Babcock moving people around

[NeverForgetMac25 483]

I imagine Drapes will still take most of the draws and then resume his position on Wing after. McCarty used to do this all the time too.

Read the initial post.

"Kopecky is 6-foot-3, and we feel over time he'll become a real good matchup center," Babcock said. "Can he do it? I don't know. You have to have the opportunity, and we'll give him one right off the start."

[Aussie_Wing 354]

"Kopecky is 6-foot-3, and we feel over time he'll become a real good matchup center," Babcock said. "Can he do it? I don't know. You have to have the opportunity, and we'll give him one right off the start."

Ahhh Babs is a funny man. How many of these little quotes have we seen from him already over the off season?

"Am I a good coach? I don't know. We'll see."

PS. He is a good coach, I'm not implying he isn't.

[Kp-Wings 3]

I don't mind this right now, but to be honest, having Draper on the wing is one of the stupidest ideas I've ever seen. His best skill is his faceoff ability. It really makes no sense to have the teams best faceoff man not playing center. Unless he does still take the draws, but it doesn't sound like he will.

Kopecky... I'm not even going to go there. You all know what I think of him.

These lines don't exite me at all (their pretty lame in my opinion), but I generally like Babcock as a coach, so I'll trust him on this one. He knows more then I do anyways.

[eva unit zero 271]

I don't mind this right now, but to be honest, having Draper on the wing is one of the stupidest ideas I've ever seen. His best skill is his faceoff ability. It really makes no sense to have the teams best faceoff man not playing center. Unless he does still take the draws, but it doesn't sound like he will.

Kopecky... I'm not even going to go there. You all know what I think of him.

These lines don't exite me at all (their pretty lame in my opinion), but I generally like Babcock as a coach, so I'll trust him on this one. He knows more then I do anyways.

Draper and Drake are both established faceoff men. Which is exactly why they are being pu on the Wing with a center who was a rookie last season. Z and Dats can take faceoffs at the NHL level...Flip and Kopecky still need to work on that, so why not pair them up with vets who are really good at it?

[Kp-Wings 3]

Draper and Drake are both established faceoff men. Which is exactly why they are being pu on the Wing with a center who was a rookie last season. Z and Dats can take faceoffs at the NHL level...Flip and Kopecky still need to work on that, so why not pair them up with vets who are really good at it?

Kopecky is not even a center, for one thing. He played it like once in juniors (Lethbridge) but hasn't played it all that much after that.

The size thing is a joke. He isn't going to win faceoffs because of his size, because he never uses it to any extent.

The ideal centers (in my opinion) would be this:

Datsyuk

Zetterberg

Draper

Filppula

Filppula is not that great at faceoffs either, so he'd work fine with Draper or Drake or somebody. But he's a natural center anyways. Kopecky isn't a center.

I hate Kopecky, and think he's totally useless. It would please me to an extreme to see Grigorenko or Downey or someone else make the team over him, but that's just wishful thinking on my end.

[Guest LivingtheDream]

That first line won't stay intact. It is pretty much decided (paraphrasing from multiple sources) that Hank and Pavel will be split, each centering the first two lines.

And that I predict will be retracted at some time during the season. For Christ's sake it was the BEST LINE IN THE NHL. It's Whittaker and Trammel on ice (Pavel and Hank). Build a team that can have that line intact and no need to "spread it around" and a certain silver object will visit our dark empty streets often enough. Flip, Franzen, Cleary and Drake can be "spread around" just fine to make up some other decent lines. It is just so dumb. No two players connect like these guys - they are the psychic Euro Twins. It just drives me nuts.

Any way, on topic, Drapes needs a change like this and I think he will come through. His speed is amazing and I would like to see it actually used in a line that can handle it.

[eva unit zero 271]

Filppula is not that great at faceoffs either, so he'd work fine with Draper or Drake or somebody. But he's a natural center anyways. Kopecky isn't a center.

Kopecky centered Filppula in Grand Rapids, just for reference.