What now for the Bolts?

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

I doubt yzerman will call him up unless St.louis get injuried or another big injury. He is going to keep Vladislav Namestnikov and Nikita Kucherov in the AHL together all season I would bet.

What about calling them both up and giving them manageable ice time on the 3rd line? That way they play together while getting some NHL experience & the Ning add some scoring depth. I think it could work if they try it. It's fine that they're getting AHL experience, but I don't think a small taste of the NHL will do them harm.

 

[Todd1a]

What about calling them both up and giving them manageable ice time on the 3rd line? That way they play together while getting some NHL experience & the Ning add some scoring depth. I think it could work if they try it. It's fine that they're getting AHL experience, but I don't think a small taste of the NHL will do them harm.

I agree with you but they way yzerman see's it is they are playing top line min's in the AHL. Plus Tyler Johnson, Panik and palat are fine for are 3rd line. When the russians are ready they will be called up for top 6 forward duties. Problem the lightning will have next year is getting Drouin and Kucherov in are NHL line up.

 

[DoobeeDoobeeDoo]

I would put Drouin on the line with St. Louis and I would put Kucherov on the line with Filppula.

 

[Bolt Fore]

We need D so bad, I can't believe we passed on Seth Jones.

 

[Todd1a]

We need D so bad, I can't believe we passed on Seth Jones.

Ya but jones is another soft Hedman! How would that help ?

 

[dannyb24195]

This team needs offense and Yzerman has to recognise that sooner rather than later. This team needs defensive help but even with a solid acquisition on the backend, that doesn't solve our ability to score goals and that is the major problem at this moment in time. Even if we had the Bruins D, we'd struggle to win games because of our offense. We need offense and if this team makes the playoffs it's going to because of their offense and currently the main contributor to our success and our offense isn't their and isn't going to be their to be the next 3 months of games. Even when Stamkos was healthy we struggled to score from secondary sources, no we don't have secondary sources and a primary source. As I said even if the D and Bish plays lights out we are going to struggle to produce wins. Although the D has been playing bad and needs addressing long term, we have too many young players playing out of the comfort zone, playing in roles they shouldn't be playing in because of the absence of Stamkos.

I Shall Return, you know I respect but again I just believe even if there was a noteworthy defenseman on the market who the bolts picked up, they'd still struggle to score and win games. They need to replace offense with offense not defense, that won't work and I know behind every successful consistent team, there is a good defense but the options for Yzerman to address that are rather bleak. He'll improve the D in the future, he's too good of a GM not too. I think Yzerman will look to address the D in the offseason, he'll have money to spend in FA and he has a wealth of prospects that he can use to acquire defense of a high caliber.

Every one keeps brining up Seth Jones. Jones will be a very good player no doubt but if you really think he would of really made this defense a lot better now, you are beside yourself. He's a rookie who hasn't lit the league on fire. The Preds have had goalie issues but Jones is a minus 7 playing alongside some pretty defenseman in Nashville. At the end of the day Drouin and Jones will be good players in these league. Yzerman picked Drouin because of the organization thought he was the best player available and head of scouting Al Murray certainly knows his stuff when it comes to prospects. Also don't forget, Yzerman was probably thinking as Marty gets older and as Stammer reaches the end of his contract I need some bargaining power to make Stammer a bolt for life and Mr. Drouin will certainly provide a whole lot of bargaining power.

 

[Cobiemonster]

This team needs offense and Yzerman has to recognise that sooner rather than later. This team needs defensive help but even with a solid acquisition on the backend, that doesn't solve our ability to score goals and that is the major problem at this moment in time. Even if we had the Bruins D, we'd struggle to win games because of our offense. We need offense and if this team makes the playoffs it's going to because of their offense and currently the main contributor to our success and our offense isn't their and isn't going to be their to be the next 3 months of games. Even when Stamkos was healthy we struggled to score from secondary sources, no we don't have secondary sources and a primary source. As I said even if the D and Bish plays lights out we are going to struggle to produce wins. Although the D has been playing bad and needs addressing long term, we have too many young players playing out of the comfort zone, playing in roles they shouldn't be playing in because of the absence of Stamkos.

