The Russian native has been fairly inconsistent this season for the Habs, recording 1 goal and 10 assists for 11 points in 39 games with a +5 rating. While Emelin has 117 hits for an average of three hits per contest (on par with his career average), he seems hesitant to distribute thunderous checks in the middle of the ice like he used to do prior to the knee injury he suffered in April 2013 against Milan Lucic of the Boston Bruins.
Emelin seems confused on the ice the season, making bad decisions over bad decisions, going from bad positioning to bad penalties, he has lost his confidence and it shows in his overall game. Emelin admitted to Marc-Antoine Grondin of La Presse that the hit on Brian Gionta on November 29th, hit for which he was fined $11,000, crushed his confidence. As a result of this "missed hit", Emelin is lacking the confidence to hit opponents when they enter the defensive zone, somewhat of his trademark in recent years.
Emelin is sometimes way out of position and appears lost on the ice just like on the Martin St. Louis goal in overtime last playoffs. You can see that Emelin is covering nobody and that he is on the wrong side of the ice surface...
When paired with Tom Gilbert, the two rearguards combine for a mediocre Corsi of 36.9%. 36.9%! A Corsi that low is in the George Parros/John Scott area, And when they are not together, but players have a Corsi above 47%, so it would be wise for Michel Therrien to split them. (A good Corsi rating is around 50%.)
Since the start of the 2013-14 season, Alexei Emelin has a 44.5 CF%, which ranks him 110th out of 119 NHL defensemen with a least 1,500 minutes played (according to War on ice), all that while facing a low quality of competition compared to the team's first pairing of Andrei Markov and PK Subban.
Because Michel Therrien used to play him more than 20 minutes per game when he was paired with PK Subban earlier this season, Emelin is currently on pace to play the most minutes per game on average (20:59) whereas he should only play about 15 minutes per contest with the way he has been playing recently.
With the emergence of youngster Nathan Beaulieu and the depth of the organization on the blue line, general manager Marc Bergevin could envision trading him (providing he lifts his NMC) prior to the trade deadline to get offensive help. With veteran Bryan Allen and his $3M cap hit already in the minors and his NMC, Emelin will not be demoted to the AHL for those wishing that to happen.
What would you do with Emelin? Scratch him a few games? Trade him? Or simply continue to play him, but with a different partner?
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5 comments:
Emelin, Gilbery, Desharnais and Parenteau, over $11 Mil total for four useless players. Nice going Bergevin.
i dont believe desharnais and parenteau arent useless. desharnais should be traded to edmonton and parenteau brings good energy.
however emelin and gilbert are USELESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The above players are not useless, they are just not as productive as we would like. We need to isolate them more by bringing in a couple of better players.
Fred Poulins mother is like him a Delusionitant.
Delusionitant is not even a real word.
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