I completely agree with taranis (sorry if its spelled wrong) but hes saying kesler needs to be a winger, not a center, and hes completely right. Hes not saying get rid of kesler, hes saying move him to a proper position.
Wrong. The freaking guy was voted as the top defensive player in the bloody NHL last year. He is a shut down second line centre with legit big play offensive upside.
Not every centre has to play the game like Adam Oates.
Does anyone give a **** about the Presidents trophy?
All it means to me is that for the 2nd straight year, the Presidents Trophy winner wont win the cup.
Who ****ing cares about the Presidents trophy?
PLAY_ OFFS.
What it means is that he's built a good team to win the HNL bck-to-back, and take us to the Cup Final. Good luck finding another GM that has done that for us. And I didn't say winning the PT was so amazingly awesome.
My biggest problem with av is summed up with post game comments again. Not enough urgency, not demanding enough of the team. He praised his own team more then sutter did in a loss.
He gives people not producing so many chances. He needs to raise expectation levels from the team.
The penalty he took, should have at least been coinidental. Lappy is a pest and he got under Dough boys skin. Dough boy should have got a slashing penalty on that play and the Canucks shoould have got a PP.
Booth is terrible. Working hard only gets you so far when you have no hands, and no vision and for 4.2 M for several more years that contract will just get worse.
I totally agree and hope we trade him.
Aren't we a puck possession team? how does adding a guy with no vision, passing ability, poise, or hockey sense fit into that style of play? Terrible fit for this team. Im sick of watching the Kesler/Booth pair take turns with their individual rushes and wrist shots.
Even last year, Kesler just didn't produce enough offense at ES. He has never produced that much offense at ES and Gillis should've recognized it. People have brought it up as a strike against him for a while.
Agreed on all your points.
Watching Kesler this year, I'm not sold he's reliable offensively. People were talking about "freeing up" Kesler with Pahlsson on this team. But if you put Kesler in a purely offensive role... especially with his linemates, he's bound to fail more than he succeeds.
We've all made the joke that all he does is skate in and take a wrist shot that either gets deflected or goes wide. It was funny the first few times, but now it's just sad.
Coupled with Booth or Raymond on that line, that's just a disaster. Three guys with absolute tunnel vision. Can't generate anything off the rush, can't generate anything on the cycle. Higgins makes them marginally better but he hasn't played particularly well either.
It ain't over till it's officially over. Being a diehard fan, I want nothing more than to see them make the improbable comeback but part of me also realizes that the season is likely over in the next couple of games.
If they do lose though, the silver lining will be the mass exodus of fickle/reactionary fans on this board who most of the time never seem to know what they're talking about. These posters make it worse for everyone, constantly blaming players left and right and assuming that a coaching change for a back to back Presidents Tropy team is the solution.
This team is offensively starved. They lack top end firepower and have a lot of plugs and grinders masquerading as forwards. On paper, the team seems like a juggernaut because of past accomplishments but some players have clearly regressed and will likely never be who they once were (Booth and Malhotra). People need to wake up and see this.
The only forwards I see with legit offensive skill are Sedin, Sedin, Burrows and Kesler. So take one away because he's concussed and consider another to be severely injured (because something's obviously bothering Kesler) and you're down to Sedin and Burrows. You have 2 guys on the team capable of doing any damage and the rest are simply grinders or "defensive forwards".
I said this before once and I'll say it again: a defensive forward is often a euphimism for someone who's offensively anemic. This team needs firepower. David Booth and Higgins on the second line are not the answer even though they play hard. The problem is that acquring said firepower is difficult unless you overspend in free agency or are willing to give up big assets. The only potential forwards this upcoming offseason are Parenteau and Parise but I doubt either sign.
The team is trying and putting in the effort. That much is clear so I don't know why people keep dogging the players. They're trying. They. Are. Trying. It's not like they've given up, which would infinitely be worse. They simply don't have the talent especially with D. Sedin out.
They are what they are: a team full of a lot of defensive specialists but no offensive gamebreakers.
Booth is terrible. Working hard only gets you so far when you have no hands, and no vision and for 4.2 M for several more years that contract will just get worse.
Does anyone else find it strange that the two teams with the best odds to win the Cup are losing their series 3-0?
You should read the pens board today. Same as this one. They want the GM, Bylsma, fired. they want to demote MAG to the minors or buy him out. They want Malkin traded. They want the entire defense (except Letang) swapped for any other D in the NHL. They want Paul Martin to just not come to work anymore.
Silly me, i thought he was supposed to score. Samuelsson has ouptroduced booth since that deal, fyi.
Booth sure tries hard. Guess that counts for some.
That's not the point. Booth did all the right things. You put him on the Kings with that kind of game and he's up there with Brown in scoring. He's cycling well (which isn't usually his strength), he's creating off the rush, he's hitting everything in sight, he's even playing responsible defense, and, hell, he's even making decent passes (again, not his strength). Kesler and Higgins meanwhile have played some unbelievably **** hockey. He's not going to score when the other 2 guys are not pulling their weight.
He actually tried to make some nice plays off the rush tonight but Kesler had absolutely no idea what to do as the 2nd man in and just ****ed everything up over and over. Booth was absolutely playing his heart out and it's bothersome that people can't see that.
