F Ivan Demidov (2024, 5th, MTL) Part 2

[Sasha Orlov]

Rough night for Ivan - punished to play with Laine and then their line was benched in the third

Playing with two guys who are asleep

Free Vanya

 

[Ford Prefect]

they were atrocious together. laine and demidov i mean

How many shifts did they have together? In the one game they played? Laine is a shooter and Demidov could thread a pass through a nun's.... well he's a really good passer.

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

Rough night for Ivan - punished to play with Laine and then their line was benched in the third

Yeah Laine is really hectic out there at 5 on 5 and plays in unnecessarily dangerous areas of the ice , I thought Demidov did the best on his line tonight and looked great whenever he had the puck but he didn't get many touches

 

[HuGo Sham]

It's a collage line. Newhook is a terrible C with 0 vision, Laine sucks 5 on 5.
The kid is on a black hole line.
This is Hughes' work this summer - find him guys to play with

 

[Kshahdoo]

Oh well, as I used to say Rotenberg acted very similar to some NHL coaches...

 

[shello]

Actually they need Reinbacher to hit much more than Michkov. Tbe D has to get better soon. Once Demidov fell into their laps Michkov became irrelevant.

Irrelevant isn’t the right word. Habs (or any team) could always use more premiere goal scorers. But yes Demidov should soften the blow. Hopefully Reinbacher pans out

 

[Baksfamous112]

Rough night for Ivan - punished to play with Laine and then their line was benched in the third

To be fair MSL benched 2/3 of the Suzuki line for the last 10 minutes of the third. Nothing against those guys, we just needed a win

 

[LuGBuG]

You know he’s good when the entire thread is about the Habs missing on other picks lmao

 

[JeffreyLFC]

There is context to that 'benching'. It's the last game of the season in a must get a result situation with a team/players that played 82 games together. Of course you are not putting in the guy who just joined a week ago and has played one game with this team and in the NHL.

Also by putting him with Laine it also mean less ice time. It's quite obvious that MSL do not like him at 5 on 5 hockey (laine).

 

[kp61c]

Yeah Laine is really hectic out there at 5 on 5 and plays in unnecessarily dangerous areas of the ice , I thought Demidov did the best on his line tonight and looked great whenever he had the puck but he didn't get many touches

don't know what happened to him but laine doesn't look like a nhler.

 

[SomaliHackey]

don't know what happened to him but laine doesn't look like a nhler.

You do realize he rushed himself and returned early from a major lower body injury.

He looks bad because he can't move like he did in Columbus which is due to the injury in September.

 

[SomaliHackey]

I'm also very surprised Chicago didn't take Demidov

 

[The Gr8 Dane]

You do realize he rushed himself and returned early from a major lower body injury.

He looks bad because he can't move like he did in Columbus which is due to the injury in September.

That's what we are all hoping for , that next year maybe Laine can skate like a NHLer again

 

[The Last Red]

That's what we are all hoping for , that next year maybe Laine can skate like a NHLer again

He’ll have to get a big contract when he becomes a UFA on July 1, 2027.

 

[Kojo]

You do realize he rushed himself and returned early from a major lower body injury.

He looks bad because he can't move like he did in Columbus which is due to the injury in September.

Laine has been slow since like 5 years, what makes you think he's going to improve?

 

[JeffreyLFC]

Yes Laine is becoming a PP specialist

 

[Michoulicious]

 

[Nicko999]

Oh well, as I used to say Rotenberg acted very similar to some NHL coaches...

When Demidov ends a game with ZERO ice time all game then we can compare NHL coaches to Rotenberg.
It was 1 game where we needed to defend the lead and the coach simply did not know what Demidov could give him defensively and he certainly know he cannot trust his linemate Laine.
The whole line ended with like maybe 2 shifts in the 3rd.

 

[Michoulicious]

you have a reading comprehension problem. I never said he was better, just that he sure was impressive. And he was.

"Better" btw will play out in the future and any opinion now is pure speculation.

btw: I've been watching the Canadians since the mid-60's when they were a powerhouse. I just left their band wagon when they didn't draft Bossy.

Oh, so it explains from where comes the incredible bitterness you showed coming into the Demidov thread to say "forget Demidov"!

Thanks, makes it easier to understand how your soul became so deeply scarred.

 

[chaz4hockey]

Oh, so it explains from where comes the incredible bitterness you showed coming into the Demidov thread to say "forget Demidov"!

Thanks, makes it easier to understand how your soul became so deeply scarred.

yup, grew up watching Bossy in juniors.

He was and continues to be my favorite hockey player ever.

 

[jfhabs]

So what? Do you know how many NHL wingers played some C in juniors? Probably more than half, if not all. And I disagree he has the “skillset of a C”. He isn’t strong defensively, he is not really fast, his defensive awareness isn’t great, and he doesn’t have a particularly strong game through the neutral zone. Not nit picking the kid, just being realistic. And that says nothing about faceoffs - a critical facet of playing C. We don’t really know his current ability there, but I think it’s a pretty safe bet that it isn’t good. This is the problem with this fanbase - people are already pencilling him in as a future 1C in this thread lmao. Ridiculous.

It's not impossible for him to become a good C but I agree with you here. Just let him be a lethal offensive winger and find a good C elsewhere. We could just play him with Suzuki...

 

[jfhabs]

It's a collage line. Newhook is a terrible C with 0 vision, Laine sucks 5 on 5.
The kid is on a black hole line.
This is Hughes' work this summer - find him guys to play with

Yup, we need to find a Toffoli/Monahan for him. I still think/hope Dach could be a LW/C on that line, but I'm also realist, you can't count on him.

 

[Garbageyuk]

It's not impossible for him to become a good C but I agree with you here. Just let him be a lethal offensive winger and find a good C elsewhere. We could just play him with Suzuki...

This is the rationale. We need to play him where he can be the most potent offensive weapon he can be, while simultaneously not being a liability defensively. That’s overwhelmingly likely to not be at C. The whole notion of converting him to C is just dumb.

The “two 1Cs” fantasy needs to stop. It’s like people look at teams like PIT, WSH, etc that won with two 1Cs and don’t want anything else. That’s a very rare situation and we don’t even need it to win. FLA, VGK, TBL, COL, STL, CHI all won without that type of roster.

It’s not even a guarantee of success anyway; look at EDM. They have 2 out of the 3 top Cs in the NHL and they haven’t been able to win.

Crazy how people are willing to possibly Drouin our best prospect in decades to chase a model that isn’t even guaranteed to work, even with generational players, which we don’t even have.

In fact, I’m going to post a hot take:

Trying to pigeonhole Galchenyuk, Kotkaniemi, and Drouin into C roles they weren’t ready/suited for during crucial development years might’ve been what ruined them. Maybe they would’ve became much better than they did without that BS.

But sure, let’s repeat the same mistake with Demidov.

 

[gary559]

Definitely don't put him at C. He's one of my favorite players drafted last year and he should be on wing. Can't believe he fell so far.

 

[Maitz]

He should play with Evans and Heineman, put Armia with Newhook and Laine, Armia is still injured and can't shoot, let Laine shoot and Newhook skate