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David Clarkson


Zubie#8

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Clarkson is a third liner who should get paid like a third liner.  Any team offers more, I won't shed a tear for him leaving this offseason.  Clarkson simply can't handle playing on the top 2 lines and being expected to score at a rate commensurate with a Top 6 winger.  He'll play his puck possession style, but he's not going to be able to feast on inferior talent/defenders like he can playing on the bottom lines.


His play has been embarrassing at times lately, but at least he's shown up from time to time unlike Ponikarovsky.

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Bernier could fill in for his shifts until he gets his head back together, if he ever does.  he's like a microcosm of the season. he's not as good as hist start but he's better than what we've seen lately.  he's not strong on the boards as he usually is and he looks almost disinterested in the play not knowing where the puck is

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I feel like everyone is jumping down clarkys throat here.. Has he been a little off lately yea, has he not been producing goals for us like he was in the beginning of the season?.. No he hasnt but he is a good grinder maybe hea going threw se type of flunk off the ice that no one knows about and its measing with his game.. All im trying to say is everyone has their ups and downs.. And as soon as there is one down its bench him. Scratch him. Fire him. Trade him.. Jesus christ i just read a post about someone wanting to bench marty monday an play hedberg.. Why?.. Because the sh!t in front of him also known as defense fvcking sucks and they cant keep the puck out of their own end for the last minute of the game. Neither of the two losses were martys fault. Everyone needs to chill the hell out!

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I feel like everyone is jumping down clarkys throat here.. Has he been a little off lately yea, has he not been producing goals for us like he was in the beginning of the season?.. No he hasnt but he is a good grinder maybe hea going threw se type of flunk off the ice that no one knows about and its measing with his game.. All im trying to say is everyone has their ups and downs.. And as soon as there is one down its bench him. Scratch him. Fire him. Trade him.. Jesus christ i just read a post about someone wanting to bench marty monday an play hedberg.. Why?.. Because the sh!t in front of him also known as defense fvcking sucks and they cant keep the puck out of their own end for the last minute of the game. Neither of the two losses were martys fault. Everyone needs to chill the hell out!

 

Clarkson is an absolute play killer on the rush. Every time the puck comes to him, you know exactly what's going to happen. It's either A) He throws a low-percentage shot at the net that gets stopped easily or goes wide, or B) He turns the puck over. If other people can get the puck into the zone for him, he is decent at cycling and usually gets the puck to the point, at least. But sometimes you'd swear he's playing the game blindfolded. He can't find anyone with a pass unless they are WIDE open, and even then sometimes he elects to shoot anyway. You'd think he's selfish, but I don't think it's that, I think the play just happens too fast for him and he can't find his linemates quick enough.

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It's hard to be down on Clarkson IMO he was never expected to be a top ended scorer, he is in a slump grinders have a hard time digging for the puck he is a 15 a year goal scorer who brings a lot to the locker room. I hope he gets out of this slump but anyone thought he was going to pull off 30 goals a year every year was mistaken.

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I don't mind that he isn't scoring like he was last season or earlier this season. However it seems every facet of his game other than his forechecking ability has gone down the drain in the last twenty or so games. Yeah his forechecking created opportunities but he negates that with terrible turnovers, horrible shots and just poor judgement. For his and the teams sake I hope he at least starts getting going again on at least having better puck awareness and maybe even potting in a few goals and assists

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I'm kind of hoping he drops to the third line by the time Zubrus gets back. If he deserves better ice time, he'll work his way back up.

With the team healthy, I'd like to see:

 

Henrique-Loktionov-Kovalchuk

Elias-Zajac-D'Agostini

Ponikarovsky-Zubrus-Clarkson

Carter-Gionta/whoever else-Bernier

 

without Kovalchuk:

 

Elias-Zajac-D'Agostini

Henrique-Loktionov-Bernier

Ponikarovsky-Zubrus-Clarkson

Carter-Gionta-Barch

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I'm kind of hoping he drops to the third line by the time Zubrus gets back. If he deserves better ice time, he'll work his way back up.

