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The 2017-2018 Training Camp / Pre-Season Thread

LeafGm said:
Moore, at least, isn't awful offensively. He scored 11 goals & 25 points while getting 4th line minutes mostly with a bunch of pretty awful line mates in Boston last year. And if Aaltonen turns out to be a player, he could be an upgrade on Moore too.

So, even with the offensive black hole that is Matt Martin on the left side, things wouldn't be totally hopeless for Brown.

Still, it is frustrating that if you could just throw Kasperi Kapanen, or Josh Leivo, or Nikita Soshnikov, or Andreas Johnsson on that other wing, you'd have a fourth line that would be a decent 3rd line on most teams. But that's just not happening.
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That last paragraph pretty much.
 
good organizations have that kind of depth though. and fortunately I believe we are still in a position where we are unlikely to lose anyone on waivers that would be really upsetting.
 
hockeylover said:
I think if he had someone else other than Martin and Moore with him, I'd call it a luxury but it seems like a waste not to give him more to work with.
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Well I meant its a luxury in the sense that most teams don't even have players like Brown on the 4th lines. There are a lot more 4th lines out there with Martins than Browns.

That kind of depth is only a positive for us.

I mean the last time we had a player like that on the 4th line was probably Reichel after they picked up Francis in 03-04. Or I guess Steen, but unlike this, that was just bad coaching.
 
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Hyman should be the first guy to be dropped to the 4th line. Brown is more a first liner than a fourth liner, and the reverse for Hyman.

Even Komarov ought to probably be on the 4th line if it's between him and Brown.

But the rest of the top 9 are better than him. The depth is astounding. Like, almost overnight we became the deepest team in the league.

If and when JVR, Bozak, and Komarov all leave next year, it'll be interesting to see to what extent Kapanen, Leivo, Grundstrom, et al can take their place.
 
LeafOfFaith said:
Hyman should be the first guy to be dropped to the 4th line. Brown is more a first liner than a fourth liner, and the reverse for Hyman.

Even Komarov ought to probably be on the 4th line if it's between him and Brown.

But the rest of the top 9 are better than him. The depth is astounding. Like, almost overnight we became the deepest team in the league.

If and when JVR, Bozak, and Komarov all leave next year, it'll be interesting to see to what extent Kapanen, Leivo, Grundstrom, et al can take their place.
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I wouldn't go that far, but I think our forward depth is in the top-3
 
Who is even in the conversation?

Pittsburgh (though they fall off pretty hard after Sheary/Guentzel at the 5/6)

Tampa's deep, but they're also rocking some suspect names in their top 9 (The corpses of Callahan & Kunitz for starters).

Winnipeg also falls off hard after their top 6 forwards. I see deep out there, but I don't see "Connor Brown on your 4th line, Kapanen on the minors and Leivo is 13th forward) deep.
 
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LOF did not specify if he was referencing only our forward group (which I agree with) or our team's rosters as a whole. On first read I assumed it was the latter. On second read it may have been the former.

Either way, in terms of forwards, we are at or near the top.
 
I was speaking specifically about the forwards, and on an overall basis. Our goalie is good (no one behind him though), and our D is still lacking one high end guy (but that guy may well be Liljegren) but needs an upgrade on the bottom pair.

Rielly
Gardiner
Zaitsev
Hainsey
Marincin
Carrick
--------
Liljegren
Rosen
Borgman
Dermott

Depending on how those latter four guys turn out though, we may well have a crazy deep D too.
 
Lupul apologizes on Twitter for his comments and says he will not seek a second opinion. So that's that I guess?
 
And really, I can respect Lupul if he still want to resume his NHL career, and decides to file a complaint or get a second opinion to clear him medically ... but he would have done it last year.

Or if he takes the $$, do what the team tells him to and just enjoy being paid doing nothing, that's cool too.

Too bad he chooses to take the $$, whine, and not follow it through.
 
Leivo-aaltonen-brown line practicing together. Any chance this line sticks as the fourth line? That would be cool if Martin is no longer a regular.. he can come in and out for leivo depending on matchups.

Probably wishful thinking because that fourth line with Martin concerns me.
 
Leivo-Aaltonen-Brown 4th line would deepen my crush on babcock. but i'll believe it when I see it.
 
Hoglund14 said:
Leivo-aaltonen-brown line practicing together. Any chance this line sticks as the fourth line? That would be cool if Martin is no longer a regular.. he can come in and out for leivo depending on matchups.

Probably wishful thinking because that fourth line with Martin concerns me.
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Yes please.
 
At the very least, I get the feeling that Babs prefers Aaltonen over amoore. Which is great whether they go with Aaltonen or not because I was always a bit concerned that Moore would play a bit too much for my liking. A big part of his struggles last year was a result of the bruins coaching staff having waaaay too much trust in him and giving him TOUGH minutes. He was very clearly not comfortable in those minutes.

This makes me feel confident that even if Moor plays he won't be relied on much. Realistically though, they should dial back the fourth line minutes heavily and give 1-2 minutes extra each for the top three lines this year. But if it's leivo-aalts-brown that may not be entirely necessary I doubt it but that would be ****ing awesome. Even if they play Martin in say, 40-50 games and leivo the rest, that's huge progress.
 
With that said, Moore is a 55% faceoff man and aalts was 42% last year. We know how much babs values his faceoff guys. I think at the end of the day we'll see marts-moore-brown but it's something to watch for sure.
 
Moore was signed as a reliable PK centre, and yes, for his face-off prowess.

He needs to earn the trust of Babcock, but I have no doubt that unless he's incredibly out of shape, he'll be played in that role.
 
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