Mike Knuble: As Advertised?

Excellent choice of picture, JP.

Great piece. In your opinion JP, has Knuble looked a step slower from his days in Philly? Or is that my eyes playing tricks on me because even our less talented players are super-fast? I will say this though, Knuble has really opened my eyes with how impressive he is in front of the net. I never had a full appreciation of it until now. He will be invaluable in the playoffs.

It seems as if I see him arriving at the play a step or three later than he should be. Whereas BMo (until very recently) always seemed to be in exactly the right place at the right time.

Regarding powerplay presence – wasn’t one of his jobs just to get to the front of the net, create screens, and cause general havoc?

If he’s doing that, that makes a dangerous PP even more so. So it might be a little short-sighted to look at his point total.

I still think Knuble came back too soon from that finger injury… another week or two off might have served him better.

Are we going to have game-day threads for tonight’s gold medal game?

I’m going to pretend I inspired you to write this entire post, JP. Very nice.
22 has been in a slump for a while, but if he can get back to his form from the first few weeks of the season, he’ll be a great asset to the team.

And I too would like to see him up on the top line. It seems that the Care Bears line does great for scoring chances but not for sustained pressure. They’re typically one and done. With Knuble in the corners battling for the puck instead of Jizz, they stand a better chance to maintain possession.

and Knoobie is no exception. It is damn hard to find a groove when returning from weeks off.
I think this team will be scary once the lines are solid, somewhat, at least as solid as Bruce can make them.

Knuble not making the USA olympic roster is a fantastic development for the Caps. If his finger is still a problem, the break will really be the only chance he has to recover fully.

Mike Knuble, career shooting percentage = 14, shooting percentage average over the last 4 years with the Flyers = 15.7%.

Knuble’s shooting percentage this year? 11.3%.

To make matters worse, he’s not getting shots at quite the same rate. Over 29 games played, he’s got 62 shots, for 2.14 shots/game. Over the previous four years, he took 2.35 shots/game.

This decline shouldn’t be surprising, given that his ice time/game has declined from 18:10/G in 08-09 with the Flyers to 16:09/G this year, and his PP TOI/G has declined from 2:54 to 2:33.

Knuble will likely rebound from his poor shooting percentage, with a concomitant upward tick in goal-scoring. Whether or not he begins to produce at the levels he did while in Philly will likely depend on his ice time, who he’s playing with, and how much time he spends on the PP.

You have to ask yourself how much being switched from line to line and center to center has impacted his game. Combine that with being totally new to a team and then being injured for a month and you have a classic case of seasonus interruptus. I think that after the Olympic break when he’s had enough time to get his finger fully healed and to get his skating legs back, we’ll see the Mike Knuble we thought we were getting.

He would be charged with animal cruelty and that lady folksinger would cast aspidistras on him in her next commercial, the one that runs practically non-stop on Universal Sports.

This is with reference with Finley, above.

I think we’ve all seen how a defenseman with a great point shot and a crease-crasher can play off each other. The crease crasher sticks his ass in the goalie’s face, screening him. The crease crasher tips shots. And of course, the crease crasher pots the inevitable rebounds from hard point shots.

Is Knuble’s problem the fact that, aside from Green, this team gets no offense to speak of from its defensive corps?

Is Scott Niedermayer (or Kim Johnsson, or some other offensive defenseman) the solution to this problem for the Caps? Could Pothier help?

remember in the pre-season when Knuble came out on fire and scored a couple goals in a couple games? Remember when he also scored two (i believe) off his thigh/leg and we all were excited about him bringing that to the team on a nightly basis? To all those memories I subsrcibe to the “seasonus interruptus” theory above.

Knuble isn’t the only guy struggling. As it has been noted, Brooks Laich also hasn’t been lighting the lamp much lately either. Not coincidentally, the Caps power play as a whole has suffered recently. The goals they are scoring seem to be more of the finesse variety. A little more shots through traffic and less thread the needle back door passes is probably what the doctor ordered.

I can’t recall which game it was, but there was a 5v3 power play where 3-4 times in a row the Caps tried the same back door pass to Backstrom without connecting.

Ask again in late spring – that’s what they’re paying him for.

This is all I care about. Everything else is just window dressing with Knuble in my mind. He’s being paid to be a physical presence and get dirty goals in the postseason.