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Player Discussion Tage Thompson 1

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Kyndig86 said:
It's a situation where every once in a while he would do this fancy toe drag and miss the net..but he was so close sometimes. In this scenario we thought it would be best if he kept at it in the NHL.
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Who is we? Taylor could have coached Thompson if he was sent down. Thompson could have worked on his game, moving his feet, decision making instead he wasted a year in the NHL.
 
Chainshot said:
You seriously believe that he wouldn't be a better player today if he had gone down to the Amerks early in the season to work on his game? Heh. Wow.
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We don't know what was going on at practice. I'm sure there was a reason for keeping Tage up. I'm not complaining because of how he has responded once being sent down. Did he deserve to be up? No, not from what I know. These conversations were had all season. Not sure why people would be angry with him performing well.
 
Sabre Dance said:
We don't know what was going on at practice. I'm sure there was a reason for keeping Tage up. I'm not complaining because of how he has responded once being sent down. Did he deserve to be up? No, not from what I know. These conversations were had all season. Not sure why people would be angry with him performing well.
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People aren't angry that he's performing well. They're angry that a player wasn't treated in the fashion that would have afforded him quality ice time, practice repetition, and situational use to grow -- the traditional route of minor league development in the NHL. We see him having some success and wonder at what might have been possible if he'd been working on the problems that plague his game at faster speeds and with less time.

Edit: as for what happened in his time up with Buffalo, this is similar to several posters comments in November when it was obvious that he should have been sent down. We could see his on-ice mistakes with puck security, his positioning, his over-reliance on stickhandling all season. There was no change in what he was doing. Practice implies that he was working on parts of his game that are not working -- which is a broad swath of problems at this point -- and seeing some improvement. There was none. So this consistent party line about him staying up to work in practice at the NHL level holds no water. It did not make a difference and we can infer from how he played that there was no improvement. We also know that practices days for the NHL team are often very limited.

The only reason that makes sense to see him up all year was that he was a big piece of the O'Reilly trade and that... that points to bigger problems at the top.
 
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Chainshot said:
People aren't angry that he's performing well. They're angry that a player wasn't treated in the fashion that would have afforded him quality ice time, practice repetition, and situational use to grow -- the traditional route of minor league development in the NHL. We see him having some success and wonder at what might have been possible if he'd been working on the problems that plague his game at faster speeds and with less time.
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But at the same time we complain about others staying down too long?

I don't think there is a specific way to develop a player. I don't know why they kept him up. Has anyone ever asked Botterill?
 
Sabre Dance said:
But at the same time we complain about others staying down too long?

I don't think there is a specific way to develop a player. I don't know why they kept him up. Has anyone ever asked Botterill?
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Right, players like Smith who went on multiple week runs of scoring were brought up and relegated to minimal minutes or the press box. The mantra from the front office of development and accountability is not born out in how they operate. Smith and O'Regan seemed to show enough to have deserved meaningful looks and instead we had Tage. Development is an art, but the basics of the medium are to reward good play with ice time at the next level. They did not do that.
 
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Chainshot said:
Right, players like Smith who went on multiple week runs of scoring were brought up and relegated to minimal minutes or the press box. The mantra from the front office of development and accountability is not born out in how they operate. Smith and O'Regan seemed to show enough to have deserved meaningful looks and instead we had Tage. Development is an art, but the basics of the medium are to reward good play with ice time at the next level. They did not do that.
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I agree with all your points but I don't know what Botterill's thought process was when making the decision to keep Tage up and others down. I would like to know.
 
Sabre Dance said:
I agree with all your points but I don't know what Botterill's thought process was when making the decision to keep Tage up and others down. I would like to know.
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That'd be a great question. Too bad the press didn't hound him on that at the end of year press conference. Or any of their other opportunities throughout the months from when it became obvious TT wasn't up to NHL speed.
 
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