White: Serves no purpose on this team. We don't need more veteran leadership. His 2 goals tonight were barely goals. Shown nothing outside of that. Cap hit is too high.
Kennedy: Worked hard, showed some flashes, but not enough to be taken over the others. I wouldn't mind if he stayed but was scratched, and flipped with Boogard from time to time. But don't think he's a mainstay. And if he stays, when Prospal and Drury come back, then what do you do?
Weise/MZA: Obvious.
Vtank: Discipline problems. Despite being known to possess a "cannon" shot, I haven't seen it. Very physical, love his style of play, needs to adapt a bit more. He shouldn't give up. Probably see him later this year. Also wouldn't mind if he was a 7th.
Eminger: Terrible. Don't know what anyone sees. Atrocious positionally, and seems like he's on the ice for every damn goal against. Can't make a play. Has a **** shot. Nothing more to say. The only good thing about his acquisition was that we got rid of a forward who was essentially useless, but that in itself is the same thing as Eminger only for defense.
Gilroy: No signs of his offensive game or "muscle mass" that he supposedly put on and changed in the off-season. Go work on it some more. Could be a solid trading chip or be used at forward.
Kennedy should stay. Young, hard working, kind of like Callahan. Like him a lot. Byers is the same age and a much worse player, yet nobody wants to just dump him.
I say keep him. I would rather have Kennedy here than Prospal. Kennedy, if he improves a little (which he might given his work ethic), could be part of this team for years playing the same role as Cally does but on a different line. Prospal needs to go to a contender to win the Cup before retiring.
Kennedy should stay. Young, hard working, kind of like Callahan. Like him a lot. Byers is the same age and a much worse player, yet nobody wants to just dump him.
I say keep him. I would rather have Kennedy here than Prospal. Kennedy, if he improves a little (which he might given his work ethic), could be part of this team for years playing the same role as Cally does but on a different line. Prospal needs to go to a contender to win the Cup before retiring.
If it came down to Prospal v. Kennedy, yeah. I can agree.
But Prospal for now. At least until the deadline, or if his knee completely bums out..
Quote:
Originally Posted by RangerEsq
I meant the cuts, not the lineup. I thought that maybe you had the cuts that were official, and then were speculating on what the lineup would be.
Oh, then my apologies for a sarcastic response. No, I don't know the cuts. I wish I had ties with management.
We should keep Gilroy. We need to see if he can play and just the rookie season is not enough. Somehow we wound up with a shortage of offensive defensemen. A year ago, we had MDZ, Sangs, Gilroy and McD. MDZ is fine, but Sangs was traded, Gilroy underwhelmed and McD has become more a defense-first guy who doesn't focus on offense.
Will MDZ and Staal make a good PP pairing? Maybe, maybe not, but I would rather not give up on another offensive defenseman so quickly.
I'm having a hard time deciding on line combos I like, so I'll let JT just do it for me.
Cuts:
White
Eminger
Gilroy
When Drury comes back I don't see Christensen sticking around unless Stepan's level of play drops off significantly in the regular season. When Prospal comes back, who knows?
The first month is going to be an interesting one.
__________________
"I used to pray for good things . I used to ask the Hockey Gods for puck luck for the NYR .
Now all I want is Torts the smug stupid goatee clown to be fired , . I hate Torts . Please hockey gods make him get fired. Please Sean punch him in face" -- Dorado
I love the kids. So I'm all for playing them and the rest be damned since this isn't a contending team anyway. But I'll tell you one thing... any team with DLZ and 2-3 more of Gilroy, McDonagh, Valentenko and Sauer isn't making the playoffs. Lundqvist is getting lit up. So all you guys that propose those lineups are hopefully not the ones that are going to be bellyaching later on and demanding trades, etc. You carry 3-4 of those guys and you're looking at a lengthy (and sometimes not so pretty) adjustment period. Which I'm personally completely fine with.
Prospal - retirement, why even bother with him at his age and health and with so much depth
White - we already have a small nonphysical center in Drury, no need for another.
Christensen - I just don't see anything worth keeping, inconsistant, soft, doesn't kill penalties, invisible most of the time.
Rozsival - the injuries have taken their toll and he should either retire or go back to Europe, I think at this point he is inferior to everyone except Gilroy.
