Dabura

I'm just s***posting, tbh. Based on my extreeeemely limited exposure to him (highlights vids on YouTube and today's scrimmage), I do think making him "position fluid" might be the best way of maximizing his strengths and minimizing his shortcomings. Specifically: running him as a forward at 5-on-5 and as a point man on the PP.

I'd totally forgotten he played forward. Good call. Do you know when he made the switch? Was it last season?

Old Alfredsson Brunner Frk Pulkkinen Old Vanek

Way-too-early opening night lineup projection based mostly on the combinations we saw in today's game: Bertuzzi Larkin Mantha Athanasiou Filppula Hirose Erne Nielsen Zadina Helm Glendening Abdelkader de la Rose, Ehn DeKeyser Hronek Nemeth Green Ericsson Daley Bowey From where I stand, that 3RW spot is up for grabs. I have Zadina there because I think we need at least one high-skill scorer in the bottom-six mix, but Zadina has to prove he's ready to be an NHL scorer and, imo, he hasn't been doing that. "So why give him the spot?" He's generating Grade A chances in every game ("game"). He's doing everything but score goals. You give him the spot if you believe he's simply snakebitten right now and is poised to explode.

Not shown in that second clip: Erne got the puck at his blue line right at the beginning of his shift and he tore into the offensive zone like a bat out of hell. Several things I like about Erne's work on this sequence: he recognized that he had a man changing behind the play, he drew attention to himself with the hard drive around the net, and I'm guessing he recognized the shot threat in Kaski as he (Erne) was busting into the o-zone and that he trusted that Kaski would put himself in position for a cross-ice feed -- and even if Kaski failed to do so, Erne would have the late man with fresh legs coming off the bench.

Game is over and it was pretty boring and I didn't learn much. Hronek is low-key great. Erne seems decent enough. I want Kaski on the left side on one of our PP units; his shot appears to be as good as advertised, buried a nice one-timer in 3-on-3 action. Veleno and Seider were quiet. (To be fair, most players were quiet.) Zadina had two or three solid chances and couldn't convert, so that maddening trend continues. Sigh. Rasmussen was playing center. I didn't really notice him. Bertuzzi does the little things right. Ericsson almost murdered Chris Terry. To my eye, Ericsson actually looked more mobile than Nemeth. For what that's worth. Hirose almost murdered Pickard on a drive to the net. He definitely looks quicker than he did last season. His shot is kinda poop, I guess, but I like him as a smart, shifty, Nyquist-esque playmaker.

BS. You have never once discussed Zadina. Where is this sudden Zadina hate coming from? Real talk tho: If Zadina doesn't take a big step forward this season (early returns aren't very promising) and Quinn Hughes has a really good rookie season in the NHL, I might start leaning towards your side of the fence.

I really, really like Hronek. Reminds me a bit of a young Kronwall. They're playing 9 preseason games? Holy s***.

I didn't know you don't like Zadina. What don't you like about him? Could you expand?

Carley is still hot.

Yup, that Chicago game is his "debut."

I'm kinda getting that vibe too. It's gonna be real interesting seeing how he does in exhibition action.

Media person asking Yzerman to write her "The Captain's Homecoming Starts Now" piece for her: "Give us a sense what it was like sitting up in the crow's nest watching your team in Traverse City." Yzerman, with a straight face: "WELL, I thought all three practices have been very good. The drills were very good. Jeff's very well-organized and they worked very hard." lmao You could upload them to a pic sharing site, if you're comfortable with that. Then all you have to do is post the URLs. Postimage is pretty good.

You can cross Jared Spurgeon off your UFA wish lists.

Retired Zetterberg when he hears Larkin blasting Taylor Swift's new album after an OT loss to the Sens:

I don't really buy that Yzerman needing more time to get to know the players is why they're holding off. I don't think it's necessarily the wrong call to hold off tho, and I'm sure they have good reasons for going this way. We've lost two bedrock leaders in a two-year span in Zetterberg and Kronwall. And that's happening right in the middle of a painful rebuild. And Yzerman has given every indication that he expects the team to suck this season. And Larkin is an emotional guy who maybe doesn't need to be shouldering the weight of a tank team's shortcomings any more than he did last season, all when what the organization truly needs him to do in the here & now is focus on becoming a Selke-caliber heavyweight centerman in the mold of Ryan O'Reilly. Work on the two-way game (-6 last season). Cut down on the penalties (75 mins last season). Keep improving at faceoffs (54.5% last season). So I'm guessing they're protecting Larkin and the other top young roster players. Let them focus on playing hockey. Guard against a "Wings fans thought the future was now. Turns out the young core isn't ready for prime time. Now the question becomes 'Where does the organization go from here?'" media BS. Or maybe they're just gonna give Larkin the C at the end of camp. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Honka Honka

https://www.prohockeyrumors.com/2019/09/julius-honka-requests-trade.html I was high on him a couple years ago. Shows how much I know.

I mean, I won't fault him for having his own personal preferences and biases and weighting system. Just means he's human. I can even understand why someone would believe Veleno's nothing more than an unremarkable middle-six centerman. But, to Veleno's credit, he's done nothing but impress since he was drafted and I do think dropping him 20 spots is kind of a bruh move.

I'm assuming Zadina gets the edge largely because he played in the AHL last season. Veleno tore apart the QMJHL, but that isn't necessarily as impressive as doing "just ok" in the AHL. Same with Seider in the DEL, I guess. Then again, Berggren missed all of last season and he's ahead of Kaski, who tore up the Liiga last season. But Kaski's 24. I dunno. I will say this about Zadina: I was disappointed with his Prospect Tournament showing. I really didn't want to come away from it saying Post-Lidstrom Era Red Wings Fan Things like "Kid is so close. No, this is not the same as Jurco and Frk and Sheahan and Kindl and Smith and Pulkkinen and Mrazek and Almqvist. This is totally different. No, I am not copeposting." Kinda surprises me and kinda doesn't. Like I said above, he's coming off a huge season in the Liiga, which is a respectable pro league. Word on the street was every NHL team was making calls on him. I dunno if he's ever gonna find any level of success in the NHL, but if his shooting is as good as advertised, he might be able to carve out a role for himself on an underpowered NHL PP unit as early as this season. Put him in the Frk role and have Green feed him. Better yet, run Kaski and Hronek on the same unit. Hronek has a low-key wicked shot, so you've got two constant shooting threats on one unit (and that's saying nothing of Mantha and AA). The forward on the right wall could set up a Hronek shot or he could set up a Kaski shot or he could set up a shot-fake-set-up from Hronek/Kaski to Kaski/Hronek. Or he could do any number of other things. Point is, options.

Someone send this to Veleno.

How does one say "wideboi" in French? EDIT: Just looked it up. "Le wideboi."

HYPE! LGRW!

The Habs are stupid self-defeating dinguses tho. Bergevin is a pathological fidgeter who feels compelled beyond all reason to restructure the team every other year. Give 2013 Holland a Price-tier goalie and we probably squeeze another Cup out of the Euro Twins core. Well, that wouldn't be the reason why I'd take the goalie (if I were to take him). Just a possible benefit. Don't get me wrong, I'm not strongly in favor of taking a goalie in the top 10. I'm basically just talking through my thoughts on it and getting feedback from you folks and trying to figure out where I actually stand on it. Taking a goalie that early isn't something I've ever considered. The fact that this goalie is placing so high on many people's rankings kind of tickles my brain and gives me something to think about that isn't the usual "Our defense is bad. It is on fire. How do we put out the fire? I like Werenski. Who would we trade for Werenski? Dang, Werenski re-signed."