kipwinger

Yeah, I'm not not too worried. I do agree that he better have a solid year in the AHL this year though because eyes are definitely on him now.

You guys are so reactionary. Vile Jusso didn’t play an NHL game until he was 26 years old. Didn’t become one of the leagues 32 (maybe fewer) full time starters until he was 27. We have an example of why we shouldn’t panic on OUR team right NOW. Goalies can take time. Relax.

Step back from the ledge fellas. It’s a prospect tournament. Let’s maybe see how he looks after a year in the AHL. He is, after all, 20 years old.

That’s too bad, I’m sure the team would have played their hearts out with such a worthy leader at the helm.

Danielson out for todays game (no update yet) and Tuomisto demoted to the second pair. Danielson has looked great, and his offense has been consistent and noticeable. I’ve also liked Lombardi, Sodorblom, Hanas, and Wallinder. Kasper has generated so many quality chances but hasn’t finished yet. He needs to work on his shot and then he’ll be okay.

No, we were bad for the second half of the first period and the first half of the second period. That was the difference. The goalies were fine, they just got hung out to dry on two of the goals against.

I love Art and I can't stand how snarky Daniela is when she talks to him. Everybody online gushes over her, and she's good at her job, but Art does the color commentary and I think he's entertaining. Heaven forbid someone have a little personality. Also, Bob Kaser (the announcer last night and the primary GR play by play man) is spectacular. Love that dude and hope he takes over for Ken Daniels when Ken finally retires.

I agree, I didn't really notice him though. Speaking to the greenness of him as a prospect I guess.

I didn't think our defensemen did the team any favors last night, but with that said the Wallinder-Tuomisto pair was the only pair we had with anything close to real prospects on it. The rest were either tryouts or guys that were too young. Offensively we had the puck a lot and the guys that were supposed to be good were. The only problem was that they were all just trying to take the game over themselves (other than Hanas maybe) rather than playing off their teammates. Just looked like a lot of guys with talent who still need a lot of coaching and practice. I also thought Cossa looked fine. He was hung out to dry on his one goal against. I didn't see the other. Hard to really judge him without real defensemen in front of him. Tuomisto looked solid too (for anyone specific who might be interested). His foot speed is better than I anticipated, shot was just as hard, but I didn't really see the physicality he was billed with. I think he's genuinely in the mix for a future 3rd pair RHD spot (with Anton Johansson and ASP).

I agree. And I think he will. He produced really good offense in the SHL as a draft eligible, which is a much higher level of play than last night. He's also produced offense at the World Championships (against NHL caliber players) too. His finishing didn't look great last night, but he was still generating tons of clean zone entries and lots of shots. They just didn't go in. I'll be more worried if he falls flat this year in the AHL, but right now I think it probably has more to do with spending all summer rehabbing a broken knee (and not working on the rest of his game) than that his offense is limited. Kasper's offense reminds me a lot of Dylan Larkin. He's going to need a few years to really work on his shot (he double pumps on his wrister all the time) in order to make that a weapon but he's a good passer, good around the net, and good in transition. He's going to score points. But with a better shot he could definitely be in that 70-80 point range.

Lombardi looked really good in the faceoff dot too. There has been some speculation that he could be a guy that gets moved to the wing, but if he keeps playing like that I don't think there's any reason to move him.

Yeah it was, Elmer has not expecting that puck back. Gotta keep your head up on a line with Lombardi. I wanna see this kid play with Berggren. They both play so quick in the offensive zone.

Lombardi is going to be good. As soon as he gets stronger he’s gonna be a handful.

Gaff aside, Wallinder looks like a horse too.

I’ll be curious to see how he looks in GR this year. He scored at a comparable rate to Raymond in his last SHL year. He has the puck a lot, but he does looks rusty though.

Yep, announcers said Tuomisto during the play call but replay shows Wallinder. Good catch.

Tuomisto with a brutal turnover leading to a 3 on 1 goal.

Lombardi looks good, very tenacious hunting pucks and getting them back.

Woof! My expectations were pretty low at that time apparently. Yiiiiiiiikes.

While I won't quibble with your conclusion (he's good but forgettable) I will quibble with a couple of things. First, he absolutely WAS handed the best roster year after year (for most of his career). His very first year as head coach of the Wings he was handed a roster with four 80+ point players. Most coaches never have that much talent in their careers. What did he do with that team? Lost in the first round. In 2009 he had three 30 goal scorers, one 40 goal scorer, and a top four of Lids, Rafalski, Kronner, and Stuart. He lost in the finals. Quenneville/Sutter/Sullivan/Cooper don't lose in the finals with that roster. For five years he had dominant rosters and didn't win Cups during the window. The guys I just mentioned all won multiple Cups with similarly talented rosters during their five year windows. He didn't. Which brings me to the second point. You're glossing over just how good he had it in TO and how he failed to do anything at all with all his talent. Sure you can say "Tronna is Tronna" but it's not like he was taking that team on deep runs and then blowing it. He couldn't get THAT team out of the first round. That's beyond embarrassing and there's no good excuse why a good coach (if he really is one) should have under performed THAT badly with THAT roster.

I think that all the "Babcock is the worst person" chatter completely distracts people from the fact that he's not a good coach. That should be the story. He was routinely given uber talented teams and he routinely failed to win championships with them. If he was "the best coach in the world" as he was talked about during the peak of his career wouldn't that have gone down a little differently? As it stands he has had EXACTLY as much success as Peter Laviolette (a guy nobody spends much time thinking/writing about) but with WAY more talented teams. Here's what is going to happen in Columbus. He's going to take a ton of really talented players, browbeat them to the point that they're afraid of own shadows (let alone afraid to make a mistake on the ice) and then they're going to go out on the ice and do...nothing. They're going to dump pucks, make conservative changes, never press in transition, and "trust the process" instead of making plays. That's what ALWAYS happens with his teams. But they sure will hustle. Atta boy Babs.

They've got no heart. Screw the Hughes brothers. #losers

Obviously Hughes would have been a better pick than Zadina, but with that said I'm glad we're not paying 8 million dollars to a defender that can't defend against top players very well. Plus we just got that exact same player type in Axel Sandin Pellikka. Just watch, dude's going to be just as good as Quinn. PLUS...his name is Axel. How awesome is that?!

I can get behind this, give or take a few points. He scored almost 60 as a rookie. With who additional seasons under his belt, and an improved team around him, I don't see why he shouldn't be in the 75-85 point range.

I don't care? Most likely injuries will answer that question for us.