dudacek

Was watching a presser with my wife in the room and she pipes up "what's up with that guy? Is he asking a question or telling a story?"

Yep. Congratulations to Borgen, Mittelstadt, Asplund and anyone else who made the cut It looks like this is our team this year (from what Ralph said, it doesn't look like it will matter which of the spares are technically on the taxi squad): Hall Eichel XXX XXX Staal Reinhart YYY Eakin Okposo XXX YYY YYY Dahlin Montour McCabe Risto Miller Jokiharju Ullmark Hutton XXX: Skinner, Thompson, Olofsson (Cozens, Mittelstadt, Quinn) YYY: Reider, Lazar, Sheahan, Asplund, Cozens, Mittelstadt, (Quinn), Girgensons ZZZ: Irwin, Borgen, Davidson, Johansson Here's to hoping that Kevyn acquired the right pieces and Ralph makes the right choices.

With all this focus on Skinner/Krueger, I haven’t really heard what you guys think about the macro picture being tested here: Do people like Thompson with Eichel and Hall? How about Olofsson with Staal and Reinhart? Would either Victor or Tage be a better fit with two of Sheahan/Lazar/Cozens on a line Ralph apparently wants to be able to trust both ways? Personally, I suspect it’s going to be Eichel/Hall Staal/Reinhart Eakin/Okposo and a revolving door and the above debate will lose its heat because two of Thompson VO and Skinner click where they are and we’re winning, or two of them don’t and we shake things up because we’re losing. Another development that hasn’t really been a talking point that I am quietly pumped about: Dahlin and Montour have been regular thing with Eichel and Hall.

I got the roster at 31 right now, not including Zemgus. Max they can have between roster and taxi is 29 so at least two more have to go. I think R2, Samuelsson Oglevie and Davidson are the guys left in the Blue group that weren't sent down. Asplund, Bryson, Borgen Mittelstadt, Quinn, Cozens still on the bubble as well?

I must say I am a little surprised about Johansson staying up and not Tokarski. But I guess playing time is irrelevant until the Amerks actually play and Ralph did say players can and will be streaming back and forth regardless of what 3rd of the roster they are listed on.

There's a chance we could grab Zac Dalpe, Nathan Gerbe and Hudson Fasching in one fell swoop to fix our third line? Git 'er done Kevyn!

I can see how it could sneak past you in that clip if you were expecting the usual and weren't familiar with his work. He's worth my Athletic subscription on his own.

it is my understanding that Brind'Amour was one of those who felt that Skinner needed to go.

Like a lot of people in this organization, he's got a lot to prove. Somehow, we've moved to an alternate reality where Sam Reinhart of all people has become the least likely Sabre to start an argument. He's trying to make you laugh. And he's also right.

Down Goes Brown is among the best reads in hockey.

We are having a debate about whether Krueger is a bad coach because he moved Jeff Skinner out of the top six for two days in training camp to get a look at Tage Thompson, who has been outplaying Skinner in training camp? Hockey really is back.

How has he mistreated Skinner? He played him the first half of training camp with two damn good hockey players. He moved him to try somebody else when the unit didn’t click the way he wanted it to. There seems to be an unspoken issue with Skinner not following the “principles” of the system. Are you advocating for Ralph to ignore Skinner’s play and essentially let him do what he wants with who he wants?

Yeah, it’s why they sometimes make a big deal about “true” freshmen.

Good move. It's looking increasingly unlikely the BCHL will play this year outside a small regional cohort, and that may not even be coming back

Personally, I want my coach to put more stock in what a player did over a full season than what he did in training camp. Camp is to confirm and challenge your previous perceptions - essentially change minds. Thompson came into camp as a guy they thought could play in their starting lineup. His play has forced them to look at him as potentially something more. Rieder came into camp as a guy they wanted to improve PK and add to their speed and defensive responsibility in the bottom six. His play has confirmed that and that’s where he is. Ruotsalainen came into camp as a guy they hoped might force his way into the lineup. He didn’t, so he isn’t there. Cozens is ahead of him in the pecking order but is facing a similar situation. He will get a similar, but longer, look. The body language between Skinner Reinhart and Staal in the 1st scrimmage totally looked like this. Count me among the many on this board who respects Carolina’s hockey judgement. It is increasingly obvious there was a reason they wanted Jeff gone.

As far as Larsson goes, it was a two-year hike that was dramatic. 42.5 to 48.8 to 50.1 Fenwick.

I was specifically referring to Corsi and Fenwick in my post.

Fair. Personally, I think possession metrics are a way of removing some of the "luck" factor from +/- by increasing the sample size, but both measure the same thing, with the same flaw: how well a player did in the situations he was used in. I've yet to see a clear demonstration that there is a correlation with how they will perform in a different environment. For example, didn't Larsson's metrics improve dramatically on the LOG line in Krueger's system than they did in Housley's system? I'm very interested to see how effective Larsson is in Arizona, and KO is without him (although there remains the Zemgus factor). I'm curious to see whether Rieder, Eakin and Sheahan can improve their metrics, considering the former two at least seemed to have been handpicked to play specific roles within this system and have all showed significantly higher levels of play in other situations than where they were last year.

But not Sheahan or Lazar? They are the closest stylistically on this team to Larry. And Sheahan did put p 32 points as a 3C in Pit a few years ago.

Id actually be open to trying Skinner/Eakin/Okposo for exactly that reason. Honestly, I think I might be more worried about Jeff's defence dragging the other two down than them dragging down Jeff's offence.

Agreed. So if we are building from the 1st line down and Hall/Eichel/Thompson and Staal/Reno/Ollie are superior to either line with Skinner, what do we do with Skinner? It would seem to me that Skinner/???/Cozens in a protected scoring line is the right move, no? At least once we can confirm Dylan is what we hope he is?

The "good" Casey I'm referring to is the WJC Casey. We have never seen that in the NHL.

I thought Skinner played like he often plays: bursts of inspired skating in the offensive zone sprinkled with lacklustre attention to defence. It's who he is and save a half-season with Jack and Sam, it's who he's almost always been. I'm expecting them to carry seven defencemen on the roster and two on the practice squad. I think Gold group has reflected that and will continue to reflect that. We've seen Borgen pass Davidson, which makes me happy. We are also seeing Bryson being given an opportunity to do the same. I must say given the amount of times I've read about the need for "culture" on this board, I am surprised by how many people on here think the tail should be wagging the dog. I agree that any line with Skinner and two plumbers is not likely to work and that Casey and Jeff don't seem like a particularly good fit. Reading this, it struck me for the first time that "good" Casey has a lot in common with "good" Jeff. They both create and thrive on chaos, are adept at stealing pucks and flash one-on-one skills. Good Jeff is much stronger on the puck and good Casey much better at moving it. 'm also disappointed in R2, but I don't put it on false competition, I put it on him. R2 was pretty good with Taylor Hall in the first game, but he's not going to be there in the regular season. He was mostly invisible with depth guys in the second and Ralph has been pretty clear that depth guys need to be specialists. He has to do something to stand out. Okposo/Eakin has never not been a thing, so I think it's likely Kyle and Dylan are flipped, and two of Dylan, Lazar and Sheahan wll be with Skinner opening night.

Could split hairs on a few of this, but I agree with the gist. I think Eakin/Okposo absolutely needs to be a third pair though. Haven't spent a shift anywhere else the entire camp. Rieder is a roster lock in my view. I think the other two slots will vary based on who and where we are playing.