Well, then!
Jul. 3rd, 2008 12:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bzarcherWhile I spent most of tonight whupping up on various friends and corpmates in some friendly frigate fights in EVE, I -was- paying attention to the moves Howson made after the big trade earlier today.
So, it looks like Howson quite successfully replaced Zherdev's scoring...and for that matter, Fritsche's...with Kristian Huselius.
Dude looks like Beetlejuice (and in fact this is his nickname up in Calgary), but if he keeps having 70+ point seasons? I'm very down with that. He can look like Mae West if he pushes Nash to a 90 point year. :>
Sounds a lot like plan will be to try him with Nash - Hitchcock was talking about his playmaking ability.
Howson has said we're after at least one more forward, but the vibe I've gotten is that it's probably more of a bottom 6 guy than a top 6 guy. (Though, hell, I wouldn't rule the chance of trading some of our depth...Klesla could easily be packaged with a pick, or someone like Murray or Tollefsen, for someone like Vermette, Marleau, or even Jordan Staal if the chance came up.) My guess, though, is that Peca could be in consideration. He was our 3rd leading scorer last year, he's certainly a hard worker, and he said that he'd seriously consider coming back to the Jackets "If the club will go about it's business this summer trying to build a winner. Not just a winner, but a championship contender."
We certainly have a much stronger team today than we did April 7th. I don't know about a cup contender, but I certainly think we'll be able to battle for a playoff spot. Is it enough? Perhaps...I can think of several people who'd be happy to see him return as our 3rd line center and a possible PP option. And he was also one of the few shooters who was vaguely reliable in the shootout - of the 11 shootout goals Columbus scored last year, Peca had 2 of them.
(Huselius improves this dramatically, too - Calgary didn't get in as many shootouts as Columbus did - only 6 all year vs. 10 for Columbus, but Huselius was a shooter in 5 of them and scored on 4 of those 5 attempts. Given that one of his "money" areas is breakaways and beating goalies, I suspect that if we have as many OT/shootout games again next year, Juice will do juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust fine.)
If I had to guess, here's our current lines.
Nash - Umberger - Huselius
Modin - Brassard - Torres
Chimera - Malhotra / UFA (Peca?) - Voracek
Dorsett - Novotny - Boll
Tyutin - Hejda
Klesla - Commodore
Methot - Backman
Rome
LeClaire
Norrena
Russell, Murray, Wilson, Legein, Picard, Filatov, Tollefsen, and the other AHL eligibles likely start in the Cuse, and god knows what else happens. :D Training camp will be -FUN-. I really expect to see a lot of jockeying for roster spots. If we sign Peca or another checking center, I'd also expect to see Manny moved to the 4th line (or potentially moved out period) and Novotny to either go down to the AHL or be potential trade bait himself if Manny is put on 4th line duty.
I'm slotting Torres on the 2nd line, but I think he and Voracek could easily be swapped around depending on chemistry. I could even see a Torres-Brassard-Voracek line and a pairing of Modin-Malhotra-Chimera if that seems to work well. Torres has said he's comfortable playing either wing, so he could easily be a wild card for a lot of combinations. (Doesn't seem to be much of a shootout guy tho - I can only find him taking part in 6 shootouts -total- since the lockout, going 2-4 in them.)
....yes, I was curious enough / geeky enough about this stuff to actually go find a shootout stats database program with all the stats since the lockout, since shootout data isn't "officialy" tracked for stats. (Give -that- another year or two. Bet it changes....) Yes, I'm a geek. Shut up. :(
Captains / Alternates will probably be Nash (C), Modin (A), Klesla (A). I could also see giving Commodore an A. If that happens, I would guess the A comes off of Rusty's chest - I'm not sure he's always been comfortable with it, and Commodore has always been a "room" guy. I expect that if he fits into Columbus the way he did in Calgary or Carolina , he could easily work as an A. (Yeah, yeah - Ottawa didn't end so well...but let's face it. He was traded into a BROKEN team with a sick room. That's definently not the case here.)
I'm officially switching from hesitant about the last two days of moves to excited. I may be overestimating Voracek and Brassard coming into the lineup this year, but the more I hear about their summer workouts and what they've been doing, I don't think so...
