Bantering Points: The Marc Staal Situation

Ask about Boychuk from the Bees (not Babchuk from the Flames). He’s a FA after this year and may not be re-signed.

Don’t trade, and preferably don’t even sign a new player. All summer/fall we were talking about how loaded we are with defensive prospects – give them a shot. McIlwrath wasn’t ready and is in juniors, and Erixon has already been sent down, but what about the other names like V-tank, Kundratek? Not sure if I’ve left anyone else off the list.

If they’re not happy between our Eminger (who plays hard enough to earn a fair shake if you ask me) Bell and Woywitka (who has more NHL games logged than most of our D lineup), why not see what we have in that trio down in CT? It’s an opportunity to give them a sniff of the NHL and retain any picks or players we’d rather not part with, just to get a mediocre stopgap.

Show some faith and give them an opportunity to step up.

None of these defensive signings are going to help anything. it’s the equivalent of putting a bandaid on your foot when your hand is bleeding.

The biggest issue we’ve had so far on defense is controlling other teams top lines. It falls more on the forwards currently (seriously, can we stop using Richards power v power already?) but Girardi/McDonagh need to do a better job of shot suppression as well. That’s not to take away from the starts they’ve had, but the offense each is adding and Girardi’s blocked shot brigade are masking some holes that exist.

Staal’s the only solution in the horizon that would fix that problem. Stralman, Franson, Woywitka, Bell, Eminger, Valetenko, Parlett, whoever else are 3rd pair guys who will play 3rd/4th line opponents. They’re not a solution.

Everyone keeps saying that Del Zotto has been having a very good year. While his passes have been smarter and his head been in the game more, the first 8 or so games were really not good defensively. The Rangers goalies bailed him out several times a game on awful “blown coverage” type scenarios. Almost every time there was a great chance by the other team, especially on a rush, it was usually him that got beat. It just didn’t get exposed much because he didn’t get burned a lot, always getting bailed out by goalie and or other D partner. The last game was better but that was mostly because the Rangers were all over the Sharks. I hope he has continued improvement and that these lapses don’t continue.