Hart: Daniel Sedin
Norris: Alexander Edler
Calder: Cory Schneider
Selke: Ryan Kesler
Breakthrough: Jeff Tambellini
Disappointment: Keith Ballard
Key Injuries: D Sami Salo (Achilles).
Do people think this is accurate?
Everything mostly makes sense there... I wouldn't really call Ballard a disappointment. Raymond to me has been a disappointment (on pace for less points).
I'm disappointed that Ballard hasn't gotten a chance on the PP or to get a bigger role on the team. Samuelsson has been a bigger disappointment overall.
"Okay who's leading in points? Daniel - Hart. Done. Okay who has the most icetime and points on defense? Edler - Norris. Done. Their back up has been pretty good, and he's a rookie. Schneider - Calder. Done. Kesler was a Selke runner up. Done. Who is on pace for more points than last year? Tambellini - Breakthrough. Done. Ballard was benched for awhile. Ballard - Disappointment. Done. "
Initially was disappointed with Ballard, but more so how he was injured and not getting a chance. Fine with him now. Most disappointed with Samuelson. Otherwise - I suppose it's more or less accurate because everything's obvious. Not like we really have much competition for that Calder...
Biggest disappointment with Ballard continues to be how he's used.
When he's actually been given icetime, he's been very good - +7 in 10 games where he was over 17 minutes of playing time. The one brief stretch where he got 20+ minutes for 3-4 games, he looked great.
He has a better PP pedigree than Hamhuis does, but has received pretty much 0 PP time while Hamhuis has been an (ineffective) stalwart on the #2 unit.
Sees nothing but 3rd-pairing icetime with Alberts/Rome. Whenever Rome is in the lineup, Ballard inexplicably plays less than Rome.
I've never seen a player set up to fail the way Ballard has been with this club right from the first game of the preseason. To his credit, he's handled it with nothing but class.
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Biggest disappointment so far has been Samuelsson.
Started the season as an absolute disaster in October, played better for about 20 games through November and early December, but has been ghastly again since Christmas.
Has been one of our poorest forwards defensively, making awful decisions with the puck, has been less involved physically than last season, and his production has basically just been a function of the excellence of the Sedins and Kesler.
Has been the worst player on the team since Christmas. Tambellini is struggling offensively, but the effort is there and he's still doing little things to help the team. Samuelsson is not. 0-1-1 in his last 11 games with loads of icetime while contributing nothing physically or defensively.
It's been amazing how poor he's been after being so outstanding through the last month of the regular season last year and in the playoffs.
Samuelsson has not found his edge, but really, he seldom does. I guess we remember his last play-off performance more than last years regular season.
Last season 0.69 PPG up to this date
This season 0.57 PPG up to this date
His is just 0.08 worse this season so far.
In Play-off he got 1.17 PPG
His play-off performance in DRW isn't that impressive, but he had a different role in that team than he had in this team last year.
What can one say? He is about as good as last year so far. Lets hope that he will turn it on once again during play-off. Otherwise we just have to conclude that he had one of his streaks just then and it was just fluke.
How can you be pleased with Ballard so far? The guy makes so many bone headed moves defensively in crucial times , I hope he gets better in that respect. But he cant be singled out. Biggest disappointments are Raymond Ballard Sam.
How can you be pleased with Ballard so far? The guy makes so many bone headed moves defensively in crucial times , I hope he gets better in that respect. But he cant be singled out. Biggest disappointments are Raymond Ballard Sam.
Extreme depth and his play hasn't been great because of being unable to walk all summer (lower leg injury) and he had a concussion right as his play was starting to improve.
I'll explain disappointment. I know Torres makes less than half of what Samuelsson makes (who is second on my list) but I feel like for as inconsistent as Sammy is, Torres is even worse. Six of his 11 goals came in a five game stretch. If you take those five games out of his season you could argue he's been of negative value to the team. He's not as noticeable physically as I expected. The play dies on his stick as much or more than it does Samuelsson's. He's probably the biggest defensive liability in our top 9.
I think we're seeing what's frustrated every team he's been with. More of the same and he'll likely find himself on his fourth team since 07-08 come October.
How can you be pleased with Ballard so far? The guy makes so many bone headed moves defensively in crucial times , I hope he gets better in that respect. But he cant be singled out. Biggest disappointments are Raymond Ballard Sam.
Please provide examples of these bone-headed defensive moves made at crucial times. I'd like to see what others are seeing here. So far, at his worst, Ballard has looked on par with Ehrhoff/Hamhuis at their worst. Meaning, they've all looked bad from time to time. Yet none of their lows equate to Bieksa's worst moments. Not even close. But I'll leave that aside for now.
When is Ballard making these ghastly plays, and how does the team suffer for it? Is the damage mitigated? How often do you see these plays occur?
