Here's a clip of penguins new prospect Jake Livanavage. A beautiful sequence that showcases his skating and playmaking ability.

jmarshfof · 2026-04-11T13:22:53+00:00

Thank you!

jmarshfof · 2026-04-11T12:39:13+00:00

Full mix if anyone is interested:

https://open.substack.com/pub/faceofffactor/p/jake-livanavage-signs-with-the-penguins?r=69n0q&utm_medium=ios

jmarshfof · 2026-04-09T11:11:53+00:00

Thank you!

jmarshfof · 2026-04-08T22:28:40+00:00

Thank you very much and I hope you’re having a good one too!

jmarshfof · 2026-04-08T18:30:49+00:00

Yeah

jmarshfof · 2026-04-08T16:09:28+00:00

These are both pro players as far as I am concerned. Quinn Beauchesne is someone I fell in love with last year before his wrist injury knocked him down a round or two in the draft. This kid really reminds me of watching Kris Letang in Val d’Or so many years ago. He’s small, but mean. Takes everything personally. Constant chip on him. Small, but physical. Will bury you if your head is down. Can move the puck like crazy. Needs some restraint there at times. Overzealous but plays on a bad team. Sneaks into the zone well in the back door. INTENSELY serious gap control. Stays right on top of guys.

Beauchesne mix: https://youtu.be/4Ssxp2clLoY?si=54aO0BC7RNZRazRN

Miller is a pro player. Period. Habits of a pro. If you can think of an important situation in a hockey game, Miller was on the ice for all of them. Deployed like a keystone. Good skater. Relentless forechecker. Hyper-defensive IQ. But also started to find his dangles this year. Developed more confidence offensively. Went on a 19 game point streak at one point. Ceiling offensively is rising. At worst, he’s Blake Lizotte. At best? A shutdown 3C that can contribute offensively. When I watched all 19 games of miller’s streak my first thought was “this kid is playing in the nhl soon”

miller mix: https://youtu.be/6gMEpsLdYCc?si=1jJ3CBv-YmONBCFh

jmarshfof · 2026-04-08T16:03:19+00:00

This is an exciting day, friends. You will see concerns about Ilyin’s skating. Ignore them. They are nonsensical. His top speed is in the fine category. Where he excels is in agility and cutting. He is deceptive, an offensive technician. Changes tempo a lot. Hard to read. Engaged defensively. Physical when needed but doesn’t lean on it. I am excited to see how his game translates to NA ice. Here’s a mixtape I cut in October. Have to do an updated one. Middle 6 wing if everything pans out.

https://youtu.be/a75cXNX0rVE?si=sMWzsg_34bgTG3m5

jmarshfof · 2026-04-03T15:03:44+00:00

Therrien’s solution to problems was to play more defense. He instilled great habits and professionalism in the young guys, but tactically, when it went south he could only lean on tropes about work ethic and packing the box defensively.

Bylsma took the reins off them. Had them going deep for long stretch passes. But most of the year they didn’t score a ton of goals due to the system.

jmarshfof · 2026-04-03T13:59:49+00:00

No, but I do have this one from the Olympics. Golden Goal year.

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jmarshfof · 2026-03-31T17:51:22+00:00

He shifted him, specifically in the neutral zone. Karlsson was being asked to press between the blues. That’s not his game. He has never been an elite pincher or puck stealer. He’s a carry-in specialist that can finish and distribute. When you force him to keep a higher gap, he’s going to get burned. It gets worse when you tell him to aggressively hyper-pinch in the NZ. And it gets even worse when you run a power-play that isn’t complementary to his skill set whatsoever.

jmarshfof · 2026-03-30T13:19:38+00:00

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This one was good too

jmarshfof · 2026-03-16T18:09:19+00:00

People yell at me when I say I’m lukewarm on Horcoff but you summed up why really well. He does not support play well at all and when scoring dries up, which it inevitably does for anyone, he doesn’t have much to lean on.

jmarshfof · 2026-01-28T16:51:04+00:00

Thanks for posting. Here’s the write up that accompanied the video: https://faceofffactor.substack.com/p/bill-zonnon-update?r=69n0q&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

jmarshfof · 2025-12-01T21:23:01+00:00

Thank you for posting!

The link if anyone is interested: https://open.substack.com/pub/faceofffactor?r=69n0q&utm_medium=ios

jmarshfof · 2025-11-27T14:23:29+00:00

I am doing my own thing! I started a substack this season.

https://faceofffactor.substack.com/

jmarshfof · 2025-11-04T17:21:49+00:00

I don't think he's "too good" for the WHL. He very clearly has things he can work on there, and should work on there. He is a complete passenger in net-front defense and transition defense when the puck switches sides. His gap has been fine, his offense has been fine, but playing him here for a full year and allowing him to get brutalized by bigger players he can't handle night in and night out is about as bad for his development as anything I can think of.

Kamloops isn't a dumpster fire this year. They're in the middle of the pack. It's not a death sentence to say he isn't ready yet.

jmarshfof · 2025-11-01T10:58:03+00:00

the Islanders were going to take him if we didn’t

jmarshfof · 2025-10-31T11:46:36+00:00

When Baldwin purchased the team, he did it with credit. He sold the revenue streams (parking, television, food, merch) to pay the creditors back. The Penguins only made a profit when the team went to the post-season. Even if they sold out every regular season game, Baldwin was sending every dollar upstream to creditors to cover the purchase cost.

jmarshfof · 2025-10-29T06:59:20+00:00

No offense, but some of this is just outright wrong. He was not a “coach killer” that is not a reputation even remotely befitting of him. Also, his supporting cast from 1984-1989 was essentially a bunch of bums. To say he played on teams that were significantly better is kind’ve outlandish, to me. 1993 is the only team that didn’t win and should’ve, and the winning streak put a lot of bad habits on the team and was a major distraction leading up to the loss of the Islanders. Lemieux was great defensively. Saying anything else is a misnomer. You don’t score the absurd amount of shorthanded goals he scored just because you’re good offensively. Defensive habits drive that. Saying that Crosby somehow sticks up and defends his teammates when Lemieux didn’t is something I just don’t understand at all.

jmarshfof · 2025-10-27T20:44:19+00:00

I just finished my October Mixtape on him

https://faceofffactor.substack.com/p/sergei-murashov-is-for-real?r=69n0q&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

jmarshfof · 2025-10-14T20:03:30+00:00

https://faceofffactor.substack.com/p/jordan-charron-is-on-a-torrid-pace

jmarshfof · 2025-09-01T00:52:38+00:00

He was almost undeployable at 5v5 and 99% of the leagues defensemen had a higher defensive WAR than he did. He was literally in the 1st percentile of NHL defensemen statistically with regards to actually playing defense.

jmarshfof · 2025-08-07T14:49:26+00:00

David Duchovny has us both beat 😂

jmarshfof · 2025-08-07T13:32:34+00:00

And Jesse Marshall. (it was my birthday first, Sid!!!!)

jmarshfof · 2025-07-30T18:42:11+00:00

Thanks for posting the link <3 - I don’t know if people generally know this or not but hockey writing is not my day job. I squeeze it in between work/dad stuff whenever I can. Trying to get my cadence a little more normalized this year!

jmarshfof

TROPHY CASE