Assuming we own rental Skjei and Pesce, I think you will see a lot of 11 forwards and 7 d men rosters for regular season games and Tony plays less than 10 min a night in a few 3rd pairing shifts and almost exclusively on the PP..
I think Orlov/Chatfield is a much more capable d pairing to actually play defense even with the inexperience of Chatfield. I think Chatfield can outskate his brain farts more often than TDA can do anything to overcome his defensive play. He is a good offensive dman, but TDA will never be on the same level defensively as the others on our current roster…. He’s better than Coghlan when he hasn’t played in a while…. And although someone has told Brindy that Coghlan can play his off side, we now have game evidence to prove otherwise and that is most of our poor opinion of Coghlan…. He was complete garbage trying to play his offside to give deHaan nights off and constantly forgot he was on the left and turns the wrong way or muffs things being all twisted around…. He wasn’t nearly as bad playing on his natural handed side….but the dye got cast in terms of playtime for 3rd RD and Brindy wasn’t going to choose Coghlan over Chatfield. Sucks the Coghlan couldn’t work his way back to make it a tougher decision for Brindy and fight for starts and ice time…. But that also will come into play this season for TDA when he has to fight against Brindy stubbornness and deference to his guys that play the right way and play defensively the way Brindy wants….it’s going to be fascinating to see how TDA wins more 5v5 ice time on the third pairing against Chatfield,,,, and it’s also why I’m certain we see more 11/7 versus 12/6 assuming the roster stays as is for d men and we own rental Pesce/Skjei….
anyways, off on a tangent there… back to original point of last paragraph…. In tight games you see Orlov/Chatfield or Skjei/Chatfield at 5v5 or even taking some PK time if trying to balance ok minutes and overall ice time minutes out evenly across 3 d pairings and not over shifting the Top4 and wearing them out…. I see us going 11/7 way more than 12/6 to get that defensive capability and PP bump versus trusting TDA playing a lot of 5v5 time on the third pairing…. If we do see brindy dlong 12/6 with TDA playing 3 RD then it will be a big ice time imbalance which is wasting the 3rd pairing partner
I think zero Percentage chance TDA plays with Slavin again on the top pair assuming everyone healthy and with the others slotted above him. Burns is just a better partner for Slavin than TDA…. Nothing against TDA, but I don’t think you get a single talent evaluator or coach in the league or any league looks at the two options of Slavin/TDA and Slavin/Burns and thinks to break up Burns and Slavin to give the ice time to TDA….
Absolutely nothing against TDA. He is a very good value at his contract and we know he can play in our system. He shouldn’t need to take months to get up to speed like other new players just joining can take to get comfortable.. so he hits the ground running from the first day of camp and we can hopefully see some nice bump in pp scoring with him in the lineup…. It offers us flexibility that is exciting and intriguing and is going to give teams fits trying to adjust for it and scout and strategize to counter what we can do (assuming they actually get creative with it and don’t continue the same awful pp practices of the last number of years)… when he was here before and in the lineup, We found a way to adapt to TDA weaknesses defensively and get through it until getting exposed in the playoffs….in a sheltered minute role or in a roster makeup strategy that allows us to ice the best overall options for all situations, I think it can really work well and be successful..
excited to see what we do with the roster for this year and how we get the best out of everyone …
