GDT: Islanders @ Wings - Preseason Game 3

[Yooper906]

He is 19 years old. Pump the breaks. He has exceptional talent. If you don't trust Yzerman to develop him, then just go. I'll eat my words if he ends up like Frk, lol, but where is Frk now? LA, going from a roster-ed NHL player to a guy maybe squeaking into Ontario Reigns lineup.

And how old are Veleno, Seider, and Rasmussen?

 

[Christien]

Hirose was really good last night. He's added a lot more speed to his game over the off season.

 

[JoesuffP]

At the time of the draft I think management had hopes Zadina could be that Kucherov, Gudreau type winger and in hindsight would probably rather have another top 4 defensemen like Bouchard, Dobson but thinking Zadina is not an NHL caliber prospect is ridiculous.

 

[lilidk]

And how old are Veleno, Seider, and Rasmussen?

And Datsyuk was 23 when he start in MHL.

 

[MBH]

I said nothing about this year either. I asked what he see's in his game that gives him any hope of making the team or what he has seen that shows top 6 potential at any point? Hes soft, does not see the game well at this point, lazy coming out of the O zone. Has a hard shot that very rarely is on net, and does not get him self to open ice to use said shot. Hes far behind Joe V, hes behind Svech, Smith, Taco. The only thing he has going for him is he was supposed to be a high draft pick and fell. I hope hes just stuck in his own head and snaps out of it.

I can see flashes of skill.
The stickhandling with subtle gear shifts is a strength - that will be more pronounced and effective if he can improve top end end speed.
I see good puck movement on the PP, when he has time to work the perimeter.
I see a willingness to shoot.
With increased speed, experience and confidence, that's an NHLer to me.

However, there are concerns.
1) The shot is nowhere near as good as advertised. I've seen goalies catch his slapper like they're picking cherries. On top of that, he misses the net or has it blocked a lot.
2) Skating. My original assessment of Zadina last summer was Tatar with more speed, size and a better shot. But that speed assessment was wrong. The speed really isn't there. He's got some agility and gear shifting though. He also lacks Tatar's never-stop motor and is way more finesse.
3) IQ. Too early to say, definitively. But after watching him bang his head against the wall last year, with constant giveaways, trying to do too much himself, I'd hoped he would have shown more growth in this department. At some point fairly soon, he's got to make that junior-to-pro adjustment.

 

[Ezekial]

And how old are Veleno, Seider, and Rasmussen?

Rasmussen was being complained about heavily up until 5 days ago. He's basically as old as Rasmussen was to begin last season, few months older.

Casey Mittelstadt (November bday)was as old as Zadina is this year last season, he went on to have 25 points in 77 NHL games. Is he a bust dud never gonna be a top 6er?

 

[Ghost of Ethan Hunt]

How did the game look on TV?

Looked pretty awful live. I swear the closest thing to a hit was when Erne low bridged that one Islander.

Erne had 5 hits last night. That's more than all the other F's combined +3 of our D. Solid 3rd liner.

 

[ricky0034]

I understand being concerned with his play so far, but giving up on him in the preseason in September seems like people are REEALLLLY jumping the gun on him.

Zadina hasn't even turned 20 yet. While I understand having some concerns, people are jumping ship incredibly quickly.

that's too generous if anything

most of the people "giving up" on him now already gave up on him like a year ago and have been actively looking for as many reasons as they can find to justify it ever since

he would be looked at so differently if he had spent an extra year in juniors,some people just can't deal with the realities of a teenager jumping into a mens league immediately after their draft

 

[Athana see you later]

Zadina looks a lot better than last year. He is finding open ice very consistently now. I actually think his skating is very shifty IMO. Next step is just figuring out what works at the nhl level. Saw flashes last year where he had multiple goals in a game and took over for a period. At some point he’ll figure it out and put it all together and everyone will be like “wow”. But now, all we can do is wait. All the skills are there. It just takes time to adjust to the nhl level.

