Gionta...know your role

[britoon]

Does anyone know why Gio decided to stop scoring the "garbage" goals near the crease and now tries to be a sniper?

The spot in front of the goalie was his bread and butter two seasons ago when he scored 48...why has he stopped this?

Edited March 29, 2008 by britoon

[sundstrom]

those bread and butter goals occured mostly on the PP when the devils had both Gomez and Rafalski who were creative in the offensive zone and had the puck handling skills to move the puck quickly and find someone in a shooting position to put a puck on net. gionta would take it from there.

he's also played 1/2 this season with players far less offensively skilled than Gomez and Elias.

[Devils731]

Gionta still does a little plumber action but he is required to take on a different role because of the Devils lack of forwards with puck skills. On the 2nd PP until he really is needed to help control the puck and the flow on the play on the half boards so he isn't able to just go to the front of the net as often.

[CRASHER]

I do like the fact that his play away from the puck has picked up... he's battling and poking and being more feisty away from the play... but on the line with Madden and Pando he's going to be expected to shoot more which is fine.... just a matter of someone picking up the scraps....

I wish Clarkson too would just get his ass in front of the net and unleash hell too......

[Devil Dan 56]

If this team finds a puck moving d-man and add someone who can pass the puck well, he could have another big year. I doubt we'll see 48 again, but we could see him push 35, maybe 40.

Don't forget, Gio had 8 goals in 11 playoff games last year. He can put the puck in the net. He's not an Ovechkin who can make his own chances. He needs help to score. When he has it, he does very well.

Interesting to see how he and Vrana do if he makes the jump. Vrana being more of a playmaker then a scorer from the looks of his stats.

Its a shame the Viukhola guy didn't work out. He was supposedly quite the passer.

[devils26]

Gionta had 48 goals that year, 24 of which were scored on the PP. We had actually had an excellent PP that year, which is quite overlooked, and Gio was on the #1 unit. Now, with a substantially worse PP, and Gio being on the second unit, he doesn't get nearly as many chances on the PP to pick up the garbage goals. There is no doubt that contributes to it looking as if Gio is not as good this year as the season in which he scored 48. Also, this year Gio has 14 even strength goals, and in 05-06 he had 24 even strength goals, so there is a drop-off, but not really a 25 goal drop-off, which it had looked like at first.

[UnderDogX]

To oppose Crasher, I really don't think he's expected to shoot more, in fact other than being more defensive I think he fits better into his old role playing on that line....Madden and Pando do enough shooting from the circle and Gio should be there setting up in front of the goalie...it just seems like he's trying to be a sniper or at least trying to shoot the puck every single chance he gets instead of playing his old game...not saying it's his fault, Sutter could be very much influencing what he does on the ice...but once he gets back to what was working he'll get more goals but nothing like his big season which was a bit fluky....

[NJDevs4978]

Gionta had 48 goals that year, 24 of which were scored on the PP. We had actually had an excellent PP that year, which is quite overlooked, and Gio was on the #1 unit. Now, with a substantially worse PP, and Gio being on the second unit, he doesn't get nearly as many chances on the PP to pick up the garbage goals.

[teddy]

What everyone seems to forget is 2 seasons ago the NHL adopted the zero tolerance rule for defenseman. Defensemen couldn't touch the forward coming into the zone or it was interference. Hell, if a defenseman even grazed a forward, it was intereference. There was no crosschecking, pushing or battling forwards in front of the net without a penalty. Little guys like Gionta could stand there all day and never get touched. It's a lot easier to score in front of the net when no one can touch you. Now things are more or less back to the "normal" game and he just doesn't have the opportunities in front of the net today.

[Devilish34]

Did Gio get a new haircut ??

BOX SCORE TOO

Edited March 29, 2008 by Devilish34

[brodeurrocks]

I do like the fact that his play away from the puck has picked up... he's battling and poking and being more feisty away from the play... but on the line with Madden and Pando he's going to be expected to shoot more which is fine.... just a matter of someone picking up the scraps....

I wish Clarkson too would just get his ass in front of the net and unleash hell too......

I'm with Crasher...when Clarkson has planted himself in front of the net he has produced good scoring chances and, in some cases, goals.

I also don't think that Gionta has "decided" to stop scoring goals of any kind. He has played with a much less effective PP unit since hos 48 goal season and that has resulted in less goals on the season for him.

[DaneykoIsGod]

Its a shame the Viukhola guy didn't work out. He was supposedly quite the passer.

Speaking of whom, what ever ended up happening with that guy?

[UnderDogX]

it's not a matter of deciding to stop scoring...it's a matter of whether he's going to get into a position to score like he has in the past or if he's going to shoot at the goalie's chest every time he gets the puck....he's been doing much of the latter recently, regardless of he's doing it because that's his inclination or if Sutter is telling him to just shoot....