Who is the new whipping boy?

[billingtons ghost]

DeBoer gone. Salvador gone. Ryder gone. Zubrus gone. "Space junk Bernier" gone. Havlat? well never really a whipping boy, but... gone.

Who will be the guy that half the posters will rip, and the other half will defend? The guy that Bleed will have "GTFO <your name here>" in his Avi after 10 games?

Some of the names that always create a threadstorm...

I'm thinking the top 5 are:
Gionta
Zajac (couldn't POSSIBLY be as bad as last year, right?)
Ruutu
Merrill
Gelinas

Longer leashes - but maybe after 40 games?
Josefson
Matteau
Moore
Coaching staff?
Any defensive defenseman, either signed or brought up, that gets torched and repeatedly played over some other young Dman (like Helgeson or Hrabaraenka or God forbid, Fraser)

Dark horses:
Elias - this fanbase couldn't possibly turn on HIM, right? Wrong. They can turn on anyone.
Larsson- what if he regresses without Stevens?
Shero?
<random guy Shero signs before season... eg Tlusty?>
Greene - he's our only vet Dman, and that means he's a prime target if his game slips.

What say you? Who's the new guy to get his head beat in on the forum game after game after game?

Edit: maybe a mod could make this a poll?

Click to read more...

 

[Devilsfan992]

My top 5 I will predict by the mid-part of the season

1) Zajac - Paid as a high end #2, Low end #1 center for 6 more years. By the end of December when he only has 10-15 points, this board will be going nuts

2) Gionta - Everyone likes to rant on this guy, but we've had much worse 4th liners when our team was good.

3) Hynes - The team will be a bottom 5 team. He will get criticism, undeserved or not.

4) Moore - New guy who is known to not be the strongest offensively. Won't get the benefit of the doubt that Gelinas may get.

5) Owners/TG/Chere/Dano/Deb - Gotta complain about someone after the first 3 game winning streak, right?

 

[Bleedred]

I have a bad feeling about Boucher personally.

I think he'll make the team out of camp, though I could see him being sent back relatively quick.

I think he also might be a particular young player the new staff is hard on. While I think DeBoer was specifically horrible with young players, it's still normal for each team to have that young player that is scratched or demoted to playing on the 4th line/playing under 10 minutes a night on D. Jacques was hard on Tedenby, which was absolutely warranted IMO.

I just have this feeling that Boucher isn't ready for the NHL yet. Hopefully he is though.

He looked great for the first handful of games in his first ever call up, then he was demoted to the 4th line for reasons beyond my comprehension. He hasn't looked the same at the NHL level since. I wasn't impressed with him in his call up's last year.

Matteau I was pretty impressed with during his call up last year. I don't think he'll be much of a problem fitting in, I'm very skeptical about Boucher though.

 

[MadDevil]

Zajac is already a whipping boy around here. Without Zubrus, Sal, or Harrold to take some of the heat it's probably only going to get worse. If Ruutu has to play top six minutes I could see him falling into that category as well.

 

[Bleedred]

Zajac is already a whipping boy around here. Without Zubrus, Sal, or Harrold to take some of the heat it's probably only going to get worse. If Ruutu has to play top six minutes I could see him falling into that category as well.

If Ruutu sucks (which he might very well) I won't be as hard on him as Zubrus last season, or guys like Rolston, Pandolfo, White pervious seasons, simply because he only has one year left on his deal. If he's awful, he's gone next year.

All those other guys had at least one more year left with us on their contract when they become awful and oddly enough all were bought out or traded before that final year of their respective deals ended.

So if Ruutu is garbage, we only have to put up with him for 81 more games after that max. I think we can all safely assume that he probably won't be brought back next offseason, with the direction Ray seems to be wanting to move in.

But as I said the other night, I was watching some games from the 13-14 season right after we traded for him and he looked pretty good. I still can't believe the vendetta that someone obviously had with him last season. Both coaching staff's treated him very poorly. I would say he got the worst treatment of any player on last year's team, to hell with Ryder and Havlat. Unless he had some off ice on locker room problem that we were unaware of, I can't understand why he was used so poorly last season. And it wasn't just Pete, it was Oates too. Both seemed to have it in for this guy. Why else would Zubrus play more than him? Even Tootoo (who did succeed after it was tried for a while) was given the push before Ruutu was given one. I just can't understand how Gionta averaged almost 3 minutes more ice time per game than Ruutu last season. And you know I'm not one of the Gionta haters around here, but it just baffles me.

Oddly enough, Tootoo actually averaged the same amount of ice time per game last year as Ruutu. Actually about 10 seconds less. I was surprised by that, I thought Tootoo averaged a minute or two more per game. Under the Hydra staff he probably averaged about 4 or 5 more minutes a game though.

 

[MartyOwns]

if zajac doesn't have a solid (not record breaking...just solid) season, he'll be thrown into the fire, and rightly so

 

[njdevsfn95]

Cammalleri - #13

 

[Edmonton East]

sub 45 point season from Zajac and the pitchforks will be sharpened. As they should be.

I think he gets 35 to 40, personally.

I also think Josefson is a top candidate. He's going to be given every opportunity it seems like to lock down 3C.

 

[Banana Sandwiches]

You're going to have a 4th line guy (Gionta ) who makes under $1 million that plays hard every game, can actually skate and will check your whipping boy?

 

[Brick City]

DeBoer gone. Salvador gone. Ryder gone. Zubrus gone. "Space junk Bernier" gone. Havlat? well never really a whipping boy, but... gone.

Who will be the guy that half the posters will rip, and the other half will defend? The guy that Bleed will have "GTFO <your name here>" in his Avi after 10 games?

...

Dark horses:
Elias - this fanbase couldn't possibly turn on HIM, right? Wrong. They can turn on anyone.
Larsson- what if he regresses without Stevens?
Shero?
<random guy Shero signs before season... eg Tlusty?>
Greene - he's our only vet Dman, and that means he's a prime target if his game slips.

What say you? Who's the new guy to get his head beat in on the forum game after game after game?

Edit: maybe a mod could make this a poll?

The spoiled and petulant segment of this fanbase would turn on their own mothers. If being an integral part of 3 Cups and 5 Finals appearances was not enough to spare Marty and Lou much of the shabby treatment they received in some quarters, then Elias might as well be run out of town after about 20 games or so if he is truly in the twilight of his career.

 

[Burner Account]

I think the team stinks. But I also recognize that professional sports are a form of entertainment. When it stops being entertaining and starts causing you stress and actual anger, you need to take a step back.

 

[Zajacs Bowl Cut]

You're going to have a 4th line guy (Gionta ) who makes under $1 million that plays hard every game, can actually skate and will check your whipping boy?

he shouldn't be the whipping boy but IMO he is not an NHL player. if the first thing you mention when describing a player is he "plays hard every game", it probably means he stinks. which he does.