Well if Coyle stays up because of it and actually plays well enough to log more than 12 minutes, then you could say it impacts the team.
I'm expecting this will be Rupp's largest impact.
Well if Coyle stays up because of it and actually plays well enough to log more than 12 minutes, then you could say it impacts the team.
Hey guys, just checking back to see how Big Mike has been doing for you guys? Great teammate and character guy in the room.
He's had much more of an impact at even strength. He's not the first in on the forecheck and reminds me a bit of Boogaard when he's trying to turn (WIDE AND SLOW) but he's scared the crap out of some defenseman who throw the puck away and clear out when he's coming in for the hit. Takes a while to get up to speed but top speed is decent for his role.
He's also had some nice plays around the net where he's banged away at pucks, even had a breakaway last game. Might have drawn a penalty? Can't recall.
Doesn't play on the PK but we have plenty of guys who can do that.
I've generally liked him more than Powe, but we have so many of those speedy grinder types that we just needed variety. Brodziak, Clutterbuck, Mitchell, and Konopka all play variations of the same game that Powe does. We didn't have any big forecheckers like Rupp.
Guessing a win-win trade?
Rupp isn't nearly as slow a skater as Ranger fans led us to believe. He's got a decent top gear once he's going, just not great acceleration. Since he skates primarily north and south, his top gear gets quite a bit of use.
He's definitely been an injection of something this team was needing. His board play is excellent, which I think his showing others what it takes has started to spread some of that up the lineup.
What I don't like about the Powe trade has nothing to do with Rupp. It's that we gave up a 3rd round pick in this year's draft to acquire Powe. In a deep draft it will be 'interesting' to see who Philly selects.
Rupp isn't nearly as slow a skater as Ranger fans led us to believe. He's got a decent top gear once he's going, just not great acceleration. Since he skates primarily north and south, his top gear gets quite a bit of use.
He's definitely been an injection of something this team was needing. His board play is excellent, which I think his showing others what it takes has started to spread some of that up the lineup.
Yeah I was expecting slow as molasses. He wasn't even close to as bad as we were told.