GDT: 9/30/23 - 5:00PM EDT - Nashville vs Tampa Bay [Preseason Game 4]

[LTIR Trickery]

Merela for Calder

 

[SnakeIdol]

Merela is my hero

 

[LTIR Trickery]

Merela-Motte-Essymont

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

Crazy how we found/signed this kid. From development camp to the prospect tournament to the preseason, he's done everything so far

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

ROR had an open net.

 

[JFleegs]

Abb with a dumb penalty

 

[Evgeny Oliker]

Who’s this Merrela kid? Any good?

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

Who’s this Merrela kid? Any good?

He's a really good secret right now

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

argh

 

[ccman68]

first bad goal from tomkins. he seems decent enough

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

woo that was close

 

[BoltsFanSinceDay1]

Phew that ending!

 

[DistantThunderRep]

Expect this kind of game all the time until Vasy is back.

 

[Rschmitz]

Merela is big/strong and plays defense, quietly excited about him if he's chipping in decent offense too.

 

[aylib]

Merela is big/strong and plays defense, quietly excited about him if he's chipping in decent offense too.

Are we thinking he is one of the last cuts and is AHL-bound, first call up, or is he looking at one of the spots (ABBs)?

 

[Rschmitz]

Are we thinking he is one of the last cuts and is AHL-bound, first call up, or is he looking at one of the spots (ABBs)?

I will be seriously peeved if he continues to play like he did tonight and they still decide to cut him. He showed more tonight than many of our prospects do for an entire camp

 

[These Are The Days]

I will be seriously peeved if he continues to play like he did tonight and they still decide to cut him. He showed more tonight than many of our prospects do for an entire camp

Ahhh.. the old Brett Connolly special eh? Nah. Making him ride busses and freeze his ass off a little bit. Gotta pay dem dues to the Cuse

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

 

[aylib]

Ahhh.. the old Brett Connolly special eh?

Expand on that, please. I wasn't around back then.

 

[These Are The Days]

Expand on that, please. I wasn't around back then.

Brett Connolly had a ridiculous preseason like 10 years ago. Like what Merala did tonight, Connolly did like 2 or 3 times. He had a 30 goal season in Syracuse the year prior and he *STILL* got sent down anyway. I know he wasn't a really good player in the end but I swear to God we broke him right then and there and he was never the same again. He went back to Syracuse and either didn't have his first goal until a month in or sat at like 1 goal after that long

But hey. He got that playing time though

 

[DistantThunderRep]

I said it after the prospects tournament and Merela's first game, he's too good to play in the AHL. He's NHL ready, the problem is play time. He shouldn't be on the fourth line playing 8 minutes a night. He's not good enough for top 6, and the third line is pretty jammed.

Merela - Cirelli - Motte?
Merela - Cirelli - Sheary?

ABB did not have a good showing today. But let's see him in another game. If he keeps playing the way he is, Merela is taking his spot. Groshev is higher up than ABB in my books right now.

Also want to say Lilleberg played great too.

 

[These Are The Days]

I said it after the prospects tournament and Merela's first game, he's too good to play in the AHL. He's NHL ready, the problem is play time. He shouldn't be on the fourth line playing 8 minutes a night. He's not good enough for top 6, and the third line is pretty jammed.

Merela - Cirelli - Motte?
Merela - Cirelli - Sheary?

ABB did not have a good showing today. But let's see him in another game. If he keeps playing the way he is, Merela is taking his spot. Groshev is higher up than ABB in my books right now.

Also want to say Lilleberg played great too.

I hate to say it but almost everyone who has ever had that problem ends up in Syracuse unless they wake up one day and realize they're a 20 goal scorer. I'd love him to make the team but it's the last thing I'm expecting

 

[Rschmitz]

He didn't need much TOI to be effective tonight

 

[aylib]

Curious where Paul is projected to start and what version of him we are going to get; if it's the after-Xmas one, then he has no business being anywhere other than 4th line. In that event I'd say there is a spot to be had in the middle six.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

Coop on Merela tonight:

"It's different when you have these guys that come in that you've never really seen before. So, a little bit of tape of playing in Finland, but it doesn't really do justice until you get them under our roof. But he's gotten better as he's gone on. Playing on different size ice rinks, and different leagues, it's different. So you just have to let these kids get use to it, whether you're coming from junior, coming from Europe, you have to get accustom to the style of play and how things go down here. I think he's improved with every practice , every game, and I think he got rewarded tonight for some of the hard work of the past week and a half."

"I think that bodes well for him (being an older guy). Naturally everyone's looking for prospects, and the draft kind of gives you that, but a lot of those guys are gone early in the draft, and where we've drafted in the past how many years, it hasn't been too high. So you're looking for these diamonds in the rough and guys that can help you, and sometimes those guys are older. We're hoping Merela is one of these guys, whether he's with us or is in the minors, he's a prospect. He's just an older prospect. But has he hit the prime of his career? Not even close. I still think his trajectory is pointing up and he's a long way from his ceiling."