Contrary to popular belief, hot takes are not sinister narratives designed to whitewash the truth in favor of pettiness and creative inertia. Well, unless you’re Steve Simmons or Rosie Dimanno. Then yea, they are.
But for the most part, they’re neutral struggles to extrapolate. Like right now. The best way to describe this game is to shut up and move on. Dallas lost to great goaltending. That’s it. Let’s see if six easy tweets are six too much to describe how nothing worked for the Stars last night.
1. More Fun and More Good Than You
Fun vs. Boring Matrix pic.twitter.com/49we6584jS
— DTM About Heart (@DTMAboutHeart) December 4, 2015
So it looks like we have the answer to what happens when an unstoppable Fun & Good meets the immovable Boring & Bad. Which is, save percentage.
2. Boring and Bad with the Edge at the End of One
Well I mean aside from 6 breakaways, that wasn’t a bad period.
— Copper & Blue (@CopperandBlue) December 5, 2015
Boy did Tyler Seguin and Jamie Benn get their chances. The matchup between Leon Draisaitl (who is already the real deal; just rewatch his specific string of play against Jonathan Toews one in one in 3 on 3) and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins was in the dynamic duo’s favor in a big way. Unfortunately there was no Connor McDavid around. Unfortunately for internet traffic. Fortunately for Johnny Oduya.
3. Twining Nemo
Hall with dandy play schools Nemeth and lifts over Niemi. Nemeth slams bench door, Niemi looked like he was swimming on that one.#EJLive
— Jim Matheson (@NHLbyMatty) December 5, 2015
Patrik Nemeth didn’t play Taylor Hall as bad as it looked. But you probably want your big rugged “defensive defenseman” stepping up on opponents every now and then (who has never been as physical as advertised). Part of the problem with discussing player analysis these days is that one group holds the quantitative argument in their pocket, and the other holds their qualitative arguments. Why is it the case that never the twain shall meet?
Thomas Drance recently talked about this in so many ways when discussing one of the whipping boys on the Vancouver Canuck blueline (Lucas Sbisa).
The Canucks, for example, rank in the bottom 10 in defensive-zone hits that successfully separate opponents from the puck, according to Sportlogiq. Luca Sbisa, however, ranks 11th among defensemen who’ve logged at least 150 even strength minutes by this category.
“He’s a physical, hard player,” Benning told Sportsnet of Sbisa in early November. “He’s strong in the corner and in front of the net and when teams start cycling on us, he can finish his checks and stop the play so we can get the puck going the other way.”
The 25-year-old Swiss-born defenceman is also among the 10 best defenders in hockey when it comes to completing defensive-zone passes, according to Sportlogiq.
Going out of your way to Scott Stevens some hapless Swede on open ice isn’t the call to arms here; but a decent essence disturber or two might suffice. Correlation, causation, and all that jazz. Whatever the case, Oleksiak and Nemeth need to have that Mystery, Alaska “talk”.
4. Jan Marks The Intelligently Designed, Diligently Pursued Scandinavian…Spot
At 1st intermission, @barnes_stu broke down the exact type of faceoff mistake Edmonton just made on the goal. Great drive by Janmark.
— Josh Bogorad (@JoshBogorad) December 5, 2015
I told you guys Mattias Janmark on Vernon Fiddler’s line wasn’t too awful of an idea. Fiddler’s got plenty of hillbilly wisdom to impart on the puck neophytes. Yes, nothing about this play revealed chemistry between the two, and it highlighted Edmonton’s breakdown more than anything but if Janmark can be as consistent as he’s been all season, he doesn’t belong on the 4th line. Although the idea that a bottom ix role is so much inherently “lesser” needs to stop with how much depth teams have now. Anyway; always a pleasure to see the kid get rewarded.
5. Where Does he Get Those Wonderful Gloves?
Nilsson ratings off the charts in Edmonton tonight.
— Ian McLaren (@iancmclaren) December 5, 2015
There’s your hot take.
6. On to the Next One…Next Tuesday
This panel’s even slight suggestion the Stars didn’t ‘have it’ is pretty rich. They freaking rolled us! Goalie losses: they happen.
— Michael Parkatti (@mparkatti) December 5, 2015
Nothing to see here except Nilsson’s stellar play.
I had hoped that the Stars would win yesterday to help celebrate my birthday, but alas, said day had no magical voodoo powers. I’m enjoying the Oleksiak-Nemeth pairing for the most part (though you have to wonder what Johns could do in Nemeth’s spot despite both of their erratic play at times). Their next game against the Carolina Hurricanes will tell us more than you’d think given their strong underlying numbers, but with lots of St. Louis, Montreal, and Chicago coming up this month, with three out of six games against the Central coming on back to backs (!), we’re about to find out a lot more about this team in short order. Will the force awaken? Or will it glimmer?