Lemieux is obviously a different category of player, but beyond that, it's exactly the same situation. Lemieux was considered an uncoachable, selfish, egomaniac throughout most of his career. His practice habits and conditioning were always in question. The Penguins wisely put up with it because of what he contributed on ice and to the fans.
If you want to look at a more recent, less dramatic example...Alex Kovalev is another good comparison.
I would have to disagree on that. Lemieux may have been a bit arrogant and egotistical, but the rap sheet that Radulov carries completely trumps Lemeuix, or anyone else for that matter. The Penguins put up with it because his attitude wasn't that bad, AND he more than delivered. Radulov's attitude is just as bad (or worse than) the reputation he carries, AND he doesn't deliver.
Kovalev has never had the reputation that Radulov carries.
Radulov had one disgustingly good season in the QM. So did Alexandre Daigle. in fact, I'd say the two careers look kinda similar if you look at statistics.
Radulov went on to be the all time leading scorer in the KHL. I'd say it's essentially a second line NHL player running rampant over a league essentially full of borderline AHLers, with a few exceptions of course. also, consider the KHL plays on the bigger, international ice.
One thing i do know is Radulov's last stint in the NHL didn't impress me. I'd be very surprised if he was a real impact player in the NHL ever.
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Radulov had one disgustingly good season in the QM. So did Alexandre Daigle. in fact, I'd say the two careers look kinda similar if you look at statistics.
Radulov went on to be the all time leading scorer in the KHL. I'd say it's essentially a second line NHL player running rampant over a league essentially full of borderline AHLers, with a few exceptions of course. also, consider the KHL plays on the bigger, international ice.
One thing i do know is Radulov's last stint in the NHL didn't impress me. I'd be very surprised if he was a real impact player in the NHL ever.
I understand questioning the mental aspect of his game, but his skill shouldn't really be questioned. He scored 26 goals in his first full season in the NHL, and came back to the NHL after three years last spring, cold, and was immediately our most dangerous offensive forward.
He lead the team in postseason scoring. What more could he have done to impress you? We're not talking about Alexei Morozov, here.
OK, so we went 4-2-1 on a 7 game road trip, only have 2 regulation losses in 11 games, and are in a playoff spot...
can we stop planning on who we will draft with the top pick and/or making firesale trade suggestions for a day or two??
c'mon doc, really? we can't score, we got nobody to replace Suter as Webs partner or make the outlet pass, we suck on the dot, we can't get by w/o Rads .....
One thing i do know is Radulov's last stint in the NHL didn't impress me. I'd be very surprised if he was a real impact player in the NHL ever.
I agree, but based strictly on attitude.
You can see his skill every time he touches the puck. But he'll never apply that skill properly. And his attitude keeps him from doing much useful when he doesn't have the puck (i.e. defense).
You can see his skill every time he touches the puck. But he'll never apply that skill properly. And his attitude keeps him from doing much useful when he doesn't have the puck (i.e. defense).
and he looked soft - not his game, but physically. for a guy that had been playing a regular schedule he sure looked more like a guy that was enjoying his beer and borscht.... but perhaps that just goes with his attitude.
There is some need for better play (shots, forechecking, passing, etc...), but the thing that has me most frustrated so far is the amount of penalties were taking on. We can't seem to stay out of the box. Pekka has been doing cartwheels saving our bacon.
A couple of the calls on us were bogus tonight. The goaltender interference on Erat was ridiculous.
It was fun being back at the arena tonight. We had long stretches of punctuated by some moments of . Fisher was not completely useless, he did block a couple shots. SK needs to sit. Hali at least shoots the puck. Gill made a couple of bonehead plays and one really embarrassing fall at the end of the game. Legwand needs to put his stick on the ice, missed some great chances. Clune with his obligatory fight, which he won by a takedown. Bourque, Wilson and Peks definitely deserved the 3 stars tonight.
Legwand needs to put his stick on the ice, missed some great chances.
Amen!
This drives me absolutely insane. Legwand constantly carries his stick around at waist level and misses so many opportunities (scoring, breakup or puck reception) because of it.
For the sake of tongue-in-cheek negativity, Thomas Vanek has been in on 21 goals this season, and as a team we've scored 21 actual goals this season.
