triumph_communes

can someone post a photo of the dhgate ones after they've received? Not willing to buy until I see the stitching

Sobotka is just a placeholder for Roslovic, right? ?

Now for the Risto trade that the Laine salary is set?

He is not going to be your main forechecker on a line. Neither is Skinner. If you have a balanced line-up, he is a good fit. He would struggle with linemates who can't dig out the puck. The latter point I think is what Ray is getting at, but saying he doesn't make the team or have a fit is taking that a wee bit too far I'd say. Right now he's paired with Eichel, who is a great forechecker and passer. It's not like he's some huge liability. There's a myth out there that any guy with stone hands is some defensive stalwart while anyone with hands is some liability, but I see none of that in VO's game. He's no power forward, nor speedster, but he doesn't have to be to contribute.

He was a 4C last year, lol. Just because fans kept drawing up the lines differently doesn't change the minutes and linemates he actually got were 4th line territory.

ROREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE????

ROREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

Disagree. I haven’t seen him try to out deke every pylon and instead use his body properly to shield the puck and cause chaos in the slot. It’s like watching a different player.

Casey has always been a very creative player, who I think was suffocated by Housley. He will improve this year.

Ukko is in the system, no need to trade for anything. Current goalies are very low cap-hit, and are in a good situation, even if they aren't performing above league average. St Louis just won a cup with an average/below average goaltender who looked phenomenal behind a good team and system. Nothing to fret about. Too many overpaid goalies are ruining team's cap structures out there these days.

What I want to see to start the season: Oloffson-Eichel-Thompson Skinner-Johansson-Reinhart Vesey-Mittelstadt/Cozens-Sheary Girgensons-Larsson-Rodrigues Dahlin-Ristolainen McCabe-Miller Gilmour-Jokiharju Scandella Hutton/Ullmark Montour to push down Ristolainen when he comes. Ristolainen trade bringing back Jokiharkju/Borgen if it happens. Pilut pushing down Gilmour, if not McCabe. Waiving Scandella if necessary. Bogosian changes nothing. Sobotka waived/extra at best, but never played above 4th line. Wilson expendable. Lazar only if Girgensons injured. Sheary expendable if Ristolainen brings in a forward. Thompson gets a shot, but goes to the AHL if he can't keep up against NHLers (but let's have hope). Cozens gets a few games as a 3rd liner for the taste, then back to Junior. Only part of the line-up I worry about is the goalies. I don't trust either of them right now and I doubt the team does either. This team will be greatly improved largely with the influx of talent on defense, but the coaching change is night and day. Team will take some time to develop chemistry though, so I expect a little roughness to start the season to gel over time. Line-up decision that will annoy me most is if Eichel and Reinhart remain paired. I think Reinhart provides so much more when he isn't taking backseat to Eichel (and that's a mental thing). This roster has the talent, the size, the grit, the speed, and the finishers all throughout it. If Johansson can lock down that 2C role, which in pre-season seems to have been the case, then the only 'problem' with the forwards is finding the chemistry. Krueger is very patient, so whatever we get Saturday/next Thursday is likely going to be what we see for a while. And yes, I forgot Okposo. He should be sent to the minors in some other program. Concussions suck and just changed him too much. I wish he would take LTIR and still collect his paycheck.

Mittelstadt is starting to come out. Nice to see. I'm not too worried about him, especially if at 3C instead of 4C minutes this year. Thompson has spark, he deserves promotion to top-9 minutes for now. Oloffson is top-6 material on his shot alone. Skinner started the game lazy, ended the game causing the havoc he enjoys. Chemistry with the different linemates will come. I like Johansson a lot. If he can stay at center, even better. Vesey went back to being invisible. Not bad, but invisible. Eichel started lazy too, but finished fine. It's pre-season and he's a star, I get it. Okposo is done. 4th line or bench for him. Gilmour came to play. He's earned the 7th spot at minimum to my eyes. Scandella is toast. Gilmour probably has passed him honestly. Jokiharju did a lot of stupid things with the puck today. Not his best showing. He's definitely good enough for the NHL, but he has a lot to learn. I liked Miller. I saw nothing bad out of Ristolainen. Maybe reduced minutes really is all the difference. Overall, the players are just playing hockey, not going through the motions of some dingbats system. Tons of puck fumbling, but they haven't played like this in years, and its the guys who have played elsewhere that are better on the puck at the moment. This type of play will require some time for the chemistry to develop. They're at least taking shots now, even if not the best, and making stuff happen. Hope they can keep it up against better competition.

Watching this makes me curious how much they hated playing for Housley. Theyre actually passing and shooting low percentage shots for once. Helps them get into a groove

The order of the lines by the reporters is nothing to look into. They mix it up all the time.

I think Skinner is best suited to play with Eichel OR Reinhart, our best primary passers. I dislike the Eichel-Reinhart duo anyway, as neither ever wants to shoot, and Reinhart takes a backseat when Eichel is out there. I think the 'misuse' of Skinner will be resolved when Eichel and Reinhart get split up. But that's assuming that Johannson can't pass the puck, or Rodrigues can't make plays. Skinner excels at scoring on what I'd call 'broken' plays, and Rodrigues is really good at making weird those things happen on the ice. I'm interested to see how that duo works out.

Montour is out, it's a bit pre-mature to go to this superlative.

Two firsts is two too many. I disliked Skinner but in a way that I still respected his talent. He scored ES goals which this team lacked. He didn’t need PP time and that’s fine we have Eichel and Dahlin to hog the puck. Laine is prims Donna material. Wants more money than Eichel, but only scores on PP? Doesn’t forecheck? Not Swedish? Blegh

They don’t have albatross contracts but they have a lot of money tied up in 2nd line players and NMCs that will make expansion drafts hurt. And everyone knew a 32nd team was coming soon.

Sobotka playing 4th line 23th man isn’t the end of the world. New coach may fix some of his problems. But if people are mad mad because he’s in the way of Asplund then they’re out to pasture. Asplund still is a couple years away on his own.

And Sobotka for Larsson Sheary has had a decent camp

The Eichel-Reinhart popped up again. Worried that’ll cement as a thing. Expect Okposo to blow his chance at top-6 again.

The Reinhart duo is Vesey. Eichel can pass to two finishers. Skinner Jack Oloffson Vesey Johansson Reinhart Mittelstadt-Cozens-Rodrigues

Skinner-Eichel-Oloffson Vesey-Johansson-Reinhart Sheary/Thompson-Mittelstadt-Rodrigues Girgensons/Wilson-Larsson-Okposo/Lazar maybe Mittelstadt goes to wing on 3rd line. Cozens starts as 3C for his preview games.

Smith didn’t get much of a look, but Vesey and Oloffson clearly had him beat so it makes sense. The game was too big for Ruostu

That Oloffson snipe Really wish our top line is: Skinner-Eichel-Oloffson Sheary-Johansson-Reinhart Vesey-Mittelstadt-Rodrigues