 

[Cyborg Yzerberg]

Every thread is going to get progressively more annoying about Zadina until he scores a hat trick or something.

 

[Reddwit]

What’s happening with Zadina is a big reason why I don’t appreciate guys whose identity is tied to goal scoring. The whole sniper/pure goal scorer self-image is increasingly tenuous the higher you go in the hockey hierarchy because it’s simply hard to score goals. For everyone.

I think that’s why many of the best goal scorers in this league aren’t primarily goal scorers - they’re talented all-around players who can establish themselves in a variety of ways - assists, playmaking, PKing, forechecking, two-way play...And many of the snipers in this league are inconsistent and/or regarded as one dimensional. If they aren’t scoring, who are they? Their game is so focused on being the trigger man that when the goals aren’t coming, they end up looking worse everywhere. They try to force plays and because they’ve been so focused on being The Goal Scorer for so long that other aspects of their game have decayed.

I hope management works with Zadina a lot. We need to rehabilitate him mentally ASAP so dry spells or struggles don’t tank his confidence.

 

[MBH]

most of the people "giving up" on him now already gave up on him like a year ago and have been actively looking for as many reasons as they can find to justify it ever sincet

Name all the people who've "given up" on him.
1? Maybe 2?

 

[Henkka]

This was great game overall. Only guy I was disappointed was Svechnikov. What happened to him? Quite a low icetime.

Adam Erne looks so good I wouln't be surpriced if he'll end up to our 2nd line.

 

[Mlotek]

This was great game overall. Only guy I was disappointed was Svechnikov. What happened to him? Quite a low icetime.

Adam Erne looks so good I wouln't be surpriced if he'll end up to our 2nd line.

Agree he will probably make the team.

While he has 2nd line potential, I doubt Blash would put him that high.

Knowing Blash, Lark-Bert-Mantha won't last longer than a month than they did start of last season.

Glendening/Helm/Abdelkader will probably be thrown onto Larkin's line for long stretches of the season. Again, using Blash's history as a coach.

With Kronwall/Vitkovski gone, the team needs someone to provide some physical presence. Watching from the arena, the fans were dead the entire night with exception of Erne's low bridge in the 1st period.

They showed some hits/fights from McCarty/Kocur during a TV timeout and the crowd went mental. Kind of sad when the most excited the crowd gets is watching 20 year olds hits/fights on the titantron.

 

[vladdy16]

Agree he will probably make the team.

While he has 2nd line potential, I doubt Blash would put him that high.

Knowing Blash, Lark-Bert-Mantha won't last longer than a month than they did start of last season.

Glendening/Helm/Abdelkader will probably be thrown onto Larkin's line for long stretches of the season. Again, using Blash's history as a coach.

With Kronwall/Vitkovski gone, the team needs someone to provide some physical presence. Watching from the arena, the fans were dead the entire night with exception of Erne's low bridge in the 1st period.

They showed some hits/fights from McCarty/Kocur during a TV timeout and the crowd went mental. Kind of sad when the most excited the crowd gets is watching 20 year olds hits/fights on the titantron.

There's a big difference between someone who is a big fan of the sport, and somebody that only likes a few elements of the sport. I don't see the point in catering to people that only have a passing interest.

 

[WesNichols14]

This was great game overall. Only guy I was disappointed was Svechnikov. What happened to him? Quite a low icetime.

Adam Erne looks so good I wouln't be surpriced if he'll end up to our 2nd line.

he's like 3 games back from major surgery. its going to take time

 

[MBH]

This was great game overall. Only guy I was disappointed was Svechnikov. What happened to him? Quite a low icetime.

Adam Erne looks so good I wouln't be surpriced if he'll end up to our 2nd line.

2 giveaways might have had something to do with it.
Also, the lines got jumbled with the Nielsen injury.

Gives you an idea of where Svech ranks with Blashill, though. And that could be concerning for Svech.

