Article on Rundblad

stempniaksen wrote:

wprager wrote:There *WILL BE* injuries. Book it!

Great, then we can call one of them up when injuries strike.

An intriguing thought to me is Carkner at forward when injuries hit. That's strictly because Carkner/Konopka/Neil would be an insane line to watch.

Could we get them all to put tinfoil on their knuckles and wear these? Old-time hockey!

How is Gonchar doing after his concussion. I thought I read somewhere last month that he still is having issues... has anyone heard anything?

Well Gonchar is shown here swimming with Malkin in Russia.

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:

stempniaksen wrote:

shabbs wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

shabbs wrote:Carkner gone would solve this "dilemma" pretty quickly...

It wouldn't. Try to do your lines with Rundblad and Cowen and without only Carkner.

Meh... make one of them the 7th D and see who steps up. Let them earn their stripes... I'm not one for anointing right out of the gate... go the Detroit method... have them work for it.

That would be quite dumb. I agree with your basic concept, but having one of these guys sitting in the pressbox when they could be on the top pairing in Bingo is rather ridiculous.

I can't even make solid defense pairings based on what we saw last year from Gonchar, Phillips, and Karlsson.

Maybe: Phillips-Cowen, Rundblad-Gonchar, Kuba-Karlsson? Still I'd like to see Carkner in the mix; I just don't know where.

The right side of our D is crowded -- Gonchar, Karlsson, Lee, Carkner, and Rundblad. On the left side, we have Phillips, Cowen, and Kuba. Gonchar doesn't seem to like his "on" side.

The more I think about it, the less likely I think it is that we trade a D who plays the left side (i.e., Kuba). Looks like it's down to Lee or Carkner to me. Unless moving Gonchar is something that we're considering.

There are left D down on the farm.

rooneypoo wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:

stempniaksen wrote:

shabbs wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

shabbs wrote:Carkner gone would solve this "dilemma" pretty quickly...

It wouldn't. Try to do your lines with Rundblad and Cowen and without only Carkner.

Meh... make one of them the 7th D and see who steps up. Let them earn their stripes... I'm not one for anointing right out of the gate... go the Detroit method... have them work for it.

That would be quite dumb. I agree with your basic concept, but having one of these guys sitting in the pressbox when they could be on the top pairing in Bingo is rather ridiculous.

I can't even make solid defense pairings based on what we saw last year from Gonchar, Phillips, and Karlsson.

Maybe: Phillips-Cowen, Rundblad-Gonchar, Kuba-Karlsson? Still I'd like to see Carkner in the mix; I just don't know where.

The right side of our D is crowded -- Gonchar, Karlsson, Lee, Carkner, and Rundblad. On the left side, we have Phillips, Cowen, and Kuba. Gonchar doesn't seem to like his "on" side.

The more I think about it, the less likely I think it is that we trade a D who plays the left side (i.e., Kuba). Looks like it's down to Lee or Carkner to me. Unless moving Gonchar is something that we're considering.

Rundblad can play either side...especially on the PP, where he's always on the left.

Captain Hindsight wrote:
Rundblad can play either side...especially on the PP, where he's always on the left.

He can play left side 5 on 5? If so, and he can actually play both sides well, that's a huge game-changer.

Don't quote me on it...but at least in all his videos, he plays both sides on offense, so I assume he can also start from either side on D.

He either can play the left-side, or he just veers towards the left when on the rush? I dunno.

wprager wrote:There are left D down on the farm.

Who? Wiercioch? Even Gryba is another righty. And even if we did move a lefty, what would be the point of trading him (i.e., Kuba) only to promote a guy from the minors? Either way, you still wouldn't be making room for Rundblad.

No, mark it down -- if Rundblad impresses at camp and forces the organization's hand like I think he will do, OTT is trading a right handed D sometime in the near future. Trading Kuba actually makes very little sense the more and more I think about it. Unless your ready to let Cowen take the role, we don't have another top 4 D on the left side after Phillips.

Making experienced D play their off side often leads to enough disaster as it is. Making a rookie D do it would be criminally dumb.

Captain Hindsight wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:

DefenceWinsChampionships wrote:

stempniaksen wrote:

shabbs wrote:

SpezDispenser wrote:

shabbs wrote:Carkner gone would solve this "dilemma" pretty quickly...

