Edited Feb. 25, 2020 at 1:35 a.m.
Quoting: Zwui21
Hedman-Rutta have been amazing this season together. They complement each others very well.
McDonagh-Cernak has been the best Lightning defensive pair for 2 seasons now.
Sergachev-Shattenkirk they just play good together. Sergachev limits Shattenkirk mistakes
No, Hedman carries Rutta...
Just like he carried Girardi. Was Girardi good? No. He could block some shots... Others can do the same...
Rutta sux... You will realize it sooner or later... He is hopeless, just like Koekkoekk in
. You can't fix these guys... when something is missing. I mean they have couple years to improve, but it's doubtful.
Odds are Rutta not good enough in the playoffs, when Crosby gets the puck, we just allow 1 goal... If you get my groove...
The other pairs are also doubtful, cause injuries happening with every team on the D-side... those pairs will not work like that after 10-15 games in the playoffs...
You need deep D-core. Carolina + St. Louis has the best ones... They have leak on goaltending + forwards injury prone because of the style they play... But
already won the cup so they are fine whatever result is this year for them... but we still have 0 cups, so we really shouldn't expect Rutta to hold the fort when Pastrnak or Ovechkin gets the puck...
You have to understand regular season not equal to playoffs success...
IF Kucherov gets pushed around and we struggle again... our Goals fowarded stats can go down to under 2.0.... again... again... again... in regular season it's 3.5
3.5 = lots of wins
2.0 = lots of loses = rip dreams
Last year St. Louis had around 2.5 both of these stats, they outgrinded the opponent. We can't do the same. We need those goals... And usually they disappear come playoff time. That's why you can't base your success on Rutta or Schenn. Those guys just not good.
Washington got Dillon for example. That guy is good.
If we had Dillon in our lineup i would be much more confident on going deep this year...
But we don't have it. Thanks to BriseBois. We have huge leaks on our D-core...
Yes it's good enough to win the cup, as the odds shows 11.1% by hockey-reference.com - advanced stat site....
Bookmakers will make the same odds... Lightning top5 favorite ofc... but if we don't win , don't be surprised that Rutta was one of the reasons... Together with Coburn + Schenn + others... = D-core
I still expect lights out hockey in every single game in the playoffs, but that doesn't mean we win the whole thing with a D-core like this. We need a lot of luck as well...
Why Boston made the finals last year? 5 upsets in a row... If we meet Boston last year in 2nd round... we crush them most likely... they got lucky until the final... their opponent was: Carolina playoffs newbie team = failed miserably vs them... We need same kind of luck. Sorry if i look too harsh on Rutta. But i just want to open your eyes, and focus on him, when things are going bad.
If we win 5-0 who cares, that Rutta plays bad or not... But if we lose 5-3 vs Vegas. You can clearly see it was Coburn/Schenn's fault... mainly....
Same thing in playoffs... when we lose... just remember: Rutta SUX
This thing is 2 different things: Losing in the playoffs = out = rip season = need the best players you can get
If Rutta was good or Gustaffson. Chicago would've kept them...
Chicago won some cups... they know what's up...
If Rutta will play good in meaningful games... i will tip my hat for him... until then i just expect that the reality will happen = he will paly bad when the opponent = super strong. All 4 lines... it's easy to be good when opponent is Buffalo abres, then a injury plagued Pittsburgh before trade deadline.
Now every team is stronger... don't focus too much on past... those games were meaningless = Rutta can play good. In the playoffs every mini error results = 1 goal = 1 loss = 1 step closer to being eliminated.
If our D-core would've been awesome last 6 years = Cups. It just wasn't good enough...
We had same arguments about other players in the past... You need to learn to evaluate players based on their whole career... Not just last 20 games... last 1 year...
Reality so far Stamkos = choking in the playoffs
2020 Stamkos in playoffs = ???
It will be an upset and we probably win the cup if he averages 1.0 point/game and be positive on the plus-minus chart in the playoffs... but that's still not the reality...
Just like Rutta being = amazing . We can just hope for the best = pray that he will be...
Past history shows, he wouldn't make the NHL roster on most other teams, except as a bottom 6 guy sheltered minutes vs 4th line...