Quote:
Originally Posted by TheScorpion
I know you're just predicting what they'll do, Lanny, but man ... Duehr just isn't anything. He's an AHL fourth-liner.
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He's an AHL 4th liner that has the package that could work in the NHL, especially in the style and system Sutter employs. There's your blind spot Scorp. You think that because a player is X in the AHL that they are going to be the same in the NHL. It doesn't work that way. Making the jump to the next level is a whole new game, and many times players have to re-create themselves and use the characteristics that make teams believe in them. Duehr is a big guy that can skate and finish from in close. He plays a north-south game and goes to the dirty areas. He scores his goals from the blue paint by getting dirty. That's exactly what is missing on the top line right now. They need a body that can crash the net and score ugly goals on Huberdeau's passes. Look at Treliving's comments again. He's saying just this.
If Sutter wasn't here I would be all for the recall of Phillips. A coach who believed in playing all the skill possible is where Phillips might get a chance, but we don't have that coach. Our guy likes beef and he likes to play dump and chase. Big guys will always have the advantage over small guys in Sutter's books, and I firmly believe he thinks this team is too small as it is. I just don't see them getting smaller even if it means adding more "skill" to the lineup.