Last year, the team was better than it had ever been, but couldn't quite make the last step.
This year, I really am starting to feel like, even with what Chicago and Detroit did in grabbing Hossa and Campbell, that Columbus really stands a chance to compete in our division, and among the rest of the conference.
The Northwest had previously been the "meat grinder" division that beat itself to death, but you kept seeing 3 teams out of the division make the playoffs. (This year being no different, with Minnesota, Colorado, and Calgary making it in.)
This year, the Central might just take that away from them. I wouldn't be surprised to see Detroit leading the west again, San Jose winning the Pacific, Calgary winning the Northwest, and the last 5 slots shaking out between Dallas, Chicago, Columbus, Minnesota, and I could see Edmonton or Phoenix poking their heads in, too.
Unless Vancouver or LA does something shocking, I see them being at the bottom of the West (LA in particular - I really wonder if the plan is to get young, shed salary, dive for Tavares, and then rebuild with FAs afterwards), with Colorado, St. Louis, Nashville, and Anaheim on the outside looking in, along with whomever loses out of the middle group.
Nashville feels like they're losing more than they're gaining on offense (though I thought that last year, too, and they were happy to prove me wrong), St. Louis is where Columbus was two years ago, Anaheim seems to be very confused about what direction they're going, Colorado feels like they're turning over a lot of roster to rebuild, and Phoenix and Edmonton really are these huge question marks for me right now. Phoenix's success seems like it will be tied with how Jokinen plays more than any other factor, particularly after they weakened their defence to get him, and I'm still waiting to see how the jumble of parts Lowe is acquiring up there gets put together.
Play against more Eastern teams will also be interesting. Columbus went 6-3-1 against the east last year. If we can take 60% of those points again, plus the 5% bonus from shootout points? That's a big help. Might even be the key to a postseason breakthrough instead of another year of April golf for the club.
Man, that went on a lot longer than I really meant to....and it's 1:30 now. ACK! This was just supposed to be a quick entry about what I was thinking, not an hour and a half of essay writing!!!
...I'm starting to wonder if I should be thinking about getting a separate blog for Hockey purposes. Do people mind me carrying on like this? Hate it? Like it but would prefer it elsewhere?
Let me know!
So, it looks like Howson quite successfully replaced Zherdev's scoring...and for that matter, Fritsche's...with Kristian Huselius.
Dude looks like Beetlejuice (and in fact this is his nickname up in Calgary), but if he keeps having 70+ point seasons? I'm very down with that. He can look like Mae West if he pushes Nash to a 90 point year. :>
Sounds a lot like plan will be to try him with Nash - Hitchcock was talking about his playmaking ability.
Howson has said we're after at least one more forward, but the vibe I've gotten is that it's probably more of a bottom 6 guy than a top 6 guy. (Though, hell, I wouldn't rule the chance of trading some of our depth...Klesla could easily be packaged with a pick, or someone like Murray or Tollefsen, for someone like Vermette, Marleau, or even Jordan Staal if the chance came up.) My guess, though, is that Peca could be in consideration. He was our 3rd leading scorer last year, he's certainly a hard worker, and he said that he'd seriously consider coming back to the Jackets "If the club will go about it's business this summer trying to build a winner. Not just a winner, but a championship contender."
We certainly have a much stronger team today than we did April 7th. I don't know about a cup contender, but I certainly think we'll be able to battle for a playoff spot. Is it enough? Perhaps...I can think of several people who'd be happy to see him return as our 3rd line center and a possible PP option. And he was also one of the few shooters who was vaguely reliable in the shootout - of the 11 shootout goals Columbus scored last year, Peca had 2 of them.
(Huselius improves this dramatically, too - Calgary didn't get in as many shootouts as Columbus did - only 6 all year vs. 10 for Columbus, but Huselius was a shooter in 5 of them and scored on 4 of those 5 attempts. Given that one of his "money" areas is breakaways and beating goalies, I suspect that if we have as many OT/shootout games again next year, Juice will do juuuuuuuuuuuuuuust fine.)
If I had to guess, here's our current lines.