Theres a big difference in Vanek and our forwards. He finishes. Do you see his second goal from last night. On his belly in the crease poking at the puck, Oh thats right our pretty boys leave those goals to Horni or Goose to get they might get there hair mussed up if they did some work in front of the net. If Miller could stop a puck once in a while the Buffaslugs would be lights out in the east.
Theres a big difference in Vanek and our forwards. He finishes. Do you see his second goal from last night. On his belly in the crease poking at the puck, Oh thats right our pretty boys leave those goals to Horni or Goose to get they might get there hair mussed up if they did some work in front of the net. If Miller could stop a puck once in a while the Buffaslugs would be lights out in the east.
I'm not comparing anyone, I'm just saying. And yes if Miller could stop pucks they would be awesome. If we could score goals, we would be awesome. Different problems, same frustration. I'm sure Buffalo fans would give up half of Vanek's points for our goaltending.
I'm not comparing anyone, I'm just saying. And yes if Miller could stop pucks they would be awesome. If we could score goals, we would be awesome. Different problems, same frustration. I'm sure Buffalo fans would give up half of Vanek's points for our goaltending.
Same frustration, except that we are still consistently one of the best teams in the league, including this year- Buffalo is not-
Here's something negative that isn't about the team. The refs ****ed us tonight
It appears both players made contact with the puck using their gloves while still gripping their sticks. No matter how the rule is parsed, it was a bad call.
It appears both players made contact with the puck using their gloves while still gripping their sticks. No matter how the rule is parsed, it was a bad call.
I was at a bar when it happened. No sound obviously. The graphic said "elbowing", but that obviously wasn't the call. It's terrible either way. Maybe next time we can get Nolan Ryan to wind up and toss one at the ice
The only negative I have is our power play didn't convert tonight. But they had some damn good chances and was a lot more dangerous looking than it has been. Weber was so close to a goal.
I can't wait to see all the negativity after tomorrow night's game when Chicago pastes us.
The only negative I have is our power play didn't convert tonight. But they had some damn good chances and was a lot more dangerous looking than it has been. Weber was so close to a goal.
I can't wait to see all the negativity after tomorrow night's game when Chicago pastes us.
Oh- it will be brutal if we lose. Here is what's going to happen, guaranteed- the first bad loss we have, all the negative Nancy's will come out in force with "see, I told you so- told you we were just getting lucky, told you this kind of play wasn't sustainable, etc, etc, etc"
The facts. We are not scoring. An individual player Thomas Vanek has more goals than we do as a TEAM! We had 6 pp last night not one conversion. That is unacceptable. I don't always agree with 101st but he was right in saying that we have to get better at putting the puck on net. Look at Chicago. They haven't lost in regulation, they look like the team that won the cup 3 years ago. They have true goal scorers. We got nothin'.
Oh- it will be brutal if we lose. Here is what's going to happen, guaranteed- the first bad loss we have, all the negative Nancy's will come out in force with "see, I told you so- told you we were just getting lucky, told you this kind of play wasn't sustainable, etc, etc, etc"
We did pretty much the same thing in the OT loss as in the two regulation wins. Similar number of good chances, too many of our star players staying to the perimeter, a PP that still isn't clicking (3 for 31 since first game at Minn .... one of those a pass deflected by an opposing defender through his goalie's 5hole, 6 for 38 overall). The huge difference was Backstrom's .961sv% compared to the Blues and Kings combined .727sv%.
Your pretending that nothing is flawed when we win is just as bad as those who see nothing good in our play when we're losing.
We can't keep putting our defensive play into a position where they cannot allow more than one goal per game for us to have a chance to win ... in reality an outstanding defense and goalie combo is going to allow about 2 goals against per game over the course of a season. We cannot count on a goalie allowing in 25% of the total shots and virtually every quality scoring chance to end up in the net every night. We cannot have just one player taking a sizable number of faceoffs and winning them.
When the chances were there our players either shot wide (Weber), shot into the goalie (Ellis), or didn't shoot at all (Legwand, Wilson, Bourque) ... the same issue that we've had all season.
punctuated by some moments of 
. Fisher was not completely useless, he did block a couple shots. SK needs to sit. Hali at least shoots the puck. Gill made a couple of bonehead plays and one really embarrassing fall at the end of the game. Legwand needs to put his stick on the ice, missed some great chances. Clune with his obligatory fight, which he won by a takedown. Bourque, Wilson and Peks definitely deserved the 3 stars tonight.
