NHL players no longer have the imagination to give interesting nicknames. They add either an 's' 'er' or 'ie' to the first syllable of the last name, and call it a day.
Backs
Monie
Colby
Tangs
Grats
I don't know what Smid's nickname is, but I'm going to go out on a limb and guess 'Smids' or 'Smidder'.
Whatever happened to nicknames that came out of a person's characteristics, or a funny incident?
Killer
Gump
Tiger
Mad Dog
Moose
The Hammer
Cujo
The Golden Jet
The Rocket
I would like to organize a coalition of CP guitarists to all bring axes and amps to the Dome and simultaneously rouse the crowd into a rendition of Johnny B Goode everytime he doesn something amazing.
Just watched the full replays of Johnny's goal and assists yesterday and have to say the gifs didn't quite do some of them justice, especially the goal. Watching the plays develop at full speed was jaw dropping.
What's great is the commentators just raved about Johnny on every goal he assisted on knowing that it was entirely his skill and vision that made the plays happen.
I still think that unless he absolutely blows everyone away at training camp (which he could easily do), he at least spends a little bit of time in the AHL. If anything, just so it doesn't look like they're just handing him a spot.
I was talking about this with a buddy at lunch. I think he starts out on the big team next year. He's not 19, he'll be 21 at training camp. He's been playing for a while against older/bigger players in college. And in my mind he's our best forward skill/vision/playmaking wise if Cammy leaves right now. Or at least on par with Hudler and Backs.
He's Hudler with skating ability.
After watching him at the worlds I see zero benifit to starting him out in the AHL with a bunch of pimply faced slugs. Throw him in with the big fish. He looks like he adjusts pretty quickly to elevated talent.
He'll be our best player by the end of next year if we can keep people off his back. That's the biggest decision that has to made in my mind. Who do you surround him with to get the most out of him?