1st period 1st game thoughts

Shattenkirk healthy scratched in a month

Stupid comment .. watch the games .. just cause you post alot doesn't mean you know squat as Shatterkirk just scored on way hard zkilled shot .. he not a Defensive all star by any stretch but has role ..

He has his role. 7th d man. There’s a reason a rebuilding team just extended his cap hit by buying him out

I doubt Witkowski and Smith get sent down. They’ll probably be in some sort of rotation. We might want the physicality at times and need injury replacements on the roster and they need to be kept fresh. It wouldn’t surprise me if Verhaeghe, Paquette, and/or Maroon rotate with them. I also wouldn’t be surprised if Witkowski is an injury replacement for defense too, since Foote was bad in training camp and we don’t have much depth beyond that (Masin or Gaunce are next). It’s interesting about Engblom, though.

I think Verhaeghe deserves to stay on the third line for the first little stretch. It isn’t easy to adjust to the League and it’s harder with worse linemates, so he deserves some chance before we push him down, especially since Verhaeghe doesn’t look like someone who could handle the fourth line. If he doesn’t quite appear ready, I would call up Volkov and see how it goes before moving Verhaeghe to the fourth line.

Hedman concerns me. I don’t think he’s looked good at all since his injury, and he’s one player we can’t really do without, which probably played into the playoffs quite a bit. I hope he’s okay, and it’s going to be a long season if he’s truly lost a step.

Shattenkirk has looked quite good, though. He’s certainly not what the Rangers had hoped, but there’s a difference between not being worth a nearly $7m cap hit to a cap-struggling team and not deserving an NHL spot. I would call him a fringe top-four defenseman who needs to learn how to defend if he wants to really thrive. He’s not someone to give a massive contract, but certainly someone great to have around.