Which player has surprised you the most this year Good and bad!

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plubers

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When you think Art ross you don't think of Joffrey Lupul but the guy is 4th in the league in scoring (G 18 assists 26 PTS 44) and only two points out of first place. Nobody on this planet saw that comming.

The bad has to be Drew Doughty. Kills me to say it but he held out and missed training camp for $$$. Gets paid 2 million to much and sits at just 2 goals. 15 points is alright but his diving ,weak lazy passes and taking penalties in the last 3 or 4 minutes of the third period is starting to wear thin on this fan. Get it together dude. I really think that contract is gonna do more damage than good. Way to much pressure for a 22 year old.
 
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Joffrey Lupul has been a stud this year. I can't remember the exact stat, but they showed it the other night and it said that out of the 39 games the Leafs have played he has at least a point in like 36 of them. Truly remarkable.

When healthy he's always shown the ability to score. Only problem has been a barrage of injuries (and a back that kept him out a year and a half). He's shown great chemistry with Kessel and the two have been the most consistent and dangerous Leafs night in and night out. You can count on 1 hand how many 'bad games' the two of them have had (probably put together!).



The bad, and it pains me to say this as he's one of my favourite players has been Ryan Getzlaf. He looks awful. Atrocious. Lazy, no effort, just going through the motions. It's funny, but I was watching the Canucks feed last week when they played Anaheim and John Garrett and what's his face were commenting how bad Getzlaf looks.

I think it might actually be time for him to move on. A change of scenary looks like it might be in the cards for Getzlaf (just like what this beat writer says. Time to trade Getzlaf?)
 
For most surprising I'd say either Eric Nystrom or Milan Michalek.
For most surprising for the bad I'd have to second Getzlaf, absolutely no emotion out there.
 
wogman56 said:
For most surprising I'd say either Eric Nystrom or Milan Michalek.
For most surprising for the bad I'd have to second Getzlaf, absolutely no emotion out there.
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I'm really liking Michalek this year, he's playing very well.
 
Jannik Hansen has been awesome this year, 12 goals 11 assists making $1.3M. He's on pace for 25 goals, and he's now playing in every situation. It looks as though his hands are finally catching up to his feet. He's been fantastic.

As well Florida's top line has been awesome all year long. Weiss (33), Fleischmann (34), and Versteeg (38) look great together.
 
Regarding the Rangers.... Dubinsky is killling me!!!! He has showed signs of life lately though. We shall see.... On the other side of the coin, I think this Hagelin kid can play.
 
MGiuseffi1969 said:
Regarding the Rangers.... Dubinsky is killling me!!!! He has showed signs of life lately though. We shall see.... On the other side of the coin, I think this Hagelin kid can play.
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Hags reminds me a lot of Parenteau last year. Again, I dont know why the Rags let him go for nothing....



As for overall good surprises, I have to say:

1. Neal with 21 goals (everyone under the sun was saying Dallas got the better end of this deal)

2. Elliott (for those of you going 'who??' see the goalie stats and team GAA). The Blues right now have 2 goalies in the top 10 in GAA

3. Del Zotto- Have to go with a team pick. WHile Hagelin has been a pleasant surprise. MDZ was being tagged by everyone as a bust. He has been stellar defensively and moves the puck as good as anyone in the game. His +25 (2nd in the league) says a lot about how he has grown in all aspects of the game as well.


As far as bad surprises go, Ill make it short:

1. Rinne- Sure most of it is the team he plays for, but 28th and 16th in GAA and S% is a huge tumble for him.

2. Doughty- Already talked about, he has been less than spectacular this year. Hope no one wasted a high D pick on him... Then again, I guess you could have gotten Bouwmeester.......:beer:

3. The Ducks- So much firepower, in every aspect of the game, anyone who says they saw this coming is lying.....
 
Metrags said:
1. Neal with 21 goals (everyone under the sun was saying Dallas got the better end of this deal)
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LOL let's find that thread. I think you need refresh your memory. It was the complete opposite.

I posted in it a number of times trying to justify how it wasn't such a steal for Pittsburgh. Everyone under the sun, earth, moon, mars and neptune said Pittsburgh stole Neal.
 
For Buffalo, there's only a minor surprise in the production of Pominville/Vanek. I expected offense out of the two but maybe not quite this much.

Bad surprise? The whole freakin' team. Roy, Gerbe (hurt), Ennis (hurt), Stafford, Goose. You name it, they've been disappointing.
 
canucksfreak19 said:
Jannik Hansen has been awesome this year, 12 goals 11 assists making $1.3M. He's on pace for 25 goals, and he's now playing in every situation. It looks as though his hands are finally catching up to his feet. He's been fantastic.
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This guy is the unsung hero of the all time for the Canucks. He's become almost as important to the team as the Sedins, Kesler, Luongo, etc and nobody has noticed him do it. He's turned a 50/50 shot into a spot on the third line and turned that into being the team's Swiss army knife.

I should also say Mason Raymond's return has been good. He's scoring some goals and, I think, playing better than he played before he got hurt.

I also am liking that the Canucks are standing up this year. They lost the finals because they just let the Bruins push them around. This year they're actually reacting when Luongo gets run or a Sedin takes a cheap shot and it started with guys like Mancari, Booth and Ebbett. Guys who hadn't spent a year in the "let the refs handle it" mindset. It was the one aspect of the game they were missing last season and I'm seeing it this year without missing too much of what made them so great last season.

I'm waiting for Kesler to break out with some goals soon. He's sitting 3rd in team points, but represents a big drop-off after the Sedins (Henrik-46, Daniel-44, Kesler-28). He looks to be takking two steps forward 1 back lately, but I think he'll snap out of it, and at the right time.
 
My surprise on the Avalanche has been Stefan Elliott, knew the kid was good, but didn't expect him to come in and play this well right off the start.

I'd say O'Reilly is a surprise, but I liked him from the start and always thought he would be a great player, nice to see him getting the points to go along with the hard work and great defensive play.

On the flip side, Eric Johnson has been a disappointment to me thus far, expected a lot more from him.
 
DredJAw said:
LOL let's find that thread. I think you need refresh your memory. It was the complete opposite.

I posted in it a number of times trying to justify how it wasn't such a steal for Pittsburgh. Everyone under the sun, earth, moon, mars and neptune said Pittsburgh stole Neal.
Click to expand...

Not talking about internet message boards. Talking about my friends from the Dallas FW and FH area. Every one of them was laughing to the bank saying Neal was a one hit wonder. I on the other hand, said Neal was a steal for A.Go.

And I didnt say in this thread (or any thread) that Neal wasn't a steal. I said him having 21G's already was surprising, or was that not the title of the thread?



edit: I bought myself a nice GU Avery Stars auto jersey and Richards puck while I was down there this past July. ;) Apparently they dont like these guys either...who knew...


edit2: And I guess "everyone" expected this year from him after netting just 1 goal in 20 games with the Pens last year
 
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Not much surprising in Boston, except for Zach Hamill. Generally regarded as a huge bust, but he came in as an injury call up and didn't miss a beat. Looks very sound defensively and was starting to find his line-mates with some pretty nice passes. Can't see him having too much of a chance in sticking in Boston in the future due to center depth, but the kid may make a good center on the right team someday.
 

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