GDT: Game 46 @ DRW 4pm

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Nice win. Forced to watch the Red Wings broadcast and you’d swear with the way old man Mickey Redmond was talking, the Sharks just ran into the 01-02 Red Wings and upset them. Good to see them not break when the Red Wings would pull with in one. Thought Mario had a rough game but cool to see him and Jan get a goal each
I really hated playing the Red Wings in their heyday and I'm still salty about McLellan era playoff failures, so I'm not the least bit sorry we broke his streak tonight
 
50% of Will Smith's problems are from being a skinny teenager and the other 50% are assuming that his teammate is going to break out the puck uncontested and blowing the zone for the pass. Those two things worked fine at BC, not in the NHL.

He's frustrating because the things he does poorly are so easily fixable.
We tend to underestimate how difficult it can be to add muscle healthily, and how much a player is limited by his frame/genetics.
 
We tend to underestimate how difficult it can be to add muscle healthily, and how much a player is limited by his frame/genetics.
Absolutely. Smith is basically average height for a forward, and is far from the only 19 year old to ever play in the league. Why is he being dominated in puck battles like no player we’ve ever seen before? I don’t claim to know the answer, but we can’t pretend it doesn’t raise concerns regarding his long term future.
 
Absolutely. Smith is basically average height for a forward, and is far from the only 19 year old to ever play in the league. Why is he being dominated in puck battles like no player we’ve ever seen before? I don’t claim to know the answer, but we can’t pretend it doesn’t raise concerns regarding his long term future.

He's going to be just a bust. Accept it.
 
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I have to say, aside from the obvious take away that Celebrini and Eklund are f***ing awesome together, Graf is very, very good, I feel like he constantly makes the correct play in all ends of the ice. I’m not sure he’s a top 6 player but I think he could be a really high-end 3rd line wing. Which like, a Graf - Bystedt - Zetterlund future 3rd line could be lots of fun.
 
Absolutely. Smith is basically average height for a forward, and is far from the only 19 year old to ever play in the league. Why is he being dominated in puck battles like no player we’ve ever seen before? I don’t claim to know the answer, but we can’t pretend it doesn’t raise concerns regarding his long term future.
I think you can go back and look at how Eklund's game has grown and extrapolate. I think Eklund was more active in his first audition with the Sharks but he was getting dummied at 19 also. Nowadays, he's pretty good at handling contact and board play. Just hoping that Smith gets more comfortable initiating contact.

so luckily for me, Sheng posted an old Eklund article with gifs for us to look at
 
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