like you, book, who has IMHO contributed a lot of good stuff to this forum, suddenly turns into such a staunch defender of a player who simply isn't pulling his weight on a very constant basis.
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