I Shall Return, you know I respect but again I just believe even if there was a noteworthy defenseman on the market who the bolts picked up, they'd still struggle to score and win games. They need to replace offense with offense not defense, that won't work and I know behind every successful consistent team, there is a good defense but the options for Yzerman to address that are rather bleak. He'll improve the D in the future, he's too good of a GM not too. I think Yzerman will look to address the D in the offseason, he'll have money to spend in FA and he has a wealth of prospects that he can use to acquire defense of a high caliber.

Every one keeps brining up Seth Jones. Jones will be a very good player no doubt but if you really think he would of really made this defense a lot better now, you are beside yourself. He's a rookie who hasn't lit the league on fire. The Preds have had goalie issues but Jones is a minus 7 playing alongside some pretty defenseman in Nashville. At the end of the day Drouin and Jones will be good players in these league. Yzerman picked Drouin because of the organization thought he was the best player available and head of scouting Al Murray certainly knows his stuff when it comes to prospects. Also don't forget, Yzerman was probably thinking as Marty gets older and as Stammer reaches the end of his contract I need some bargaining power to make Stammer a bolt for life and Mr. Drouin will certainly provide a whole lot of bargaining power.

I agree about this - the Lightning took Drouin because they know Marty St. Louis is going to retire at some point and Drouin will replace him and him and Stammer will be a great 1-2

 

[I_Shall_Return]

I agree about this - the Lightning took Drouin because they know Marty St. Louis is going to retire at some point and Drouin will replace him and him and Stammer will be a great 1-2

Cobie, now that statement is the only thing I can agree with! Exactly and the absolute only reason they took him. May backfire though. If the Bolts can't consistently make playoffs for the next 3 years, do you really thing that young, talented Stamkos will want to waste his talents/career playing for a non contender? I see him eventually looking at teams like Red Wings, B's, Ducks, Kings, etc that consistently make the playoffs year after year! You can blame our offense and think that we need a sniper but 1st thing is the Bolts should have never counted on and burdened 1 player to be 26.7% of their offense. And 2nd the Bolts have great veteran forward players (especially by recent signing of Fillp), the coaches just need to get on their azzes to put way more pucks on net. And the Forwards that didn't take the shot need to swarm the net, looking for rebounds! Look at any of the games shots on goals for past 2 nights. Any teams. I was bored and looked. It embarrassing to see the SOG's of all those games and than ours!
Also, maybe if our D would quit getting to deep into the offensive zone they wouldn't get caught with their pants down and our offense gets back to play D. When I played D, we had to know the players we were opposing each game. Because if the opposing sides D got in too deep, my job was to tie him up in our zone when we got puck back. This forces the oppositions offense to play D. It's a physical game & easy to tie up another D-man making him late to defend!

 

[Todd1a]

Cobie, now that statement is the only thing I can agree with! Exactly and the absolute only reason they took him. May backfire though. If the Bolts can't consistently make playoffs for the next 3 years, do you really thing that young, talented Stamkos will want to waste his talents/career playing for a non contender? I see him eventually looking at teams like Red Wings, B's, Ducks, Kings, etc that consistently make the playoffs year after year! You can blame our offense and think that we need a sniper but 1st thing is the Bolts should have never counted on and burdened 1 player to be 26.7% of their offense. And 2nd the Bolts have great veteran forward players (especially by recent signing of Fillp), the coaches just need to get on their azzes to put way more pucks on net. And the Forwards that didn't take the shot need to swarm the net, looking for rebounds! Look at any of the games shots on goals for past 2 nights. Any teams. I was bored and looked. It embarrassing to see the SOG's of all those games and than ours!
Also, maybe if our D would quit getting to deep into the offensive zone they wouldn't get caught with their pants down and our offense gets back to play D. When I played D, we had to know the players we were opposing each game. Because if the opposing sides D got in too deep, my job was to tie him up in our zone when we got puck back. This forces the oppositions offense to play D. It's a physical game & easy to tie up another D-man making him late to defend!

. I think drafting drouin will seal the deal in stamkos staying in tampa. That's going to be better then a Kane and toews punch. I agree with Danny we need more offense! In the way yzerman runs this team he is a very smart gm and al Murray can draft players hang in there lightning fans.

 

[I_Shall_Return]

I think an old Bucs coach's statement after a game about sums up the Bolts right now. When Coach McKay was asked about his teams execution, after they lost. The coach replied, "I'm in favour of it!". We're beaten a dead horse!