playing with the kids
you heard the bumble b's buzzing about playing with the kids all year. at what cost? hannu got to play. he failed miserably. kessel looked like a boy among men for large sections of the season. wetting their feet at the ultimate level may pay dividends down the road, but it may have also stunted their growth. perhaps the k kids, lashoff, the mark stuarts should be allowed a couple seasons with the p bruins to get ice time, form bonds and get cracks at the cup light.
funny thing about the handling of the kids. almost ten years ago when pat burns road joey thornton's bottom on the bench - he was marked a skilled coach, as he nursed the youngster into a real nhl player. meanwhile this year as kessel was asked to earn his ice time just like joe was many years ago, there was a much larger contingent screaming for the kid to play and the coaches head? people seemed to not notice that in his home debut kessel missed his check in the slot and maybe cost his team a game and certainly a goal. why couldn't these mistakes be made in providence or practice where the price is not so high.
would the idea of being out of the playoffs this spring be more palpable if we had seen the likes of kessel, lashoff, kalus, karsums, m. stuart and krejci lose game after game, instead of the likes of b. stuart, donovan, mara, murray, axelsson and tenkrat? personally if i wanted to see the first group lose - i would have been driving to providence all winter.
do not get me wrong i would love for all these youngsters to bring tremendous skills and energy to this line up at low prices. but lets not forget this is big boy hockey. inexperience like kessels costly defense lapse early in the season could be even more costly. krejci i seem to remember being nearly killed in buffalo (while his barely know him teammates politely watched). sure it was cheap shot from behind, but his youth certainly did not protect him either. lets let the kids play sure but down in the ahl until they are ready to contribute to our team not the competitions. ill take a roster stocked with nhl caliber talent please.
funny thing about the handling of the kids. almost ten years ago when pat burns road joey thornton's bottom on the bench - he was marked a skilled coach, as he nursed the youngster into a real nhl player. meanwhile this year as kessel was asked to earn his ice time just like joe was many years ago, there was a much larger contingent screaming for the kid to play and the coaches head? people seemed to not notice that in his home debut kessel missed his check in the slot and maybe cost his team a game and certainly a goal. why couldn't these mistakes be made in providence or practice where the price is not so high.
would the idea of being out of the playoffs this spring be more palpable if we had seen the likes of kessel, lashoff, kalus, karsums, m. stuart and krejci lose game after game, instead of the likes of b. stuart, donovan, mara, murray, axelsson and tenkrat? personally if i wanted to see the first group lose - i would have been driving to providence all winter.
do not get me wrong i would love for all these youngsters to bring tremendous skills and energy to this line up at low prices. but lets not forget this is big boy hockey. inexperience like kessels costly defense lapse early in the season could be even more costly. krejci i seem to remember being nearly killed in buffalo (while his barely know him teammates politely watched). sure it was cheap shot from behind, but his youth certainly did not protect him either. lets let the kids play sure but down in the ahl until they are ready to contribute to our team not the competitions. ill take a roster stocked with nhl caliber talent please.
Labels: baby, giving up, growing pains, kids
posted by neb at Saturday, April 28, 2007
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4 Comments:
Would I rather see the kids on the ice making these mistakes?
Good God YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11111oneoneoneoneone
I'd MUCH rather see Lashoff or M-Stu giving the puck away or falling down in the process of learning to play at NHL speed, rather than watching this season's new Gentle Giant make those same mistakes, while wearing the C and making $7.5M.
I'd MUCH rather see Krejci, Kalus, Walter, making "rookie" mistakes on the ice instead of Sturm, Mowers, Chistov, Donovan, etc.
Using Thornton, I think, isn't a good comparison. He was a big, immature kid who dominated in juniors and hadn't a clue about the NHL. All he knew was with his new salary he could afford a hell of a lot more honey dipped donuts - that's all that playing in the NHL meant to him (and probably still does) :-) You don't see that issue with Kessel (who was really the only rookie to see any legit playing time this season, and given his illness, you could argue his play suffered due to that rather than being under Dave Lewis).
This team has undergone TOO MUCH TURNOVER in recent seasons. Play the kids, let them learn the system and DEVELOP which you can only do to a certain extent in the A.
i hope we can agree to disagree here russ. do not get me wrong, i would love to see the kids play up here if they are productive. but if the team is going to lose i would love to see a core of young kid spend a couple years maturing together in the ahl until they are really nhl calibre talent. in the ahl they will get ice time they need.
i could go with your play the kids aproach but the owner, the gm and the coach have to be on the same page- this would mean them saying we are going to lose and lose often while these punks get thier noses wett. we are going to move chara - murray - axelsson - sturm - ward - savard - donovan. we have to move these verterans to protect us from the trap of playing these veterans at the expense of advancing our kids. in 2-4 years when our kids are ready to really produce we will pick up the appropriate players to complement them..... keep buying hot dogs, pretty please.
above i said if the team is going to lose - more appropriate to say is - if they are going to play middle of the pack hockey...
I agree with you 100% neb. I felt the complaints about Lewis not playing the rookies enough this year were bogus. I think Lewis gave them a fair chance, but too many of them just weren't quite ready at the level of play.
Believe it or not I agree with you too, russ. I too want to see the kids do well. I think where we disagree is on whether or not they were given a chance--given the ice time they earned based on their play. I think that for the most part they were given that chance, considering the circumstances. Those circumstance being that few teams go through a rebuilding year actually thinking they have a chance at the playoffs! That makes for some difficult choices. But even so, some of the kids managed quite a bit of ice time.
I'll tell you this much: Kessel has come farther in one year than I ever dreamed he was going to!
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