Especially since Marchenko wasn't actually being drowned in minutes this year. The only D with a lower TOI/G was Lashoff. Hard to imagine he'd now be ready for 20+ minutes of the hardest match-ups next to Kronwall. I think we're going to see Ericsson left on the top pair and the two righties used to balance the second and third pairings.
Recalled/Assigned: Marchenko recalled
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Especially since Marchenko wasn't actually being drowned in minutes this year. The only D with a lower TOI/G was Lashoff. Hard to imagine he'd now be ready for 20+ minutes of the hardest match-ups next to Kronwall. I think we're going to see Ericsson left on the top pair and the two righties used to balance the second and third pairings.
Don't really have much of a choice, do we? It's either them or the pairing with a rookie on it or the pairing with a 38 year old offensive defenseman.
Run the Jewels
Make Detroit Great Again
I expected Babs to put Marchenko and Zidlicky on separate lines. He's been asking for RHD for years so it would make no sense to play them on the same line.
Big Poppa Puck
HF's Villain
Really don't like splitting Quincey from DeKeyser. I'd put Zidlicky or Marchenko with Kronner and move Ericsson down to the 3rd pairing. Especially since Ericsson has been playing like a 3rd pairing D-man this year.
Quincey is basically what you get with Ericsson — except he's smaller. Not to mention they Kronwall and Ericsson have been playing together for a while.
Henkka
Registered User
DeKeyser-Ericsson looked well against Carolina. That would be the only other option I would try instead of Kronner-E. But then, Marchenko's load could grow too big in this phase of his career. he doesn't have experience from main shut-down pair.
Kronwall - Marchenko
DeKeyser - Ericsson
Quincey - Zidlicky
I like Quincey-Zidlicky idea. They will be the offensive zone main pair, and Quincey has had some offense on his game in the past, while now he has been good defensively (current season) at Detroit.
Kronwall - Marchenko
DeKeyser - Ericsson
Quincey - Zidlicky
I like Quincey-Zidlicky idea. They will be the offensive zone main pair, and Quincey has had some offense on his game in the past, while now he has been good defensively (current season) at Detroit.
detredWINgs
Registered User
It's frustrating that the D pairs were terrible for 1/3 of the season, during the most important stretch, and now that they've played 82 games together (or at least 20 in Zid's case), Babs decides to experiment.
We have no idea how March will look going up against tough competition. We have no idea how Quincey will look away from Dekeyser. And the one pairing that has crumbled the most is intact.
Now, I'm not complaining about the pairs. But I am going to complain about the timing here.
Frk It
Mo Seider Less Problems
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More frustrating for me that our defense sucks, and we don't have any better options because Holland hasn't brought in any legit talent.
Shuffling deck chairs on the titanic isn't gonna do anything. That's all we're talking about in this thread really.
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this is very true, sad but true and i hope to god resigning zidlicky isnt the answer to the talent problem
trade for phaneuf
trade out smith
trade out quincey or ericsson
sign a good/solid ufa(green, franson, sekera)
promote marchy and ouellet
kronwall-dekeyser
phaneuf-ufa
ericsson-marchenko
ouellet
BamaWing
Registered User
Run the Jewels
Make Detroit Great Again
I've been pushing for the youth movement ever since #5 retired. And I have very, very low hopes for our playoff chances this year. All I'm really looking at is how our younger players look. So even if we don't have a long playoff run, I could take some solace and feel good if guys like Nyquist, Tatar, Marchenko and Mrazek look good. That means that there's the potential for a solid nucleus to develop now that we're at the end of Pavs and Z's careers. Let's not forget that Pav and Z turned from young pups into world class players with Babcock as their coach.
Now if the young guys do nothing and Babcock bolts for greener pastures it could get ugly very, very quickly.
I'm skeptical but I am pulling like hell for our younger players to take that next step.
Absolutely no way the defense looks like that next year. We are gonna be looking at:
Kronwall-Ericcsson
Dekeyser-Quincey
UFA(Most likely Zids
)-Marchenko/Ouellet I'd be happy with just Mike Green, but you think we get Phaneuf (don't want anyway) and a dman like Green or Sekera? No way. Ken Holland is gonna continue to do Ken Holland and miss out on every free agent possible, and than probably make a panic trade for Phaneuf further screwing this team's future.
HIFE
Registered User
Yea I'm still stunned he's sitting Smith and switched up two pairings...the game before the Stanley Cup playoffs!? I mean Smith's blunder from the bench was bad but it must be just an excuse to finally exchange for Marchenko. If that was the plan at some point why not as soon as Marchy was healed last month? I love Babcock but this is plain weird. I get his obsession with r/l pairings but they should have more time together, it seems like a huge gamble.
With all that said I really like Marchenko, I believe he's a keeper. Very smart, creative and crisp passing, silky skater and best of all cool under pressure. That's the #1 compliment we hear of him, that he plays with complete maturity having almost 0 NHL experience. I think he's comparable to Smith right now with hopefully a higher ceiling. We are really gonna see for sure this playoffs who is who, I'm excited for Alexi to do his thing!
Kipper933
Remember the Kipper
Pretty small sample to work with. He only played 3 games at 3rd pairing minutes. He didn't stand out, on my eyes, in any particular area and looked like your typical 3rd pairing guy or healthy scratch defender. Certainly not as strong in his debut during the regular season.
Run the Jewels
Make Detroit Great Again
Marchenko and Ouellet are geting the Jakub Kindl treatment and for good reason: their point totals are nearly identical to Kindl's in Grand Rapids. And this is while playing on much better teams. The organization will continue to give them ice time in Detroit and hope for the best but anyone who tells you they are impressed with either player's performance since turning pro is at odds with what Jimmy Devellano has said as far as all of our prospects on defense looking like bottom 3 NHL d-men or worse. Hopefully Nelson can actually develop a d-man or two now that he's running the show in Grand Rapids.
GoAwayDanCleary
DRWCC
- Aug 6, 2012
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I was very impressed with Marchenko's first elongated stint last season. He played so well people actually started talking about Marchenko > XO. I think he was paired with Smith in the playoffs(?), and they had times where they looked great in the beginning but as the series went on Marchy really began to struggle.
no he was replaced by smith after being out of position a couple of times in that bad game 2 loss. he dressed for game 7 because of injuries and the kronwall suspension. i think he's looked decent but i'm not sure there's a ton of upside there. looks like we're keeping smith and kindl around so marchy and xo are gonna be in GR to start the year.
Frk It
Mo Seider Less Problems
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Henkka
Registered User
