I’m not convinced Blake has made it. They’ve given him a shot to show what he can do, and rewarding him for doing his impression of Rod the bod in the 80’s. Which was impressive and undoubtedly earned the coaches respect. They have more vet guys that are good for the bottom six, the supposed open spot was a top six spot. It wouldn’t shock me if they kept him for a bottom six role but I still think it’s likely he’s playing top minutes in Chicago pretty quickly.
He’s had a good camp but I don’t know that he blew the doors off enough to steal a spot from a vet. Interesting to watch. Suzuki didn’t run with it at all, but it didn’t really seem like he was a featured player coming in vs the big new shiny toys. He’s going to have to surprise people from Chicago.
Could be, but I think the roster needs one of the kids or another skill forward some other way in order to succeed.
We’ve got Martinook - Staal - Carrier locked in, which is just Martinook - Staal - Fast by another name. Great. The top 6 is essentially the same top 6 we came into last year with (swap Roslovic for TT). What we’re missing is that “skilled” (quotes doing heavy work there) 4th line that can chip in offensively instead of just eat minutes. Drury-Blake could be the start of a line like that. Robinson - Drury - Jost/Lemieux on the other hand…
Once you’ve established that, then you get creative with moving folks around. Blake (or insert another kid) looks good? Play him in the top 6 for a change of pace, send Roslovic or KK down, etc. Noesen was perfect in that 4th line role last year for that exact reason - could pitch in offensively from the 4th line or not look out of place for a spell in the top 6.
But without that one last “skilled” forward, we’re lacking punch from the 4th line IMO. And we don’t have a good enough top 6 to be able to call the 4th line an afterthought.
