Mailbag: Why do players get thrown out of the faceoff?
Plus more of your questions while kill time at the airport.
Because of the storms in Dallas, my Thursday afternoon/evening flight turned into a Friday morning one.
It’s 4 am at the Detroit Airport, so good morning, and let’s get into some mailbag questions before I have to takeoff.
Can you explain why players get thrown out of face offs? (From Ged Erwin)
It’s a better question for a referee, but the most common reason to get tossed out of a face-off include moving the stick before the puck is dropped, not placing stick properly, or not placing the body square.
Essentially being too aggressive and trying to jump the draw before the referee even goes to the motion of dropping it.
A player can also get tossed when a teammate encroaches or pushes to far in trying to jump the draw.
What do you make of Thomas Harley’s shaky performance in the last couple of games? (From Drew C)
Thomas Harley has struggled in his past couple games, most notably the power play shift in Game 4 that led to the Oilers shorthanded goal by Mattias Janmark.
I think there a couple contributing factors.
First, I think the minutes and usage are starting to catch up with all of the Stars defense. Having played only five defenders for all but one game of the first two rounds seems to have left a mark.
Harley has played this many minutes this frequently in his NHL career, it feels like a wall he has to break through if he’s going to take the next step from solid to potentially great NHL defenseman.
Overall I think Harley is also hitting that sophomore slump where he’s learned the league, but now the league has learned him. It’s easier to impact the NHL as a rookie coming up from the AHL, like he was last season. When the entire league has a book on you they are going to use that knowledge against you, especially in a playoff series.
I also think there’s credit due to the matchup with the Oilers. While Harley isn’t a hitter by any means, he actually seems to play better against more physical teams in my view.
We’ll learn a lot tonight depending on what happens with Chris Tanev’s injury.
IF Tanev misses time (fingers crossed he doesn't), what's your best guess as to who fills in? And are we destined to see Suter play more minutes? (15-16 minutes is ideal for him, IMO). (From Mark Sandler)
I think we won’t have a real official answer on Tanev’s status until warmups, but based off the recent statements, it feels like he’s not going to be int he lineup.
I would guess Derrick Pouliout comes into play, he and Alexander Petrovic played together in the AHL and they could be used as the third pair. For Dallas it’s unfortunately going to create a spot where Ryan Suter has to play more, and he’s been rough this series.
Pavelski is virtually MIA. Is he under contract for next season (From JERRY GANT)
He’s not signed for next season. I have hunch we are seeing the final stretch of Joe Pavelski’s career.
To be clear that’s a hunch, not me reporting this.
Was Robo’s stuff goal (hat trick goal) in G3 the result of him realizing Skinner wasn’t flush against the post? (From Drew C)
I believe so. I wrote quite a bit about that goal in my 20/20 from after Game 3.
Here’s an excerpt.
It’s also a cerebral play from a player that process information extremely well on a shift-to-shift basis.
Robertson often talks to Stars goalies and goalie coach Jeff Reese, he understands the RVH and goalie positioning better than most goalies. He knows that when a goalie doesn’t get the pad locked in on the post lean, there is space for a jam.
Let’s look at where Robertson’s eyes are on this place.
He’s located the weakness and the area to attack.
You can read more on all of that here.
Hi Sean - Here are a couple of questions I had left for you a week or so ago. First, I’ve feel like there has been an increase in the number of embellishment calls in the playoffs. Am I imagining that?
Second, I hate how the refs are using the Pavelski major penalty review rule. If they think there might have been a penalty, they call a major so they can review it. That is not the spirit of the rule as I understood it. The purpose was when you call a major penalty, you can review to make sure it really was a major. (From Bill Hayes)
I don’t believe there’s a rise in embellishment penalties, I think there’s just a decrease in all the other things that get called — that makes embellishment penalties seem more common.
It’s one of the clubs in the bag for officials to even things up and attempt to make sure penalties look even by the end of the night. I personally don’t like how it’s used, especially with the Marchment call the other game.
And I agree with you on the second point. I like getting things right, but I think we’ve gone a bit too far down the replay train on things — in all sports, not just hockey.
It feels like Dallas hasn't been able to make Edmonton pay with their depth as much as I expected. I also feel like Edmonton has elevated their play from last series. What is Edmonton doing defensively that makes it feel like stacking shifts to earn offensive zone time is so much harder? (From Tyler King)
The Oilers depth, in my view, have done exactly what they’ve done all year — play frenzied but focused defense — and have been scoring a bit more than expected, which would probably normalize with a larger sample size.
In the defensive zone the Oilers do a good job of combining both man-to-man and zone elements. The Oilers take away the slot, like Vegas did, but the forwards chase a bit more and pursue bobbles and mistakes as opposed to looking for the eventual shot block like Vegas does, for example.
Nill had the assets the make another move to solidify the D corps at the deadline and chose not to do it. Should he have done more knowing that Nils had not earned the trust of the coaching staff? Lack of defensive depth is a terribly risky thing....Especially going into the playoffs w a real potential to win a cup. ( FromTad Ledbetter)
He could have made another move, but the cost would have been high and it’s not always guaranteed to work out — look at how Sean Walker struggle in the postseason for the Colorado Avalanche.
I think you have to realize Jim Nill still likes and trusts Nils Lundkvist as a player, and he’s maintained hope he’d step into that role more effectively. You also have to remember that the Stars expected and planned for Jani Hakanpää to be an option.
I have always wondered who really decides who play every night. Is it the coach or GM? Who decides to call up players? (From R Brown)
The GM builds the roster and the coach picks the lineup.
There are some additional caveats, and certain players aren’t going to get scratched, ever, because of organizational value. But in most cases, the GM’s job is to give the coach a pool of players to pick from.
I see 3 passengers in the “depth” everyone keeps talking about…
Marchment Pavs and Faska.
Wouldn’t the speed of Delly, Smith, and yes Bourque (pleeeeeease)…. Be better to counterpunch Edmonton??? (From CSsotty)
I was surprised that Radek Faksa came in opposed to Ty Dellandrea the other day, but I felt Faksa played a better game than I expected.
Mason Marchment also hasn’t been as rough, while it’s certainly fair to point out Pavelski has struggled mightily in the playoffs. I’m not a fan of scratching Pavelski, I think he brings more to this team than people realize behind close doors, but I’d also be intrigued to see what Mavrik Bourque could be.
That wasn’t a great answer, I know, but it’s now 4:33 am and my flight is about to board, so have to call it on the questions.
We’ll have more coverage of Stars-Oilers later today/tonight from Dallas, thanks for reading.