EastonBlues22
Registered User
They are sure talking an awful lot about what they're going to do when they don't have the puck this offseason, while being awful silent on what they're going to do when they do have possession.
I like how when a young player struggles, it's because Hitch is holding him back or brainwashing him but when a young player does well, it's because they're doing it in spite of Hitch.
I've got my own criticisms of Hitch but I don't see Jaskin's somewhat stalled development among them. It's not like Jaskin was some super stud sniper and Hitch turned him into a grinder. Jaskin has always been a meat and potatoes type of player. Go back and look at his 99 pt season in the Q. Most of his points were scored in the dirty areas via a grinding, effort, power forward style. His actual stick and shooting skills were never elite. To me, he's simply coming up a bit short now that he's playing at a much higher level. I think he has it in him to get over the hump and become a solid everyday top-9 player but I just don't see his struggles as Hitch's fault.
Has Wild lost such a big names like we did: Backes, Brouwer and Elliott? They have their core in. + BB are their head coach. I think we've viewed our position too optimistic, there is impact loosing Backes and biggest impact has we lost Elliott. Allen just doesn't have poise to play high level majority of season, its too IF situation. He could, but I just don't believe and also pointing injuries happends and Hutton isn't the man who can take his spot.
That could get interesting. I'm not entierly sure I love the idea of handicapping our best Dman, but if he can play the left side effectively, a pairing with Petro and Parayko/Shatty could really be great.
Pietro - Shattenkirk
Jbo - Parayko
Gunnar - Edmundson/Lindbohm/Bortuzzo
That could also mean we propably could(should extend Shattenkirk too.
Code:Pietro - Shattenkirk Jbo - Parayko Gunnar - Edmundson/Lindbohm/Bortuzzo
Jbo - Parayko had chemistry last pre-season, but can Shattenkirk play toughest minutes and what about could Parayko either, but I split them, giving advance to Shattenkirk play #1 pair when he's hitting his prime and pointing too Parayko fits with Jbo.
Only problem is 3rd pair. We know Lindbohm can play off-side, but what happends to Edmundson?
If Blues would extend Shattenkirk that would mean, we could protect 4+4+1.
Tarasenko, Stastny, Steen, Schwartz, Pietrangelo, Jbo/Edmundson, Shattery, Gunnar + Allen
These comments say more about Bouwmeester than anything else.
Count me in as part of the group that would love to see Petro moved to the left side if he can in fact handle it. That gives us way more options at D and I agree that it makes extending Shatty a realistic (and dare I say smart) option.
I'd still probably protect 7F and 3 D since a LD Petro makes Gunnar or J-Bo a little more expendable. Given our depth at D in the prospect pipeline, I'd rather protect 2nd/3rd line forwards than 3rd pairing D men. Either way, this would certainly give us more flexibility heading into the expansion draft and flexibility is always a positive.
Nobody recent comes to mind off the top of my head, at least not after they established themselves at the NHL level, but generally that's not the sort of thing that you ask your best defenseman to do.For a million times, who is player in recent history who have slide to his off-side and played toughest minutes and do it with dominate performance? Is there dmen who has done it? This is just general question for everyone.
For a million times, who is player in recent history who have slide to his off-side and played toughest minutes and do it with dominate performance? Is there dmen who has done it? This is just general question for everyone.
For a million times, who is player in recent history who have slide to his off-side and played toughest minutes and do it with dominate performance? Is there dmen who has done it? This is just general question for everyone.
For a million times, who is player in recent history who have slide to his off-side and played toughest minutes and do it with dominate performance? Is there dmen who has done it? This is just general question for everyone.
Scott Niedermayer was an elite D-man that was a lefty that made a HOF career playing the right side.
I will say though that since the pool of d-men in the league is roughly 60% lefty (not actual left handed but plays lefty) it's much more common for a lefty to play the right side than vice versa. Righties are generally at a premium so there's very rarely a glut of righties so righties pretty much always play the right side. Lefties oftentimes have to move to the right side as on average, teams have more lefties than righties. This means that most lefties have developed playing some on the right side whereas few figures have much of any experience playing the left side.
As for Petro, I'd say it's worth a look but they've already tried him on the left side so it's not like this is a new idea. Perhaps it goes better than the last time they tried it but I doubt it.
For a million times, who is player in recent history who have slide to his off-side and played toughest minutes and do it with dominate performance? Is there dmen who has done it? This is just general question for everyone.
Nobody recent comes to mind off the top of my head, at least not after they established themselves at the NHL level, but generally that's not the sort of thing that you ask your best defenseman to do.
Doesn't necessarily mean that at least some of them couldn't have done it at a very high level if they were asked.
I guess what I'm saying is that the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, if you're familiar with that phrase.
I don't really consider moving Petro to the left as that realistic of an option full-time. Yes, it's nice to know that it can be done. And admittedly, I've only seen one of Canada's full games, and some snip-its of the others. From what I've seen, Pietrangelo hasn't been bad, but he hasn't been as smooth as he normally is on the right side, either. So I think the idea of him transitioning over to the left side with the Blues is still a bit far-fetched, and probably only needs to be done when we are down by a goal and need to load up Pietrangelo, Parayko and Shattenkirk.
I mean, if Armstrong decided to put Bouwmeester on Team Canada then it would be pretty hypocritical to think that him and Hitchcock don't think he can be our #1 LHD anymore.