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]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1838086532684759127

 

[TheBeard]

f*** it. Put Halttonen on that top line with Celebrini for the next exhibition game and see what happens.

 

[JoeThorntonsRooster]

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

Just like Matt Pelech helped to prevent teams taking liberties with Boyle…

 

[Star Platinum]

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.

It's also why I don't buy the people who want to keep the Lund line intact to go up against other people's top lines so Celebrini can match up against other team's #2 lines and leave Will Smith in the wilderness with whatever scrubs are left to play with him. You don't need to protect Celebrini. Tally up the great plays that he made in this game (including the ones that went nowhere because the guy on the other end of his pass did nothing with it or there was a great save), then tally up the great plays Eklund and Granlund made as 2/3 of the Lund line combined. Stop worrying about sheltering Celebrini and Smith and just let them play with your best skill players and let the chips fall where they may. Don't worry about the fact that our #1 and #2 lines are gonna have tough matchups. They're already going to have it tough playing with a subpar defensive corps and goalie situation anyway.

 

[Jargon]

It's also why I don't buy the people who want to keep the Lund line intact to go up against other people's top lines so Celebrini can match up against other team's #2 lines and leave Will Smith in the wilderness with whatever scrubs are left to play with him. You don't need to protect Celebrini. Tally up the great plays that he made in this game (including the ones that went nowhere because the guy on the other end of his pass did nothing with it or there was a great save), then tally up the great plays Eklund and Granlund made as 2/3 of the Lund line combined. Stop worrying about sheltering Celebrini and Smith and just let them play with your best skill players and let the chips fall where they may. Don't worry about the fact that our #1 and #2 lines are gonna have tough matchups. They're already going to have it tough playing with a subpar defensive corps and goalie situation anyway.

Yeah and I’d argue that sheltering them means putting them with your absolute best players rather than with… Kostin. And I like Kostin, I’m just not sure that’s exactly right here.

I’d be curious to see something like Eklund - Celebrini - Toffoli / Granlund - Smith - Zetterlund but possibly still send out like Goodrow - Wennberg - Dellandrea against top lines until they feel like Celebrini is ready to face them.

My only issue is that the 1st line doesn’t really have a guy to go retrieve the puck.

 

[OrrNumber4]

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.

SJeasy was specifically talking about contending teams; turnover and low expectations are a given for rebuilding teams.

Because I want better players than Kostin or Kunin on Celebrini's and Smith's lines. The Sharks have four forwards on their roster that are clearly better than either of those guys. There is zero reason to play either of them with the two guys we're trying to develop who are the future centerpieces of our top two lines.

Kostin might have a case that he's the 6th-best forward on the team...and the fourth-best winger if Granlund, Celebrini, and Smith are at center.

Overall, I think you could get away putting Kostin/Grundstrom/Gushchin/Bordeleau with Celebrini and Toffoli. But with Smith, it might be tough to deploy him ideally. He shouldn't be saddled with poor talents or low experience. Maybe Wennberg and Zetterlund would work, but then who is going to play with Eklund and Granlund?

 

[Star Platinum]

Yeah and I’d argue that sheltering them means putting them with your absolute best players rather than with… Kostin. And I like Kostin, I’m just not sure that’s exactly right here.

I’d be curious to see something like Eklund - Celebrini - Toffoli / Granlund - Smith - Zetterlund but possibly still send out like Goodrow - Wennberg - Dellandrea against top lines until they feel like Celebrini is ready to face them.

My only issue is that the 1st line doesn’t really have a guy to go retrieve the puck.

I'm torn about what the best thing to do with Granlund is once you commit to the idea that making Smith center the third line is madness. I assume that most people that want to pair him with Smith reason that Granlund can take some of the dirty work responsibilities that Smith might be overmatched with (faceoffs, defensive center responsibilities, etc.). The problem I have with that is that while I perceive Celebrini to be equally fine with playing the role of a passer or shooter, I perceive Smith to be far more advanced as a passer than as a shooter, which is pretty much Granlund's profile as well), to the point where I thought there was even an argument to be made that maybe Toffoli should be paired with Smith and that Celebrini could center Zetterlund and Granlund. But it seems inevitable at this point that Toffoli is here to be paired with Celebrini.

I'd like to be able to put a better puck retrieval guy on Celebrini's line too, but honestly, does that guy even really exist on this team? Just find the guy with the fewest warts and do the best you can with it. If it's not really working that well by the end of the year, we probably have to replace Granlund anyway so you can go out and try to get that better fit guy in the summer of 2025.

 

[karltonian]

That was fun! Results not withstanding. Has me even more pumped for the year now.

Though I have to say (more for discussion than any real concern here), the controller disconnect goal on the empty netter was a little surprising coming from a guy with Celebrini's compete level. Think that maybe he thought it was going to be icing or something?

 

[Star Platinum]

Kostin might have a case that he's the 6th-best forward on the team...and the fourth-best winger if Granlund, Celebrini, and Smith are at center.

Kostin does not even remotely have a case for being the 6th best forward on the team.