Only Kovalchuk, Sedin, Benn, and Sharp are ahead at this time.
He's at .93 PPG at the moment, currently 20th in the entire NHL among players with over 10 games played.
I would say he has taken a huge step forward this year in his overall play and leadership. He's also not playing as reckless as before and thinking the game better as well, which will decrease his chances of injury. So much potential. Has the heart of a lion. Future captain material for sure.
He needs to put in tons and tons of breakaway/shootout practice. Once he starts potting a decent percentage of his breakaways, his totals will sky rocket.
If I was planning his development, that would probably be my #1 focus because with that speed, you know those chances will keep coming for years.
He needs to put in tons and tons of breakaway/shootout practice. Once he starts potting a decent percentage of his breakaways, his totals will sky rocket.
If I was planning his development, that would probably be my #1 focus because with that speed, you know those chances will keep coming for years.
Good call, he needs to get a couple of go to moves besides back hand 5 hole on the break. A quick chip shot would be a good one.
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People always criticize Hall for his apparent "lack of hockey IQ," but by my eyes, Hall has done a tremendous job learning what does and doesn't work at the NHL level. Hall does rely on his athleticism and skill more but by no means is he "dumb."
I remember LMHF mentioned that Hall is a great pass rusher, and I think the game against CHI (Gagner's 8 pt night) really exemplified that.
Good call, he needs to get a couple of go to moves besides back hand 5 hole on the break. A quick chip shot would be a good one.
Last year he scored on Halak with a wrist shot to the blocker side, just above the pads on a breakaway. Seems like a lot of goalies have a hard time with this spot, I don't know why Hall doesn't do this more. He has a ridiculously hard wrist shot, gets it off quick and can back goalies up quickly with his speed to give him more to shoot at.
People always criticize Hall for his apparent "lack of hockey IQ," but by my eyes, Hall has done a tremendous job learning what does and doesn't work at the NHL level. Hall does rely on his athleticism and skill more but by no means is he "dumb."
yeah hall has a good hockey sense, the problem for him is that he's always gonna be compared in that regard to Eberle and RNH... but if that's the standard most of the league won't measure up.
Halls biggest problem is consistency at this level. He consistently puts in the efforts but does not consistently get the results the way Stamkos does.
Once he puts it together and starts to score around 50 goals, people will start recognizing him as the 1st pick overall that he is. Otherwise, people will continue to deconstruct his game and talk about how:
a) his career will end prematurely due to his wreckless nature
b) he'll top out at 30 goals because he'll fail to play enough games per season to ever win the Rocket
c) he'll always play second fiddle to RNH.
d) he only gets his goals because he plays with RNH. Chechoo could get 50 goals playing with RNH...
e) Seguin, the center, will always be more valuable to a team than Hall ever will
f) Mikhail Grabovski is arguably as effective a player as this overrated Hall kid... etc etc
Hall is very athletic and skilled for sure. HE just needs to develop his game more as I see many mistakes dues to not making the simple plays. He fails to chip the puck out a lot and his defensive positioning on players is poor at the moment.
Exactly, just back goalies up with his speed and go high! Moves are unnecessary a lot of the time I find.
Btw, you guys know who he's doing better than now? Seguin.
Especially on the rush, he needs to at least make the goalie guess, he's as predictable as Gagner in the SO except minus the quick hands. As for Seguin, both will be great players so no need to go down that road IMO.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Groucho
Last year he scored on Halak with a wrist shot to the blocker side, just above the pads on a breakaway. Seems like a lot of goalies have a hard time with this spot, I don't know why Hall doesn't do this more. He has a ridiculously hard wrist shot, gets it off quick and can back goalies up quickly with his speed to give him more to shoot at.
Quote:
Originally Posted by OvenChicken8
With Hall's banana like curve he shouldn't have an issue with this. Maybe he's just sick of Eberle's backhand getting all of the attention haha.
Yeah he needs to simplify things and use his shot more, kid has a very good shot.
As has been mentioned, his play to set up Gagner's hattrick goal and his play last night to set up the Eberle-Petry-Eberle goal are two examples of him learning to slow the game down a bit and surveying the ice, that shows that he's maturing as a player.
He's so effective that way because defenders are immediately drawn to him when he flies down the wing and are usually caught off balance which leaves one of his talented linemates open.
He still makes some curious mistakes like not shooting last night when he had tons of time to get a shot off then subsequently gets planted by Phaneuf and when he threw that blind pass to the middle which led to the Lupul goal but by and large, he's clearly evolving as a better all around player and he's only going to get better.
He needs to work on his breakaway skills though because he creates tons of breakaway opportunities due to his speed.
I like this board. It's great. He got so much flak (justified) for his apparently inability to stop trying to cruise around defenseman, leading to him getting cranked several times a game. He learned this isn't junior and cut that out...but nary a word comes from those same posters who seem above having to complimente him on evolving his game. Easy to commplain than compliment I guess. A perfect example of this came last game was when he faked out the defenseman by acting like he was going to bust wide...stopped short and got the puck to Eberle to lead to a beauty of a goal.
That's not a player with a subpar hockey IQ. That's Hemsky. I still love you Hemsky...but you're silly.
I don't think hall is dumb either. just stubborn. he's been dominating pre NHL using his skill set...always an adjustment. now he's played pretty well, he gets points regardless of the game he played... a sign of a talented game changer .
Last year he scored on Halak with a wrist shot to the blocker side, just above the pads on a breakaway. Seems like a lot of goalies have a hard time with this spot, I don't know why Hall doesn't do this more. He has a ridiculously hard wrist shot, gets it off quick and can back goalies up quickly with his speed to give him more to shoot at.
Hall, IMO, works best as a player when he is playing reactionary. For example, that goal. The breakaway sprung up in a matter of like a second, he went in quick and finished. When he has a lot of time to think (shootouts, penalty shot, when he finds himself during a game with a lot of time), he's a bit less effective.
Some players just aren't Taylor made for those situations.
The play Hall started to set up Eberle's second goal last night is proof enough to me that he gets the game.
yeah that "drive hard then stop up to pass" move last night told me a lot about hall's hockey IQ.... that move worked very well for him against chicago, and 2 games later we see him doing almost the exact same thing.... thats "IQ progress" you can clearly see with your own eyes, happening at a very fast pace
hall will never think the game at eberle's level, but he's learning faster than i thought he was going to
yeah that "drive hard then stop up to pass" move last night told me a lot about hall's hockey IQ.... that move worked very well for him against chicago, and 2 games later we see him doing almost the exact same thing.... thats "IQ progress" you can clearly see with your own eyes, happening at a very fast pace
hall will never think the game at eberle's level, but he's learning faster than i thought he was going to
He went to it one too many times last game. Oilers got caught on the Leafs 5th goal with Hall giving it away on a play like that. But that's fine. He'll learn when to do that and when to drive hard to the net, when to cut to the middle ect ect.
... and we're somehow wasting the huge advantage of having those kind of points from those kind of salaries into being in 2nd last place.
That says all you need to know about management.
I hate management as much as the next guy, but they don't deserve the blame, the players do. Smyth, who had an amazing first 20 games, and Hemsky have both tailed off and can't generate a single thing. Paajarvi can't score a damn goal. RNH has also been injured, so that's basically our entire 2nd line not contributing. Same thing with Jonesy. He's tailed off as well. Belanger and Horcoff are just offensive black holes.
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