Just watched the last three games on replay. A few things:
Seigenthaler - very impressed with his development. He is very solid and I think is a top 4 defensemen. I was bummed we lost Bowey (who was scratched by Detroit last night), but now I am thrilled with Seigenthaler.
Gudas - I wasn't too sure about him, but he has turned out great. He is physical, but can skate and makes some outstanding passes.
Boyd - he will likely be the next guy sitting out when we get our guys back, but he has impressed. He works the forecheck and can stickhandle in the corners and behind the net for some sneaky plays.
Dowd - he may be the odd man out again as well, but I like his physical play lately. He has a knack for finishing checks with the full body instead of just the glancing hit.
Good post, Beags.
At the start of the season, I was really pulling for Ziggy to do well. Through the first 15 to 20 games, I started to sour on the guy a bit.
No complaints with attitude or his effort level at all, just seeing a few too many mental errors, passing and zone clearing mistakes, etc. that didn’t lend itself to helping his cause!
But I tell you, for about the last 3 to 4 weeks, I’ve really noticed a incrementally increasing, and more COMPREHENSIVE improvement, in Siegenthaler’s defensive skills across-the-board! Playing generally more responsible, clearing better, and even doing a little better along the boards!
As far as Gudas goes, I had high hopes heading into the season for him already! He has definitely exceeded expectations, and adds a very mature, decision-making, AND physical presence to his line! Very happy with Radko Gudas all around!!
Last year we often saw an experimental merry go round, shuffling 4th line forwards in and out of various games.
Boyd, Dowd, Smith-Pelly and Stephenson, (mainly), went through their fair share of “scratch-n-play”, throughout the season, obviously depending on what situation the coaches were dealing with. In the first half of the season, you could almost see any combination of those fellas on the fourth line.
I just checked last years stats. Dowd and Stephenson each had 64 games. DSP and Boyd in the mid 50’s.
Dowd had the most points, and best plus/minus of the four. Both Stevenson and DSP were negative in plus/minus.
Stephenson has dropped a notch in my book, starting with the last half of last season. He’s got a lot of speed, but he gets caught puck watching a lot, and is one of those guys, when skating on the ice, who chooses, TOO often, to cruise and glide, rather than keep his legs moving.
This affects mainly his defensive abilities, As it causes him to lose those precious few milliseconds of reaction time, to start his legs going again!
In Stephensons defense, once he does churn his legs, he has great acceleration, almost Hagelin-like, and sometimes it makes up for it. Sometimes it doesn’t, and can cost us a simple puck possession, or worse, A high chance SOG!
With Dowd and Boyd, You get the same great effort level and hustling attitude from both guys! I would say just the very slightest shooting accuracy would go to Boyd!
But Dowd has become an OUTSTANDING PK guy, and has scrappiness galore, both along the boards, AND, on his defensive side, is a good, play disrupter, against the opponent,
This is why I think Dowd will mostly stay at 4th line center/forward, over Boyd. They are very close, mind you, but when Backy, and Hagelin return, you’ll have two guys to sort out of the picture between, Panik, Stephenson, Boyd, Leipsic, Dowd, and Hathaway!
That Dowd, Leipsic, Hathaway, 4th line combo has shown to cause some real havoc on opponents when they’ve been together!!
They’ve mostly been an energized, gritty, hustling, thorn in the opponents side, especially when opponents start entry into our zone! They get way more than their fair share of puck steals/possession changes!! The only knock on those three guys, would be a little more shot accuracy for production! (Hence, their 4th line placement)! But for my money, I like ‘EM!!👍
It’s going to get interesting here, when Backy and Hags return!
It’s one of those GOOD problems for Rierden to have to deal with!
Rush
