On the other hand, a rookie showcasing their skills with other rookies and against other rookies doesn’t mean much except to prove he’s better than other rookies. It doesn’t do anything to prove he belongs in an nhl lineup. We already have the young stars tournament for that. We don’t need another one.
The nhl pre season is to find out which of those standout rookies can fit in with nhlers. Playing them with and against actual nhlers accomplishes that.
Plus it’s not like these really are top to bottom veteran line ups. They still have tons of rookies dressed and playing, often alongside vets.
I think step one is proving a young player is better than other young players. We saw that in Penticton, but with a lot of walk ons, and not full prospect/AHL lineups.
Plus how often have you seen Ruzicka or Phillips or Zary or Pelletier with actual NHL players?
Ruzicka gets the first of those opportunities tonight.
The way the vets and PTOs fill in spots with young guys, and the next night all NHL lineups rotates we haven't seen any of that with the other three.
And I don't agree ... The Flames played their top goalie, top two lines, fourth line, and 2/3 of their defense core against the Oilers the other night. The Oilers are doing the same tonight.
You are totally right and it's an example of a process or rule not achieving it's intended outcome.
Since the NHL charges for pre-season games, they wanted to have a reasonable number of veterans. To achieve that teams are signing PTOs and dressing 4th liners to fit the quota.
So it hasn't even done what it was supposed to do.
It's a dumb rule and should be removed.
How many PTOs dressed in the Flames Oilers game? 2 per team? One of which, Stone, will likely get signed so isn’t even really just a filler like some other PTOs. Not like they’re padding 1/3 of the lineups with PTOs just to fill spots who they know will never get signed.
And what’s wrong with dressing 4th liners? They need to play too.
Is there anything wrong with unbalanced lineups? Edmonton chose to send a crap roster to Calgary. That’s their choice. Obviously neither coaches nor management are concerned or they would have dressed their stars.
What I think is happening, similar to the nfl and nba, is load management is becoming a thing. Stars in the nfl basically don’t even take a snap in the preseason.
NHL stars are already in great shape before they come to camp. This isn’t like the old days where pre season was to get in shape. Most vets only need a couple games to get up to game speed and build chemistry.
The preseason does exactly what it should, give an extended look for young guys who want to crack the line up.
The real question is whether 8 games is really necessary. Seems like a lot.
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Here is a great opportunity for Ruzicka to show something. He has been very disappointing so far. If he can't do it with those two guys he won't be able to do it with anybody.
I am laughing out loud at this one. Pat's response is gold.
Pat was pretty fiery yesterday afternoon on the Fan talking about Oilers Twitter trolls that came out after the game on Wednesday telling him to not get too excited because it was preseason. It was quite the rant.
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The Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little, and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while the Company is true. Go Flames Go!
I am guessing this is blacked out to anyone outside of the Calgary market area... which stinks for those of us in the USA.
Small Rant --> For the life of me I cannot figure out the "marketing" of the NHL. You would think that they would make the preseason available to EVERYONE so that they could attract new viewership to their product. Blacking out meaningless preseason games seems a really dumb play by them. I know they do it every year, and every year I ask the same question to myself - why? What a perfect time to get new viewers and pitch their packages for the season? Mind boggling.
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Here is a great opportunity for Ruzicka to show something. He has been very disappointing so far. If he can't do it with those two guys he won't be able to do it with anybody.
Note to Ruzicka: When near the opposing net, keep your stick on the ice and Hubey dubey doo will find it!
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I would still like to see Pelletier get a crack at one more preseason game, but it is difficult to argue that anyone from the Seattle game stood out in a good way.
I am guessing this is blacked out to anyone outside of the Calgary market area... which stinks for those of us in the USA.
Small Rant --> For the life of me I cannot figure out the "marketing" of the NHL. You would think that they would make the preseason available to EVERYONE so that they could attract new viewership to their product. Blacking out meaningless preseason games seems a really dumb play by them. I know they do it every year, and every year I ask the same question to myself - why? What a perfect time to get new viewers and pitch their packages for the season? Mind boggling.
