Who has Impressed you the most???

[Wheelies]

Since its a slow week on here..I know we have not been playing well..But who has impressed you the most from the cats so far???

Riopel has been playing amazing....He has been the deciding factor in keeping our losses to within a few points...

What about Rookies???

For me.Zack Sill....Gives it all every shift.....Very impressed with him....

[CatsFan]

Riopel & Sill.
No doubt about it.

[Dirty Afanasenkov]

Sill isn't considered a rookie.

[lalalaprise]

aposter said:

Sill isn't considered a rookie.

Not in terms of winning any league awards but hes still a 1st year player on your team...therefore when discussing 1st year players it'd be fine to talk about him.

[Penguins23®]

Neil Hodge. Some of you have been whining about him but he's a lot more interesting then 2 years ago. Windows Vista must not have the copy/paste function. I rather read him criticize the team and point out the truth then the BS we used to read. He still lacks inside info such as injury updates that you would expect from a guy who's with the team all the time but whatever.

[wild2]

In nets ....Riopel.
On D....Eastman.
Upfront....Sill.



Now for the ones that don t imppress me....
On D........Gomes and Pianosi.
Upfront.....Marquardt and Brenton.

[jimmy]

penguins23 said:

Neil Hodge. Some of you have been whining about him but he's a lot more interesting then 2 years ago. Windows Vista must not have the copy/paste function. I rather read him criticize the team and point out the truth then the BS we used to read. He still lacks inside info such as injury updates that you would expect from a guy who's with the team all the time but whatever.

Agree, his articles are much more interesting than they used to be ...

He has an interesting one this morning on what might have been had the Cats not sold the farm in 05/06 for the Mem Cup year - stating that players such as J-C Blanchard, Jason Demers, Sebastien Bernier, Andrew Bodnarchuk, J-P Chabot, Wes Welcher, and Brad Marchand could still be Cats ... I think his facts are off slightly, as we lost Bodnarchuk and Welcher to the expansion draft (although perhaps had we not been hosting the Mem Cup that year, they would have been protected instead of Bernier/Saunders/Graham), and Sebastien Bernier wasn't really a guy we moved to load up - he failed to make the team two years in a row in camp, and was unloaded for a late pick as I recall. He also speculates that had we not traded JCB we never would have drafted Riopel, which is wrong since Riopel was in fact picked in the 2005 1st round, and Blanchard was not traded until Xmas of the same year - but overall, an interesting article.

[jimmy]

Both goalies have been impressive ... Eastman has been impressive (but far from a star - solid #4 d-man calibre IMO) on the blueline ... Boyle and Herr have been as good or better than I expected ... Gomes and Pianosi have been disappointments for me so far. Up front, Sill has been impressive (although I am not convinced we will ever see much offense out of him), Mangan has impressed with his hard work and play in all zones (I recalled him being more of a soft offensive player), and Eagles has been solid. Marquardt had a good start, but has disappointed of late ... the returning 18 year olds, with the exception of Lessard, have all diappointed IMO (Brenton, Cameron, Labelle) - none have made the leap from promising rookie to solid contributor IMO - and this is perhaps most troubling as it does not bode well for our potential to contend next year ... toss in the Euros as disappointments as well - at this point, it appears safe to say neither are going to be star players this season - they are better than last year's duo, but not drastically so ... Bezak has 4 points in 13 games despite playing exclusively on a scoring line with plenty of PP time, and Baca is struggling to crack the lineup in a decidedly mediocre blueline group.

[AceKikr]

No one has impressed me so far... Seriously, nobody has done anything impressive yet...

Riopel is doing decent, thats about it.

[gongshow]

jimmy said:

penguins23 said:

Neil Hodge. Some of you have been whining about him but he's a lot more interesting then 2 years ago. Windows Vista must not have the copy/paste function. I rather read him criticize the team and point out the truth then the BS we used to read. He still lacks inside info such as injury updates that you would expect from a guy who's with the team all the time but whatever.

Agree, his articles are much more interesting than they used to be ...

He has an interesting one this morning on what might have been had the Cats not sold the farm in 05/06 for the Mem Cup year - stating that players such as J-C Blanchard, Jason Demers, Sebastien Bernier, Andrew Bodnarchuk, J-P Chabot, Wes Welcher, and Brad Marchand could still be Cats ... I think his facts are off slightly, as we lost Bodnarchuk and Welcher to the expansion draft (although perhaps had we not been hosting the Mem Cup that year, they would have been protected instead of Bernier/Saunders/Graham), and Sebastien Bernier wasn't really a guy we moved to load up - he failed to make the team two years in a row in camp, and was unloaded for a late pick as I recall. He also speculates that had we not traded JCB we never would have drafted Riopel, which is wrong since Riopel was in fact picked in the 2005 1st round, and Blanchard was not traded until Xmas of the same year - but overall, an interesting article.

His articles are definitely getting more interesting,but this mornings article was quite off...Bodnarchuk wouldn't report to us so we left him unprotected,Welcher was caught in a log jam of forwards and was also left unprotected since he was somewhat of a disapointement in his time here.And then there's Seb Bernier who like you said failed to make the team .

So in reality the Cats lost Chabot,Blanchard,Demers and Marchand due to the Mem Cup year.

[CatsFan]

wild2 said:

Now for the ones that don t imppress me....
On D........Gomes and Pianosi.
Upfront.....Marquardt and Brenton.

