Lewis: When I Fall in Love
The future looks pretty bright in Beantown and the team fire on all cylinders. But, iI'm starting to be a little concerned by the way Dave Lewis is managing his roster.
A blogger suggests that Kessel's ice time was, at the best, ridiculous. I tend to agree with that statement but Kessel was not the only " bizarre " roster move that Lewis offered this year. We already know that the line of Primeau-Donovan and Mowers get too much ice time. For the most part of the year, they were unproductive and penalty prone. When the team acquire Chistov and recalled Tenkrat, a new line was formed with Kessel as the center. This line was dynamic and injected energy on a team who needed that badly. Still, those guys are barely playing 10-12 minutes a game even if they are productive. Another case? Paul Mara. We all agree that Mara is a bust since his arrival. Mara is a high-risk player in is own end; careless with the puck on the PP and his record on 5 on 5 situation pretty desastrous. Still, Mara is playing a lots and we've saw this PP specialist on the PK. Yes, the PK. Do Lewis is clueless? Do Lewis body start to be possess by Sullivan's spirit?
I don' t know the answer but i start to notice that Lewis seems to be guilty of something that can put the team in trouble and Lewis in Chiarelli's doghouse: Lewis is falling in love. Yes, Falling in love with some players at the point that he will play them even if they hurt the team. Right now, everything is fine. The team win and the system work but what will happend when things will start to fall apart?. What will happend when the team will need Kessel to step up in a key situation? Right now, Lewis says that he protect Kessel from being in a bad situation. It looks pretty good on camera but Kessel need to learn how to play in this league even if he learn, sometimes, the hard way. This kid is the future of the team on the upfront and he need to be in the line of fire because it will be desastrous to have him in march in a key situation only to find that he was not prepared to do so. It's good to protect the kid but being protective could end up with the wrong result. Maybe it's not the players. Maybe it's just a coach who need to learn how to use them...
A blogger suggests that Kessel's ice time was, at the best, ridiculous. I tend to agree with that statement but Kessel was not the only " bizarre " roster move that Lewis offered this year. We already know that the line of Primeau-Donovan and Mowers get too much ice time. For the most part of the year, they were unproductive and penalty prone. When the team acquire Chistov and recalled Tenkrat, a new line was formed with Kessel as the center. This line was dynamic and injected energy on a team who needed that badly. Still, those guys are barely playing 10-12 minutes a game even if they are productive. Another case? Paul Mara. We all agree that Mara is a bust since his arrival. Mara is a high-risk player in is own end; careless with the puck on the PP and his record on 5 on 5 situation pretty desastrous. Still, Mara is playing a lots and we've saw this PP specialist on the PK. Yes, the PK. Do Lewis is clueless? Do Lewis body start to be possess by Sullivan's spirit?
I don' t know the answer but i start to notice that Lewis seems to be guilty of something that can put the team in trouble and Lewis in Chiarelli's doghouse: Lewis is falling in love. Yes, Falling in love with some players at the point that he will play them even if they hurt the team. Right now, everything is fine. The team win and the system work but what will happend when things will start to fall apart?. What will happend when the team will need Kessel to step up in a key situation? Right now, Lewis says that he protect Kessel from being in a bad situation. It looks pretty good on camera but Kessel need to learn how to play in this league even if he learn, sometimes, the hard way. This kid is the future of the team on the upfront and he need to be in the line of fire because it will be desastrous to have him in march in a key situation only to find that he was not prepared to do so. It's good to protect the kid but being protective could end up with the wrong result. Maybe it's not the players. Maybe it's just a coach who need to learn how to use them...
posted by Latrappe at 8:18 AM
7 Comments:
"We all agree that Mara is a bust since his arrival. Mara is a high-risk player in is own end; careless with the puck on the PP and his record on 5 on 5 situation pretty desastrous. Still, Mara is playing a lots and we've saw this PP specialist on the PK. Yes, the PK. Do Lewis is clueless?"
Clueless? Well, one of you is...
While Mara isn't perfect, I think he's doing a fairly good job. Some people seem to see one bad thing and then afterward all they see is the bad from that player. latrappe, we've seen you do that again and again! Perhaps it's more a matter of you "falling into hate?"
I also think the coach has insights that you (or for that matter I) don't. Ever consider that?
That said, what I'd like to see him try is to switch Premeau for Kessel. The Premeau line is actually pretty good (ignoring his tendency for penalties). They have the grit to win along the boards, and Donovan is very fast. But they seldom have the finish. What I'm thinking is by putting Kessel with Donovan and Mowers they would perhaps combine their grit with his scoring touch. And maybe Kessel might actually score from time to time. And by putting Premeau with Tenkrat and Chistov they would be better defensively and have a bit more grit.
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The Premeau line is actually pretty good (ignoring his tendency for penalties).
How come? They combine for an abyssal -17 and are prone to penalty. Those guys are hurting the team in more then a way. Clueless you said uh?
Primeau is the worst defensive player I have ever seen. He's slow, over plays the point man, and never gets the center down low. That whole line is just plain awful,no positives can describe them. It seems like everytime they are on the ice, that line is always running around in their own end trying to hold off the opposing team, and then we all know what the add offensively, nothin! So why even have them play, the puck will be in our end the whole time and they will all run around out of position.
You called the coach clueless. I think that's hubris, given that he clearly has a lot more inside information about this team than we do.
I know my comment seemed harsh, but why is it ok for you to call him clueless? And if it's ok for you to call the coach clueless, then why can't I suggest the reverse? The thing is, I'm not the one who set up the question with such black and white and disrespectful terms in the first place.
And no, we don't "all agree."
I have no problem with the fact that you disagree. But Mara is, at the very least, a deception. Maybe Lewis didn't use him properly. I don't know. But defensively, Mara has been a disappointement. I didn't expect him to be Chris Pronger but not -9, do.
trade the primeau line for a goalie or top two d-man and call up some young guys who can skate in this new nhl
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