Fowler is a huge part of my team in a sim league. I live in Quebec so I don't have the chance to watch games of your team so I have to rely on stats. And when I look at the stats, it doesn't look good for Fowler. But he keeps playing more than 20 minutes a game. So, what's going on with him? Is he improving his defense? Is it a sophomore jinx? Or is he just unlucky?
His lack of PP points makes him look as bad as the excess of them makes Nick Lidstrom look good. As the Ducks and their PP get better, so will his stats. His defensive game is rounding him out as a player. He's making way less of the stupid defensive errors he was last year even though his +/- doesn't show it. I think he's a good example of why you don't always go by the stats section of the Sunday paper to make your judgements on a player.
It's also a reflection on how poorly the Getzlaf line is playing. That's who he plays with the most.
His offensive production can be summed up best with a Boudreau quote (gonna paraphrase) "I don't care if he doesn't get another point, we're going to make him a good defender" the focus this year is obviously on his defense. His offense will follow with his maturity.
Fowler is a huge part of my team in a sim league. I live in Quebec so I don't have the chance to watch games of your team so I have to rely on stats. And when I look at the stats, it doesn't look good for Fowler. But he keeps playing more than 20 minutes a game. So, what's going on with him? Is he improving his defense? Is it a sophomore jinx? Or is he just unlucky?
thanks for the info.
Stats can be deceiving as I'm sure you know. Fowler is part of the Ducks top pairing with Beachemin, so he still gets top pairing minutes and 1st unit PP time (though Beach is just a minutes machine, especially on the PK).
Early in the year when the Ducks as a team were probably -40 on goal differential, Fowler was often getting too many minutes against other teams top lines, and his stats suffered. He was probably -20 or so during this time playing 23-25 mins per night. Visnovsky was out with a broken finger, and Fowler was relied upon to pick up some extra minutes.
Since Boudreau took over, Fowler has been asked to improve his defensive game with slightly fewer minutes. Visnovsky came back, and Sbisa's game has really improved over the last few months, which took a lot of pressure off Fowler. His skating, puckhandling and breakout passes are still excellent. He is still trying to develop more strength as his biggest weakness is muscling with opponents to tie up sticks around the crease. Early in the season opponents were racking up quick goals in succession, and many times it was due to a breakdown on the forward's defensive assignment or a soft goal let in by Hiller. IMO a lot of his +/- stats were due to bad luck and poor team performance.
Offensively, the Ducks PP continues to struggle, so a lot of Fowler's production has dropped off as well. As a playmaker dman, he needs others to bury their chances, and even though the team is climbing up the standings, they are still winning games 2-1 with an occasional outburst. A few weeks ago the team was fighting with the LA Kings for bottom in goals scored in the Western Conference.
I think his defensive game has improved quite a bit, despite his -20...i think that's more a reflection of him NOT generating any offense and playing against top lines, he's got to find a way to get his confidence back offensively.
I think his defensive game has improved quite a bit, despite his -20...i think that's more a reflection of him NOT generating any offense and playing against top lines, he's got to find a way to get his confidence back offensively.
this is fairly accurate - i think his defense had improved as we would have hoped, he still makes some bad mistakes (as would be expected due to his youth).
but what has been disappointing is his offense has seemed to regress a bit. However, I have no doubt it is normal growing pains and he will put it all together in the next couple years.
Sometimes I get the feeling that he tries too often to make the "best" play while a simple pass would do. Ends up costing turnovers, but otherwise I think he's been very good (or at least better than in the beginning of the season).
Don't know if its his confidence that's bothering him, but the positive effect of BB can clearly be seen otherwise.
He played very well at the beginning of the season I thought for around 20 games. This is a good sign, young dmen if they can show that they're good early on will develop the consistency later.
I wouldn't worry about offense because the Ducks offense hasn't been that great and he's also played tough minutes with Beuch so tough to get offense going that way. From this season, at least there are somewhat defensive improvements which will allow him to play big minutes going forward so yeah....a guy to get for fantasy hockey.
Sometimes I get the feeling that he tries too often to make the "best" play while a simple pass would do. Ends up costing turnovers, but otherwise I think he's been very good (or at least better than in the beginning of the season).
Don't know if its his confidence that's bothering him, but the positive effect of BB can clearly be seen otherwise.
Since he`s still young, just stepped into his 3. decade as a human being, he just plays it to the maximum.
I believe that with experience he will play smarter and he will be good!
There is no reason for Fowler to be this bad. The fact that Beauchemin plus/minus keeps improving and Fowlers keeps falling doesn't make sense to me. As of right now I'd say Sbisa is better than Fowler.
There is no reason for Fowler to be this bad. The fact that Beauchemin plus/minus keeps improving and Fowlers keeps falling doesn't make sense to me. As of right now I'd say Sbisa is better than Fowler.
Sbisa is playing the best hockey he's ever played and Fowler is slumping yet it's Fowler that is still getting top pairing minutes with Beauchemin against the other teams top players. I think that's all that really needs to be said when people want to argue that Sbisa is the better overall player.