It wouldn't. Try to do your lines with Rundblad and Cowen and without only Carkner.

Meh... make one of them the 7th D and see who steps up. Let them earn their stripes... I'm not one for anointing right out of the gate... go the Detroit method... have them work for it.

That would be quite dumb. I agree with your basic concept, but having one of these guys sitting in the pressbox when they could be on the top pairing in Bingo is rather ridiculous.

I can't even make solid defense pairings based on what we saw last year from Gonchar, Phillips, and Karlsson.

Maybe: Phillips-Cowen, Rundblad-Gonchar, Kuba-Karlsson? Still I'd like to see Carkner in the mix; I just don't know where.

The right side of our D is crowded -- Gonchar, Karlsson, Lee, Carkner, and Rundblad. On the left side, we have Phillips, Cowen, and Kuba. Gonchar doesn't seem to like his "on" side.

The more I think about it, the less likely I think it is that we trade a D who plays the left side (i.e., Kuba). Looks like it's down to Lee or Carkner to me. Unless moving Gonchar is something that we're considering.

Rundblad can play either side...especially on the PP, where he's always on the left.

No way a D with zero NHL experience is going to be dropped into his off side for regular 5 on 5 shifts. That would be setting him up for failure. Unless, of course, he has played on his off side for a long while and is comfortable there. At any rate, playing the off side on the PP is pretty common, but it's a very different story with 5 on 5 play.

rooneypoo wrote:

wprager wrote:There are left D down on the farm.

Who? Wiercioch? Even Gryba is another righty. And even if we did move a lefty, what would be the point of trading him (i.e., Kuba) only to promote a guy from the minors? Either way, you still wouldn't be making room for Rundblad.

No, mark it down -- if Rundblad impresses at camp and forces the organization's hand like I think he will do, OTT is trading a right handed D sometime in the near future. Trading Kuba actually makes very little sense the more and more I think about it. Unless your ready to let Cowen take the role, we don't have another top 4 D on the left side after Phillips.

Making experienced D play their off side often leads to enough disaster as it is. Making a rookie D do it would be criminally dumb.

Stupid me, I didn't think Gryba was a rightie. Oh, well, that leaves Wiercioch and Borowieczki (there are others, for sure, but Wiercioch should keep his bag packed; and depending on how Borocop's first full season in the AHL goes -- and depending on how the O-Sens' season goes -- he might be a call up sooner rather than later).

By the way, I think the source of my confusion may have been hockeysfuture.com which lists Rundblad as a leftie in the Sens' propsects write-up:
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/david_rundblad

I'm actually OK giving Cowen a top-4 spot if it means Kuba on a bus out of town. I'm not on the Kuba-bashing bandwagon, but I'm slightly impatient and want this re-build over as quickly as possible. And the quickest way to do that is to not let a guy who dominated at his position as a rookie callup in the Calder Cup plyoffs sit on the bench or languish on the 3rd pairing behind a big but soft D-man. I'd rather he sits on the bench watching Phillips than Kuba patrolling that left side. And I'd rather his partner was a vet like Gonchar rather than Lee.

Phillips - Karlsson
Cowen - Gonchar
Lee - Rundblad

Carkner

Callups: Gryba (right-side), Wiercioch (left-side)

1st PP: Karlsson - Gonchar (playing their off-sides)
2nd PP: Karlsson - Rundblad - Gonchar - Forward (rotate as necessary, hopefully the 2nd unit doesn't get too much ice time as we'll be scoring PP goals int he first minute )

wprager wrote:

rooneypoo wrote:

wprager wrote:There are left D down on the farm.

Who? Wiercioch? Even Gryba is another righty. And even if we did move a lefty, what would be the point of trading him (i.e., Kuba) only to promote a guy from the minors? Either way, you still wouldn't be making room for Rundblad.

No, mark it down -- if Rundblad impresses at camp and forces the organization's hand like I think he will do, OTT is trading a right handed D sometime in the near future. Trading Kuba actually makes very little sense the more and more I think about it. Unless your ready to let Cowen take the role, we don't have another top 4 D on the left side after Phillips.

