So, that guy who said he would never wear a Malik Jersey…Yeah, hes got it right. 2 goals against, both directly or indirectly attributable to Mr. Malik. It’s a shame because, besides those 2 plays, he was pretty decent. I don’t know if its just bad luck, or incredibly stupidity, but the guys mistakes almost always seem to end up in the back of the net.

Look at Marc Staal on the opposite side of things, he had quite a few poor plays in this game, but none of them ended up in his own net. Why? I’m not sure, but its worth looking at.

Overall it was a good game, which definitely had some improvements in system play, defensive zone coverage, and most importantly , we saw a trio that I absolutely loved. Gomez, with Shanahan and Dawes absolutely dominated out there. Sure, again, this was the Islanders B team, (mind you, I picked the Islanders to be the worst team in the NHL) but still, you had to be happy with what you saw out there.

Over on the ECSF boards a question was posed, who should make the team, Dawes, or Dubinsky, my response was as follows:

I picked option B (Dawes). And I really had to think about it.

Its not about Dubinsky not being ready, or Dawes being super impressive tonight. To me its about which player could actually play in the minors, and still improve their overall play.

Dawes isn’t getting better than he is now by playing in hartford. He is what he is, you’re not getting more from him by sending him down, you’re giving up on him.

However Dubinsky could definitely improve his play by playing top line minutes with the Rangers 2 best wingers in the minors.

Dubinsky still, at times, looks like a midget in a giants body. Its not about him being a pansy, its about him not understanding how to use his body to create time and space for his line mates. Its also a problem I see in Anisimov as well. Those things can get fixed with regular play, and good coaching.

I don’t think you can go wrong with either option to be honest, but at least if you go with Dawes, you can trade him, or Prucha, or whatever, later in the season once they’ve built some value. If you don’t promote Dawes, you’re giving up on a player who has scored 221 goals in 391 games for Hartford and Kootenay. I know I’ve been hard on the kid, and been totally pro Dubinsky this preseason, but I would just HATE to give up on the kid, I have a real tough time giving up on “numbers” like that.

So what do you guys think, could you go to war with this setup…

Posted by inferno272 on Friday, September 28th, 2007 at 10:25 pm.