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Tage Thompson: what's the deal?


nfreeman

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42 minutes ago, Randall Flagg said:

That ain't Tage. 

And St. Louis has top 5 depth scoring in the league (and a 1C pacing for 120 points) by the calculation I did a week or so ago (ROR, Perron, and Bozak are upgrades to Berglund, Sobotka, Thompson by any measure on the planet, and Fabbri is back). But Jake Allen has allowed fewer than 3 goals in a game exactly once through 5-5.5 weeks of hockey, and Petro/Bouwmeester have been playing like bottom pairing D/AHL D respectively.
 

Dammit.  I didn't know they replaced their wings.  How do I dig in my heels now?

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Can they please send him down to Rochester now?  He's not playing well and his only move seems to be attempting a toe drag (that never works).  I'd rather he was playing 20+ minutes a night in Rochester, and playing in all situations, so that he can become a well-rounded player and contribute.  He's barely playing in Buffalo and seems incredibly one-dimensional.

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Tage does need more seasoning in the AHL but I have hopes for him.  Back in the day, Rick Martin only had one move (an outside to in drag that Ted Darling called Martin's "patented move").  That move worked 1 out of 10 times even though every defenseman knew it was coming.  I'm not saying Tage is the second coming of Martin, but there's a lot there to work with. 

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16 minutes ago, Ogre said:

Maybe they called Chris about Tage and he said “no thank you”? 

Just a thought.

While Chris' job is to win, it is also about developing youngsters.  Not sure he could refuse (nor would I think he would).

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3 hours ago, Robviously said:

Can they please send him down to Rochester now?  He's not playing well and his only move seems to be attempting a toe drag (that never works).  I'd rather he was playing 20+ minutes a night in Rochester, and playing in all situations, so that he can become a well-rounded player and contribute.  He's barely playing in Buffalo and seems incredibly one-dimensional.

I haven't agreed with everything Botterill has done, but I could always see where he was coming from. Except for this. Thompson may as well have a giant neon sign on his back saying "needs Rochester"...and yet, here he is. 

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I asked this question in another thread that was talking about Tage and I will ask again.

If they send down Tage who comes up to replace him?  Will it be someone who will get real minutes?

If so who sits with Elie in the press box?

If it's a sacrificial lamb to spend most of his time scratched, who is that guy?

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25 minutes ago, Cheektorado said:

I asked this question in another thread that was talking about Tage and I will ask again.

If they send down Tage who comes up to replace him?  Will it be someone who will get real minutes?

If so who sits with Elie in the press box?

If it's a sacrificial lamb to spend most of his time scratched, who is that guy?

No one.  We are carrying 14 forwards. The forwards are coming together.  Our secondary scoring is finally showing up.  We are changing anything right now.

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16 minutes ago, SwampD said:

While I agree that the toe drag is beer league schlock, we saw a shot on goal in the second period, by a 6'5", 21 year old, in traffic in front of the net, that is worth taking a pause on shipping him out just yet. Methinks.

Maybe getting big minutes in Rochester is the best way to start seeing more of the latter and less of the former.

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9 hours ago, SwampD said:

While I agree that the toe drag is beer league schlock, we saw a shot on goal in the second period, by a 6'5", 21 year old, in traffic in front of the net, that is worth taking a pause on shipping him out just yet. Methinks.

There's a difference between just shipping him out and actually developing him.  Right now he's averaging just over 11 minutes per game, which usually translates to 1 "oh, that almost worked" move per game (along with his 1 assist in 10 games).  The potential is there, but he's not nearly a complete player and I don't see how he develops from barely playing.  He's a 2016 draft pick and we're developing our other big 2015/2016 draft picks (that aren't Jack Eichel) with a ton of playing time in Rochester (Guhle, Borgen, Nylander, Asplund).

To put it another way: I can think of players that have probably been hurt by being moved up too fast, but I can't imagine anyone being hurt by spending a little too much time in the minors.  Thompson isn't helping the Sabres this year and I don't see how this season is helping him.

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I will say that it seemed like he cleaned up his game a lot last night.  No toe drags, just the simplest possible play.  On the fourth line that's fine.  If he can play within that for a while it may give him some minutes to adjust to the NHL game and HCPH's system.  But still, with the team's success at the moment I'm not sure why the team should be bending over backwards to try to accommodate someone who's a borderline NHLer at this point in his career.

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Yeldon made an interesting point in the Athletic.  What happens when Wilson returns, which apparently will be soon.  The choices are Elie gets released or Thompson goes down.  I’m voting for Thompson to be sent down. Not that Elie has done anything to show he shouldn’t be released, but why dump a player out of the organization if it isn’t necessary.  Send Thompson down; get him some PT and then let’s see what happens.

 

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So I've been giving this some thought, maybe just maybe there is some gamesmanship going on here with JBot and Tage. Let's revisit this quote:

Reddit is the dregs of the internet sometimes but the name stuff in this thread is pretty funny.  Back to the quote, maybe Botterill told Tage we'll give you half a season to prove yourself, if you don't, you'll be riding pisshole. 

Edited by inkman
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I won't comment on the trade and whether Tage was "targeted."  Let's go to the beginning of the season though, when we all thought Nylander would make the big club and TT would be sent down.  I'm thinking that JBot and HCPH looked at the two of them and perhaps decided that while Nylander may be the better player, Tage Thompson was closer to being a legit NHLer.  We've focused on him and pointed out why he shouldn't be on the team, but now.... here he is with a modest two-game goal streak.  He seems to be meshing with Sobotka and Reinhart.  Maybe JBot and Housley saw things we didn't see.

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