With the team healthy, I'd like to see:

 

Henrique-Loktionov-Kovalchuk

Elias-Zajac-D'Agostini

Ponikarovsky-Zubrus-Clarkson

Carter-Gionta/whoever else-Bernier

 

without Kovalchuk:

 

Elias-Zajac-D'Agostini

Henrique-Loktionov-Bernier

Ponikarovsky-Zubrus-Clarkson

Carter-Gionta-Barch

 

Zubrus needs to be on the second line with Elias and Zajac. Switch D'Agostini to the third line.

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Ok so I love how aggressive he is and how he sticks up for his teammates. However, if he's gonna demand a lot of money I would not mind letting him go.

I think it's a legitimate concern that a lot of his goals are fluke goals. Besides, has anyone notices how many possessions he gives up by shooting sh!tty shots from the blue line. Doesn't matter where he is on the ice, he forces a shot almost right when he gets it.

I love the guy but would NOT be happy with overpaying for him when we could overpay for a better player

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Haven't read all 10 pages here but I do believe that Clarkson is capable of scoring 20 goals a year. It's not a coincidence that his goal drought really became a problem when he jammed his wrist against the boards in a game (forgive me, can remember the specific game...road game though I think). he has had it taped since then and that is a contributing factor to why he cant hit the broad side of a barn right now.

That being said i do not think he WILL score 20 goals a year... 15is an average year for him, 20 a good year, 25+ a very good year. He has a good shot now when healthy, he has picked the corner with some real nice shots...and he is damn good at deflections. Someone will pay him.

Edit: actually if Buffalo moves Stafford, Clarkson could be a nice fit there. Toughness, leadership, scoring, defense... and echoing sentiments from another thread, if BUF keeps Ott then Clarkson doesn't have to be the a-hole either, teams will focus more on Ott for that.

Edited by insanity_gallops
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No way Lou pays him what he asks. Which is a good thing, we will have a ton of money to go get vanek and other real scorers.

 

Has Clarkson or anyone in his camp mentioned what he's asking for though?  I've never heard any numbers thrown out.

 

Agree with insanity, with Clarkson coming off the 30-goal season and getting off to the hot start this season, I think we were all starting to get hopeful that Clarkson could have a few more 30-goal seasons.  But I think insanity's projections are now more realistic...somewhere between, say, 15-22 goals, with maybe a 25+ season in there somewhere.  And I think Lou's offer will reflect that kind of projection...if another team wants to make an offer based on Clarkson having scored 30 goals once (with tremendous luck), so be it. 

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Has Clarkson or anyone in his camp mentioned what he's asking for though?  I've never heard any numbers thrown out.

 

Agree with insanity, with Clarkson coming off the 30-goal season and getting off to the hot start this season, I think we were all starting to get hopeful that Clarkson could have a few more 30-goal seasons.  But I think insanity's projections are now more realistic...somewhere between, say, 15-22 goals, with maybe a 25+ season in there somewhere.  And I think Lou's offer will reflect that kind of projection...if another team wants to make an offer based on Clarkson having scored 30 goals once (with tremendous luck), so be it. 

I'm more than happy with 20 goals a year from Clarky if he can be close to a 20g-20a-40p stat line, I'd be happy. He isn't a scorer, he will not ever score more than 30, but I would be more than happy to see him put up 40 points each year. This is the way I've felt except for a moment at the start of the season where I thought I could be wrong, then I wasn't and it's still ok.

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Are you guys for real? It's like some of you guys are in some weird on off relationship with Clarkson. One minute, he's a pos, next minute, he's our guy who scratched his way to the top.

Get over it. He's not a 30 goal scorer, never was, never will be. You guys remember the year Clarky got hurt? In 09-10, he had 4 more points than he has now, and that was in 10 more games. So he was great then, deserving of the contract he would get in the offseason, now he's terrible....Make up your minds.