Sbisa is playing the best hockey he's ever played and Fowler is slumping yet it's Fowler that is still getting top pairing minutes with Beauchemin against the other teams top players. I think that's all that really needs to be said when people want to argue that Sbisa is the better overall player.
That's a reflection of who Fowlers partner is, Sbisa logs alot of the difficult PK mins. There's no other way to slice it than, Sbisa has been the better player this season. Fowler will bounce back but I think we're also all excited about where Sbisa is going the way he played in OT vs the Devils, wow I hope we can match him with a stud defensive D soon he is no longer "thinking" he is reacting and is letting his natural ability kick in
Sbisa is playing the best hockey he's ever played and Fowler is slumping yet it's Fowler that is still getting top pairing minutes with Beauchemin against the other teams top players. I think that's all that really needs to be said when people want to argue that Sbisa is the better overall player.
Haven't watched the games, but that's not true based on the minutes recently.
Of the last 5 games Sbisa has had more EV minutes than Fowler in 3 games (the last 2 and the 5th game). The 3rd and 4th games prior they had similar EV minutes.
Fowler ends up with more total minutes in some, but not all, games because he plays 1st unit PP. Sbisa gets some 2nd unit PP and some 2nd unit PK duty.
He played very well at the beginning of the season I thought for around 20 games. This is a good sign, young dmen if they can show that they're good early on will develop the consistency later.
I wouldn't worry about offense because the Ducks offense hasn't been that great and he's also played tough minutes with Beuch so tough to get offense going that way. From this season, at least there are somewhat defensive improvements which will allow him to play big minutes going forward so yeah....a guy to get for fantasy hockey.
During November he was (in my opinion) our best defender. But that wasnt saying much considering how bad we sucked.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AmericanRocket91
There is no reason for Fowler to be this bad. The fact that Beauchemin plus/minus keeps improving and Fowlers keeps falling doesn't make sense to me. As of right now I'd say Sbisa is better than Fowler.
Typical Hf thought. 1 player is slumping, 1 player is playing the best hockey of his career.
Sbisa is playing the best hockey he's ever played and Fowler is slumping yet it's Fowler that is still getting top pairing minutes with Beauchemin against the other teams top players. I think that's all that really needs to be said when people want to argue that Sbisa is the better overall player.
Don't want to take part in the Fowler vs. Sbisa discussion again, but your argument isn't a very good one. Just because Sbisa's on the 2nd pairing while Fowler is on the 1st doesn't automatically mean he's worse. Or do you think the reason for Selanne to not be on the top line is that he isn't one of our 3 best forwards?
I'm ok with Beauch/Cam as 1st and Vis/Luca as our 2nd pairing, but the main reason for that is because off/def off/def is better than off/off and def/def.
Further, they want Fowler to be our franchise D in the future and he needs to get accomplished to that role and its pressure. Demoting him wouldn't really make sense, it could even break his confidence. IMO, that's also the reason he's still on the 1st PP unit despite an awful performance there.
He has all the tools needed for that heavy role and I think he'll bounce back very soon!
Last edited by swissexpert: 02-19-2012 at 12:40 PM.
Why argue Sbisa vs Fowler? We have two young, talented defenders with extremely high upsides. Sbisa is better defensively and Fowler is better offensively. End of story. We are going to have a great blue line for years to come
That's a reflection of who Fowlers partner is, Sbisa logs alot of the difficult PK mins. There's no other way to slice it than, Sbisa has been the better player this season. Fowler will bounce back but I think we're also all excited about where Sbisa is going the way he played in OT vs the Devils, wow I hope we can match him with a stud defensive D soon he is no longer "thinking" he is reacting and is letting his natural ability kick in
Sbisa has been better the last month, not the whole season. And during that month he's playing his best hockey while Fowler is struggling. Sbisa was unbelievable in OT vs the Devils but he was awful for the first 60 minutes of the game. Sbisa and Visnovsky have played much easier minutes as far as matchups go than Fowler and Beauchemin and it is clearly reflected each pairings respective numbers.
There is no reason for Fowler to be this bad. The fact that Beauchemin plus/minus keeps improving and Fowlers keeps falling doesn't make sense to me. As of right now I'd say Sbisa is better than Fowler.
Sbisa is definitely playing better than Fowler right now, but I have a hard time saying Sbisa is the better player. Fowler was flat out our best defenseman to start the season. The kid has shown game-breaking ability. Sbisa has been better the past month and a half or so, and that's really it. Fowler was better last season, and he was better to start the season. Basically, Fowler has been better longer, and only now that he's slumping can we even make the argument that Sbisa is playing better.
Since Boudreau has taken over, Fowler's game just hasn't looked the same. He might be getting more out of Sbisa, but for some reason we seem to be getting less out of Fowler.
Fowler really has not looked too great all season imo. I wonder if Ducks Fans would rather have Gardiner than Fowler?
Not sure what games you have been watching. Fowler has looked good most of the year, his defensive game is really coming around. Yes his offense has been struggling but thats more because he is playing on our top pairing where he needs to worry about D more then offense right now. Its like Sbisa last year, where all the effort is put into D so the offense doesn't flow. But once he gets it down the numbers will start coming again.
