Nemec got totally undressed by Gignac there. His defensive game is definitely nowhere close to NHL level. He needs at least another year in Utica. Daws looked really bad. He is light years behind Schmid at this point in time. While Schmid has continued his climb up, Daws dropped this season like a stone.
Have to agree. I see and have posted everything you say here as the season has progressed.
Nemec shows a really high IQ and makes some excellent plays. However, those excelllent plays are not the norm, maybe 50-50. He is trying to do everything now in all 3 zones and he is finding the going gets rougher when he loses control up ice and the opponent comes back with him caught out of position or just plain not even there. The 1 on 1s like last night show the need for much more work. I mean he doesn't get undressed like that very often, but guys get around him and get off shots or big time passes a lot. He's been on the ice for a lot of goals against and doesn't kill penalties on a regular basis. His board work is less than stellar. He has also started to make bad passes by trying to force the puck to guys that simply are not open or the path is too clogged with traffic. An NHL D-man he is not, even with a solid partner. The kid needs to be ready and at 19 next season it won't kill the NJ fortunes if he has to play another season in the NHL.
Along the same lines I hope they see that Luke will benefit from some AHL seasoning as well. His offensive thrusts may not be enough to compensate for his learning curve on the back end where his blunders end up in his own net. His brother Quinn has shown even with his similar high offensive skill level, that defense has been a long time coming.
The Devils don't HAVE to put these kids into their lineup as fast as possible to satisfy their fan base's thirst to see them. They have had a glut of youngsters to drool over in recent years. It doesn't take them long to cough them up either. This fan base is just as capable of s**ting all over them and giving up on them when they don't play the way the fans expected them to. Follow the game posts and see the way they dump on every single Devil when individual plays let alone games don't go their way. The current Devils must be somewhere around the bottom of the Division to read the posts every game. Most young kids learning the NHL game don't flourish under those conditions without proper preparation.
I criticize the Comets play when pointing out consistent problems that NOBODY seems to be addressing. Down here we look to see coaches teaching the prospects to play a better game. I've been all over Dineen and Co. as to the shortcomings the players need to get better at if they are going to be NHL capable. Their special teams are flat out bad. Simple very fundamental hockey skills are also not good e.g passing, taking passes, simply moving/shooting the puck out of danger, shooting the puck, and hitting the net.
However, expecting the NJ coaches to do that kind of work with kids up there is not how it's done. If it was, we would see Holtz playing every game and working on the weaknesses they perceive he has. Nope. Lindy doesn't play him because he doesn't think he is good enough. Yet they don't send him down to work on it. If you want to trade him, how do you show his value if he doesn't play. His only high level of achievement was at the AHL level and that was only for one season! He has literally been slowly rotting on the vine in this his 2nd professional season.
POINT BLANK this is not how you deal with a budding goal scorer. He should be in Utica getting good enough. It doesn't happen in NHL practices. Most of the time the guys lower on the totem pole do the drills with other lesser guys as the regular lines and D-pairs are kept together for most of the practice while sliding the better guys around in and out of different line combos and D-pairings to prepare for what happens if someone goes down. Holtz doesn't practice with the top 6 all practice long. He gets a shift now and then and that's just the way it goes. They only practice for an hour and practices are not daily and not done at a game level. Keeping the lesser guys out for post practice work just doesn't measure up to game play. You have to play to get better. Practice and the press box is not where that happens.
As to Daws, consistency is his main problem. With him it's not just consistency from game to game, but shot to shot. He can be brilliant on a great scoring chance and then even more brilliant on the rebound. Then on the next weak wrister from the blueline just kneel there while it goes by him as if he didn't even see it. Some games the bloopers don't happen. Other games it's just the 2 that mean the difference to a team that on average doesn't score more than 3/game. I keep saying if the opponent scores 3 the Comets best hope is to get it to OT.
The Comets schedule from here on out is really tough.
They have Toronto on the road this Wednesday at 11 am and Syracuse at home on Saturday.
Then it's back to Toronto on Monday.
Off to Cleveland for games Wednesday and Friday.
Their 4th road game in a row is at Belleville on the following Wednesday.
The following 6 weekends in a row the Comets will finish the season playing 6 back to backs. 3 of them will be included in AHL 3 games in a weekend debacles.
They will need both Daws and Schmid to be at their best from here on out or their current second place standing may disappear and JUST MAKING THE PLAYOFFS will be their challenge.
