186 replies to this topic

[Jerrydevil]

yeah great idea, let's compare kovalchuk and ovechkin to two guys who play with the greatest defenseman of our lifetimes.

Come on, those guys are good all-around players ALONG WITH Nicklas Lidstrom. You know it!

[CarpathianForest]

Come on, those guys are good all-around players ALONG WITH Nicklas Lidstrom. You know it!

Those guys were also brought into Detroit with the full expectation that they would be having to develop their defensive prowess from the get go. Bringing Kovalchuk over from Atlanta and then having him work on his defense at this point in his career is down right stupid. What you need to do is get at least a center who can play with Kovy and backcheck effectively which is going to be difficult-o.

[Jerrydevil]

Bringing Kovalchuk over from Atlanta and then having him work on his defense at this point in his career is down right stupid.

That was not necessarily the sentiment this summer, CF. There was a hope that Kovalchuk would adjust his game somewhat to become a better all-around player ... not a two-way forward but a passable defensive player.

That has not happened. He either cannot do it or does not want to do it. Either way, we have a problem. Like Coldply said in another thread earlier this week, now we are faced with rebuilding the entire team to suit his style of play.

Most of us were definitely not singing that tune this summer.

[CarpathianForest]

That was not necessarily the sentiment this summer, CF. There was a hope that Kovalchuk would adjust his game somewhat to become a better all-around player ... not a two-way forward but a passable defensive player.

That has not happened. He either cannot do it or does not want to do it. Either way, we have a problem. Like Coldply said in another thread earlier this week, now we are faced with rebuilding the entire team to suit his style of play.

Most of us were definitely not singing that tune this summer.

You don't need to rebuild the entire team around Kovalchuk. Dany Heatley is just as miserable on defense but the Sharks didn't have to rebuild their defense around him. The big matzah ball out there is if we can find a playmaking center out there that can backcheck. That or you beef up the defense.

[Devils731]

Kovalchuk last night set up Langs and Zajac twice, I believe, for pretty nice scoring chances. Neither scored. Kovalchuk has been setting people up nicely all season, which is what he should be doing since other teams are basically double or triple teaming him in the offensive zone, but since nobody is finishing their chances Kovy gets no credit for this, and certainly not the reward in pluses and points. Just going by my gut from watching the games, Kovalchuk has set up the most good chances of anyone on the team this season, maybe he's second and Elias is first but I'm going the other way with it.

[CarpathianForest]

I know we're on a Kovy defense critique right now but it's not like he can develop his defensive prowess like he probably wanted. We've got a less than sufficient d core which has basically put Kovy into a trial by fire position concerning his defensive development. If the D was much better I believe we wouldn't have to see Kovy make so many defensive mistakes back there. But right now there's no confidence and probably no trust in each other's abilities so Kovy has to lift a bit more weight in the defensive end which I'm sure isn't making him too terribly comfortable.

[Masked Fan]

ldg

I blame pk for the loss based on this FAIL!

.... (okay, it doesn't bother me much that I missed out because they're always too small for my head anyway, but still).

bighead! freak!!

somehow i managed to get three hats. i don't think the lady that was giving them out was paying too much attention because she kept trying to hand them to me and two of them were pretty much stuck together.

so...uh, yeah. sorry about that. i didn't know there was a big hat debacle going down. if anyone wants the extras lol...

How long have you been back?!??

Not to be a d!ck, but I'm not sure what game you saw, the pp was a joke...

I concur. The only pp pressure we had was a couple chances before the Ilya goal. The others we were lucky to have a total of :45 seconds of offensive zone time and we hardly registered a single shot while on the pps. Not even 1 on the first pp AT ALL.

The Wild were flying out there and taking it to the Devils all over the ice, especially in the 1st. The 2nd was ours, but the 3rd was very even. That fluke goal was crushing. Even playing so POORLY imo we had a chance to win this game.

If it weren't for those meddling boards!