GDT: Preseason game 1: Sharks vs. Golden Knights 5pm Streamed on sharks.nhl.com

[TheBigDrunkPanda]

Honestly watching Kostin out there made it clear to me that we need to split up the Lund line. The #1 priority this season is developing Celebrini/Smith and we have four other forwards with top-9 offensive talent; we need to allocate as many of those as necessary to help further that developmental cause. The Lund line is awesome but what’s most important that Celebrini/Smith can pass the puck to guys who aren’t Kunin/Kostin fumbling and turning it over at every opportunity.

I’d imagine he’s on that line to help prevent teams taking liberties with Mack

 

[Pinkfloyd]

I like that it’s taken all of one preseason game to abandon insulating Celebrini lol

 

[sampler]

went to the game, so great to be back at the tank... here at the thoughts:

1. Celebrini is for real. Its not just the goal and assist: his anticipation, his passing, his skating, his shot, his ability to find space, and his IQ .... its all there.

2. Every other high end prospect fumbled. Dickinson was god awful. Musty was terrible. Graf was mediocre at best. Cagnoni was moderately interesting and I liked his aggressiveness, but much to learn.

Basically, no one but celebrini looked clearly NHL ready.

3. we need one more NHL winger to be competitive. Just one more top 6 winger. Kostin aint gunna cut it. Toffoli looks great. Eklund and granlund looked good, but that was it. Not impressed by dylandrea in his first look. I know its just one game, but you can see it...

4. Warsofsky's post game presser was perfect. Its a learning curve. Dick, musty.... these guys are 18/19 years old and the game is faster here. They have the raw tools but speeding up your brain takes time. Dick is clearly going back to london. Musty took a step back to sudbury (or wherever he lands in the O). Nevertheless, warsofsky is clearly a good teacher and ill be interested to watch as camp progresses...

5. On the unfortunate side, I also saw a lot of last year in this game. 10 shots in the first two periods. Very little Ozone possession time. It was familiar, and the sharks had most of their lineup playing (Wennberg, walman, zetterlund, Smith, and Benning were the only somewhat 'main' guys out), while VGK played a pretty much exclusively rookie lineup other than a few depth guys lik hutton or howden. Still vegas vastly outplayed us and nearly doubled up the shot total. Thats depressing when a mostly NHL team plays a junior/ahl team and loses. Warsofsky has his work cut out for him...

 

[YUPPY 2 7 10 11]

Celebrini is our Caitlin Clark

So you want Celebrini to be bullied and poked in the eye? how cruel!

 

[Jargon]

I kind of want to try Goosh on either Celebrini or Smith’s line. He’s smart and I think he’d put in their passes. Bords would be interesting to try too. Kostin isn’t it, anyway, I think he should be on the 3rd line with Wennberg and whoever.

 

[sampler]

I kind of want to try Goosh on either Celebrini or Smith’s line. He’s smart and I think he’d put in their passes. Bords would be interesting to try too. Kostin isn’t it, anyway, I think he should be on the 3rd line with Wennberg and whoever.

I like your thinking... Gushkin is intriguing. It would be real nice to find someone who can play with pace with toffoli and celly, and someone shifty and quick.

Its a work in progress, and its not just personnel. The sharks breakouts were awful. very little speed through the neutral zone most of the game, minimal rushes and few off man breaks (the granlund-eklund one was a beauty that just didnt finish.) The team concept isn't there yet.

many roster spots still up for grabs and many guys still trying to grab 'em. still a couple weeks until the season starts, so I expect alot of these guys will get one or two more looks.

 

[Jargon]

I like your thinking... Gushkin is intriguing. It would be real nice to find someone who can play with pace with toffoli and celly, and someone shifty and quick.

Its a work in progress, and its not just personnel. The sharks breakouts were awful. very little speed through the neutral zone most of the game, minimal rushes and few off man breaks (the granlund-eklund one was a beauty that just didnt finish.) The team concept isn't there yet.

many roster spots still up for grabs and many guys still trying to grab 'em. still a couple weeks until the season starts, so I expect alot of these guys will get one or two more looks.

Yeah, I also think the thing for all of us to remember is this team has had *insane* turnover. For all of us who remember SJeasy, he’d talk about how getting more than 3-4 new players could cause some early problems for a team. We’ve got, what… like 10? And a lot of them VERY young. AND we have a new coach.

I think this team should be better than last year’s catastrophe but I think it’s going to take many games to see Warsofsky’s system start to take shape.

And our defense remains so bad. I mean, Cagnoni won’t make the NHL team and he’s easily our best PP quarterback right now, sooooo….

 

[hohosaregood]

It's a nice wake up call game. It's also preseason. I can't remember watching a preseason game and caring in the last 20 years except once in maybe 2010 when I got very drunk and heckled Corey Perry so effectively that he turned around in the box and stared at me for 20 seconds (proud moment).

We care now because we have all these prospects, but as many of us know, prospects take time at best and many will bust, or have a very short peak in the NHL even if they look promising. no need to overreact about one game, but definitely helpful to remember just how far away we are as a team, and many are as prospects.

Except Celebrini. f***ing incredible. My expectations for Smith are still 35-45 points and some real struggles, but absent injury, Celebrini could definitely see a 60+ point season. THE TRUTH. I think it was @weastern bias who said "Diet Coke Crosby" and yeah something like that.

He's Coke Zero Crosby

 

[LadyStanley]

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