Player Discussion Tage Thompson 2

TheDawnOfANewTage

Dahlin, it’ll all be fine
Dec 17, 2018
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I mean, he's also 21 years old and still growing into his body if his offseason regimen was any indication... taking some time to learn how he needs to play in the NHL was probably always going to be part of the process for him.


Ya man, thought he looked good in preseason but had no problem with him being sent down either.. I think last year he just wasn't ready and wasn't coached, doesn't mean he can't get better. Usually teams develop guys before sticking 'em in the lineup, glad that's what they've decided on.
 

Chainshot

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We know he can score at this level. Let's see him step up his defensive game. Let's see him take on some PKing responsibilities.
 
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La Cosa Nostra

Caporegime
Jun 25, 2009
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8-3-11 in the 9 career games in the regular seaaon as an Amerk. That is impressive. Tage is going to be a productive 2nd line winger for us when he is fully developed. He is only turning 22 and is a bigger guy. They always take longer. He reminds me of a better version of Tyler Pyatt. No doubt he is going to be a call up for us. He is going to be hungry and is surely still an important piece for this franchise. Tage puts up with so much unnecessary bullshit because he was the only good piece we saw last year from the trade. Now with Colin Miller and Johnson also in the pipeline he can just play his game.
 
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joshjull

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Aug 2, 2005
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With his supposed stick prowess, let’s see it. Give him some PK time, work at rounding him off into a complete player. That would be awesome.
What do you think the odds are they give him the Olofsson treatment? Even for just half a season or until the deadline.
 

sabrebuild

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Apr 21, 2014
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That’s what I am hoping for for however long he is down there.

I'm all for the long route with him, particularly pk and building his defensive game. Partly I want that for all players, but for him I worry a bit about him ever having the scoring touch to be productive as a one way offensive type.

A lot of his struggles last year were very normal for a young player, but the lack of accuracy in his shooting was pretty concerning. I'm not sure I have seen a young guy come up, get that much opportunity and be so woeful at hitting the net.

It could very well be just another sign of them rushing him and the combination of things screwed him up. Time will tell.
 

Dahlin 2 Eichel

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I'm all for the long route with him, particularly pk and building his defensive game. Partly I want that for all players, but for him I worry a bit about him ever having the scoring touch to be productive as a one way offensive type.

A lot of his struggles last year were very normal for a young player, but the lack of accuracy in his shooting was pretty concerning. I'm not sure I have seen a young guy come up, get that much opportunity and be so woeful at hitting the net.

It could very well be just another sign of them rushing him and the combination of things screwed him up. Time will tell.
Ya his accuracy was very concerning. So was jacks in his first few years. Such a hard shot that if it misses its leaving the zone.

Good thing is that accuracy can be taught and some hard work will improve that very fast.
 

sabrebuild

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Ya his accuracy was very concerning. So was jacks in his first few years. Such a hard shot that if it misses its leaving the zone.

Good thing is that accuracy can be taught and some hard work will improve that very fast.

Ehh, I'm not sure about that. For one thing, Jack was and is a volume shooter, because he can possess the puck like few in the league, and he still pocketed 20+ as a rookie, including several filthy shots at crazy angles.

Tage missed a lot of straight up clean looks with no pressure. Could be confidence, could be a lot of things.

But I haven't seen a lot of guys develop shooting accuracy at age 21 in pro hockey. Power, absolutely, small improvement at release speed and shot selection, sure.

But hitting a 3 inch target over a goalie shoulder at nhl speed is typically something you already have or you don't.

Jack is actually a good example, for all his brilliance otherwise, his accuracy bas a shooter has never really changed since his first game at 19.
 

Chainshot

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I'm all for the long route with him, particularly pk and building his defensive game. Partly I want that for all players, but for him I worry a bit about him ever having the scoring touch to be productive as a one way offensive type.

A lot of his struggles last year were very normal for a young player, but the lack of accuracy in his shooting was pretty concerning. I'm not sure I have seen a young guy come up, get that much opportunity and be so woeful at hitting the net.

