Player Discussion Jesperi Kotkaniemi (Part 13)

[Habs Halifax]

Well, we know of one female fan and her husband who were not.

Were they wanting us to take Zadina or Tkachuk or someone else? The media should track them down and interview them

We drafted Kotkaniemi as a long term project and inserting him in the NHL as a 18 year old where he did not dominate a development league prior was very premature. He needs time and he also needs to be hungry to prove he can be a top 2C. We won't know how good/bad he is until he is in the 21-23 age range IMO.

I wonder if we draft Kotkaniemi if we already had Suzuki?

 

[Saundies]

Look, KK is for sure smack dab deep in the sophomore slump this year, but Julien choosing to call him out after that loss in particular? That's a load of BS.

He made a mistake that lead to "the winning goal." Fine. But how many goals were scored to get to that point? It's not like it was a dogfight all night and then the kid got lazy and cost us the game. We gave up 6 goals in 35 minutes of hockey. We had one line that scored all of our goals. We had D giving up 2 on 1s and 3 on 2s like they were playing shorthanded all night. We had a goalie who is usually a lock with a big lead/on Saturdays bleed bad goals.

That's the gripe here. People may claim "no conspiracy" about the treatment he gets but that's why people are suspect. Cale Fleury's a rookie too, and he's made egregious mistakes to cost us goals this year (and this is nothing against CF, mistakes happen especially with rookie D). But does he get benched? Does he even miss a shift? No.

Same with Suzuki. I know he's the shiny rookie now, but his play with Tatar in OT the other night was baffling. Where was he going? Who was he taking? Tatar got blamed for that goal but it was as much Suzuki's fault than anyone's. Where's his call out?

 

[Habs Icing]

But that's kind of like saying Therrien wasn't bad with young players because Gallagher turned out alright. Picking out a couple players doing good/bad is never a good way to judge how well a coach does with prospects, you need to look at a large sample size and see the year to year progression.

What sort of double talk is this? There are four young players (sub 21) on the team. Three of them are doing just fine. The other one is playing like he still belongs in juniors. Maybe Julien calling him out is his way of getting our blockhead GM to send him to Laval.

 

[Habs Icing]

Kotkaniemi looked better at the start of the year than Suzuki did.

Only if you were not watching the games.

 

[Minato is God]

Same with Suzuki. I know he's the shiny rookie now, but his play with Tatar in OT the other night was baffling. Where was he going? Who was he taking? Tatar got blamed for that goal but it was as much Suzuki's fault than anyone's. Where's his call out?

Julien called out "lazy forwards" on that play, so Suzuki more or less got called out. Not to mention early in the season where he was called out for not competing as hard as he was in preseason by Claude

 

[Sorinth]

What sort of double talk is this? There are four young players (sub 21) on the team. Three of them are doing just fine. The other one is playing like he still belongs in juniors. Maybe Julien calling him out is his way of getting our blockhead GM to send him to Laval.

Well first of all if Julien actually thinks it's best to send Kotkaniemi to the AHL he should talk to Bergevin in private and not call him out in the media.

Second, looking fine after 20 games doesn't mean a whole lot. Louis Leblanc looked good after his first 20 NHL games too.

 

[Habs Halifax]

Well first of all if Julien actually thinks it's best to send Kotkaniemi to the AHL he should talk to Bergevin in private and not call him out in the media.

Second, looking fine after 20 games doesn't mean a whole lot. Louis Leblanc looked good after his first 20 NHL games too.

I agree with everything except for Leblanc looking good after his first 20 NHL games.

 

[26Mats]

Well first of all if Julien actually thinks it's best to send Kotkaniemi to the AHL he should talk to Bergevin in private and not call him out in the media.

Second, looking fine after 20 games doesn't mean a whole lot. Louis Leblanc looked good after his first 20 NHL games too.

They say as a coach it's important to have the vets on your side, and therefore it makes sense to not throw them under the bus.

But to throw a 19 year old under the bus in public for a goal that was a wrister from the point, that wasn't a screen or a deflection, is awful.

Let's make the young guys the fall guys for the vets mistakes. What kind of message is that?

How many other players have had needless icings this year? Gallagher, Lehkonen, Weber, Chiarot?

How many vets have lost faceoffs that led to goals? Thompson, etc...