Hey Justin, question about the situation in Tampa. What do you see happening here? Both goalies have looked terrible, is there a chance one gets dealt/waived in favor of Desjardins/Tokarski? As a Tokarski owner, I was slightly worried when Tampa traded for Desjardins.
I've been saying this over the past week - the Lightning need to churn the buttery play of Smith and Ellis by bringing up Desjardins. Yzerman went out and signed him for a reason...and this is the reason. They need to bring him up and toss him into the mix for a couple of games. Only good can come of this:
1. He plays well and proves he's ready for an NHL gig and makes the decision to move/waive Ellis even easier.
2. He forces Ellis to wake up and play with some focus and consistency
3. He forces Smith to take the final step in adjusting his game and becomes more consistent
Right now I am still a firm believer in Mike Smith. Read School of Block today for more on that. He's not getting nearly the opportunities that Ellis is getting and has performed much better in some important areas compared to Ellis. I love how Smith has refined his game and I like him more than Ellis in the short and long-term future.
But if the Lightning continue to just bounce back and forth between the two, nothing will change. Both goalies like to handle the puck and be fairly active, so they thrive on confidence and rhythm and are prone to giving up weak goals or having bad games. Yzerman needs to either establish one as a starter and roll with the punches or bring up Desjardins for a three-way battle to find who is going to lead this team to the playoffs.
Never said thanks for this but it was very helpful. I acquired Tokarski and Desjardins via trade and am now hoping your proposed scenario comes to fruition and Nabokov goes somewhere else.
Last edited by Killer67; December 19, 2010 at 10:22 PM.
It's good to see them bring up CD. Even if it's only because he has a week off in Norfolk, this is a pretty obvious sign they like the direction Mike Smith is heading as of late and want to give Desjardins a taste of being in the NHL. We'll see if he gets a game. CD probably should have been called up a week ago BEFORE Smith won two in a row, but obviously the intention was to bring him up now instead of letting him sit around for a week. Good move by Yzerman, a good sign they are going to probably pass on Nabokov for now.
I won't be surprised if Ellis gets pulled tonight and somehow, someway, CD gets to make his NHL debut. It happened twice on Saturday with Lawson and Dekanich. The goalie world is weird like that. Just a hunch.
What's even more crazy is that Tampa Bay is saying this move to bring up CD was planned for the last 5-6 weeks since he was off for a whole week in Norfolk. And crazy enough, his first day at practice, Smith gets injured.
I saw video of Smith's injury and it didn't look too good. I saw Boucher's post-morning skate press conference and he didn't have a very good reaction when asked about Smith's injury.
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