It could very well be just another sign of them rushing him and the combination of things screwed him up. Time will tell.

Yeah, that'd be fine with me. He's going to be able to dangle with his reach and he has that power behind his shot. Rounding out what he can do with that incredible reach and long stride defensively though? Or how to impose his body below the dots on the cycle? Yes please. Iron some of the fancy out of him, teach him the d-side, then unleash him on the NHL again.
 

Dahlin 2 Eichel

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Ehh, I'm not sure about that. For one thing, Jack was and is a volume shooter, because he can possess the puck like few in the league, and he still pocketed 20+ as a rookie, including several filthy shots at crazy angles.

Tage missed a lot of straight up clean looks with no pressure. Could be confidence, could be a lot of things.

But I haven't seen a lot of guys develop shooting accuracy at age 21 in pro hockey. Power, absolutely, small improvement at release speed and shot selection, sure.

But hitting a 3 inch target over a goalie shoulder at nhl speed is typically something you already have or you don't.

Jack is actually a good example, for all his brilliance otherwise, his accuracy bas a shooter has never really changed since his first game at 19.

Accuracy can be taught. Saying it can’t be is silly. I guarantee you almost every player works on their accuracy/release points.

You think that all these players were born to be able to blast a puck into the corner or did they get coached and taught how to do it with a lot of practice?
 

Chainshot

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Accuracy can be taught. Saying it can’t be is silly. I guarantee you almost every player works on their accuracy/release points.

You think that all these players were born to be able to blast a puck into the corner or did they get coached and taught how to do it with a lot of practice?

Some shooters work on placement constantly. Asplund and Olofsson in particular where noted last year for having drills where they were feeding one another and attempting to shoot to specific spots. Muscle memory is a thing. Martin used to talk about it when he was advising the team - practice will make things better. Practice shooting, it will improve.
 

sabrebuild

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Accuracy can be taught. Saying it can’t be is silly. I guarantee you almost every player works on their accuracy/release points.

You think that all these players were born to be able to blast a puck into the corner or did they get coached and taught how to do it with a lot of practice?

Of course not. That seems like an obtuse reading.

Of course you can train someone to be more accurate. Particularly as a child over years developing a level of skill that allows the player to shoot with their head up, pick targets all at full speed.

But to significantly improve ones ability at this point in their development, ehh thats asking a lot.

Look most ahl guys can pick corners and go bar down. But to translate that ability to the time and space available in the nhl, well you don't just develop that in the off season in practice sessions, at least not significantly.

There's a reason why veteran nhlers are not all uniformly better snipers than rookies and youngsters.

There's a threshold of god given hand eye coordination, muscle memory for shooting blind and still hitting your targets and just generally having great intuition for what a goalie will reveal.

None of which means that Thompson won't be just fine. There's no reason to not think his game was a mess last year because of the minutes, the coaching and the speed or just the change in teams.

But generally, when we are talking about nhl adults, accuracy for shooting is one of the hardest things to significantly improve.
 

Dahlin 2 Eichel

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Of course not. That seems like an obtuse reading.

Of course you can train someone to be more accurate. Particularly as a child over years developing a level of skill that allows the player to shoot with their head up, pick targets all at full speed.

But to significantly improve ones ability at this point in their development, ehh thats asking a lot.

Look most ahl guys can pick corners and go bar down. But to translate that ability to the time and space available in the nhl, well you don't just develop that in the off season in practice sessions, at least not significantly.

There's a reason why veteran nhlers are not all uniformly better snipers than rookies and youngsters.

There's a threshold of god given hand eye coordination, muscle memory for shooting blind and still hitting your targets and just generally having great intuition for what a goalie will reveal.

None of which means that Thompson won't be just fine. There's no reason to not think his game was a mess last year because of the minutes, the coaching and the speed or just the change in teams.

