Yep, love that site. Eller still needs to gain weight and be more assertive, more combative on the boards. He's one of our best forwards in the defensive zone, but lately has looked lost again when on the wing.
according to that site, wow Emelin and Gorges are very good along the boards !
Last edited by PunkinDrublic*: 11-24-2011 at 05:06 PM.
If you see any amount/pattern of "board domination" by Eller, then we have distinctly different prescriptions for our rose-coloured glasses. He still gets pushed around far more than he pushes opponents around, from my observation. He's a "skilled" centre, not a "big" centre, imo.
Dominating might've been a slight exaggeration on my part but the point of my post still stands. The kid is no pushover and he plays a chippy game. He doesnt mind getting his nose dirty.
Dominating might've been a slight exaggeration on my part but the point of my post still stands. The kid is no pushover and he plays a chippy game. He doesnt mind getting his nose dirty.
I'd say a "slight exaggeration" would fit if there seemed to be a discrepancy between the impression left after watching and what the actual stats bear out. I haven't noticed much improvement in his strength on skates compared to last year (he's still young, obviously, and has improved a bit of course) and on the Habs, possibly one of the weaker cycling teams in the conference, he ranks in the bottom half of forwards in percentage of puck battles won. I'd call it a solid/gross exaggeration, but I'll agree that he isn't a "pushover" in the sense that he doesn't shy away from areas to which he needs to go, and is a bit "chippy".
Quote:
Originally Posted by overlords
Yep, love that site. Eller still needs to gain weight and be more assertive, more combative on the boards. He's one of our best forwards in the defensive zone, but lately has looked lost again when on the wing.
Yeah, he has been quite solid in the defensive zone, which I guess is a credit to Martin on some level. I think players naturally become defensively aware/able quite quickly with experience and coaching though, so I'd really like Martin to take off the offensive shackles and really let us see what the kid can do in the opponents' end. Seems to me that stifling that aspect of an offensive player's game early in a career would be more detrimental long term than having a few defensive lapses now and again.
I think you're referring to this, among other links, which shows that so far Eller is in the bottom half among Habs forwards in terms of "ES puck battle win%".
The scope of that particular report is much wider than just board battles.
What to do with Eller? Uhh you keep him and hang on to him for dear life? Easily our most skilled center and already our best puck posession player at this ripe an age. He's going to be something.
When we said all he needs it to play center and get AK back, its the truth.
Results:
On the first shift tonight, he flips the puck in Pens zone , AK forechecks hard, Pens d-man turns puck over and boom. Moen scores.
Second best line tonight.
I hope JM won't put Eller on the 4th line or on the wing when Gomez comes back though. A 3rd line with Eller-Gomez-AK even on paper doesn't look that bad, it would be a terrible idea.
When we said all he needs it to play center and get AK back, its the truth.
Results:
On the first shift tonight, he flips the puck in Pens zone , AK forechecks hard, Pens d-man turns puck over and boom. Moen scores.
Second best line tonight.
I hope JM won't put Eller on the 4th line or on the wing when Gomez comes back though. A 3rd line with Eller-Gomez-AK even on paper doesn't look that bad, it would be a terrible idea.
I think Eller will be a star for MTL in 4-5 years, and while his defensive game is great right now, he really needs to improve his offensive game. Mainly, he needs to actually use his wingers. At least 10 times a game he enters the offensive zone and dangles until he loses the puck. That, and he need to hit the net more with his shots.
