Markov...coincidence
 

Is it a total coincidence that Markovs point production basically stopped (2pts in the last 10) when PK started playing.......exactly 10 games ago?

I see that his minutes are normal, anything to be concerned about about his lack of production? I'm really routing for Markov this year!!

The powerplay came back down to earth, for one.

Markov had the added benefit that he was already playing high level hockey in the KHL where as a large chunk of players were sitting at home and weren't in game shape yet. It isn't exactly a huge shock that it gets harder to score once players start getting their legs back. Also I'm guessing teams really started scouting our PP hard with it running at 40%.

Lots of players of all kinds of abilities and styles get off to a red-hot start, and then their stats normalize as the season wears on. I think Markov falls in that category - how many slapshots did people realistically him to score on this year?

The sample size is so small that it's easy to say Markov could just as well have been putting up those numbers at the start of the season with Subban in the lineup.

Markov is playing great defensevily, he is much better then in was expecting from him.

Meh...why not, we blame Subban for everything else lol

It is also possible that maybe teams didn't take him as a serious threat after the past couple seasons, thus gave him more space, time to do his thing. After a great start I bet you teams smartened up and decided to focus on him once again seeing how he still has his offensive ability in tact.

I'm going with coincidence.

I'd still like to see them play together.

I love Marky and have been a supporter of his since he started in the league. I will say he looks slower lately. I've seen a few examples where he just gets flat out beat in a foot race for the puck and it's not even close where as in the past even if he lost, it was by a hair.

I hate to say it but I think time is taking its tole on him. Add to that he's coming off an emotional high of coming back and playing in the NHL after a couple of years off and he just seems a little flat. Hopefully he'll bounce back and catch his second wond as it's pretty apparent that our PP goes as he goes.

Markov will start racking up point when the PP heats up. He has also been a bit unlucky... Lindback robbed him in the Tampa game and he hit the post as well in another one.

The only thing that matters is that we went from 15th to 1st in a year and Markov is a big reason why.

More like to hell:laugh:

Thanks, I'm glad to hear that you guys aren't too concerned.

As much as some might want to make this Subban's fault, if you look at the way teams defend the PP now, the points have little space to maneuver. Habs have no one else on the PP other than Markov (except possibly Galchenyuk but he won't get 1st/2nd wave PP until perhaps next season) that can be creative on a PP.

Furthermore, 70% Markov's points and 100% of his goals came in a span of 4 games. Of those 4 games, the teams Washington, Florida, Winnipeg, New Jersey are the 25th, 27th, 30th, 20th ranked PKs in the NHL and the 4/5 worst PKs of the Eastern Conference.

Correlation =/= Causation

It was fairly predictable. He has barely played in 3 years so he likely was playing a lot on the adreneline of being back.

Agreed, he's looked quite slow.
His positioning and decision making has made up for the lack of speed but certainly is a bit concerning.

Obviously he was going to slow down. This is where his hockey IQ needs to kick in and he needs to figure out that he's not as fast as he used to be. That's ok, cause he does not need breaking speed as long as he's in position.

For the most part, he did, he played good defensively.

Markov cannnot stand PK's presence... :sarcasm:

Coincidence. Markov's first five or so games every shot he took went in. He had a shooting percentage of something like 50%. No way he was going to keep that up.

Absolutely no connection between the two. Besides, it is the performance of the team that matters and that has been just fine.

correlation=/=causation.

His offensive production doesn't concern me as much as his slowness in the few last games. He has looked quite slow lately, and was out-skated in few times.

Too bad I was really expecting him to push 100 points this year.

7-2-1 to be exact. ;)

Does anyone has updated team stats when Markov is in or out of line-up ?

Yup the PP has improved when they aren't constantly going for the point shot.