conundrumed

I actually expect Levi to be their starter. He was their best goalie to finish last season. Decent enough numbers in a short, 7 game stint. There really is nothing in his way. He was easily NWU's MVP for 2 years. I'm sure FLA doesn't love having traded him with Knight's issues. Could be the one that they should have kept. He's always been solid.

That's been my headscratcher with Boffalo for a couple of years now. Reminds me that BT always spent volumes on D but patchworked G in his early years. None of that made any sense to me. I think Levi is a really good goalie and should rip that spot, so maybe waiting will pay off for them. He's been a high compete-level goalie for awhile now, like Wolf, but the College circuit. We should likely get Wolf going similarly. Gotta keep challenging them.

My RH down the cue for finesse.lol Spent lots of time in snooker halls as a kid too! Have those ever disappeared:( Older brothers again...saved from being beaten up in the pool hall because >18yos don't like losing to 14yos for 5 lousy bucks. Everyone got to know that I have older brothers with lots of friends around.lol Free protection, countless times. Apathy can wait until we see the product! But it has been a nemesis.

Hey! I never said I'd consider that relationship. I said let's just be friends.lol He should be identical to Larkin, although Larkin is a couple years younger which would be nice. But I think Lindholm will still be effective at 36ish. He doesn't play a tolling game, is smart and a great skater. I think he'll age well.

I think Buffalo is ready to throw Levi right into the fire. Comrie would be solid by now if not for countless injuries. He's pretty much at derailed level now if he can't stay in a lineup. As much as, "nobody walks for free", I just don't think we have much ability to make trades right now. Seems like a losing proposition. Teams are into PTOs now and looking for cheaper alternatives to try first. Surprised Tatar is still on the board.

I'm really not heavily-pro anyone. But hearing Andersson describe Gio makes it very clear there has to be a captain. I think we have lots of good options. Weegar or Andersson are probably best regarding term.

So are we thinking Andersson as captain? We all know the options. I've come around that it should be Backlund. He isn't going anywhere. We're rolling this thing back. I don't really mind. It's a pretty solid roster adding Ruzicka, Pelletier, Coronato and Duehr over Lewis, Lucic and Ritchie brothers. So many line options when you're not anchored to an old-school 4th line. Better depth, better options. We should improve on that alone.

Likely due to baseball I never even considered catching with my right. It would have helped my puckhandling but I learned to handle the puck LH pretty good. I can switch-hit and golf left but with about 70-80% of RH power. I can shoot a puck LH but more due to being forced to because I caught left and I'd get freaked on if I tried to flip my stick to shoot right. Nowhere near the finesse of my RHS though. A lot of that and basketball got me being somewhat ambidextrous I believe. I can swing a hammer pretty equally LH or RH so...life skills.lol edit I should add I turned to goalie at 12-13 because our goalies sucked. Then I got punted from tryouts showing up as a goalie but made my way back quickly...our goalies were awful. I played C and then they moved me to D in my last skater year. Good mems how I got yelled at for showing up saying I'm a goalie now. lol Straight to 'B' House League. Too funny. Stupid adults. I was back with the travel team in net in a little over 2 weeks. Good times. I was gone so long here when I've run into old teammates they tell the story hilariously. And my constant swearing at adults. I forgot that part. The joys of advice from older brothers that played travel and helped fight my battles.

Maybe I'm reading between the lines, but, "play not to lose" is 100% on the coach. It is saying don't take a risk, don't trust your instincts, don't rely on your goalie. Ouch. Let's not do that anymore. The game is always about momentum back-and-forth. Build it or snuff it. You can't let the other team build it because you're afraid of taking a risk and bury your instincts.

