Heatley/Spezza split up

mattbond wrote:Fisher on Spezza's wing and Vermette centering Alfie and Heatley would be an interesting combo. Throw Foligno up with Spezza too.

Spezza and Vermette are both good in the faceoff circle, but then this plan is contingent on Fisher playing wing, which never seems to happen.

This is what Fisher gets for not being able to adapt:

I personally love the idea of Alfie Fisher Heatley and I really believe that could potentially be an unstoppable line combination.

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:I personally love the idea of Alfie Fisher Heatley and I really believe that could potentially be an unstoppable line combination.

Oh yeah me too... but it's the second line, I fear they may be pretty bad when they don't have the puck...

504Heater wrote:

mattbond wrote:Fisher on Spezza's wing and Vermette centering Alfie and Heatley would be an interesting combo. Throw Foligno up with Spezza too.

Spezza and Vermette are both good in the faceoff circle, but then this plan is contingent on Fisher playing wing, which never seems to happen.

This is what Fisher gets for not being able to adapt:

Not the monkey! EAARGHH!

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:I personally love the idea of Alfie Fisher Heatley and I really believe that could potentially be an unstoppable line combination.

I'm warming up to it. It's something we haven't seen before.

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:I personally love the idea of Alfie Fisher Heatley and I really believe that could potentially be an unstoppable line combination.

Yes indeed!

smash88 wrote:

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:I personally love the idea of Alfie Fisher Heatley and I really believe that could potentially be an unstoppable line combination.

Oh yeah me too... but it's the second line, I fear they may be pretty bad when they don't have the puck...

You don't think Vermette will retrieve the puck knowing that this is pretty much his last chance to be a top 6? And Foligno...look out...

I think they'll be fine personally, but it's a point you have (Yoda, I am).

I think with Foligno and Winchester or Vermette you'll have enough defensive minded forwards to make up for Spezza IMO.

Oh man...this excites me a lot to be honest.

504Heater wrote:

smash88 wrote:

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:I personally love the idea of Alfie Fisher Heatley and I really believe that could potentially be an unstoppable line combination.

Oh yeah me too... but it's the second line, I fear they may be pretty bad when they don't have the puck...

You don't think Vermette will retrieve the puck knowing that this is pretty much his last chance to be a top 6? And Foligno...look out...

I think they'll be fine personally, but it's a point you have (Yoda, I am).

Well, you may be right.. I have no problems whatsoever in trying it out, really can't do any harm.. and if Spezza can keep backchecking the way he was on the weekend, they should be fine...

Speaking of which, was I the only one who noticed that? I almost fell off my chair when I noticed it was number 19 lifting someone's stick in front of our net and preventing a shot, then as he did a second and third time and then again in the Boston game, I was sure someone had abducted Spezza and replaced him with Guy Carbonneau or something.. Was that just me?

Not only did Spezza back check AND catch the guy!!! He also dumped the puck in AND won the foot race! Top all that off with a HIT and I thought I was in the twilight zone LOL.

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:Not only did Spezza back check AND catch the guy!!! He also dumped the puck in AND won the foot race! Top all that off with a HIT and I thought I was in the twilight zone LOL.

I see some promising stuff man... Heatley in Sweden getting down to block... Spez with the defensive play... If we can just put them all together and be able to play like that consistently, we'd be real good!

smash88 wrote:

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:Not only did Spezza back check AND catch the guy!!! He also dumped the puck in AND won the foot race! Top all that off with a HIT and I thought I was in the twilight zone LOL.

I see some promising stuff man... Heatley in Sweden getting down to block... Spez with the defensive play... If we can just put them all together and be able to play like that consistently, we'd be real good!

Agreed, it's a matter of time for this team. But we have to be patient. I wanted to kill them after Saturday, but it's all the process.

504Heater wrote:

smash88 wrote:

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:Not only did Spezza back check AND catch the guy!!! He also dumped the puck in AND won the foot race! Top all that off with a HIT and I thought I was in the twilight zone LOL.

I see some promising stuff man... Heatley in Sweden getting down to block... Spez with the defensive play... If we can just put them all together and be able to play like that consistently, we'd be real good!

Agreed, it's a matter of time for this team. But we have to be patient. I wanted to kill them after Saturday, but it's all the process.

Yeah exactly... I just don't see no end of season meltdown like last year though...

Yeah. It's definitely a process for these guys and I said it on another thread but I believe it's going to go down a lot like it did with Sutter in NJ. It took time there and it will take time here but to see Heatley block a shot and Spezza Hit, dump the puck and back check are all encouraging signs. If I see Spezza killing penalties and not just the last 20 seconds or so I think I'll have a coronary though LOL.

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:Not only did Spezza back check AND catch the guy!!! He also dumped the puck in AND won the foot race! Top all that off with a HIT and I thought I was in the twilight zone LOL.

He actually had two hits in his first shift on Friday. And, yes, he's been dumping and chasing (and retrieving). Heatley, on the other hand, was caught with a few Spezza-esque giveaways. Which is why I was so surprised this morning to hear Pierre say how impressed he's been with Heatley. Maybe he hasn't been watching as much as he likes to claim he has. I won't say Heatley was brutal, but if he had Spezza's history, we would have been all over him after both of the weekend games.

wprager wrote:

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:Not only did Spezza back check AND catch the guy!!! He also dumped the puck in AND won the foot race! Top all that off with a HIT and I thought I was in the twilight zone LOL.

He actually had two hits in his first shift on Friday. And, yes, he's been dumping and chasing (and retrieving). Heatley, on the other hand, was caught with a few Spezza-esque giveaways. Which is why I was so surprised this morning to hear Pierre say how impressed he's been with Heatley. Maybe he hasn't been watching as much as he likes to claim he has. I won't say Heatley was brutal, but if he had Spezza's history, we would have been all over him after both of the weekend games.

Completely agree, I thought Spezza was pretty impressive this weekend, I have never seen him dump and chase like that. I do worry though about Phillips, I wonder if his foot is bothering him, because I think he was pretty bad positionally this weekend.

bluewhiteandgolf wrote:

wprager wrote:

Cap'n' Clutch wrote:Not only did Spezza back check AND catch the guy!!! He also dumped the puck in AND won the foot race! Top all that off with a HIT and I thought I was in the twilight zone LOL.

He actually had two hits in his first shift on Friday. And, yes, he's been dumping and chasing (and retrieving). Heatley, on the other hand, was caught with a few Spezza-esque giveaways. Which is why I was so surprised this morning to hear Pierre say how impressed he's been with Heatley. Maybe he hasn't been watching as much as he likes to claim he has. I won't say Heatley was brutal, but if he had Spezza's history, we would have been all over him after both of the weekend games.

Completely agree, I thought Spezza was pretty impressive this weekend, I have never seen him dump and chase like that. I do worry though about Phillips, I wonder if his foot is bothering him, because I think he was pretty bad positionally this weekend.

I was thinking the same thing about Phillips. Then Volchenkov is forced to try to compensate and things can go very badly.

Like the shift where Gerber made 3 highlight reel saves before Kessel finally scored. Worst shift of Phillips/A-Train's lives I would imagine.