Moller: Maybe Saturday
Terry Murray reports that Oscar Moller continues to make progress in his recovery from his shoulder injury, and it seems that as long as there are no setbacks in the next couple days, Moller has a good chance of cracking the lineup Saturday at New Jersey. Here's what Murray said...
Question: It seems as though Moller is getting close. Do you see him getting back in the lineup in the next couple days?
MURRAY: ``I do. I don't say that to be absolute, but he's doing well. He's doing all the extra stuff after practice, all the battles on the boards and all the 1-on-1 stuff we do to test the shoulder. He's coming out of all that feeling good. He went back at it today after the morning skate. I have a sense that he's close to 100 percent. We'll have a real good feel for it after tomorrow's practice.''
Question: Do you get a sense of what he can bring to the team when he returns?
MURRAY: ``He has played well. He brings an offensive element to the game. He's not an impact player for our team right now, but he can complement a line and he can play well on the power play. He has good composure and imagination on the power play. I don't see it at the level where you put a player back in and there's going to be a huge bounce.''
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TM's nice way of saying to the 4th line line Oscar
"good chance of cracking the lineup Saturday"
Good one.
Most rookies spend their first year on the 4th line until they EARN more playing time.
I really don't understand this fascination that everyone seems to have with automatically handing kids 20 minutes/night when they haven't proven anything yet.
Will Moller eventually be a top 6 forward? I think he will be. Is he that now? Not by a longshot.
you know, for a while I didn't really agree with the people who said that TM had favorites or was bias towards some players...But now I completely agree.
I don't know what you guys expect. Murray's got two lines that are working, the Handzus line and the Stoll line. He's not going to change those. So, short of bumping POS or Frolov to the fourth line, what choice does he have other than to put Moller on the fourth unit (not that he said he was going to do this, but it does make sense). There's going to be enough drama to go around, especially once the trades start rolling in; we don't need to manufacture any.
mrbrett,
I'd say Simmonds has earned the right to more than 10 minutes a game by playing outstanding in just about every game of the season.
Harrold certainly deserves more minutes than he gets, but Doughty gets over 20 a game.
Quisp. Murray's lines look like they're "working" when we shut out the opposition.
We're getting better play of late, but O'Sullivan/---/Zeiler was "working" as well but got scrapped.
As a matter of fact, we had 3 wins in a row and changed the lines. Why?
I just don't really like the way TM speaks publicly about his players. He defends some and talks down about others that I don't think at times deserve that.
Maybe some of these rookies like Simmonds and Harrold are playing well because their ice time has been limited so they can have strong shifts when they do get out there. Rookies tend to lose their steam as season rolls on. So less minutes may equate to a higher percentage of quality play. I think the timing of the shifts is more indicative of how they are doing. Simmonds seems to get a lot of late game minutes when we have a lead which is when you need fresh legs on the ice.
I dont think that he is talking down about any of his players. I think that he is being honest and saying "yeah the KID is good but he isn't a game changer"...yet. I think Moller is going to be great in the future but he has to earn his time. The only thing i might do if i was TM is put him on the top line next to fro and kopi. Sully hasn't looked good recently. I would move him down to the third in place of Richardson, send Richardson to the fourth, put Harrold back on the D and send down Drewskie. I guess thats not really just one thing but its what I would do.