I'm a Sting STH. I don't think any of that happened. I wish there was a clip that starts 10 seconds before because I feel like he was just getting back into formation prior to the hit. Make no mistake, all players take numbers before a game. I did in atom.lol You do it so you know which guy can burn you and which guy you think you can expose. Especially vs unfamiliar opponents. My favourite, I always focused on captains if I knew nothing. One was Shawn Burr. I stopped focusing on him about 2 minutes in because he was terrible. We were about 14. Shawn Burr went on to have a solid NHL career.rofl. All he was was big but he was a horrible skater and a weak shot. He showed us.lol It is flat out amazing what summer hockey camps can build from scratch if their parents can afford it. At 14, Burr wouldn't have been in the top 100 players in Sarnia alone. Future NHLer.lol Mike Gardiner's another. I used to have flat out pitching duels against him as a kid. Me Sarnia, him Corunna. Who knew if I stuck with it I'd have had a shot at MLB? But I preferred hockey and basketball and as I hit my teens had to sacrifice a sport. I wasn't a very good hitter so baseball it was. As yet another topic because we're still waiting, basketball is far and away the best sport to make kids decent all around athletes. Helps hand-eye and vision huge, leg strength, stamina, moving in bursts in every direction, all-around co-ordination and finesse... all of the things that help in every sport. As a hockey goalie, bball D workouts were huge. Crouched and shuffling as fast as you can until your legs fall off. I had zero problems in skating drills with pads on and doing that on skates. Dryland training in hockey was half of the normal, everyday basketball practice. Leg exercises were almost laughable. You could tell the guys that play basketball going twice as fast as everyone else on average. We always got the "pushup punishment" for goofing on it. One thing that I'll never understand as a RH about 80% ambidextrous is how RHers use their dominant hand on top of a club, stick, bat etc. I just can't wrap my head around how you use your other hand as your finesse hand. I have lots of friends like this and "I just do" is the only answer. You shoot right in hockey and golf left is one that always confounds me.

lol. Hirvonen wasn’t in coverage. Not the same at all. Okposo was in full coverage. Phaneuf charged, Dillingham glided.

That's not actually true. The hit wasn't nasty, just that MacArthur is made of glass. Sieloff didn't make the team simply because he wasn't good enough, as evidenced by never making the NHL for any team. Can we stop talking about our high draft selections on Dmen now? lol Stupid Windsor Spitfires being over-scouted to amplifying by us back in the day. Sieloff wasn't even very good in jr. I was happy we drafted a guy that I could watch live until, you know, watching him live got in the way.

In practice. If you've made it, save the edge for game time. I think the line in tryouts is when the appearance of headhunting comes up. One that crosses the line for me was Phaneuf on Okposo, as an example. That one is pretty much the line, but my opinion is that it crosses it. I should start by saying that I saw Phaneuf a fair bit with Red Deer. I didn't like our selection with Getzlaf on the board, I wasn't sold after his rookie season. He just isn't very good at D and his rushes he had zero vision. Low IQ. So here's the clip. What I see is a player coming in 1-on-3. The winger has him and the LD is right there to take the puck. The winger puts Okposo off balance and vulnerable. Phaneuf leaves his position to cross his other Dman and lay the hit. Because he has constant tunnel vision and low IQ, he's not letting up. He shouldn't have even been there. Let's change the scenario a bit. Okposo isn't off balance, sees Phaneuf and his LW is streaking down Phaneuf's side. Breakaway. This drove me nuts with Phaneuf, and to a far rarer extent, but sometimes Regehr. I liked Phaneuf even less after this play. As coach, I'd be benching him and losing it on him about abandoning his D responsibility. There would have been a lot of swearing. Fwd to today, the league investigated how I talked to players when I'm angry and I'm now suspended pending the results of an investigation that fades away without conclusion.lol

I do. If it's Marner or Matthews, he'll be conservative about stepping up because they're such dominant players. You don't let the puck carrier dance into your zone like this instance. Marner and Matthews would be aware, they do it all of the time vs top shelf NHLers. Dillingham would know that and defend differently. He made a perfect hockey play in this instance separating man from puck. I liked Rosehill throughout that breakdown, especially talking about his own experience. You feel bad destroying an opponent, but moreso you're left thinking about the other player in terms of, "awwww man, why did you play it that way"? It happens fast at this level of hockey.

Just to add, you don't invite Dillingham to your prospect camp without knowing how he plays. He didn't make that play for attention, he made it because that's precisely how he plays. You invited him because he plays a hard, physical game. He did zero out of character. This is quite literally why he's at your camp, and why you signed him to an AHL contract. If he's not playing that way, he's giving himself zero chance. That's how he plays. You wouldn't tell a sniper not to shoot. Dillingham isn't a scrub, he was the captain of a powerhouse Sting team for a reason. Roni must have thought he was way better than the competition. He found out when that guy's on the ice, you'd better be paying attention. I was zero surprised that it was Dillingham. Every player in the O knew when he's out there you need a heightened sense of alert. He will find you if you think you can just prance around. You only make that mistake once.lol

