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Play Kesler on the wing where he belongs!


ronningsback

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Playing centre is not simply passing and shooting. Kesler won the Selke for a reason... he is excellent at covering the middle of the ice and checking the opposing team's top players (when healthy of course). Not to mention he's also our best faceoff man. Of course, you could let him take faceoffs and have him move to the wing once play starts, but then you miss out on his defensive play. Makes more sense to keep him at centre, save for the PP where he'll be on the wing with the Sedins.

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This..Selke winning center on the wing while you have guys like Higgins and Burrows playing out of position is not playing from a position of strength. Start him at 3rd line center untill the rust wears off then bump him to the 2nd.

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With the Roy signing and Schroeder starting to look like an NHLer and given Burroughs, Raymond and Higgins are all capable of playing Centre there is absolutely no reason to play Kesler at Centre. He is simply not a "natural" centre......his first instincts are always to shoot rather than pass and he would be much better along the boards. Forward Line up should be:

Sedin, Sedin and Burrows

Higgins, Roy and Hansen (*)

Raymond, Schroeder, Kesler (*)

Pinnizzoto, LaPierre, Weise

(*) interchangeable

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Kesler is not a "shoot-first" instinct type player. His ego makes him think he his a perennial 40 goal scorer, thus trying to do everything himself (shoot vs pass)

He was not like this when he first broke out. 25g/50a

He utilized his line-mates, and sniped when needed.

If he wants to be this shooter type player, then he should play on the wing of fantastic playmaker Derek Roy.

We have no wingers with the playmaking acumen of Roy.

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I like Kesler at a 3rd line center position. Look how pittsburgh is built. Deep down the middle. Surrounded by decent wingers. Thats how we should be built. Should of got a 2nd line winger for Roy. Now thats a proper forward core.

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If we were going to put Kesler on the wing he would with out a doubt play with the Sedin twins or Roy, no way we put him on the 3rd line. lol

Sedin - Sedin - Kesler

Higgins - Roy - Burrows

Raymond - Schroeder - Hansen

Sestito - Lapierre - Weise

Perhaps we could switch Higgs with Booth for a while after he comes back just to see how it plays out, maybe Booth would develop some chemistry with Roy and his scoring problems would be solved.. It's too bad we couldn't get this trade a little sooner though just to test things out, but oh well. Should be an interesting rest of the season at least. :P

NOTE: Kes and Bur could always switch roles as well if either line starts to dry up.

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