WWYDT: Home Ice Alignment
8 years ago
So, the road trip is done. We all know that extended stays away from home aren’t particularly forgiving to teams, and to expect domination is a bit silly. But at the same time, 1-4-2 isn’t exactly something you can brush off your shoulders either. So today, one day later than our usual date, I pose the following question to you..
What now? What would you say to or do with this team before Saturday night? Is it a stylistic change, lineup change, full-out roster shakeup? Do you lock your least favourite player in the closet until he promises to fix that annoying habit of his? What’s your course of action?
Yes, trying to fix a problem in less than 72 hours is two hairs short of impossible. But I’d like to know what your best effort would be.
From Last Week
Last week, I asked you what you’d like to see done with the red hot Hunter Shinkaruk, who ended up being called up temporarily to fill in for Alex Burrows. Here were the most interesting responses:
Mike:
Leave him.
Virtanen and McCann have already made the team, and need the time to develop. As it stands, Virt just sat a game and McCann wasn’t in the lines for the game against Ottawa. Bringing Shinkaruk into the picture as well would limit everyone’s ice time and be of no benefit.
If injuries start hitting the team – sure. Otherwise I think big minutes in Utica are best for his development and won’t impede Virtanen and McCann’s.
And why has no one mentioned his shooting percentage is an absurd 34%? While I’m a big Shinkaruk fan, I expect a big drop off in scoring, and soon.
Mark:
Trade Vrbata, bring Shink up.
They both fill the same role, top 6 scorer who can’t really handle the physicality of a bottom 6 position. Vrbata’s been pretty weak this season. Sure he’s snake bitten, but IMO he just doesn’t look like he’s trying as hard as the others on the team.
Trade him while he still has value, for a good prospect and some draft picks.
Or… Make a package of Vrbata and a good but not great D man in exchange for a real #1 D.
Neil B
Leave him where he can dominate for a year. The league is full of players who didn’t recover for 3-4 years (or at all) from being brought up too soon. As Mike observes, above, his shooting % is ridiculous right now. Let’s see what he does when it falls to earth.
Also, the flip side of this is that if we brought up Shink, we would be basically kissing Sven goodbye. Are we ready to do that in such a short sample with the team?
Recent articles from Jeff Veillette
