The good news is the Caps don't play again until Thursday night in Minnesota. The bad news is that they're banged up. Matts Pettinger and Bradley are both questionable for Thursday, Dainius Zubrus will play (though he's far from 100%) and Boyd Gordon is out.Despite not playing in a single game yet, Pettinger and Bradley have as many shots on goal through two games as Richard Zednik. Ouch.
Daily Awards
- Hart: Chris Kunitz (2G in 2-0 win)
- Ross: Rick Nash, Duvie Westcott, David Vyborny, Patrick Marleau (3 points each)
- Norris: Duvie Westcott (G, 2A)
- Vezina: Kari Lehtonen (34-save shutout win in Tampa)
- Richard: Nikolai Zherdev, Chris Kunitz (2G each)
- Calder: No rookies did anything noteworthy last night. Shame on them.
- Aiken: Michael Morrison (L, 5 goals allowed on 29 shots against)
6 comments:
1) Bradley (why did they resign him?) will hardly be missed. Pettinger's scrappy play will/has been
2) Zednik already looks disinterested. Would bringing back Bondra for one more year been a slightly better move?
3) Even if he sucked as bad as Zednik, at least you fans would have some excitement waiting for him to get # 500. Poor move Georgie!
The rift between the organization and Bondra is irreparable. Not re-signing him was not a bad move by GMGM. Signing Zednik, however, was.
I agree, to an extent - Z is really Jeff Friesen Part II. The problem is that he may be taking ice time away from a guy like Fleischmann or Klepis b/c he (Z) plays on a scoring line (unlike a guy like Fata, who even if he's cut, doesn't open a real spot for a scoring-line player). Once Bradley and Pettinger are back, I'd imagine Klepis will be sent back to Hershey. Is that best for his development? We'll see.
Bottom line, though, is a guy like Zednik needs to do more than he's doing. Zero SOG through two games is unacceptable, even for a guy you're not expecting a ton out of.
1) We agree that Zednik is taking time from a guy could develop. What does it say for those prospects that they couldn't supplant a veteran like he or Bradley?
2) Too bad there is a rift between Bondra and George/Ted. It would have been the proper end of his career to come back one last year
Fehr clearly isn't ready for the NHL. One more year in the AHL will greatly benefit him (power-forward types always take longer to develop).
Fleischmann and Klepis might be ready, but they could a little more AHL seasoning won't hurt. The larger point, though, is that there's no need to rush a guy to the NHL so he can play 8 minutes a night. Bradley is not taking a spot away from these guys b/c he is a third liner. Zed is taking a spot away from one of those two and it is why I'm down on him, especially when he's not producing.
It's no secret that I was against re-signing Bradley, but for somewhat different reasons than you're getting at here.
And the rift is almost all Bondra - the team was very generous with him and he walked away from that generosity to stink it up for Atlanta. Don't get me wrong, I was as big a Bondra fan as there was in this or any other town, but he, not the organization is to blame here, imo.
Btw, what's with the "we"?
1) Not sure about the 'stink it up in Atlanta' for Bondra. He had 20 goals in 60 games.
2) If healthy, that equates to 30. Other than AO, who on the Caps had that kind of production? They need more guys who could stink up like that! LOL Especially for a salary of less than 1 million
3) We heard that he wanted to return this season but George is the one who wasn't interested
4) We are us.
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