D prospects may seem green but not as much as some would like to believe. NCAA players tend to mesh well. That said that is why I’m cautiously optimistic but it won’t be totally smooth sailing. There will be some hiccups.
Edler, Hughes & Schmidt are the three I have confidence in. Myers might squeeze into that group, but he spent so much time in the penalty box during the playoffs that he seemed too frequently to be a negative contributor. Benn will be “OK” only with limited minutes.
Leaves an lot on some combination of OJ, Sautner, Chatfield, Rafferty & Rathbone to hold the 3rd pairing. Hopeful that at least one of them really steps up, but that is a gamble. - SlightlyOffside
The vets need to bring a steady game. That is a realistic ask to allow prospects to play their game. The pairing dynamics I put on Baumers shoulders. I’ve ridden him & want him replaced but 1 more year he can prove me wrong. Bottom 6 F’s need to be better & that alone will help the kids on D.
Location: Making the most of the worst situation... Canuck fan 4life , BC Joined: 12.23.2014
Nov 1 @ 6:35 PM ET
you need to give that to the active trolls who twist and make sh!t up. There is no truth or reason left. They must love living in the age of Trump. Its all about the headlines as bold face lies replace facts and substance.
November must be some kind of cult month for them. Apparently one active buzztroll is fixated about it out of his own damn nonsense. - NuckUp
At this point, I still like:
Edler-Schmiddy
Hughes-Myers
OJ-Benn.
Still hoping for another vet for 7D and injury callup.
Rafferty/RAthbone backing up OJ for that rookie slot. - dbot
I’m for pushing Edler down for better depth & he gets PK TOI. I hearya using only 1 rookie but I’ll roll the dice if training camp goes well for more than 1.
Location: Auckland -Burn it all down Joined: 10.22.2008
Nov 1 @ 7:02 PM ET
I’m for pushing Edler down for better depth & he gets PK TOI. I hearya using only 1 rookie but I’ll roll the dice if training camp goes well for more than 1. - Nighthawk
I'm more concerned with Hughes and not rushing him into a 1D role.
Sophomore slump is a real thing and it's not unreasonable to expect some difficulties this year.
I think it would be pretty crazy to have Hughes, OJ and Rathbone as your D, with like one year of play between em.
Queequeg and I had just left the Pequod, and were sauntering away from the water, for the moment each occupied with his own thoughts, when the above words were put to us by a stranger, who, pausing before us, levelled his massive forefinger at the vessel in question. He was but shabbily apparelled in faded jacket and patched trowsers; a rag of a black handkerchief investing his neck. A confluent small-pox had in all directions flowed over his face, and left it like the complicated ribbed bed of a torrent, when the rushing waters have been dried up.
“Have ye shipped in her?” he repeated.
“You mean the ship Pequod, I suppose,” said I, trying to gain a little more time for an uninterrupted look at him.
“Aye, the Pequod—that ship there,” he said, drawing back his whole arm, and then rapidly shoving it straight out from him, with the fixed bayonet of his pointed finger darted full at the object.
“Yes,” said I, “we have just signed the articles.”
“Anything down there about your souls?”
“About what?”
“Oh, perhaps you hav’n’t got any,” he said quickly. “No matter though, I know many chaps that hav’n’t got any,—good luck to ’em; and they are all the better off for it. A soul’s a sort of a fifth wheel to a wagon.”
“What are you jabbering about, shipmate?” said I.
“He’s got enough, though, to make up for all deficiencies of that sort in other chaps,” abruptly said the stranger, placing a nervous emphasis upon the word he.
“Queequeg,” said I, “let’s go; this fellow has broken loose from somewhere; he’s talking about something and somebody we don’t know.”
“Stop!” cried the stranger. “Ye said true—ye hav’n’t seen Old Thunder yet, have ye?”
“Who’s Old Thunder?” said I, again riveted with the insane earnestness of his manner.
“Captain Ahab.”
“What! the captain of our ship, the Pequod?”
“Aye, among some of us old sailor chaps, he goes by that name. Ye hav’n’t seen him yet, have ye?”
“No, we hav’n’t. He’s sick they say, but is getting better, and will be all right again before long.”
“All right again before long!” laughed the stranger, with a solemnly derisive sort of laugh. “Look ye; when Captain Ahab is all right, then this left arm of mine will be all right; not before.”
“What do you know about him?”
“What did they tell you about him? Say that!”
“They didn’t tell much of anything about him; only I’ve heard that he’s a good whale-hunter, and a good captain to his crew.”
“That’s true, that’s true—yes, both true enough. But you must jump when he gives an order. Step and growl; growl and go—that’s the word with Captain Ahab. But nothing about that thing that happened to him off Cape Horn, long ago, when he lay like dead for three days and nights; nothing about that deadly skrimmage with the Spaniard afore the altar in Santa?—heard nothing about that, eh? Nothing about the silver calabash he spat into? And nothing about his losing his leg last voyage, according to the prophecy. Didn’t ye hear a word about them matters and something more, eh? No, I don’t think ye did; how could ye? Who knows it? Not all Nantucket, I guess. But hows’ever, mayhap, ye’ve heard tell about the leg, and how he lost it; aye, ye have heard of that, I dare say. Oh yes, that every one knows a’most—I mean they know he’s only one leg; and that a parmacetti took the other off.”
“My friend,” said I, “what all this gibberish of yours is about, I don’t know, and I don’t much care; for it seems to me that you must be a little damaged in the head. But if you are speaking of Captain Ahab, of that ship there, the Pequod, then let me tell you, that I know all about the loss of his leg.”
“All about it, eh—sure you do?—all?”
“Pretty sure.”
