Reading and writing and all that good stuff

[oanja]

I made a mistake last night by thinking I could just read a little bit, before going to sleep. Ended up finishing the book and when I actually went to bed it was almost seven in the morning... oops. But at least I'm reading books again. That's good, sort of.

So, of course I only got up at three pm today and now I'm not tired, even though I have a lecture tomorrow at nine. >_>

Also the Toews/Kane fic is now 8,600 words long and I have no idea how to actually make them get together. Well without resorting to sudden love confessions... This is annoying because I would rather work on my other fic, but right now I feel like I need to finish this first. Mostly because I know this could be done in about 2000-3000 words if I could just figure out what I want to happen instead of getting distracted and starting to sprout random facts about the verse they live in.

The new Teen Wold episode was great and I will enjoy the increased screen time for Stiles as long as it's going to last. Hopefully the writers won't screw him up too badly.

There was this article on PPP (the leafs blog thing) about how much Tyler Bozak sucks. And okay, he's not the best center out there etc etc, but he's played really well this season and actually had a positive effect on Kessels numbers, not to mention that they kept pointing out how badly Bozie plays without Kessel, although the minute amount was super small and I don't think they should draw conclusions about that (and doesn't Bozie get PK time? Which Phil doesn't. I'm not sure about this though, but if it's true wouldn't that explain some of it?) Anyway, I have way too many feelings about Bozak and it's getting out of hand... Did not sign up for this!

Comments

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

I think the issue with Bozak isn't that he's completely awful individually, but that he's not that good, not good enough to be the Leafs' top centre because there are other guys in the league who could do the job much better. Which wouldn't be such an issue, every team has players that are theoretically replaceable, but the Leafs have been so awful at valuing the right things in players that one more example of this problem is driving these guys mad. Especially when other examples of the Leafs' bad ideas are much easier to point to because, for example, Frazer McClaren has played <20 games and has zero points of any description, so they feel they have to really emphasise the facts about Bozak because people don't understand why he shows that the Leafs are demonstrably bad at picking all kinds of players, not solely straight-up punchers? (Their numbers are all even strength time, by the way.)

Not that this should stop you from being fannish about him? I have all of the defensive and loving feelings about Sam Gagner who is, in reality, decidedly middle of the pack and needs to work on his defensive play. But that is why PPP&co. are so mad about Bozak, because the Leafs could improve with him on the team, but not if their owners and managers don't understand exactly why he's not as good as Kessel.

[oanja.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there are better first line centers in the league, but there's no way of getting one! Like the only way of getting an elite first liner is to draft them. They also hope Kadri might be one, but he's not at that level yet and he had a pretty long stretch there this season to take the job from Bozak.

I do agree with them, that getting rid of Grabovsky was a really really stupid move, but then again that's not Bozak's fault! Neither is it his fault that the coach plays guys on the fourth line who can barely play hockey. Also signing Bolland and Clarkson. Like there are way worse things going on with this team than Bozak, you know what I mean? (not even getting into their D-men) So I'm just annoyed about all the shit he get's, especially this season when his play has been more than fine.

I don't know how much truth there were on the rumors about how they needed to sign Bozak to keep Kessel, but if they have some truth to it, shouldn't the fans accept the situation already? I mean they seem pretty keen on Kessel, so is it really that bad to also have Bozak? It's really not like he's dragging the team down all by himself or anything.

I'm pretty defensive about some players, I mean people want to take the C from Koivu and play him on the third line etc etc. He get's some of the same shit as Bozak does (although Koivu's numbers are better possession wise) he get's the whole, 'you're not an elite first line center!' and it pisses me off, because he's great and like I said, it's not like you can really get anyone better. Who is stupid enough to trade their first line center??? Aaannyway... ^_^;

I didn't notice the even strength thing, my bad. But it's still a really small sample size if you ask me. *grumble grumble*

[biggersandwich.livejournal.com]

I've seen people say that Kadri's numbers with Kessel are better than Bozak's, even if he still does need to develop more, but I think the main point people are concerned about is that MLSE doesn't see Bozak as the best they've got at the moment, but a perfectly good option. So Kadri might not get his shot later and the Leafs might forgo trades or make bad once because the team is so devoted to not admitting that they could do better than Bozak. It's the same issue with having him around because he's Kessel's friend: it's not that it's so awful that he's on the team, it's just that him being there as 1C says particularly bad things about MLSE's priorities because he's not very good at it and you do need a 1C, whereas at least the punchers they think they need a million of aren't expected to do the scoring. Everyone would be totally prepared to keep Bozak to make Kessel happy if MLSE would also add some other people, which it doesn't actually seem like Phil would raise a fuss about.

Well, Mikko is a LOT better than Bozak, so. ;) (Not that I don't think you know that, but the numbers say Mikko's very, very good still, and that Bozak has been lucky recently. So it's sort of the opposite problem in terms of misinterpreted data?)

[oanja.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what you and the people mean, but still I think it's pretty terrible to blame Bozak for this, when it's actually a problem with management. There seems to be Leafs fans who actively hate Bozak. And I still think they won't be able to get anyone better via trade, because seriously who will trade a 1C? So until Kadri develops or they draft someone even better there's not much point in complaining about Bozak. I'm not actually saying Bozak should stay as the 1C if they had someone better. Maybe Kadri will be it next season.

He is and it infuriates me when people keep saying he's a third line center at best!!! Some Wild fans are really stupid.

Haha~ sorry if this seems super ranty and angry, it's not directed at you. :)