Quick Hits and Tidbits - August 30

Sorry, if taken wrong, but was agreeing with ya, Rod NEEDS to keep the “C” till HE let’s it go, hope that clears it up.

Fair point, Stevie Y was/is one of my favorites on and off the ice. while I like the skill players alot, i think there is a call and a need for the likes of the assholes, Pronger, Heatley, LaRoque, Bertuzzi, etc. Since everyone knows I like Detroit and they are all pretty well known, a team of Datyuk’s would score alot, but would get beat up and eventually be unsuccessful. Enter some grit like Kronwall and you get a good balance. You mentioned Ovie earlier, another good example. If he were a pussy like crosby the craps would be doomed. Going with crosby you got malkin the goon etc.

 That’s where I think we have gone astray a little. We are not pushing Staal to be all that he can be. I do not follow this baby step and give them a chance crap. Throw them into the fire and they fish or cut bait. It’s big money pro sports. while I would agree that the team chemistry is one of more passivity and it is a strength, we have to get some body’s into the boards every night. Gleason I hope will finally let his nuts drop and his gloves. Walker isn’t built for it, but he has the right idea. sutter was in a couple skirmishes. That’s the fight we need. I don’t expect Staal to drop the mits and go toe to toe with Chara, but I would expect LaRose to go low and Walker goes high the sob if he takes liberty’s.

  Caveat I watched Boston alot last year, nobody played Chara like LaRose, it was art watching Rosie slash the shit out of his achilles, shove him at face offs and taunt him on every shift they were out there. That’s the grit we need to instill and have on the ice.

 So while some of the players have it, like Sutter and LaRose, it’s not the ones we need. I mean Rosie and Sutter probably weigh less than Chara together holding grocery’s.

  Then the slow degredation of our speed. One due to age and the other just in the players. williams was a loss, Yelle is a net loss on speed. We have very little in terms of breakaway speed. Our hands guys are good in Sammi, and Whitney, etc., but streaking speed is lacking. with Joni in the back we have the opportunity for a skilled pass to a streaking player. We just don’t have the guy that has the exper. of Rod and Yelle that can skate like Boychuck. I would say Cullen and Rosie will be our best weapon on that and I gotta say they are undergunned with most of the D pairings they will face. They are second/third line guys and will probably be facing the number 1 D pairings consistantly.

  With any luck Rod and Yelle will own the FO circle, with Staal and Cullen getting better at it.. The D is looking pretty nice so we should be able to control the puck with consistancy. the trouble has been and appears to still be what happens next. Our guys pass it around and don’t shoot near enough. Our guys aren’t fast enough to get behind the D and take the shot. The PP has been just awful and it doesn’t look like it’s any better.

I see some holes i think should of been addressed. A competant B/U goalie for instance, how about Kolzig? I bet he’s real friggin’ cheap about now. Anyway, I think there is going to be some good hockey this year and we will field a good squad. I think some of the seemingly traditional weak spots are still there.

 just an enforcer at the blue line would be a great help. Make everybody slow down and look before they go hell bent in on Cam. That slight break of rythm could be the diff. in many games. The 1 goal games are all we need to improve on to be a scary threat. Right now we aren’t scary except we can roll 4 lines every night. Alot of others can’t do that. Maybe that will be enough.

A-WNW