It was Francis who saw him play at Cornell and put him on the Canes radar. Saw him make some nifty passes that Francis thought were evidence of good playmaking ability. Francis helped talk him into leaving Cornell early to get professional experience. The fear was Nash was going to stay in college until he graduated and then go back in the draft as he was originally drafted by EDM was not going to get any ice time due to all those high powered picks EDM- Hall, Gagner, Nugent-Hopkins...Of note, another Ron Francis player- Philippe Paradis.
Nash is simply too one dimensional and really green around the gills...
I really don't understand why the team can't bite the bullet a little and make roster moves to encourage good performance. i.e. Boychuk, Sutter, et all well slotted and gelling. Now because we have to accommodate the 'reunion' of Tlusty, Staal and Semin, everything else, everything that was working - suddenly takes second place.
But still. As many have noted, there were other ways of approaching the 3 returning from IR, ie a line of Tlusty, Nash and Staal couldn't have been that bad, at least for a couple of games, break em in slowly - while trying to keep at least three other lines that were working intact. Particularly the bottom six. And since J. Staal's line had been working, why not keep as is as? What were the lines? Three players still had to go 'out' of the lineup. And why not reward Boychuk, promote him to a line, say replace Dwyer?! Love the guy but, does anyone remember Larose? He's kinda taken the reigns. At least he does have a little more play making to his game than Larose did. But again, what's the big deal in sitting Dwyer for a game and giving Boychuk a chance after he's kinda earned it? OR why not _demote Dwyer_ since he's such a good defensive player? That's a couple of options for the first player. The other? Bowman. Another guy who I don't think the team was going to exactly miss???? And then it's a tough choice. I would probably have to sit Sutter. No, actually I'd go with sitting Ruutu a game. His body can always use a game off here or there. Why not try to fire him up a little? Send a little message.
Anyways, my lines NOW, I'd try something like this:
1a Skinner E. Staal Lindholm
1b Tlusty J. Staal Semin
3 Boychuk Malhotra Ruutu/Dwyer
4 Gerbe Sutter Dvorak
