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Everything posted by MikeyD
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That's where I disagree. I think Edler is too inconsistent to be labeled a 3, I have him at a 4 or 5 on a good team (though I think he will have a good year this year if he stays with Schmidt), Myers is a 5, Hamonic is a 6 that can be a 5 and Juolevi is a 6. We have one of the weaker d cores in the league. That's what I'm comparing it to. It's better than Edmonton's but our D still sucks. Lower half in the league in my opinion. It will however be a really strong D core in a couple years though, I believe. Just lacks the defensive side of the game right now. Schmidt is our best defensive player but guys like Edler, Myers, Hamonic, Hughes and with Juolevi being a wild card our D is too inconsistent in their own end. With Hughes getting another year under his belt I anticipate him becoming a lot more consistent than last year though. He's definitely the best defensively in my opinion after Schmidt. Edler can either play amazing defensively or is a dumpster fire, depends on his engagement but over the past 3 years I find about every 3rd game we get his outstanding defense and the other 2 games he lacks the engagement. However like I said I think Schmidt will be the perfect partner for him. Also helps that Edler usually starts out every season extremely well so hopefully that's the case again this year.
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Worse. I was hoping to offset the loss in defensive capabilities with players who are capable of rushing the puck up the ice but I don't think Juolevi is dynamic enough, so ideally I was hoping to see Rafferty on the third pairing and even possibly Rathbone. Rafferty and Juolevi was expected for me but I'm not sold on Hamonic yet. We are playing the safe route but the safe route I think will lead us into real issues against zone entries. (I edited one word here) Good news is that Edler I think will play a drastically different game offensively this year playing with Schmidt. I'm really hoping he plays similarly to the scrimmage game because it will give our team a different look, more similar to Chicago when Keith was in his prime. It's not drastically worse, it's similar but I think defensively we are worse this year and I thought offensively we will be capable of being much better. Really hoping Juolevi will meet expectations but after watching him in Utica I'm still not sold on how he will handle defensive responsibility. Offensively he is nhl ready but it'll take half a season I think before we start to see him being successful defensively I think. With sheltered minutes though he has a chance to play well, especially if we keep him away from top lines. I find he's weak against high end speed. Against slower players he's more than capable.
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Alright after watching it, I'm really impressed by the young guys. The vets are the ones to be worried about. Younger players are more dynamic, creative and really were flying out there tonight. Brisebois had a great game, I liked Rathbone's game (needs a bit of seasoning on defense but I think his offense would make up for it as he learns), Rafferty was a bit off tonight but that could be just because Rathbone had the puck on his stick all night, Schmidt looked great and you can tell he's getting Edler to be more dynamic offensively which I like... I really wish we could fit Bailey, Graovac, Mack and Motte on the team. Bailey was absolutely flying out there and in my opinion I think deserves a spot on the roster. Liked his game in the A last year along with Mac. Graovac is just a solid forechecker with good hands as well. Hogs looked pretty good, not as individualistic as I thought he'd be, but he made some good plays and could have made some more if Pearson didnt just shoot it whenever a good scoring chance could have been generated. Not many played horrible, a lot played great and overall there weren't that many disappointments. Biggest disappointments were the veteran lower roster players.
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You wouldn't have anything with sound would ya?
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Oh dang I really like your high end comparison. I'm surprised I didn't even think of that. Nice.