I love the kids. So I'm all for playing them and the rest be damned since this isn't a contending team anyway. But I'll tell you one thing... any team with DLZ and 2-3 more of Gilroy, McDonagh, Valentenko and Sauer isn't making the playoffs. Lundqvist is getting lit up. So all you guys that propose those lineups are hopefully not the ones that are going to be bellyaching later on and demanding trades, etc. You carry 3-4 of those guys and you're looking at a lengthy (and sometimes not so pretty) adjustment period. Which I'm personally completely fine with.
Also completely fine with that.
Anything that removes pointless bum past-their-prime veterans and replaces them with achieving young guns is fine with me, no matter the result.
Eminger looked very physical, probably as physical if not more than Valentenko and looked solid overall. Sure he made a few mistakes, but nothing major. And what defenseman doesn't make mistakes? I think he is worth keeping, don't know why everybody hates him so much.
He is not 27 yet, good size and speed, physical, not bad defensively, can contribute offensively what more do you want from a 5-7th defenseman?
And he doesn't take a lot of penalties, only 30 last season.
Last edited by Rangers44*: 10-02-2010 at 11:56 PM.
My cuts would be Valentenko. Really like his game. He would be my first call up if someone gets injured. Gilroy, Eminger and White would be the other cuts.
I actually have the exact lines as the OP. When Drury gets back he'll take the third line center job and EC will have to be squeezed in elsewhere. Maybe EC won't dress every night but I think he's important to the team because he can give Stepan a night off.
Eminger- Makes to many little mistakes and will eventually take its toll and hurt us.
White- To big of a cap hit and just hasnt performed well
Gilroy- flat out sucks. Cant play defense period.. and for all you people saying he should be on the opening roster, why? This offense that you speak of with him.. Havent seen any of it.
Valentenko- Hardest cut to make, needs to play in the A in order to get alittle more acquanted to NA style of hockey, love his physical play and can play both sides of the puck.. Exactly what weve been missing. I see him and Sauer on the same page only thing is sauer needs to go through waivers and will surely get picked up
Extras: Kennedy, drury, Prospal.. fill in kennedy for boogie when playing a more skilled team. Drury takes EC's spot and Prospal when he returns should find a spot unless we make a trade.
Who else is going to be on the roster if not three of Gilroy, Sauer, McDonagh, Valentenko?
Eminger? He's not as good a player as the other four.
And there are no other defensemen on the roster.
Therefore, it WILL be AT LEAST three of the four making the roster.
I understand the situation as it is right now. Personally I don't find Eminger in any way, shape or form worse than any of those defenseman right now. He has none of the upside or high end abilities. I think they are all pretty bad at the moment. I understand why people are excited about them. I'm excited about them as well. But McDonagh is... let's just say things aren't going to be very pretty when he's out there and paired with Gilroy or MDZ or whomever else. Of all of the young d-men, Sauer is far and away the most NHL ready. He'd probably do fine if you paired him on the 3rd pairing with an established 3rd pairing D-man as he eases in. For example what Paul Mara was for us. Not spectacular but experienced and reliable.
As it is, MDZ needs to be on the third pairing playing as little even strength time as he continues to develop. Which just so happens to be the case with all of Sauer, McD, Gilroy and Valentenko. But that would only be true on a team looking to "make some noise". My only point was that there is excitement for the situation. Even to the point of people wanting to get rid of Rozy as soon as possible (still a head scratcher). I just hope those people aren't going to be freaking out 3 weeks into the season when they see what is going to happen.
Cutting White and Eminger is easy. Cutting McDonagh, on the other hand, is incredibly difficult - in fact, I'd be perfectly fine with trading one of Rozsie or Girardi and playing all of Sauer, McDonagh and Valentenko on a nightly basis, understanding that they'd make mistakes and there would be games where Hank got lit up (and that there would be one D pair with two lefthanded shots). Having said that, it's highly unlikely that management does that (certainly not likely out of training camp), so I say it's McDonagh that goes down - not based on his play, but rather as a result of the numbers and the qualities that each player brings. I simply like adding Valentenko's edge and shot over McDonagh's slightly better positional play and breakout passes. Could go either way.
At this point I have NO idea what to do when the injured players return. This team could really use a trade or two.
(By the way, any question of whether or not Boyle was going to be a cut should've been answered by the A on his shoulder in tonight's game...)
Last edited by BrooklynRangersFan: 10-03-2010 at 12:58 AM.