I agree with you.
Gomes and Pianosi on defense.
Marquardt, Brenton, Labelle up front.

[sec21critic]

gongshow said:

jimmy said:

Agree, his articles are much more interesting than they used to be ...

He has an interesting one this morning on what might have been had the Cats not sold the farm in 05/06 for the Mem Cup year - stating that players such as J-C Blanchard, Jason Demers, Sebastien Bernier, Andrew Bodnarchuk, J-P Chabot, Wes Welcher, and Brad Marchand could still be Cats ... I think his facts are off slightly, as we lost Bodnarchuk and Welcher to the expansion draft (although perhaps had we not been hosting the Mem Cup that year, they would have been protected instead of Bernier/Saunders/Graham), and Sebastien Bernier wasn't really a guy we moved to load up - he failed to make the team two years in a row in camp, and was unloaded for a late pick as I recall. He also speculates that had we not traded JCB we never would have drafted Riopel, which is wrong since Riopel was in fact picked in the 2005 1st round, and Blanchard was not traded until Xmas of the same year - but overall, an interesting article.

His articles are definitely getting more interesting,but this mornings article was quite off...Bodnarchuk wouldn't report to us so we left him unprotected,Welcher was caught in a log jam of forwards and was also left unprotected since he was somewhat of a disapointement in his time here.And then there's Seb Bernier who like you said failed to make the team .

So in reality the Cats lost Chabot,Blanchard,Demers and Marchand due to the Mem Cup year.

... and Sebastien Bernier would not be mentioned in that article had he not basically equalled his point production from last seaon in the first month of this season.

btw, I still feel Bernier should've been on the 04-05 team ahead of Charles Tanguay.

[buckybuckbuck]

gongshow said:

jimmy said:

Agree, his articles are much more interesting than they used to be ...

He has an interesting one this morning on what might have been had the Cats not sold the farm in 05/06 for the Mem Cup year - stating that players such as J-C Blanchard, Jason Demers, Sebastien Bernier, Andrew Bodnarchuk, J-P Chabot, Wes Welcher, and Brad Marchand could still be Cats ... I think his facts are off slightly, as we lost Bodnarchuk and Welcher to the expansion draft (although perhaps had we not been hosting the Mem Cup that year, they would have been protected instead of Bernier/Saunders/Graham), and Sebastien Bernier wasn't really a guy we moved to load up - he failed to make the team two years in a row in camp, and was unloaded for a late pick as I recall. He also speculates that had we not traded JCB we never would have drafted Riopel, which is wrong since Riopel was in fact picked in the 2005 1st round, and Blanchard was not traded until Xmas of the same year - but overall, an interesting article.

His articles are definitely getting more interesting,but this mornings article was quite off...Bodnarchuk wouldn't report to us so we left him unprotected,Welcher was caught in a log jam of forwards and was also left unprotected since he was somewhat of a disapointement in his time here.And then there's Seb Bernier who like you said failed to make the team .

So in reality the Cats lost Chabot,Blanchard,Demers and Marchand due to the Mem Cup year.

True Bondrachuck wouldn't report, but we could have still protected him and sold him to a team who he would report to for a very high draft. SJ rolded him to Halifax for a very good 20 year old goalie as I remember. I think Champion. It was done so fast that it was in my opinion pre-planned between the two teams. That's why I think its is steveul who always says we shouldn't have been protecting Bernier that year as the chances of him coming back from AHL was Nil and I agree.

[catnut]

Even without protecting Bernier, he would not have been the best choice to protect considering he was pondering US College and did not report the year before. Wes Welcher, Charles Bergeron, Josh Hepditch and Ian Girard probably would have been protected ahead of him.


In the case of Sebastien Bernier. Larue was really offended by offensive defencemen.

[jimmy]

buckybuckbuck said:

gongshow said:

His articles are definitely getting more interesting,but this mornings article was quite off...Bodnarchuk wouldn't report to us so we left him unprotected,Welcher was caught in a log jam of forwards and was also left unprotected since he was somewhat of a disapointement in his time here.And then there's Seb Bernier who like you said failed to make the team .

So in reality the Cats lost Chabot,Blanchard,Demers and Marchand due to the Mem Cup year.

True Bondrachuck wouldn't report, but we could have still protected him and sold him to a team who he would report to for a very high draft. SJ rolded him to Halifax for a very good 20 year old goalie as I remember. I think Champion. It was done so fast that it was in my opinion pre-planned between the two teams. That's why I think its is steveul who always says we shouldn't have been protecting Bernier that year as the chances of him coming back from AHL was Nil and I agree.

Bodnarchuk was flipped from Saint John to Halifax for Jason Churchill ... funny thing was that at the time, few fans even knew who he was - most fans responded with "Who?" when the Dogs picked him ... clearly the Moose had some info indicating he would report to them, and their old pal Tipper was glad to set it up.

In addition to protecting Bernier, we also protected 20 year olds Bruce Graham and Nathan Saunders, as well as 19 year old Chris Bourque ... forcing us to leave good prospects like Welcher and Bodnarchuk unprotected, along with useful vets such as Charles Bergeron, Ian Girard and Josh Hepditch, along with others whom I am surely forgetting. Looks really dumb in hindsight, however you have to remember that at the time, all of these guys were unsigned by their NHL teams, and the NHL was still in the midst of a lockout - and as the Mem Cup host, the last thing we wanted was to be hosting the Mem Cup only to see a guy like Bernier be lost in the expansion draft and wind up elsewhere in the league.