People can harp about Punch Imlach, but I absolutely idolize his, "Blockchain you" attitude. Eddie Shack told a story about being benched and the crowd started chanting, "We Want Ed-die". After awhile the whole building was chanting and Punch went over to Shack and said, "if they want you so bad, why don't you go sit with them"? Classic. But to the subject matter, rookie camp was the time to test undrafted young guys. I would have been good with the Sting Dmen Ethan Ritchie (Calum's brother) or Nolan Dillingham. But Ritchie went to Boston and Dillingham went to Toronto's rookie camp. Both signed AHL deals. Ritchie's a good puck moving dman and Dillingham is a very "find out" player in the "Blockchain around and find out" equation. He was the Sting captain. Takes too many penalties, imagine that.lol Refs totally hawked him and he took a lot of non-penalties on reputation alone. Concussed one of the Leafs prospects with the thunderous hit. Zero surprise to Sting fans. That is EXACTLY him most games. Leafs fans were outraged at Dillingham. I like these 2 and they break it down and want to blame Dillingham but can't.

Hayes is with the Pens, I believe an A contract. Christopoulos' success was the product of being on a powerhouse team. Both don't really stand out much from the average OHL player getting top-of-the-league linemates. My personal opinion of them not being noticeable when I've seen their teams. They weren't top players on the ice at any point that I can recall.

I'm just not sure if a PTO or AHL contract would be better. I think PTO, then get him to the Wranglers if he seems decent. I would want it more to have him in the system if he's the gamer that he was in jr that made him a 2nd rder. We don't seem to have anything at RW after Coronato. Just looking under rocks.lol

I've been wondering if Serron Noel is worth a PTO for a while now. I remember his OHL days being an absolute handful. It seems like he has regressed, but he was always going to be a project. This will be his 23yo season. Pretty much down to desperation for him. Here's a glimpse of his pre-draft yay-sayers, but I'm not sure why regression appears evident, whether injury or other: http://www.mynhldraft.com/2018/NHL-Draft-Profiles/Serron-Noel

I don't expect Honzek at all. Even a cup of coffee. Last year was his 1st in NA and he missed 25 games to injury. I do realize he played in the Slovakian pro league at 17.

One thing I'm really looking fwd to is Coronato. Will he make the team this year? I'm a resounding yes. As I get the Big 10 channel here as part of my normal cable package, I see a lot of college hockey. Namely the hockey factories that are Minnesota and Michigan. I see Fantilli, Cooley and Knies as shoo-ins for the NHL this season. I think Coronato isn't a step down from any of them except prolly Cooley. If I were to take Coronato from an avg Harvard team last year and put him on Michigan or Minny, I think we'd be way more jacked to see him. I think he's right there with Knies and not far off of Fantilli. Cooley is likely on another planet because his playmaking is ridiculous. I really don't think Coronato is going to have an AHL year and I don't think it will take him long to start scoring. Not to put wind in the sails, I firmly believe Coronato is a really good player and will turn into a difference maker. I really don't have any skepticism with that. He was quite handily Harvard's best player, the rest of the team was quite avg. I firmly believe a line of Pelletier-Kadri-Coronato is the ticket. Get Kadri back to being a playmaker and 2nd scoring threat on his line. Pelletier's a great playmaker. Both wingers are pretty solid at the 200' game. That makes 1RW Sharangovich's to lose, or finally give Dube a shot there. Get your young guys in spots to succeed with solid players, not 3rd-4th line bits and pieces.

From a Huska interview I seem to recall Sept. 13th for the younger crowd and vets the following week. That's from my fading memory but I'm 95% certain 12 out of 13 times as algorithms and lawsuits go. But the young stars tourney in Penticton starts Sept 15th so uncertain if that has changed since the interview(I'll try to find it). edit That was easy, sorry Rod Pedersen is the interviewer, the prototypical annoying sports blogger: : And this is the hit he mentions...

jj's beating it like it owes him money.lol Nobody needs that visual.

Bigger salary cap. I think he's really sharp to play it this way. He'll also be getting promotional dollars along the way. He's maximizing his value big time. Very savvy on his part. "How am I feeling in 5 years? Not sure". That's cagey and I really respect him for it. Suck it all up and don't get too locked in. The odds against him not being great after 30 are slim imho. He's setting a bar for sure.

There's a LOT of Leafs fans so every opinion that you can conjure exists. That contract makes me wish that all of our contracts expire after the 30yr old season:/