No Excuses No Limits! The mother fucking goddamn season thread

[hockeylover]

Looking at Zeke's line combo charts again is kinda startling - I'm not sure our rookies got a fair chance. They've gotta be sheltered somewhat, instead they got boat anchors.

 

[Wayward DP]

yeah okay we all agree fire fucking Keefe asap and give the kids a legit shot.

 

[Preston]

Yeah if you want your third line to score then maybe play one if your players that can score on it.

Willy certainly doesn’t need JT to create offense, and vice versa.

Getting all of the core 4 the icetime that they deserve with one of them on the 3rd line will pose a great challenge. And again, it's not a challenge I'm sure Keefe wants to face when those are his only players producing. Not a fan of Keefe either and I'm fully on the center Willy train, but I'm not sure it's time for that yet.

 

[Wayward DP]

Getting all of the core 4 the icetime that they deserve with one of them on the 3rd line will pose a great challenge. And again, it's not a challenge I'm sure Keefe wants to face when those are his only players producing.

is it really? just double shift your top guys and steal shifts from the Reavos.

plus, what a fucking great problem to have.

 

[Preston]

is it really? just double shift your top guys and steal shifts from the Reavos.

plus, what a fucking great problem to have.

Yeah it would require double shifting some guys for Reaves and essentially going 11 forwards. Doable. But still trickier than playing the shit out of your top 6 forwards, which I suspect they will do.

 

[Preston]

Has Kokk not been good for the Marlies?

 

[Wayward DP]

Has Kokk not been good for the Marlies?

whyyyyyyy

 

[LeafGm]

Has Kokk not been good for the Marlies?

Hopefully the idea here is that they want to give Kokk a good run of games in the AHL to get his feet wet in North America, rather than rushing him to the NHL out of necessity.

I still wouldn’t necessarily agree with that, but it’d be better than management/coaching thinking that Benoit is the legitimately better option.

And goddamn, such a bummer that Timmins is injured. Golden opportunity for him right now.

 

[MindzEye]

whyyyyyyy

You know why.

Plugs make Shelly feel safe. Kids are scary.

 

[hockeylover]

You know why.

Plugs make Shelly feel safe. Kids are scary.

So annoying because he could just... support them properly instead of throwing two on a line with Reaves and being surprised when they sink.

 

[zeke]

Marlies +/-

Miller 7gms +10
Rifai 6gms +5
Kokkonen 7gms +5
Pietroniro 5gms +4
Villeneuve 7gms +3
Niemela 8gms +0
Lajoie 7gms -1
Lagesson 5gms -2
Benoit 2gms -2

 

[Preston]

Hopefully the idea here is that they want to give Kokk a good run of games in the AHL to get his feet wet in North America, rather than rushing him to the NHL out of necessity.

I still wouldn’t necessarily agree with that, but it’d be better than management/coaching thinking that Benoit is the legitimately better option.

And goddamn, such a bummer that Timmins is injured. Golden opportunity for him right now.

22 year old with several years of professional experience. If he can't get in the lineup when 3 of their top 7 are hurt, when is he ever gonna get in? Why go with the safe option every time? Live a little.. Play someone who actually has some upside even if you think he's most likely to suck and not be ready. It's better than playing a guy that you know for sure is gonna suck ass.

 

[MindzEye]

So annoying because he could just... support them properly instead of throwing two on a line with Reaves and being surprised when they sink.

I ranted about this last summer. One of the biggest things holding us back the last few years has been the refusal to play young guys within the organization.

And now as you're mentioning, when they do get a chance they get a boat anchor tied around their necks and then becomes the only ones who face the consequences of the boat anchor sinking them.

 

[hockeylover]

I think zeke's suggestion makes the most sense to try.

Knies Matthews Marner
Robertson Tavares Nylander
Bert Domi Jarnkrok
garbage

 

[MindzEye]

Marlies +/-

Miller 7gms +10
Rifai 6gms +5
Kokkonen 7gms +5
Pietroniro 5gms +4
Villeneuve 7gms +3
Niemela 8gms +0
Lajoie 7gms -1
Lagesson 5gms -2
Benoit 2gms -2

What really guts me is that Kokk and Niemela both have piles of pro experience for their age and aren't obvious career Ahlers like lajoie, Benoit, and lagesson...

Why do we hate player development so much?

 

[Preston]

These kids will never play. Niemela would be interesting to try too with half the d corps injured. He didn't seem so great to me on the eye test but he crushed the nerdies in preseason. Give him some burn even. Anyone under 25 would do.

 

[MindzEye]

These kids will never play. Niemela would be interesting to try too with half the d corps injured. He didn't seem so great to be on the eye test but he crushed the nerdies in preseason. Give him some burn even. Anyone under 25 would do.

The worst thing thats going to happen is that your 21 yr old prospect is going to play as poorly as the 27 yr old career AHLer will at the NHL level. But at least the right guy is getting the reps and experience to grow into something more.

Why accept the option with literally zero upside now or in the future?

 

[Preston]

Klingberg is probably a bit of a cockblock too and adds to Keefe's anxiety about playing kids. He would prefer a "stabilizing" pylon I mean presence over a kid who may make a mistake or two. Because they already have a guy out there making hilarious decisions defensively every shift.

 

[hockeylover]

The whole "pay your star players and fill out the rest of the roster with cheap depth" doesn't really work if you aren't open to young ELCers. Or at least it makes it a hell of a lot harder.

 

[leafman101]

the thing with splitting up the big 4 over 3 lines is that it is a matchup nightmare. Especially in the playoffs. It’s what won the Pens back to back cups and made Vegas so tough last year.