Pre-Game Talk: Game 5

[14ari13]

Ah yes, the Oilers and Sabres strawman defense. The problem with that is that there are loads of really good teams that have no trouble integrating youth into their roster: Boston, Chicago, Anaheim, St. Louis, Nashville, etc. If you truly think guys like Nyquist, Sheahan and Jurco are the same players they were when they were drafted as 18 years olds I'm not sure there is much for us to discuss.

A question: if Bert, Cleary and Sammy were such great contributors in the "men's league" then why did no one else sign them to contracts this season?

I have not done any research on this, but I think the age of the nhl players have gone down. It has become the youngsters league.

 

[Run the Jewels]

I guess I don't understand a lot of this logic. "Holland hates kids and wants them rot in the minors. Except for last year when they got us into the playoffs. And this when our goalie stole a job. Other than those times, it's clear that Holland doesn't know what he's doing."

I don't think Holland hates kids. I think he has created this philosophy of over-ripeness that probably made some sense when the Wings were Cup contenders and had very strong organizational depth. It's similar to Joe Dumars refusing to rebuild once the Pistons had their really nice run come to an end.

There's just a disconnect and I think the other shoe that will eventually drop is the inability to properly evaluate guys in order to move poor performers/fits for assets before their value plummets. This seems to be most likely to happen on defense where we were forced to sign Quincey to a new deal as it was the path of least resistance and lowest risk/lowest reward.

Smith is on the edge of hopping on the USS irrelevance boat with Kindl where you probably wouldn't get much in return via trade. Kindl has no value whatsoever. Next year I suspect Holland will keep Ouellet, Marchenko and Sproul in the AHL to "protect assets" or "over-ripen" them and then when they are out of options we will be forced to try to integrate them into the roster without truly knowing what their capabilities are at the NHL level.

Let's just say I've seen this movie before and it seems very late in the game for Holland to suddenly change his philosophy. I'd love to be proven wrong though.

 

[SoupGuru]

Eh, the same thing happened last year after Holland defended signing Bert, Cleary, Sammy, Tootoo et al by saying "the NHL is a men's league". When Pav and Z were injured the men couldn't do jack **** so Holland needed to call up Sheahan, Nyquist and Jurco and lo and behold it was the guys who weren't ready for the "men's league" who actually punched our ticket to the playoffs. This year it was Gustavsson who couldn't do jack **** so Mrazek needed to be called up.

This organization just isn't very adept at integrating youth into the roster. It is almost always the last resort when all the old, washed up veterans Holland signed are incapable of performing.

I think that while the kids did/do really well in the regular season, the vets know how to get things done in the post season.

What's kind of funny is that out of all those guys you mentioned (well, except Tootoo), Sameulsson was the more productive goal scorer in the playoffs, followed by Cleary. Sammy was also leading with over a half point per game in the playoffs.

 

[theYman]

If we can get Glendening we can win.

Datsyuk was the best player of the series along with Mrazek. After game 4, it is Johnson (who was the 1st overall pick )

Yeah but Dats weakest game was game 4. We need him in top form to win. Glad Glendening is back. I just hope Stamkos doesn't explode. We've been doing a good job of keeping him off the scoresheet.

 

[14ari13]

Yeah but Dats weakest game was game 4. We need him in top form to win. Glad Glendening is back. I just hope Stamkos doesn't explode. We've been doing a good job of keeping him off the scoresheet.

Stamkos and Z have been quite.

 

[WingedWheel1987]

Game four loss will be devastating if they lose game five too. So just win today, and game four won't matter.

 

[InjuredChoker]

Ah yes, the Oilers and Sabres strawman defense. The problem with that is that there are loads of really good teams that have no trouble integrating youth into their roster: Boston, Chicago, Anaheim, St. Louis, Nashville, etc. If you truly think guys like Nyquist, Sheahan and Jurco are the same players they were when they were drafted as 18 years olds I'm not sure there is much for us to discuss.

A question: if Bert, Cleary and Sammy were such great contributors in the "men's league" then why did no one else sign them to contracts this season?

LMAO.

go ask bruins fans how they feel about julien and how fair shake he gave their young kids and how they were treated this season.

hawks have traded lot of their young players away because Q won't play them and plays washed up vets instead.

ducks i agree.

blues have no more youth than we have. actually less. same with preds.

 

[KJoe88]

Game four still stings for me.

Win tonight and I'll feel better.

I would like us to score more goals. A five spot would he suhweet...