We have lost to the Stars badly everytime we have played them this year. They are our achilles' heel. So I'm not so sure about that but hoping for the best. Good thing is the Stars had a game yesterday and so this will be their back to back game. Hopefully that will give us an edge. Plus, hopefully the tough loss to Detroit will be a motivator for the Preds to come out on fire tonight to want to kick some butt!
We have lost to the Stars badly everytime we have played them this year. They are our achilles' heel. So I'm not so sure about that but hoping for the best. Good thing is the Stars had a game yesterday and so this will be their back to back game. Hopefully that will give us an edge.
Yeah. There are certain teams in the West that tend to have our number from what it feels like. Detroit, Vancouver and San Jose make sense. Dallas and LA do not.
Lol, Calm down guys! It's the first game with Gill in the lineup..let's not act like these pairings are set in stone. It is Trotz afterall.
Ellis can be a liability in the d zone, but definitely makes up for it in the O zone. I'm sure they want to limit his playing time as he develops.
I don't mind them limiting his icetime, I think that's common for rookie players. What I don't like is benching him, even if it's just for one game, when he's been playing well. It sends the wrong message.
Like others have said, even though Gill/Josi is set as the 2nd pairing, I'd expect the 2nd and 3rd to be fairly balanced in terms of icetime as Gill and Josi find chemistry.
Pens fan throwing my two cents in here. I'd personally go with these D pairings if I'm Trotz.
Suter-Weber
Josi-Klein
Gill-Ellis
Some of you mentioned that you'd like to see Gill take some minutes away from the top pairing of Suter and Weber and he will. Not only at even strength, but more so on the PK. Right now Suter and Weber both see a lot of time on the PP and PK, but now you can let guys like Gill and Klein eat up a lot of those PK minutes and they'll be much more fresh for the PP.
Pens fan throwing my two cents in here. I'd personally go with these D pairings if I'm Trotz.
Suter-Weber
Josi-Klein
Gill-Ellis
Some of you mentioned that you'd like to see Gill take some minutes away from the top pairing of Suter and Weber and he will. Not only at even strength, but more so on the PK. Right now Suter and Weber both see a lot of time on the PP and PK, but now you can let guys like Gill and Klein eat up a lot of those PK minutes and they'll be much more fresh for the PP.
Just a thought.
Thanks for your thoughts. Those are the pairings that I'd like to go with aswell, and I agree Gill will be able to take up a large chunk of PK time away from the big two keeping them fresh.
How's Sullivan treating you btw, and to a lesser extent O'Reilly?
Im just really confused right now. I assumed we traded for Gill so he could be Ellis's D partner. I thought that was just a forgone conclusion. This just makes no sense to me.
Im just really confused right now. I assumed we traded for Gill so he could be Ellis's D partner. I thought that was just a forgone conclusion. This just makes no sense to me.
As I mentioned in the the Gill trade thread, I ultimately thought Gill would be paired with Josi. Neither Gill nor Ellis are fleet of foot. Both Josi and Klein are. I still think that most regular season games will see Weber-Suter, Klein-Ellis, and Josi-Gill. However, there will be games that call for even for physicality and/or experience (like tonight against a physical Dallas team). When that occurs, you'll see Bouillon slide into old spot along side Klein.
Given what Ellis has shown on the ice, and what Bouillon has shown on the ice, I don't expect to see Ellis scratched multiple games in a row during the regular season unless he falters. The playoffs will be different and likely more dictated by match-ups and the momentum at the time. For example, if I were to guess, I'd assume that Ellis gets the first opportunity against Chicago if that was the first round match-up. I'd expect Bouillon to get the first opportunity against a team like St. Louis.
I'm not really surprised to see Ellis scratched. Kind of expected it really. I am surprised to see Klein and Josi split up, but it's not like they were that great together anyway.
I may be biased though because I never liked the thought of 2 rookie dmen in the first place.
I'm not really surprised to see Ellis scratched. Kind of expected it really. I am surprised to see Klein and Josi split up, but it's not like they were that great together anyway.
I may be biased though because I never liked the thought of 2 rookie dmen in the first place.
I think this is obviously just trotzs first trial game with his new bunch of defenseman. He always goes with the vets. so if the playoffs started today i think this would be the d pairings we would see. At least Ellis scratched until we needed some offensive power from the back end. Lets see what tonight brings and i hope to see ellis in next game whether we win or not.
I don't mind them limiting his icetime, I think that's common for rookie players. What I don't like is benching him, even if it's just for one game, when he's been playing well. It sends the wrong message.
Like others have said, even though Gill/Josi is set as the 2nd pairing, I'd expect the 2nd and 3rd to be fairly balanced in terms of icetime as Gill and Josi find chemistry.
So many on this board equate playing well with scoring goals. He was benched a couple of games ago because he was activating at the wrong time. He's a defenseman, so his first priority should be defense, not generating offense. Pinching down to help in certain situations is necessary. Weber and Suter do it all the time. But they get back to the blue line quickly. Ellis hasn't developed that instinct yet. During a recent interview he described his style as high risk, high reward. That's never, ever, ever going to sit well with Trotz.
We got Gill, in part, to help our struggling PK. Ellis has majorly helped our PP. We could have a very good set of D for both of those if Trotz did this right. This team with very effective PK and PP would be deadly.
Evenly spread minutes over our bottom four. we would have Weber and Suter, then 2 offensive guys and 2 defensive guys. It makes sense. Instead, Trotz goes with Weber and Suter, then 3 defensive guys and one offensive one. One D pairing now has not offensive fire power and is one dimensional. In addition, our PP unit gets messed up horribly since one of the 3 defensive guys has to play on it. Our perfect balance on the backend is gone.
Ellis has 2 PP points and only plays on the 2nd unit which rarely scores, so he really hasn't been that much of a help. Our PP is great this year because of the big boys.
Yeah I agree with beatmypekka that this is likely 1 of many trial runs. Ellis will get another shot.
Last edited by ThirdManIn: 02-19-2012 at 04:43 PM.
Reason: No need for that
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