no such thing as too good for the 4th line.
I guess "too expensive" would be a more appropriate line, then. I think it would be cost prohibitive to have the kind of depth to have Rust on the 4th line long term.
The way i look at Sprong is, he's a first or second line talent. Playing him anywhere else would be a waste. Lines need to be adjusted accordingly. The only certainty i have is Crosby with Guentzel and everyone else will fall in line.
Oddly i feel like im going to be more vested in the threepeat attempt than I was with the repeat...
Last season I saw it as gravy... this year we have the chance to solidify a place in the true Dynasty groups... 3peats weren't done by Lemieux or Gretzky... Not since the Isles back when Dynasties were the norm...
This is a super historic event that could happen... which is why i could care less about the first half of the season.
I just want us to be loaded for bear down the stretch.... nothing else matters
Oddly i feel like im going to be more vested in the threepeat attempt than I was with the repeat...
Last season I saw it as gravy... this year we have the chance to solidify a place in the true Dynasty groups... 3peats weren't done by Lemieux or Gretzky... Not since the Isles back when Dynasties were the norm...
This is a super historic event that could happen... which is why i could care less about the first half of the season.
I just want us to be loaded for bear down the stretch.... nothing else matters
I believe all lite beer tastes like nothing. Coors lite is the worst.
The story I heard is that Johnston was insistent that Sprong wasn't ready. JR disagreed so Sprong got stuck in limbo where he didn't play much and burned a year off of his ELC. When Sullivan came in and immediately agreed with Johnston's assessment, only then was Sprong sent down.
I don't think that's right with Sprong, with respect to Sullivan. I think Sullivan said there wasn't enough ice time to justify keeping Sprong up, not that he wasn't NHL ready. He wanted to bring up the WBS kids he knew, he must have viewed Sprong to be behind those guys.
You can care less about it, but Sid and Geno need to have their minutes limited IMO to give them the best chance to 3peat. That means having more center depth earlier is important to help limit that time.
I love this kid's talent.
The worst part is that no matter what he does, it's going to be "Oh well, he plays with Malkin, I could get 20 goals with Malkin" type of comments when in reality, this kid is a stud all on his own with his talent. I think he's not far off from the kinds of numbers we saw from the Leafs rookies last year or even Guentzel and Sheary's numbers last year.
I would rather see Kessel and Hornqvist handled like this to be honest.
Guentzel, Crosby, Kessel
Hagelin, Malkin, Sprong
Sheary, X, Hornqvist
Wilson, Rowney, Rust
But we can't, someone has to go, it's the weird part of being so deep with wingers, something we wanted so badly, now we are so very attached to the wingers and want to see none of them moved.
I'd rather not have Kessel on Sid's line. I think that 1st line thrives - whether it's Sheary or Horny on RW - when it has 3 relentless puckhounds who can each force turnovers and convert.
And despite the faith I have in Sprong, we really don't have a top 6 scoring wing surplus until he definitively proves he can play as well with Geno as we think he can.
Since I am 100% on the “we got to get Sheary the #%@! out of the line up” bandwagon, and I’m not exactly sure if the prospect or WBS thread is the best place to ask this, I’ll do so here for whoever can answer:
How was his overall 2-way game and specifically his defensive play in the latter part of the regular season and/or playoffs in WBS over the last few months? I concur with others around here who have said his defensice game can’t possibly be worse than Sheary, but I’m trying to gauge where he’s at and how seriously the coaching staff may consider putting him in.