But generally, when we are talking about nhl adults, accuracy for shooting is one of the hardest things to significantly improve.

I generally disagree with you. Just because he plays in the AHL/NHL doesn’t mean he can’t advance his game and get better.

You said you either have it not. So pretty much at the age of 21 Tage is done. His shot will not get better.

You say to improve his ability at this time of development at the old age of 21 it is pretty much Impossible to do by everything your saying.

Thank you for clearing it up for me.
 

La Cosa Nostra

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I generally disagree with you. Just because he plays in the AHL/NHL doesn’t mean he can’t advance his game and get better.

You said you either have it not. So pretty much at the age of 21 Tage is done. His shot will not get better.

You say to improve his ability at this time of development at the old age of 21 it is pretty much Impossible to do by everything your saying.

Thank you for clearing it up for me.

Mike Knuble was also a big right handed shot. 6 foot 3 225+ pounds and scored 30 goals at age 30. First time hitting 20/30+. Saying Tage is fully developed at 21 is ridiculous.
 

sabrebuild

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I generally disagree with you. Just because he plays in the AHL/NHL doesn’t mean he can’t advance his game and get better.

You said you either have it not. So pretty much at the age of 21 Tage is done. His shot will not get better.

You say to improve his ability at this time of development at the old age of 21 it is pretty much Impossible to do by everything your saying.

Thank you for clearing it up for me.

Perfectly fine to disagree. I'm simply saying to significantly improve certain individual skills at the nhl level is extremely difficult.

Incremental bumps for skating, sure, physical strength, yes. Slight improvements to stick handling under pressure, sure.

But reality is that by 20 or so, the vast majority of players are locked into a lot of their basic offensive abilities at high speed under pressure.

Crosby is one of the only players I have ever seen who dramatically improved himself with specific skills after arriving in the nhl. He manufactured himself into an excellent shooter, particularly at one timers, after being pretty average at them when he joined the league. But like Dahlin he came in at a young 18 and has inhuman hand eye.

Again, I'm not saying people don't improve. If you never played as a kid, but train as an adult, you will definitely see big jumps of improvement.

But at this level its different. The amount of work needed to put in to improve even a tiny bit is enormous, and if your base is to low, you'll never catch up.

Take Olofsson's goal today, he has been shooting that way since he was drafted. Sure he got stronger, quicker, a little sharper in his accuracy from probably 16-20. But I have seen him make that same shot with the same casual execution for 3 years now against professionals.

People in general are optimistic about development in lots of things, but there is a good reason why nhl stars are pretty heavily weighted towards elite play as late teens or major physical development and why the Mark Mancari's of the world can dominate the ahl and never come close to nhl competency.
 

flashsabre

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Having two big forwards (Tage, Cozens) dominating their leagues is very nice to see early on. All these highlights show Tage using his playmaking skills which is great to see.
 
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Tatanka

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My concern for Tage has always been his lack of vision in seeing his team mates and his perimeter bias. If he learns to see a team mate and make the pass he will get more back as the defender can’t clue in on one thing. If he goes to the net more his accuracy concerns are less of an issue. Also a high hard one that he doesn’t always reign in isn’t always a bad thing. Randy Johnson made a career out of it. Some of the highlights indicate he is at least looking at pass options which is good.
 

Chainshot

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My concern for Tage has always been his lack of vision in seeing his team mates and his perimeter bias. If he learns to see a team mate and make the pass he will get more back as the defender can’t clue in on one thing. If he goes to the net more his accuracy concerns are less of an issue. Also a high hard one that he doesn’t always reign in isn’t always a bad thing. Randy Johnson made a career out of it. Some of the highlights indicate he is at least looking at pass options which is good.

Those issues may possibly always be issues but the work in Rochester on being safe around the blueline and using his size to go inside, as well as working on his defensive responsibilities and finding the open man, he can round off into something. I used to see Daze, a big and lanky player who was more of a shooter. Now? I don't know. He could impose with that size.
 

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