Making experienced D play their off side often leads to enough disaster as it is. Making a rookie D do it would be criminally dumb.

Stupid me, I didn't think Gryba was a rightie. Oh, well, that leaves Wiercioch and Borowieczki (there are others, for sure, but Wiercioch should keep his bag packed; and depending on how Borocop's first full season in the AHL goes -- and depending on how the O-Sens' season goes -- he might be a call up sooner rather than later).

By the way, I think the source of my confusion may have been hockeysfuture.com which lists Rundblad as a leftie in the Sens' propsects write-up:
http://www.hockeysfuture.com/prospects/david_rundblad

weren't they saying this is a guy that could push for a roster spot in the near future? it's ridiculous isn't that we have so many rookies that could push for spots. what depth! I can't imagine them putting that many rookies on the team at the same time. there could be trades made I guess. but with the forward crop we picked up this draft i'm not sure what they would want to trade for? more NHL ready prospects perhaps? maybe by the trade deadline a few more bodies will have been moved out of the city.

wprager wrote:I'm actually OK giving Cowen a top-4 spot if it means Kuba on a bus out of town. I'm not on the Kuba-bashing bandwagon, but I'm slightly impatient and want this re-build over as quickly as possible. And the quickest way to do that is to not let a guy who dominated at his position as a rookie callup in the Calder Cup plyoffs sit on the bench or languish on the 3rd pairing behind a big but soft D-man. I'd rather he sits on the bench watching Phillips than Kuba patrolling that left side. And I'd rather his partner was a vet like Gonchar rather than Lee.

Phillips - Karlsson
Cowen - Gonchar
Lee - Rundblad

Carkner

Callups: Gryba (right-side), Wiercioch (left-side)

1st PP: Karlsson - Gonchar (playing their off-sides)
2nd PP: Karlsson - Rundblad - Gonchar - Forward (rotate as necessary, hopefully the 2nd unit doesn't get too much ice time as we'll be scoring PP goals int he first minute )

I think it's a very big possibility that those are the pairings we see.

wprager wrote:
Phillips - Karlsson
Cowen - Gonchar
Lee - Rundblad

Carkner

Callups: Gryba (right-side), Wiercioch (left-side)

Is it bad that the only pairing I like is Cowen-Gonchar?

SpezDispenser wrote:

wprager wrote:
Phillips - Karlsson
Cowen - Gonchar
Lee - Rundblad

Carkner

Callups: Gryba (right-side), Wiercioch (left-side)

Is it bad that the only pairing I like is Cowen-Gonchar?

does that mean you hold no more faith in Phillips? I'm on the fence with phillips. I think he could be on the top pairing for the next 2 years. I think the lack of faith in the goalie had alot to do on how the team performed last year until Andersson came in. I've got higher expectations this year for our D core. rookies will make mistakes for sure but Phillips and gonshar should have better years

SpezDispenser wrote:

wprager wrote:
Phillips - Karlsson
Cowen - Gonchar
Lee - Rundblad

Carkner

Callups: Gryba (right-side), Wiercioch (left-side)

Is it bad that the only pairing I like is Cowen-Gonchar?

Yes. Yes, it is.

As Flo points out, we're expecting big-time rebound seasons from Phillips and Gonchar. I'm also expecting improvements from Karlsson. Someone with more time might want to do some stats digging to see what Phillips' and Gonchar's +/- per game was when paired with Karlsson. I read somewhere that Gonchar's +/- after January was a vast improvement over the first half of the season. How much of that is due to his apparent long ramp-up to adjust to a new team, and how much of that was on Karlsson? In any case, Karlsson also showed better defensive play late in the season -- at least on the PL, where he started playing regular minutes. Imagine if Phillips and Gonchar and Karlsson all turn in rebound seasons in the +/- department (we know they will be better simply because of Anderson.

I don't think they should be breaking up that Lee/Phillips pairing depending on if Lee comes out of camp as good as he finished the season that is. A guy like Gryba may come into camp and just level everyone and make people take notice. So much can happen between now and camp it isn't even worth discussing potential pairings on the back end.

At the end of the day, like people have already discussed the right side is crowded. Gonchar, Karlsson, Lee, Rundblad, Gryba, and hell, even a guy like Wideman is a decent prospect who has a chance down the line.