Line Combos: pyatt vs dawes

[Habs]

Tom Pyatt should be modelling men's underwear and leave hockey to the neanderthals. He's dreamy. Right guys? Right? *High Five*

[Miller Time]

Originally Posted by Richiebottles

Have you ever seen dawes play ? Were you at the game yesterday ? He has 28 goals this season. And could turn into a DD if he would work at it. He was one of the better players on the team. And you are telling me that we don't put him in on a team that is not able to score any goals. Yea thanks pyatt for your 1 goal this season but we won't be needing you.

yes, I saw him in about ~20 flames games last season.

if you're comparing him to DD, then you definitely have seen a far different player than I've seen.

Don't let his solid AHL stats fool you... Corey Locke lights up the AHL as well. A great AHL players doesn't necessarily translate to even a decent NHLer.

Dawes doesn't have the hockey sense to be as effective in the NHL as he is in the AHL. He works hard, has good speed, and has good hands, all attributes that lead to a very good AHL player, but his lack of size means that he needs more to his game to be effective at the NHL level.

DD has translated pretty well so far b/c he has such good hockey sense. He knows where to be/where to go, where the defense is/will be, where his teammates are/will be, and has adapted very well so as to minimize the shortcomings (no pun intended) of his small stature and average skating.

Dawes will probably get another NHL crack, and could potentially stick with a team, but despite our need for goal scoring, he is not the "answer".

our scoring woes have more to do with system and a terribly underperforming "centrepiece" (gomez) than they do with roster personnel. Dawes won't solve, or even improve, that problem.

Pyatt plays a role, is useful in that role and seems fine with his press box frequency. Dawes would not be an upgrade.

[BaseballCoach]

Originally Posted by alexstream

from what Ive read over the years, Dawes is the prototypical 4th liner player.

Energy, tough to play against, responsible and can chip one in.

Dawes is like a mixture of the good sides of Boyd and Pyatt.

Sometimes it takes a dose of reality...........

So now that we have actually SEEN Dawes play at the NHL level, it is obvious that other than a penalty shot situation where he does not have to deal with speedy backcheckers, pesky opponents who counter his efforts, and having to defend against the cycle in his own zone, Dawes is pretty much useless.

Pyatt actually DOES have some offensive ability, but it only comes out when he plays with speedy players.

Last year, he had some success with Gomez and Gionta, and then with Moore and Lapierre. Most other combinations did not spark offensively. As we saw on his goal Sunday in Minnesota, his speed can be useful offensively. But put Ryan White with him on that play instead of Gionta, and it would have gone nowhere because White would have been caught from behind.

Regarding White, by the way, we saw again last night why his usefulness is limited. When he takes on a fight it can sometimes help (though let us not forget that even though he "stood up for his team" fighting Boychuk, it did not prevent Chara from mugging Patches), but Ryan White remains a slow skater prone to allowing odd-man rushes against, and he remains prone to turnovers. It was his turnover that led to the winning Buffalo goal last night.

You rarely see Tom Pyatt make that kind of turnover near a blueline. There is VALUE in making the right play (often derisively called the "safe" play) as opposed to the WRONG play! There is also VALUE in the PK results Pyatt can usually get.

So, once again - Dawes or Pyatt? Not even close.

[Checker61]

I would take Dawes playing 12 minutes a night over both Pyatt and the slow footed White any day .

[Kboum]

Originally Posted by habsjunkie2

Tommy Pyatt shouldn't be in the NHL period.

1st line potentiel (Pierre McGuire said it)

[Dekar]

Welcome back, Pyatt vs. Dawes thread.

A month later and the results are in:

Pyatt wins. Flawless victory. Fatality.