He is the perfect coach to get a shot at Celebrini.
He has moved the centerman of the future to wing and took a winger who ended last season productively to center. He's getting a lot of credit for Vlasic who should really slot 3 or 4 on a .500 with his lack of offense. Korchinski has some tools for sure but can you realistically say he looks any more aware in his own zone now compared to October? Numbers don't lie, he's -37. He has been a plus player in 8 of 71 games. Richardinson is 28 years old. This is not a kid he has molded. Is Richardson's claim for development Kurashev? 16 goals playing with Bedard and lots of powerplay time?
Davidson can't fire Richardson yet because a coach firing turns the attention to the GM's work which has also been underwhelming at the NHL level. The owner and fan base is showing incredible patience. The "at least they are playing hard" crowd still buys tickets and jerseys.
Rockford is being led by Seney, Gust, Pitlick and Guttman offensively so hard to believe the offense will improve next season. How many years till competitive?
- stevefrmglencoe
Glad you posted, Steve......... As far as the prospects or young players would it be reasonable to go into the season thinking the goal is do no harm? In other words get KK, Vlasic, Kaiser, Phillips, Crevier, Bedard, Reichel valuable NHL reps without doing them harm, regressing or stunting their growth?
That was my hope/goal. Reasonably thinking this is the first yr after a total teardown so success in wins and losses wasn't going to happen so my hope was to acclimate the kids, get them valuable NHL reps without harming them. I do think that was accomplished except for Reichel. Asking that kid to play 2C in the Bigs, especially on this roster, was a mistake.
Fair? If so, do you think do no harm was accomplished?
As usual your posts offer multiple questions but I wanna address Bedard and moving him to wing. The kid is 18, smallish and he obviously was not made to employ a 200 ft game as a youth or jrs player and is dropped into the NHL vs men and the opponents attention with top defensive players.
On and off to my eye you could see frustration, which bring bad habits (harm), creeping into his game. IMO the best way to address that without an infusion of talent is to lessen his responsibilities, to lighten his load.
IMO, not only does it make the team better, moving him to wing frees the kid up and lightens the burden of being the 1C against the opponents best. ... He's still "playing" center in the Ozone in that the puck is on his stick and he's the creator but is freed up from centerman's Dzone responsibilities. ....... I absolutely love this move. The time will come when he's back to center but for now I really like the thinking.