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Are you guys for real? It's like some of you guys are in some weird on off relationship with Clarkson. One minute, he's a pos, next minute, he's our guy who scratched his way to the top.

Get over it. He's not a 30 goal scorer, never was, never will be. You guys remember the year Clarky got hurt? In 09-10, he had 4 more points than he has now, and that was in 10 more games. So he was great then, deserving of the contract he would get in the offseason, now he's terrible....Make up your minds.

 

It's frustration boiling over, and the fact that Clarkson had his career year last season and was finding the net so often early this season.  Now he's showing signs of becoming the old Clarkson, and coupled with everything else, including Parise's loss being felt, Clarkson is becoming an easy target.  It's just going to take everyone a while to temper their expectations for him back down.  Not to make light of anyone who ever had this condition, but it's almost like the movie "Awakenings".  Clarkson had something like one last season and the start of this season.  Now it looks like that version of Clarkson may never play again, and it's disappointing on some level.  In a way, if he had just started the season the way he's playing now (in terms of offensive contributions), it might have been easier to take...we all could've more easily written off last season as a one-time fluke.  The tease he gave us all at the start of this season had some people thinking he was on his way to being a great story. 

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It's frustration boiling over, and the fact that Clarkson had his career year last season and was finding the net so often early this season.  Now he's showing signs of becoming the old Clarkson, and coupled with everything else, including Parise's loss being felt, Clarkson is becoming an easy target.  It's just going to take everyone a while to temper their expectations for him back down.  Not to make light of anyone who ever had this condition, but it's almost like the movie "Awakenings".  Clarkson had something like one last season and the start of this season.  Now it looks like that version of Clarkson may never play again, and it's disappointing on some level.  In a way, if he had just started the season the way he's playing now (in terms of offensive contributions), it might have been easier to take...we all could've more easily written off last season as a one-time fluke.  The tease he gave us all at the start of this season had some people thinking he was on his way to being a great story. 

 

 

I said it in the other thread but I'll post it here. I could take his invisibility on the score sheet if he was actually playing the game hard. Last night especially, he was given double shifts but was literally gliding and almost taking casual strolls on back checks.

 

As has also been said many times, the looking at the ref with the shock look on his face begging for calls is really getting old too.

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I said it in the other thread but I'll post it here. I could take his invisibility on the score sheet if he was actually playing the game hard. Last night especially, he was given double shifts but was literally gliding and almost taking casual strolls on back checks.

 

As has also been said many times, the looking at the ref with the shock look on his face begging for calls is really getting old too.

So lets say Clarky doesn't score another goal this season. I'm still sort of ok with it, yeah that's a long time to not score a goal, but honestly, 12 for him this year is just fine. I would have been happy to see him post up anything beyond 10-10-20. He's pretty much there now. Everything else, to me, is gravy. He's being forced into a role he's not able to handle. He's getting, what I like to call, "Mike Mottau'd". Basically meaning there's nothing wrong with him, he's just not a top line player, like Mottau was never a top 4 d-man, but was still a perfectly good #5-6, in fact a very good one.

 

Edited by ATLL765
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So lets say Clarky doesn't score another goal this season. I'm still sort of ok with it, yeah that's a long time to not score a goal, but honestly, 12 for him this year is just fine. I would have been happy to see him post up anything beyond 10-10-20. He's pretty much there now. Everything else, to me, is gravy. He's being forced into a role he's not able to handle. He's getting, what I like to call, "Mike Mottau'd". Basically meaning there's nothing wrong with him, he's just not a top line player, like Mottau was never a top 4 d-man, but was still a perfectly good #5-6, in fact a very good one.

 

 

we all recognize Clarkson is not worth nor capable of playing top 6 minutes without contributing on the offensive side of things. what scares me is it seems as though the coaching staff either is blind to it or is putting him on an insanely high pedestal.

 

I HATE the way his game has regressed and how he is playing right now. To me, his hockey IQ is that of a bottom-6 AHLer. Not someone deserving of a daily NHL roster spot.

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