Morning Free Association, November 3

Fact is, he’s an unproven kid who is likely to be a 3rd liner with offensive upside. Not the kinda guy you pin your season’s offensive survival on…

I get being optimistic about the kid… 36 in 36 is impressive but it’s still just the AHL. Could easily be another Chris Bourque.

Better to temper expectations and be pleasantly surprised if he exceeds them rather than enter into seasn expecting the kid to be an outright savior.

oh but heres the thing. he didnt just help provide shots on goal when NO ONE ELSE wanted to shoot the puck last year he also provided a spark of energy and speed to the team that greatly needed.

Not everything is about individual goal performance. And i dont understand why this is even a discussion at all seeing how this team is definitely better with him than without, so who cares what his “projected numbers” might be….no matter what its better than our other options.

At worst he’s a chance of revitalizing that crap third line.

If not the third, then definitely the second line.

Team is better with him. No doubt about that. I just don’t get him being painted as some sort of savior… that the team just needs to hold on until he returns.

He’s a useful piece but his return isn’t going to single-handedly turn the team around…

GET OUT OF MY HEAD.

I dont think anyone has said he is some kind of Savior for all the team’s woes.

I think the general feel is that he is the missing piece in the forward lines to put things back into correct form. The bruins are missing that LW person to put the puck on net if the role of Backes and/or Hayes is to post up/screen and play cleanup.

Yes he no Stamkos, but he is what the team needs to fit into the role to make the team whole again.

i figured you for more of a stars and spaceships wallpaper kinda guy.

http://i.imgur.com/RKcCHl5.gif

“we might be able to hang on until Frankie is back.”

How else do you read that kind of line? It’s the kind of thing you write about a Bergeron or Chara (in his prime)… you just want to survive his absence knowing his return will save you.

BECAUSE HE IS ON THE TEAM AND NOT PLAYING.

Hopefully Frankie V can come back for Xmas. This team needs more goal support.

that is the actual quote. “the team needs more goal support”….and that is what he brings. Stop being argumentative for the sake of being argumentative.

Read the next response…

You say ‘actual quote’ as though I fabricated it…

Their return to health/form will have the far greater impact than the return of Vatrano though.

Forgive me if I’m somehow wrong here but wouldn’t those created goals be reflected by assist totals? Burying rebounds or deflecting his shots would still get him points…

At that point it would have to be 3 touches away from his shot… hard to believe a shot could have that lasting an impact…

how about we let Vatrano play a full NHL season healthy as possible and then judge his numbers.

This conversation is ridiculous.

THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT I’M SAYING!

These comment boxes are getting awfully skinny.

penisballs

tinybox

no you are saying his previous numbers are indicative of him NOT performing.

we dont know either way. Both arguments are valid, but there is no concrete answer because there is no REAL data to back up either claim. AHL is not NHL and less than Half a season does not make consistent performance or development.

I never once said that. I said his previous numbers don’t indicate he will be a savior. A position I’ve stayed consistent with.

I was never even critical of the kid, just saying I didn’t see him being the savior for the team’s offensive woes. Getting 15 goals in half a season after returning from significant injury would be pretty good for the kid.

No straw man, no arguing for the sake or arguing. I read two comments as implying that Vatrano’s return would fix the offense and I just don’t see it given his limited sample size. Forgive me for expressing an opinion and disagreeing with the flock.

http://gifsec.com/wp-content/uploads/GIF/2014/03/Funny-Animated-GIF.gif

I don’t know what the hell the problem is. If you click that broken image it takes directly to the image. So I am apparently handicapped in some way.

Ok, so I think I just figured it out. If the url has a hidden frame wordpress craps out on it. I’d have to go one level deeper on that broken image to get it to work. I’ll have to remember to stick to giphy since its presentation is frameless.

.gifception

Hey fucknuts, it wasn’t a direct response to the latter quote. It was a response to

we might be able to hang on until Frankie is back.

Like I previously said. Learn to read.

that quote you used there….its responding and adding to the one both he and i used in trying to give you reason and logic as to why you may be mistaken. No where in that one you just quoted does it say “savior” or “he is as good as stamkos”

Agreed. But the holding off til the return of player X implies player X better be someone pretty damned special, rather than some relative unknown.

no one said special, they said “help” aka…add benefit.

You know what would also help?

Krejci back to full form.
Backes back to full form.
Krug back to full form.
Doby back to full form.
Pasta back from suspension.
hell ill even argue K. Miller being back “helps” by providing an option for someone to eat TOI.

you keep using the word savior…no one has said that but you. All people have said is he will help the offence on his return which i dont see how you feel the need to turn that sentiment into “the savior of all woes”. He isnt going to help the defense, he isn’t gonna stop the other players from turning the puck over, he isnt going to stop people from getting injured….all people have said is he will help the teams offensive production when he gets back, which when you look at the body of work of Spooner and Heinen at LW thats not hard to do.

Please stop pretending like anyone here is acting like anyone here has said he is going to come back and light up the goal light every night.

Sorry but to me, as I previously said, saying that the team needs to hang on until player X’s return implies savior. Thus my original comment, that it seemed like people thought the kid would save the offense.

well you see….this is where you fucked up your argument because your interpretation doesn’t mean its fact. No one said savior.

How about you just ask the person who wrote it if he/she believes that he is going to be the savior instead of “interpreting” it the way you want it to read.

Did I say it was fact? No, no I didn’t. But thanks for putting words in my mouth.

How else do you interpret saying “we might be able to hang on until Frankie is back.”?

well the league seems to think offsides that far back matter...

(just playin’ devil’s advocate)

To me, that rule really should only be applied to those painfully obvious missed offsides, like when the player precedes the puck by a foot.

Problem is, how do you legislate that? You have to implicitly justify slight offsides as being legal. Creates a nasty slope to slide down…

Going off topic, but since that topic isn’t going anywhere anyway… Simplifying the ruleset would help. The back foot on/off the ice crap needs to go, and I’d advocate for making the blue line part of the offensive zone.
In terms of challenged offsides all sports are going overboard. The simple solution is just don’t allow offsides to be challengeable by the coach, like the good old days, or at the least institute a time cap/number of touches cap. I mean we keep hearing how the league wants more goals then they throw roadblocks in the way.

how hard is it to put a fucking cam in the boards along the blue line on both sides?????

If it makes you feel any better, the NFL is no different. Refuse to put cameras at the goallines. Too expensive. This from the multi-billion dollar league.

At least in the NHL there are some technical challenges which would need to be overcome to enable such cameras.

like…a hole in a wall in four places that you stick a go pro in each one?

Go back to the old days where the blue-line extended vertically. MUCH easier to review and no more arguing about when skate actually left the ice.

Fantastic. Certainly makes for amusing imagery.

Mind you, I’m basing my ‘old days’ comment off what I recall Jack Edwards saying

I’ve been around hockey a long time. Skate contact with the ice/ blue line has always been a thing

That certainly make sense. Doesn’t cover the goofy scenario where a guy is a centimeter offsides on a rush, negating an immediate goal.

Still would be definite progress though. Far too intelligent for the NHL to implement though…

In truth, I was trying to understand his point in general… how his shooting would create more offense without being reflected in his point totals. In most scenarios you get an assist for offense generated off your shot.

I might buy it if he had a decent number of assists at either level last year but that simply wasn’t the case. 3 in NHL, 19 in AHL (compared to 36 goals).

He’s a finisher, not a generator.