Marlies Weekend Open Thread

Really?  That’s a substantial trend reversal though, isn’t it?

 Yes, sorry I meant to correct that.

Mark in da Park’s new team (Las Vegas-ECHL) playing their 10th annual Midnight game tonight starting at 11:59PST.

Yeah, weird eh. Midnight local time. 10 years in a row now. Good place to watch a game and catch a few z’s.   lol

Naz is tied with Aucoin for the team lead in points, 17th in the AHL, but only 4 points out of 4th. This after a slow start (3 points in his first 9 games), partially due to Frattin missing the first couple of weeks (14 games?) after surgery. It’s quite plausible Naz  would be in the top 5 if Fratts had not missed those games, and certainly not unreasonable to think Naz may easily work himself into the top 5 over the next couple of weeks. He’s the Marlies best player every night, and most often the best player on the ice.

Add this to the intangibles he brings and he is ready, no doubt in my mind.

 Good morning Folks !

 Boy things are getting nasty lol

http://www.torontosun.com/2012/12/16/real-sports-sends-leafs-lupul-for-a-loop

haha, if he did all that consistantly he’d be a decent prospect … i don’t expect to see you pencil him into any mock Leafs lineups eh
i kinda like the kid for what he is.  for guys like he and DAmigo i like to imagine how they’d fare as a 3rd liner.  as soon as i start hoping for more i get down on them.  but they could be excellent role players some day, that potential still exists.

Not bad me old trout 

Pretty quite here so far….Marlies had a good game yesterday….I love the way Eakins has the boys hustling, they really work hard each shift..

The question is, why did you, or anyone for that matter, think he/they could be anything beyond a 3rd line player?

Ashton was brought in for Aulie. What is Aulie and what will he become? As much as I liked Aulie, he is a bottom pairing dman, plain and simple. The Leafs traded a player with bottom pairing potential, for a player with 3rd line potential. Anyone who thinks that Ashton was going to come in a take a top 6 role is fooling themselves. Could it happen? I suppose, but it’s extremely unlikely and no one should get their hopes up for more. Ashton was brought in to address a need, a need to have more size and grit in the bottom 6 forwards. He played that role with Team Canada as well, so he knows what is expected of him. 

If he and D’Amigo can turn into players that play with heart and use their size and speed, bang some bodies, kill penalties and pitch in a few goals (10 maybe), then the trade will have served its purpose. I see that from each of them pretty well every game.

Great to hear …… now lets hope sanity returns to the idiots running the NHL and the PA so these guys have a league to play in other then the AHL