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Did Zaitsev ever learn how to pass?

B

Babcock

Banned
Just curious if he was ever taught that you're supposed to pass to your teammates and not the boards.


Discuss.
 
Nah, he really does suck as an NHL defenseman. I sure hope there's some GM out there who thinks he's good value on that contract.
 
i'm pretty sure babs started mixing it up there last night with jake-ozzy out for more than a few shifts.

zaits barely got more 5v5 time than marincin.

and of course zaits was a possession disaster tonight. worst on the team.

he really could use a night off.
 
yeah, it wouldn't surprise me to see Ozzy pass Zaits on the depth charts. the sad thing is I think Zaits biggest enemy comes from inside his head.
 
Wayward DP said:
yeah, it wouldn't surprise me to see Ozzy pass Zaits on the depth charts. the sad thing is I think Zaits biggest enemy comes from inside his head.
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Yep. I don't think that his passing is that bad. He QB'd one of the top PPs in the NHL a couple years ago. Its not like he can't make a 5 foot pass.

But the second he gets the puck in the Dzone he panics and immediately getst rid of it. Even when he has time and space. He doesn't take a look. He doesn't try to complete a pass. Just fires it wherever. He has no panic threshold with the puck and that is a bad quality for a defenseman. He so bad with the puck he can even tank Jake's possession game, which isn't easy to do.

Last 3 years TOI, CF% GF%
Gardiner w/ Zaitsev: 1382:25 TOI, 48.32%, 51.35%
Gardiner w/o Zaitsev: 1846:49, 51.89%, 61.84%
Zatisev w/o Gardiner: 1354:49, 48.25%, 44.53%

I think Ozzy is better, but obviously he has faced much softer competition so far.
 
leafman101 said:
Yep. I don't think that his passing is that bad. He QB'd one of the top PPs in the NHL a couple years ago. Its not like he can't make a 5 foot pass.
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Passing to a moving target in-stride is far different than passing to stationary targets.

He can't hit anyone in stride. It's a clear weakness. His lack of poise only makes things worse but he can't make a pass even if he tries.

If you ever want a laugh, just take a look at his zone exit/controlled zone exit numbers. I was amazed when I saw them in his rookie year. I can't imagine they have gotten any better.
 
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leafman101 said:
Yep. I don't think that his passing is that bad. He QB'd one of the top PPs in the NHL a couple years ago. Its not like he can't make a 5 foot pass.

But the second he gets the puck in the Dzone he panics and immediately getst rid of it. Even when he has time and space. He doesn't take a look. He doesn't try to complete a pass. Just fires it wherever. He has no panic threshold with the puck and that is a bad quality for a defenseman. He so bad with the puck he can even tank Jake's possession game, which isn't easy to do.

Last 3 years TOI, CF% GF%
Gardiner w/ Zaitsev: 1382:25 TOI, 48.32%, 51.35%
Gardiner w/o Zaitsev: 1846:49, 51.89%, 61.84%
Zatisev w/o Gardiner: 1354:49, 48.25%, 44.53%

I think Ozzy is better, but obviously he has faced much softer competition so far.
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This is the thing that worries me about him more than anything. Whoever we pair him with immediately seems to start playing much worse. The other one was Morgan Rielly---Zaitsev was paired with Rielly for about 60% of his even-strength ice-time in the 2016/17 season, and I'm pretty sure Rielly's possession metrics tanked that year too.

I've been more tolerant and patient with this guy than most, but we might be at the point where Dubas needs to find this guy a new home, preferably with an old school GM who will pay more mind to the fact that Zaitsev is a big, physical, cost-controlled RHD than he will to any of his advanced stats.
 
Wayward DP said:
convincing argument
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That's always been his Zaitsev argument.

The upshot is that Dubas is rumoured to not be a fan (the analytics department was allegedly against the contract offer) and that the easiest player type in the league to move is young RHD. We're getting the point where we would be much improved by just moving Dermott over to the right, especially with Sandin looking like he might be on the fast track to the league.
 
MindzEye said:
That's always been his Zaitsev argument.

The upshot is that Dubas is rumoured to not be a fan (the analytics department was allegedly against the contract offer) and that the easiest player type in the league to move is young RHD. We're getting the point where we would be much improved by just moving Dermott over to the right, especially with Sandin looking like he might be on the fast track to the league.
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The big Q is whether you can find another team that believes in him enough to take on his contract. I mean, you should easily be able to get a problem from someone else back (ie. Alzner), but if you have to start eating money to move him, gotta think about how many more chances you want to give him to improve.
 
I think he's young enough, the contract is reasonable enough and he "looks" good enough that someone is going to be willing to provide decent value for him in return. There will be a financial component to the deal sure, but I don't think it will be dumpy. I think about 15-20 teams in the league are smart enough to see him for what he is and not bother with interest, but from what I've seen there is still enough old timey hockey twits running teams that they'll see his skating and excessive cross checking as positives.

Just for example, I could see Edmonton, Buffalo, Dallas, Calgary, Vancouver, and of course the Islanders have some level of interest.
 
He's the Kris Russell of rhd. There are some old school folks that can be fooled by him. Hell, it took a lot of you guys three years to figure out that he sucks. It was staring us right in our face in his rookie year. He hasn't changed or regressed at all. He's the same player.
 
MindzEye said:
That's always been his Zaitsev argument.

The upshot is that Dubas is rumoured to not be a fan (the analytics department was allegedly against the contract offer) and that the easiest player type in the league to move is young RHD. We're getting the point where we would be much improved by just moving Dermott over to the right, especially with Sandin looking like he might be on the fast track to the league.
Click to expand...

It's boring to keep rehashing the same shit over and over after bad games.

We have one dman who plays with an edge, who throws hits, who makes it extremely tough on forwards in our zone with his aggressiveness. He's fast, can skate well, and contrary to popular opinion, can pass. It's hilarious to look at this team and see trash like Leivo being pumped up, and a serviceable dman like Zaitsev constantly shit on. Zaitsev is not a problem.
 
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