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Injury Report: Joe Thornton to miss "some time" | Update Jan 22; out 4 weeks (rib fracture)

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The best option on the first line in a short term experiment may be Ilya Mikheyev. If you’re worried about Hyman padding his stats in a contract year and you don’t like Wayne Simmonds lack of hands. Other than that maybe you try Jimmy Vesey and just tell him to stand at the top of the crease and see if he can be a garbage goal man.
 
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Keep Mikheyev off the top2 lines. I love what he brings, but the guy just can't finish to save his life. He's like Byron, Grabner, or Kapanen when they skate too fast to score. Shoot Vesey into the sun, but unfortunately "the sun" is probably the nickname for our third line. We're really missing Robertson right now, this is his opportunity to shine.

Hyman - Matthews - Marner
XXX - Tavares - Nylander
Mikheyev - Kerfoot - Vesey
Simmonds - Spezza - XXX

Try out anybody and everybody for the X's. Tavares and Nylander need a guy who is a little scrappy in the corners, but mostly someone who can handle a give 'n go and get open in the slot occasionally. Basically they need Andreas Johnsson. Vesey is just not good enough. Try Anderson there, try Engvall there, try Barabanov there, hell, try Brooks there. Third line ends up looking like trash, but we're playing the top 2 lines 48 minutes a night so I'm far more concerned in getting them clicking than worrying about the third line. Kerfoot and Mikheyev skate around a lot and don't get much done, but that's good enough.
 
Faltorvo said:
promote someone who was not getting PP time to fill in for Jumbo

kerf/hym/spez/miky/barb,,,,lots of options that have offensive upside
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So add a weak offensive player to PP1......no thanks.
We have 4 highly paid offensive studs. This is the fabric of this team like it or not. Why oh why would anyone leave them on the bench?
USE THEM. This isn't house league.
 
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Critical91 said:
I like this, but holy shit are we ever shallow if we have Spezza, Kerfoot and Simmonds as our 2nd PP unit.

I look at this and can't help but wish we could get Sandin into some games.
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True, but if PP1 plays 1:20 and scores all is well.
And Spezza was already PP2 and Simmonds was already PP1
 
A1LeafNation said:
I think Simmonds is a better fit on the top line than Thornton. With both Robertson and Thornton out, we will need more forwards.

Simmonds Matthews Marner
Vesey Tavares Nylander
Mikheyev Kerfoot Hyman
Barabanov Spezza Anderson

Rielly Brodie
Muzzin Holl
Dermott Bogosian

Campbell
Andersen
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This hurt to look at.

Hyman does everything better than Simmonds (except fighting I guess).
 
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you can throw almost anyone with M and M and the line won't miss a beat , just no Simmonds

if they want the least amount of disruption they should move Spezza up and Engvall (if we have the cap space) can take his place , you don't have to play him every shift on that line but i don't think there'd be much if any drop off if any from Joe
 
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notbias said:
Small sample sizes but people cheering that Thornton is off the first line finally and our PP can load up are insane haha.

Thornton - Matthews - Marner : xGF 73.70% at 5v5
PP - 37.5%

Call me crazy but I want a balanced attack, I don't want to turn into the Oilers
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We don't have a balanced attack and we never will with current salary cap allocation. After the big 4, the rest of the forwards are junk. Except for Hyman, he's pretty good.
 
notbias said:
Small sample sizes but people cheering that Thornton is off the first line finally and our PP can load up are insane haha.

Thornton - Matthews - Marner : xGF 73.70% at 5v5
PP - 37.5%

Call me crazy but I want a balanced attack, I don't want to turn into the Oilers
Click to expand...

Agreed, I see "get him off the 1st line" all the time and at this point, I think people are just parroting each other because they've played well together.

Everytime that line doesn't carry us, this board lights up with the same posts. Really hurts us that Thornton is out for a bit.
 
If it is a rib then that seems ok. Other things could keep him out a lot longer. Tall / Big players take longer to heal. Rib is not bad.
 
ToneDog said:
Absolutely not and it is why I cannot see this collection going very far. Keefe has moved Hyman up to the top two lines sporactically and when he has you can see the impact.
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Im not really convinced its needed. Bostons top line was never a grinding one.
 
Suntouchable13 said:
We don't have a balanced attack and we never will with current salary cap allocation. After the big 4, the rest of the forwards are junk. Except for Hyman, he's pretty good.
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You must have pretty high standards then. Guys like Mikhayev, Kerfoot, Spezza, Thornton are anything but junk.
 
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zeke said:
My first impression was that it was a cracked rib.
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I was going to say the same. Nothing else really makes sense... despite the broadcast team mentioning he was holding his wrist. He clearly was not.

What's that, 2 weeks or so? Not a bad thing to get a look at what other line combinations are possible.
 
Mikheyev - Matthews - Marner
Vesey - Tavares - Nylander
Barabanov - Kerfoot - Hyman
Anderson - Spezza - Simmonds

Keeps the 3rd line as a shutdown line, and keeps the top 2 lines strong. In do think Hyman would be better than either Mikheyev or Vesey in their spots, but he’s also strong defensively, the shutdown line isn’t really a shutdown line without Hyman.
 
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Suntouchable13 said:
We don't have a balanced attack and we never will with current salary cap allocation. After the big 4, the rest of the forwards are junk. Except for Hyman, he's pretty good.
Click to expand...


Did we retire from drafting?

We will keep surrounding them with talent with the draft. We draft well as an organization.
 
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I think Keefe's lines are fine. I probably would have just put Hyman back with Matthews but Vesey is fine too. Even Mikheyev works well. At least we have some options if things need to be shifted a bit.

The main things I would change is swapping that 3rd and 4th pairings (i.e. Lehtonen and Dermott play, Bogosian and Sandin sit) and maybe trying Engvall or Barabanov on the 3rd line instead of Simmonds if only to give them a shot, but I guess Simmonds deserves a shot too (even though that 4th line has consistently underperformed). Can always change that too if he sucks.

At least there are a lot of good options. It feels nice when you've got 3 or 4 guys on both offense and defense who can easily sub in for someone who is not a part of the big 4 and can handle the roles being given to them.
 
Why are we overthinking this? Should be Hyman on the 1st line and Mikheyev on the 2nd line. Just like it was and should have been from the get go if you want to put the best top six together.

Thornton was an odd choice to begin with, and Simmonds would be even worse. Maybe if this was five years ago both of those options would have made a whole lot more sense.
 
ponder said:
Mikheyev - Matthews - Marner
Vesey - Thornton - Nylander
Barabanov - Kerfoot - Hyman
Anderson - Spezza - Simmonds

Keeps the 3rd line as a shutdown line, and keeps the top 2 lines strong. In do think Hyman would be better than either Mikheyev or Vesey in their spots, but he’s also strong defensively, the shutdown line isn’t really a shutdown line without Hyman.
Click to expand...


Guessing you meant JT and not Jumbo
 
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