 

[Henkka]

So far the roster is quite clear:

Bertuzzi - Larkin - Mantha
Athanasiou - Filppula - Hirose or X
Erne - Nielsen - Hirose or X <----could be anybody, Ehn, DLR, Zadina, Rasmussen, Veleno, Svechnikov
Akader - Glendy - Helm
(Ehn, DLR)

One spot available for X.

 

[lomekian]

So far the roster is quite clear:

Bertuzzi - Larkin - Mantha
Athanasiou - Filppula - Hirose or X
Erne - Nielsen - Hirose or X <----could be anybody, Ehn, DLR, Zadina, Rasmussen, Veleno, Svechnikov
Akader - Glendy - Helm
(Ehn, DLR)

One spot available for X.

A very expensive but very competent 4th line! if blash largely keeps that together, bar the odd rotation between lines 3 & 4 and your X spot, I think most fans would be happy

 

[SCD]

Gives you an idea of where Svech ranks with Blashill, though. And that could be concerning for Svech.

Despite what many people think is a reasonable timetable to recover from his injury, he is still rehabing the knee. He is not going to play 20+ minutes a night for some time.

 

[Gniwder]

A very expensive but very competent 4th line! if blash largely keeps that together, bar the odd rotation between lines 3 & 4 and your X spot, I think most fans would be happy

If this team had a $10M elite player instead of a $12M 4th line, the forward lines would actually look good enough for a playoff spot. Moot point though since the D and goalies aren't there yet. So we're probably looking at 2 more seasons of suck...

If Erne continues to play well, I can see Abby getting bought out after next season when Helm's contract expires.

 

[lomekian]

If this team had a $10M elite player instead of a $12M 4th line, the forward lines would actually look good enough for a playoff spot. Moot point though since the D and goalies aren't there yet. So we're probably looking at 2 more seasons of suck...

If Erne continues to play well, I can see Abby getting bought out after next season when Helm's contract expires.

So much depends on how Ras, Zadina, Veleno develop this season and whether Bergrenn etc can look like an NHL-er. But more depends on McIsaac, Cholowski, Seider and Hronek's next step. That said, a little lottery luck could transform our future, given that we have a lot of prospects who look like future NHL-ers, if not top draw. A lafreniere or Byfield suddenly transform's this team's near future and the pace of any re-build.

If the kids don't develop and/or we don't get a good pick, and there's no point buying out anyone. If things go as we'd hope, suddenly we get close enough to a window to ditch him.

 

[Gniwder]

So much depends on how Ras, Zadina, Veleno develop this season and whether Bergrenn etc can look like an NHL-er. But more depends on McIsaac, Cholowski, Seider and Hronek's next step. That said, a little lottery luck could transform our future, given that we have a lot of prospects who look like future NHL-ers, if not top draw. A lafreniere or Byfield suddenly transform's this team's near future and the pace of any re-build.

If the kids don't develop and/or we don't get a good pick, and there's no point buying out anyone. If things go as we'd hope, suddenly we get close enough to a window to ditch him.

As a fan, I'm obviously hoping for lottery "luck" as well. Wings will go BPA in this draft, and hopefully that means an elite scorer.

Abby will wind up being a distraction as an "A" sitting in the press box. Unless he makes some sort of miraculous comeback, I don't see him on the team after next season. At this point, the best case scenario for him is to pull a Callahan.

 

[Cyborg Yzerberg]

A very expensive but very competent 4th line! if blash largely keeps that together, bar the odd rotation between lines 3 & 4 and your X spot, I think most fans would be happy

Helm and Abdelkader are barely NHL players at this point.

 

[MBH]

Despite what many people think is a reasonable timetable to recover from his injury, he is still rehabing the knee. He is not going to play 20+ minutes a night for some time.

Nobody needs him to play 20 minutes. 13-16 would be fine.
He went from 12:30 to 9:28. Despite solid play both games.