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Player Discussion John Merrill: a.k.a. Joe Dirt, a.k.a. Letterkenny Extra Edition

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KotkaZuki said:
Could also see Gustaffasson start as a fourth line winger and play PP Minutes, kind of like streit in the old days
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They honestly should. Use him as a PP specialist. That would be very smart. I'd be pleasantly surprised if they did. They either won't use him, wait for an injury, or take Merril or Romanov out (I'm assuming Kulak is out for Merril). It should honestly be Weber out. Regardless of who the coach is, I've very seldom seen this team make the right decisions when it comes to a lineup.
 
Miller Time said:
really? i though the issue with the call-up flexibility was the cap crunch created precisely because they were on the roster right away. Gustafsson's cap hit is double mete's, so certainly that has had an negative affect on DD's ability to make adjustments.

re. Mete vs Gustafsson... in a vacuum? no doubt. Gustafsson, if playing, can bring an element mete couldn't. No doubt or debate there.

Thing is, neither offer more than what the 6 guys in the lineup tonight can bring... and arguably neither offer more than what Kulak brings.... so the move was both pointless in terms of benefit and a net negative in terms of the long term asset loss (Mete as an RFA had more value, as small as it is/was/may have been, than gustafsson as a UFA we certainly have no reason to re-sign) AND, more importantly, for the roster inflexibility it created at a crucial point in the season.

it's not a case of Mete Vs Gustafsson, it's a case of poorly handled roster/asset management and risk/reward assessment.
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I don't know if its necessarily "more" that the Habs need, but different. Lets be real, Montreal can't clear the zone or transition to save their souls right now and most of their D only want to hammer the puck at the net right now.

And Montreal's D core is awful at controlled exits and controlled entries. Stuff that Mete and Gustafsson do well. So ya, you may not get offense or ability to defend man on man/the crease (Mete) or any D (Gustafsson), but you might get more just by virtue of not asking your forward core already missing one of their better transition players (Gallagher) to do all the work outside of defending.
 
I actually think Drouin should be tried on the D and Gustav on the F.

I don't think Drouin has it to be a forward but an offensive D man à la ghost, maybe.
 
Captain Mountain said:
I don't know if its necessarily "more" that the Habs need, but different. Lets be real, Montreal can't clear the zone or transition to save their souls right now and most of their D only want to hammer the puck at the net right now.

And Montreal's D core is awful at controlled exits and controlled entries. Stuff that Mete and Gustafsson do well. So ya, you may not get offense or ability to defend man on man/the crease (Mete) or any D (Gustafsson), but you might get more just by virtue of not asking your forward core already missing one of their better transition players (Gallagher) to do all the work outside of defending.
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agreed...

i'd have had Mete in the lineup more consistently ahead of Kulak, i think he was better than most gave credit for and, as you point out, added a much needed element. Confidence was undermined heavily by how we handled him imo.

but, with how our coaching staff is approaching things, i don't know that they'd value Gusta over Kulak, and even if so, there's still Romanov or Merrill that would have to sit to get him in the lineup. Both are better enough than Gusta that whatever bump he would add specifically to the transition/offense on the back end wouldn't be enough to offset the overall gaps in his game compared to them.

Sooo... barring injury, can't see any reason Gusta gets in the lineup, and with Kulak (and until waived, Mete) around, the move made no sense at all once we added the superior Merrill.
 
I haven't seen him much which means he's doing a absolutely solid job and it's his first game too after over a week of not playing. He had good defensive analytics so I'm hoping he can just be solid and allow Romanov more freedom to create more
 
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Hins77 said:
He is steady. Detroit fans told me i wouldnt notice him during a game and thats pretty accurate. Good 6th dman. Way better than kulak
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I think Merrill has the worst skating stride on the team. And Kulak is a really good skater.

But so far, Merrill looks effective, while Kulsk was so up as nd down. Let's hop Merrill can be consistent.
 
Came in as advertised indeed. Very solid and steady, he is a significant improvement over Kulak. He just needs to play more which should come as he gets more comfortable with the system and the team.
 
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He looked solid, in the second period he even made a nice player to stop McDavid.

He is also reliable defensively which means Romanov can play a bit more offensively, hopefully the third pairing sees more minutes soon and the Weber pairing sees less (in regards to Chiarot, SIGNIFICANTLY less).
 
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