Nash - Umberger - Huselius
Modin - Brassard - Torres
Chimera - Malhotra / UFA (Peca?) - Voracek
Dorsett - Novotny - Boll
Tyutin - Hejda
Klesla - Commodore
Methot - Backman
Rome
LeClaire
Norrena
Russell, Murray, Wilson, Legein, Picard, Filatov, Tollefsen, and the other AHL eligibles likely start in the Cuse, and god knows what else happens. :D Training camp will be -FUN-. I really expect to see a lot of jockeying for roster spots. If we sign Peca or another checking center, I'd also expect to see Manny moved to the 4th line (or potentially moved out period) and Novotny to either go down to the AHL or be potential trade bait himself if Manny is put on 4th line duty.
I'm slotting Torres on the 2nd line, but I think he and Voracek could easily be swapped around depending on chemistry. I could even see a Torres-Brassard-Voracek line and a pairing of Modin-Malhotra-Chimera if that seems to work well. Torres has said he's comfortable playing either wing, so he could easily be a wild card for a lot of combinations. (Doesn't seem to be much of a shootout guy tho - I can only find him taking part in 6 shootouts -total- since the lockout, going 2-4 in them.)
....yes, I was curious enough / geeky enough about this stuff to actually go find a shootout stats database program with all the stats since the lockout, since shootout data isn't "officialy" tracked for stats. (Give -that- another year or two. Bet it changes....) Yes, I'm a geek. Shut up. :(
Captains / Alternates will probably be Nash (C), Modin (A), Klesla (A). I could also see giving Commodore an A. If that happens, I would guess the A comes off of Rusty's chest - I'm not sure he's always been comfortable with it, and Commodore has always been a "room" guy. I expect that if he fits into Columbus the way he did in Calgary or Carolina , he could easily work as an A. (Yeah, yeah - Ottawa didn't end so well...but let's face it. He was traded into a BROKEN team with a sick room. That's definently not the case here.)
I'm officially switching from hesitant about the last two days of moves to excited. I may be overestimating Voracek and Brassard coming into the lineup this year, but the more I hear about their summer workouts and what they've been doing, I don't think so...
Last year, the team was better than it had ever been, but couldn't quite make the last step.
This year, I really am starting to feel like, even with what Chicago and Detroit did in grabbing Hossa and Campbell, that Columbus really stands a chance to compete in our division, and among the rest of the conference.
The Northwest had previously been the "meat grinder" division that beat itself to death, but you kept seeing 3 teams out of the division make the playoffs. (This year being no different, with Minnesota, Colorado, and Calgary making it in.)
This year, the Central might just take that away from them. I wouldn't be surprised to see Detroit leading the west again, San Jose winning the Pacific, Calgary winning the Northwest, and the last 5 slots shaking out between Dallas, Chicago, Columbus, Minnesota, and I could see Edmonton or Phoenix poking their heads in, too.
Unless Vancouver or LA does something shocking, I see them being at the bottom of the West (LA in particular - I really wonder if the plan is to get young, shed salary, dive for Tavares, and then rebuild with FAs afterwards), with Colorado, St. Louis, Nashville, and Anaheim on the outside looking in, along with whomever loses out of the middle group.
Nashville feels like they're losing more than they're gaining on offense (though I thought that last year, too, and they were happy to prove me wrong), St. Louis is where Columbus was two years ago, Anaheim seems to be very confused about what direction they're going, Colorado feels like they're turning over a lot of roster to rebuild, and Phoenix and Edmonton really are these huge question marks for me right now. Phoenix's success seems like it will be tied with how Jokinen plays more than any other factor, particularly after they weakened their defence to get him, and I'm still waiting to see how the jumble of parts Lowe is acquiring up there gets put together.
Play against more Eastern teams will also be interesting. Columbus went 6-3-1 against the east last year. If we can take 60% of those points again, plus the 5% bonus from shootout points? That's a big help. Might even be the key to a postseason breakthrough instead of another year of April golf for the club.
Man, that went on a lot longer than I really meant to....and it's 1:30 now. ACK! This was just supposed to be a quick entry about what I was thinking, not an hour and a half of essay writing!!!
...I'm starting to wonder if I should be thinking about getting a separate blog for Hockey purposes. Do people mind me carrying on like this? Hate it? Like it but would prefer it elsewhere?
Let me know!
