Recalled/Assigned: Koekkoek to Syracuse | Taormina recalled

[LTIR Trickery]

Rather have him in Syracuse right now. Hopefully they push him about 25 a night.

 

[MattM92]

Just don't get it. His ceiling is magnitudes higher than Nesterov's and his floor is about what Nesterov is now. I don't see how Koekkoek over Nesterov would hurt the lineup.

One big problem in Cooper's coaching over the years is he tends to focus too much on "who gives me the best chance to win today". That's a great philosophy in June, not so much in October. God forbid there is an injury in the top 4 in the playoffs this year and we don't have a player we can put in there since our choices will be Nesterov and a Koekkoek with no experience.

 

[DFC]

Let's hope it's just to get him some reps this weekend. What we saw from him in the playoffs was far better than what we're seeing from Nes right now. I don't understand why they're not at least alternating. Unless it really is that Coop just doesn't want to change a winning lineup, which we've seen from him in the past.

 

[Sky04]

Let's hope it's just to get him some reps this weekend. What we saw from him in the playoffs was far better than what we're seeing from Nes right now. I don't understand why they're not at least alternating. Unless it really is that Coop just doesn't want to change a winning lineup, which we've seen from him in the past.

Doesn't make sense to me either, who cares if the Crunch play back to back this weekend, the Lightning have a game tonight and Saturday night that KK could be dressing for, those games are far more valuable for him.

 

[TheDaysOf 04]

https://www.nhl.com/lightning/news/bolts-look-to-end-opening-homestand-undefeated/c-282869996

Cooper said sending Koekkoek to Syracuse is a good chance to get the young defenseman some games. The Crunch play Friday and Saturday while the Lightning, following tonight's game against Colorado, play just twice in the next five days.

"We can't have the young guy sitting up in the stands, waiting for his chance when he can have an opportunity to play games," Cooper explained. "It should never be taken as a demotion because it's not. It's a free move to be able to get somebody games, and that's what we want because we need guys like Slater to be ready in case they come in. If they can get a couple games, just as we did with (Nikita) Nesterov and (Andrei) Vasilevskiy and a long list of guys who were in this situation in the past to get the games. We're on our way up to the northeast for six games, so everybody's close, Slater's close, get him some games and hopefully see him back with us."

 

[HoseEmDown]

So why didn't they have him play last weekend?

 

[DFC]

So why didn't they have him play last weekend?

They likely knew he'd be out of tonight's game. If we lose, maybe we'll bring him back up for Saturday in Ottawa?

 

[HoseEmDown]

They likely knew he'd be out of tonight's game. If we lose, maybe we'll bring him back up for Saturday in Ottawa?

That doesn't make sense on any level. If tonight he wasn't going to be in he still could've played last weekend, they had to have known on opening night they were going Nesterov. I highly doubt it was a game time decision between the 2 the first 3 games, I don't recall hearing reports of him even doing the warm up. I also don't see them sending him down for just one game, he'll be in Syracuse until the end of the weekend unless there is an injury.

 

[DFC]

That doesn't make sense on any level. If tonight he wasn't going to be in he still could've played last weekend, they had to have known on opening night they were going Nesterov. I highly doubt it was a game time decision between the 2 the first 3 games, I don't recall hearing reports of him even doing the warm up. I also don't see them sending him down for just one game, he'll be in Syracuse until the end of the weekend unless there is an injury.

I think sometimes Yzerman and Coop aren't completely on the same page. Maybe Yzerman assumed Coop would swap him in by now, Coop hasn't, and Yzerman doesn't want him in the pressbox any longer. Just a guess. It's not easy to apply logic to this.