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Play Kesler on the wing where he belongs!


ronningsback

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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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I think the team would be better off rolling 4 lines if they want to win the cup. And to me the best way to do that is to have balanced lines. But having said that line combos are always a work in progress so we'll see how it all works out.

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Guest Gumballthechewy

Actually, I'm the assistant to the assistant of the Head of Player Personnel. Keep it under your hat, its a secret.

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Centre. With 3 potent scoring lines, and 2 defensively very reliable lines, we are much more likely to win the Cup.

The guy won the Selke playing centre. Who would put Datsyuk on the wing just because all the sudden, say, Crosby joins the wings?

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Do you have some sort of god complex that makes you think your ideas are worth spewing to cdc? Or are you just high?

Higgins, BURROWS, Raymond etc. that you've named as able to play centre are naturally much more suited to playing on the wing than Kesler seeing as they've played there their entire careers.

You claim that Kesler is not a natural centre but he's played it his entire life other than one stint when we had a HALL OF FAME CENTRE to play infront of him in Sundin.

Anyone is going to play their best hockey of their career playing beside Sundin, as long as they can sort of play wing, it doesn't make Kesler a winger! And having a Selke trophy winner playing 8-12 minutes a game on the 3rd line is an idiotic move.

PS... I know you think your clever with the whole LaPierre thing but theres a reason it's Lapierre, They asked him how to spell it and that's what he told them.

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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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Question, in a 7 game series vs. the Hawks, would you put Kesler on Roy's wing 5 on 5 or would you rather have him torment Toews like a velcro fart cloud, haunting the boring dreams of Captain Serious ?

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There's nothing new about this debate, they can play Kesler at center or wing just like they did with Linden, but make no mistake Kesler is not a center, statistically when you compare his numbers to other canuck centers he doesn't come close to the 2-1 ratio of goals vs assists produced by most centers

G A

Ryan Kesler 154 188

Brendan Morrison 200 401

Andrew Cassels 204 528

Cliff Ronning 306 563

Murray Craven 266 493

Thomas Gradin 209 384

This isn't a criticsm, just an observation that Kesler who played right wing in college and was centered by Umberger, is simply not a puck distributer. You don't have to be an NHL scout to see that when you watch Kesler play, he simply doesn't have the vision or the passing skills of a center and would be more effective using his great speed off the wing. Kesler would probably have better numbers if he had a true puck distributing center feeding him.

Derek Roy 165 284

He can still play shut down from right wing just like Bob Gainey did.

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To help guard against overplaying Kesler, and to help him get back into game shape, I say put him on the third line.

Put Kass on the first line and tell him to just stand in front of the net, or try to screen the goalie.

Sedin Sedin Kassian

Raymond Roy Hansen - pure speed

Higgins Kesler Burrows - skill and grit

Sestito Lapierre Schroeder - give some scoring touch to our 4th line.

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