c9orf
09-24-2003, 10:56 PM
Earlier tonight, I saw the pre-season game between the Coyotes and Sharks (Final score: 3-0 for the Sharks) here in Portland, and I thought I'd share my observations.
First and foremost, yes, it's definitely the pre-season! A certain amount of stumbling, inaccurate passing, and general disorganization is to be expected. I've taken these things into account.
Generally speaking, we looked pretty bad. As in the previous pre-season games, the Yotes were outshot each period, and took a lot of penalties (with Simpson and Nagy accounting for nearly all of them). There were intervals, mostly in the second period, where Phoenix applied legitimate pressure for 30-90 seconds after a turnover, but I don't recall any impressive rushes. And although adding Vaananen and Suchy to the defence will help, I am not optimistic.
Defence pairings:
Knyazev-Wilson
Ference-Mara
Simpson-Bezina
For whatever reason, I paid more attention to the defence. Knyazev looked competent, and carried the puck over the red line on one or two occasions, but did nothing to convince me that he has offensive ability. Wilson was very solid. Ference seemed to be trying, and was aggressive in front of our net. Mara did nothing, and at least once failed to keep the puck in on a (rare) powerplay because of sheer laziness. Simpson was all over the place! He was the most energetic Coyote. Unfortunately, he's also still the same guy - he took some dumb penalties, was deked out of his jockstrap on the second(?) goal, and has no offensive ability (although his enthusiasm got him into some useful positions). Bezina looked out of his league - he nearly scored an own-goal, and was out of position a couple of times.
Offense:
(Lines not noted)
I paid closest attention to the newer guys, but the vets like Langkow and Doan were the only ones who made a sustained contribution to the attack. I thought Westrum forechecked well on the PK, though. Sjostrom was hard to notice - he made a decent pass on one good scoring chance, but if he has any fancy puckhandling skills he hides them well. Taffe was more impressive; although he didn't contribute all that much to the attack, he played a more rounded game, and intercepted a couple of passes. One Ferraro played, but didn't really register with me. Cleary looked good on a couple of occasions, and seemed to be able to hang on to the puck for a while in the offensive end (unlike most of our guys).
Nazarov played quite a bit. He hasn't gotten any faster. ;)
Burke played the whole game(?!), and looked half-decent. He made the easy saves, and didn't make any of the really hard saves.
Conclusion:
I think we're dead meat. Obviously our offense will be somewhat better than this (add Sillinger, Hrdina, and Gratton and subtract some of the bums), but I'm not convinced that our defense will be adequate. The Sharks played a bunch of people I've never heard of (other than Cheechoo, Rathje, Harvey, and Dimitrakos [who I vaguely remember]), but they were much more disciplined and capable of effectively rushing the puck. And, uh, the Sharks aren't exactly a powerhouse.
It was still fun, though. :)
First and foremost, yes, it's definitely the pre-season! A certain amount of stumbling, inaccurate passing, and general disorganization is to be expected. I've taken these things into account.
Generally speaking, we looked pretty bad. As in the previous pre-season games, the Yotes were outshot each period, and took a lot of penalties (with Simpson and Nagy accounting for nearly all of them). There were intervals, mostly in the second period, where Phoenix applied legitimate pressure for 30-90 seconds after a turnover, but I don't recall any impressive rushes. And although adding Vaananen and Suchy to the defence will help, I am not optimistic.
Defence pairings:
Knyazev-Wilson
Ference-Mara
Simpson-Bezina
For whatever reason, I paid more attention to the defence. Knyazev looked competent, and carried the puck over the red line on one or two occasions, but did nothing to convince me that he has offensive ability. Wilson was very solid. Ference seemed to be trying, and was aggressive in front of our net. Mara did nothing, and at least once failed to keep the puck in on a (rare) powerplay because of sheer laziness. Simpson was all over the place! He was the most energetic Coyote. Unfortunately, he's also still the same guy - he took some dumb penalties, was deked out of his jockstrap on the second(?) goal, and has no offensive ability (although his enthusiasm got him into some useful positions). Bezina looked out of his league - he nearly scored an own-goal, and was out of position a couple of times.
Offense:
(Lines not noted)
I paid closest attention to the newer guys, but the vets like Langkow and Doan were the only ones who made a sustained contribution to the attack. I thought Westrum forechecked well on the PK, though. Sjostrom was hard to notice - he made a decent pass on one good scoring chance, but if he has any fancy puckhandling skills he hides them well. Taffe was more impressive; although he didn't contribute all that much to the attack, he played a more rounded game, and intercepted a couple of passes. One Ferraro played, but didn't really register with me. Cleary looked good on a couple of occasions, and seemed to be able to hang on to the puck for a while in the offensive end (unlike most of our guys).
Nazarov played quite a bit. He hasn't gotten any faster. ;)
Burke played the whole game(?!), and looked half-decent. He made the easy saves, and didn't make any of the really hard saves.
Conclusion:
I think we're dead meat. Obviously our offense will be somewhat better than this (add Sillinger, Hrdina, and Gratton and subtract some of the bums), but I'm not convinced that our defense will be adequate. The Sharks played a bunch of people I've never heard of (other than Cheechoo, Rathje, Harvey, and Dimitrakos [who I vaguely remember]), but they were much more disciplined and capable of effectively rushing the puck. And, uh, the Sharks aren't exactly a powerhouse.
It was still fun, though. :)