oldnews
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Corsi alone is relatively meaningless. Ie if you are getting 75% ozone starts, with very good 'possession' linemates and your corsi is 55% - that is not really great and certainly does not necessarily indicate an "elite 2 way player". Play harder minutes and have a corsi like that - and that may be the case.
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Looking forward to seeing Chatfield play - he looked like he'd contend for a spot from the first time he hit the ice for this franchise. As for EP - he's not only been without Miller until last game - but he's been snake-bitten as well - recall him ripping one off the crossbar, sticks breaking repeatedly on him - you know he's going to make some team pay in due course.
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Yeah - I do disagree with you. Particularly after Miller's return. The team doesn't need to be spending Horvat's line in matchup - or subbing in Eriksson to make that more viable. The idea may have made more sense when EP was forced to center a line....but two things make your idea - thankfully - more and more an expiring shelf life. A healthy Miller means that the top line less and less needs tilted ice to be successful. And an improving Gaudette means that his line is going to get wrecked with less frequency - so the LE to the 'rescue' thing - imo - isn't as convincing. The other aspect of this is that he has to actually earn a spot on the roster - that being another 'bottom line' - which he arguably did not, on performance. I think there's yet another argument against it - that being that the team is at such a critical mass of youth - that people should probably temper their short term expectations. Personally I'd look at this as (another) 'development' year for this team. I'm not going to assume they are incapable of repeating last year's achievements - but I sure as hell don't 'expect' it. Stanley Cup teams - tend to be composed of cores that are in the 25+ range....this core - is still pretty green. I think Green has already been 'sacrificing' results to some extent in recent years - ie playing Gaudette at center (prematurely) to move his development along (when they were a stronger team with Sutter and Beagle centering the bottom 6 lines). Is it possible that they'd be slightly 'better' with LE in the lineup as opposed to Hoglander? I'm not so sure (Hoglander has fared decently and not just from an upside perspective - good enough 'underlying' numbers - and 2nd among forwards (behind Motte) in blocked shots thus far. Anyhow - I personally would prioritize preparing players like him and Juolevi for NHL careers - and to take it a step further, I might even get another veteran or two out of the mix (ie Roussel and Benn) in order to bank the bonus cap and clear more cap deck for ensuing seasons.... I understand why they might not take that route (I'm not ownership and my imperatives are probably slightly different than theirs).
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These are always the best 'references/sources'. 'My buddy is a Lames fan'....and he's shocked Hamonic signed somewhere'.... As if random Flames fan's opinion are worth a whiff (same can be said about the vast majority of Canuck fan takes on players on their own team). Is he also shocked that the Flames GM and coach have NHL jobs? Because that guy that allegedly doesn't belong in the NHL played the 2nd most minutes on their blueline (next to a Norris quality Giordano). He was also their lead penalty killer. They must be in the midst of a rething, then right - and this guy was a mere tank-o-rama placeholder....er, oh yeah - they were a playoff team. Anyhow - I thought Hamonic looked extremely rusty through 3 games, and a bit better in the 4th - but the idea that he was so 'bad last year' that he doesn't belong in the league....is facepalm material. He's 5th on this blueline in ice-time thus far (2nd on the pk)....which seems about right imo (the only thing I'd really change would be the amount of minutes he spends with Hughes - for me, Myers may be more suited to those (and Hamonic to sheltering Juolevi on the 3rd pairing).