With finger pointed and eye levelled at the Pequod, the beggar-like stranger stood a moment, as if in a troubled reverie; then starting a little, turned and said:—“Ye’ve shipped, have ye? Names down on the papers? Well, well, what’s signed, is signed; and what’s to be, will be; and then again, perhaps it won’t be, after all. Anyhow, it’s all fixed and arranged a’ready; and some sailors or other must go with him, I suppose; as well these as any other men, God pity ’em! Morning to ye, shipmates, morning; the ineffable heavens bless ye; I’m sorry I stopped ye.”
“Look here, friend,” said I, “if you have anything important to tell us, out with it; but if you are only trying to bamboozle us, you are mistaken in your game; that’s all I have to say.”
“And it’s said very well, and I like to hear a chap talk up that way; you are just the man for him—the likes of ye. Morning to ye, shipmates, morning! Oh! when ye get there, tell ’em I’ve concluded not to make one of ’em.”
“Ah, my dear fellow, you can’t fool us that way—you can’t fool us. It is the easiest thing in the world for a man to look as if he had a great secret in him.”
“Morning to ye, shipmates, morning.”
“Morning it is,” said I. “Come along, Queequeg, let’s leave this crazy man. But stop, tell me your name, will you?”
“Elijah.”
Elijah! thought I, and we walked away, both commenting, after each other’s fashion, upon this ragged old sailor; and agreed that he was nothing but a humbug, trying to be a bugbear. But we had not gone perhaps above a hundred yards, when chancing to turn a corner, and looking back as I did so, who should be seen but Elijah following us, though at a distance. Somehow, the sight of him struck me so, that I said nothing to Queequeg of his being behind, but passed on with my comrade, anxious to see whether the stranger would turn the same corner that we did. He did; and then it seemed to me that he was dogging us, but with what intent I could not for the life of me imagine. This circumstance, coupled with his ambiguous, half-hinting, half-revealing, shrouded sort of talk, now begat in me all kinds of vague wonderments and half-apprehensions, and all connected with the Pequod; and Captain Ahab; and the leg he had lost; and the Cape Horn fit; and the silver calabash; and what Captain Peleg had said of him, when I left the ship the day previous; and the prediction of the squaw Tistig; and the voyage we had bound ourselves to sail; and a hundred other shadowy things.
I was resolved to satisfy myself whether this ragged Elijah was really dogging us or not, and with that intent crossed the way with Queequeg, and on that side of it retraced our steps. But Elijah passed on, without seeming to notice us. This relieved me; and once more, and finally as it seemed to me, I pronounced him in my heart, a humbug. - A_SteamingLombardi
I'm more concerned with Hughes and not rushing him into a 1D role.
Sophomore slump is a real thing and it's not unreasonable to expect some difficulties this year.
I think it would be pretty crazy to have Hughes, OJ and Rathbone as your D, with like one year of play between em. - dbot
Pairings are considering which line they play with & the PP. OJ & Rathbone platoon. Soph slumps are generally for lesser players than a player of Hughes smarts. He will face more scrutiny/hitting but he can figure it out.
Location: Auckland -Burn it all down Joined: 10.22.2008
Nov 1 @ 7:12 PM ET
Pairings are considering which line they play with & the PP. OJ & Rathbone platoon. Soph slumps are generally for lesser players than a player of Hughes smarts. He will face more scrutiny/hitting but he can figure it out. - Nighthawk
Im confused then, i thought you had Hughes, OJ/Rathbone and Rafferty in your top 6?
I just think that's unrealistic.
The only platoon i know stars Willem Dafoe.
I agree, Hughes is elite and will figure it out, but i'd still rather 'shelter' him on a 2nd pairing this year with all the PP1 time he can handle.
Location: Greetings from the Humungous. Ayatollah of rock and rolla! Joined: 08.15.2014
Nov 1 @ 7:13 PM ET
I'm more concerned with Hughes and not rushing him into a 1D role.
Sophomore slump is a real thing and it's not unreasonable to expect some difficulties this year.
I think it would be pretty crazy to have Hughes, OJ and Rathbone as your D, with like one year of play between em. - dbot
lol not with this kid. He's in the first pairing for the next 10 seasons here.
Im confused then, i thought you had Hughes, OJ/Rathbone and Rafferty in your top 6?
I just think that's unrealistic.
The only platoon i know stars Willem Dafoe.
I agree, Hughes is elite and will figure it out, but i'd still rather 'shelter' him on a 2nd pairing this year with all the PP1 time he can handle. - dbot
I don’t lump Hughes in with rookies or needs sheltered minutes. He’s a weapon to be used.
I can see 1 rookie playing for sure maybe 2 if training camp is a big impression. Benn is likely to be 3rd pairing RHD if not.
We have some #3 defensemen and a #4, with a #6/7 & a bunch of prospects looking to fill in 2 or 3 spots.
I can see the top 4 defense playing roughly 22-24minutes each per night, with no set pairings for at least half a season.
I expect to see Chatfield, Juolevi get 2 of the defense spots, with Sautner Brisebois, and possibly Rafferty getting some time.
Im confused then, i thought you had Hughes, OJ/Rathbone and Rafferty in your top 6?
I just think that's unrealistic.
The only platoon i know stars Willem Dafoe.
I agree, Hughes is elite and will figure it out, but i'd still rather 'shelter' him on a 2nd pairing this year with all the PP1 time he can handle. - dbot
FFS. Hughes doesn’t need to be sheltered. Have a great Sunday
you need to give that to the active trolls who twist and make sh!t up. There is no truth or reason left. They must love living in the age of Trump. Its all about the headlines as bold face lies replace facts and substance. 
