Legend:
G, A, Pts, Dome - you know already
PM - Plus/minus
Ch +/- - Differential in scoring chances at even strength
Fenwick - Shots and missed shots for minus those against at ES
Corsi - Shots, missed shots and blocked shots for minus those against at ES
Jeff Halpern
Grade:
B+
Jeff was a different player in the first twenty games than he was in the second. That said, the surprise from him was the first twenty and not the second twenty. Even if he's no longer an offensive contributor, he still brings what the team supposedly sought when they signed him -- a solid NHLer who can play in a few different roles.
Mathieu Darche
Grade:
A-
Darche has had a very nice second quarter season. Playing from a variety of lines, he has more often than not provided a spark. Have a look at his Corsi and Fenwick columns to see that he completely outclassed whoever he was on against. The trouble that remains is that for all this, he is even in plus minus -- perhaps witness to the fact he is still a third line type scorer. Still an incredible asset to have found in the way the team did.
Travis Moen
Grade:
C+
Moen is quite a consistent player. I would never expect a horrible game from him. Nor would I expect to be blown away. When the team signed Travis, it was thought he could contribute in small bits when the other forwards might be on down cycles. I think we now know that is not what he can do. You hope in a slump that the 4th line might provide some spark. instead in these back to earth 20 games, Travis was outchanced as badly as almost anyone else.
Tom Pyatt
Grade:
B-
Last time I said something about how every team needs a player that can just play a responsible game, not get scored on and take a small salary for doing it. Pyatt does that. I don't have much more to say about him.
Lars Eller
Grade:
B+
Eller's been doing a lot of things right. Ultimately, though, at some point he has to learn how to turn doing a lot of things right into numbers that will help the team -- pushed in goal here or there, a penalty drawn. Despite what looked like a good improvement on first quarter numbers, Eller actually gets a downgrade. This is because in the second quarter he was promoted on several occasions and just failed to seize the moment. I'm not talking about not scoring gamewinners here, I'm talking about the fact his play suffered when he was moved up a line. he needs to work this out to make the next level.
David Desharnais
Grade:
N/A
The cat may be out of the bag now, but at 41 games there wasn't much evidence. David shows extraordinary skill at times, but is yet to show the St. Louis or Briere ability to make us forget he is small. We need more time to view him.
Maxim Lapierre
Grade:
D
This is a bit of a different review. He's getting a D mostly because he proved himself to be an unreasonable person who took a lot for granted. For a guy who had a horrible first season with the coach and then followed with a horrible opening 20 games, I was a bit shocked to hear he asked for a trade because he felt cheated of ice time. I think at times we felt cheated because he was getting too much ice time, no? It's a shame that Max asked for that trade, i never thought self-interest was what he was about.
Dustin Boyd
Grade:
D
Not a very good start to his Habs career so far. And to be in the shadow of a player with 11 goals and 20-odd points makes it worse. Dustin can't get such a low mark for his play, but I can only surmise that in practice and elsewhere he can't have impressed the coaches too much, as there would have otherwise been plenty of opportunity for him to play a few more games. With depth being as thin as it is in Habsland, don't be too surprised if Boyd makes a glorious recovery from Hamilton and is called back into the team.
No comments:
Post a Comment