Time for a Lafreniere Reset

[Phil]

3 minutes ago, josh said:

He is an NHL player now.

 

Agreed. A fringe third-liner.

[josh]

10 minutes ago, Phil said:

Agreed. A fringe third-liner.

Not terrible for a 20 year old kid playing with other players at that same level, at best.

 

(not to be confused with our expectations of a 1OA)

 

 

[Pete]

1 hour ago, josh said:

He is an NHL player now.

 

Yes, a not very good one, who's not getting better.

[fletch]

He just may be Casey Mittelstadt.  Sometimes the production doesn't match the hype.

https://www.nhl.com/player/casey-mittelstadt-8479999

[Pete]

4 minutes ago, fletch said:

He just may be Casey Mittelstadt.  Sometimes the production doesn't match the hype.

https://www.nhl.com/player/casey-mittelstadt-8479999

Hey -39 is good on Buffalo...

[josh]

4 hours ago, fletch said:

He just may be Casey Mittelstadt.  Sometimes the production doesn't match the hype.

https://www.nhl.com/player/casey-mittelstadt-8479999

He better not be.

[Pete]

15 mins. 0 shots. 2 hits.

[Keirik]

[Sod16]

I'll wait until a game in which LaF did not make the best defensive play of the year to jump on him.

[Pete]

I don't care about defense from our 1OA forward.

I'd prefer if they had to teach him defense, not teach him offense.

[-ERIK-]

We all want to see more offense from him ,thought he was fine last night and I thought for sure he had that one shot when he came out from behind the net, maybe it didn't get through on net?

might have saved a goal with that defensive play,it was a good play and a great hustle play.

Thought chytil was useless last night.

[Scott]

I wish the video wasn't cut short Kreider had to make sure he's conscious a couple times. So bad even Sam was laughing as the camera was locked in on him talking about him being gassed.

Edited December 19, 2021 by jsrangers

[Valriera]

yeah I mean I’m going to hold judgment on this kid until he shows up in good shape to camp. Clearly he’s not if he’s that out of breath at basically any point in a hockey game. You’ve got to be able to move to play no matter how good you are. As I mentioned before if he’s serious about playing he will figure that part out. Maybe end of year the coach or someone gives him the straight and narrow on this topic. 
 

personally I am optimistic that if he has a physical growth year in the way kakko did with his skating that we will see a different player but it’s very hard to argue that his impact has been very low so far. I just think it’s because he’s far more than anything 

[Scott]

I would think the easiest thing any player can improve is their conditioning, easier than any skill for example skating.  Wanna blame last season on whatever reason, no camp, rookie season ok. End result was it was clear his conditioning was shit (again forget about everything else stat/eye test wise etc.).

However, with that having happened I find it impossible to believe he didn't do whatever was necessary this offseason to not allow it to happen again coming into camp.  Yet here we are, the kid gassed to the point of not even being able to pick his head up after making a play 30 games into the season. All jokes aside, forget being invisible, whether or not he should be in Hartford there's just no excuse for it to happen this season, again.  He's a jolly fella who seems to be having a blast with the boys when he's not gasping for air and that's all great. I would be my balls Kreider was like wtf kid ffs pick yourself up you're embarrassing yourself at this point. I wish I didn't delete the game on the DVR because it went on longer than that gif.

[The Dude]

On 12/18/2021 at 3:24 PM, jsrangers said:

I wish the video wasn't cut short Kreider had to make sure he's conscious a couple times. So bad even Sam was laughing as the camera was locked in on him talking about him being gassed.

[Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc]

Found a guy that compared Laf, Hughes and MacKinnon's stats thru their first 86 games (the number of games Laf has played so far). The stats are interesting, especially when you consider TOI (and PP TOI).
TOI/PP TOI:
MacKinnon - 17:17/2:20
Hughes - 16:50/3:05
Lafreniere - 13:37/1:20

ES Goals/assist/Points:
MacKinnon - 16,31-47
Hughes - 8,15-23
Lafreniere - 18,11-29

PP Goals/assist/Points:
MacKinnon - 8,9-17
Hughes - 5,7-12
Lafreniere - 0,0-0

0 PP points in 1:20 PP TOI is not good enough obviously, but everyone that watches Rangers games know that ~1 minute of that 1:20 are used in the D/neutral zone. He's outscoring and outproducing the 8,5milly man at ES while playing over 3 minutes less.

[Ozzy]

Nice work, Zuuuc man!!

I like Laf and he's going to be just fine here. 

[Pete]

The difference between MacKinnon as a rookie and Lafreniere is that Lafreniere is getting 3rd pairing matchups and 60% O-zone starts.

Hughes gets 68%!

Everybody wants this kid to succeed, but I don't see how his first 80 plus games can be categorized as anything other than disappointing.

[Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc]

8 minutes ago, Pete said:

Everybody wants this kid to succeed, but I don't see how his first 80 plus games can be categorized as anything other than disappointing.

Agreed, just trying to put some perspective on the disappointment. If Kreider or Panarin didn't take up a top 6 and PP spot his stats would probably look better.

He's not been as good as hoped, but he's not been as bad as his stats says either. It's not easy putting up lot of points playing 13 minutes a night with middle/bottom 6 players and basically no real PP time, even with a high O-zone start%.

[Pete]

5 minutes ago, Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc said:

Agreed, just trying to put some perspective on the disappointment. If Kreider or Panarin didn't take up a top 6 and PP spot his stats would probably look better.

He's not been as good as hoped, but he's not been as bad as his stats says either. It's not easy putting up lot of points playing 13 minutes a night with middle/bottom 6 players and basically no real PP time, even with a high O-zone start%.

For sure. TBH, I don't really check his boxcar stats too often, when I watch him, he just leaves a lot to be desired.

[Keirik]

I know we all want ALF to be someone, and he might eventually, but we have to stop trying to massage stats to try to make us feel better.

Alf has 29 career points in 86 games. MacKinnon got his 29th point in 44 games. I know time on ice, pp time, etc, affects all of this, but Alf’s stats are more of a self reflection of how far away he is from elite. 

[Valriera]

The only thing I take from his stats are that he’s reasonably productive while being unreasonably out of shape. Imagine if he figured that part out

[Sod16]

Do you ever find yourself saying, "Wow, the kid's got speed, or vision, or touch.  He'll be good when he puts it to more use."   The answer is "no."  That's the eye test, and he's not passing it, whether his stats look good, bad or somewhere in the middle.  

[Zuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuc]

4 hours ago, Sod16 said:

Do you ever find yourself saying, "Wow, the kid's got speed, or vision, or touch.  He'll be good when he puts it to more use."   The answer is "no."  That's the eye test, and he's not passing it, whether his stats look good, bad or somewhere in the middle.  

There's two plays in his so far 85 games career that I remember.

It was one cross-ice pass from the left side over to Chytil (I think) who scored on a one-timer. There he showed his vision, IQ and passing skills. Never seen it since tho.
(https://youtu.be/dHuz2KF_xe0?t=59) Not Chytil or a one-timer lol, but here it is.

The other was one goal where he absolutely ripped it over the goalies shoulder.
(https://youtu.be/zSd6hHmqkwY?t=109)

Besides that I don't remember a single thing he's done on the ice for the last two seasons.

 

 

[josh]

4 hours ago, Sod16 said:

Do you ever find yourself saying, "Wow, the kid's got speed, or vision, or touch.  He'll be good when he puts it to more use."   The answer is "no."  That's the eye test, and he's not passing it, whether his stats look good, bad or somewhere in the middle.  

This is just a horrible perspective that’s plagued the forum.