Slafkovsky also played 9-10 mins when he started in Montreal, he didn’t even play that much early last season.
Don’t get me wrong, people did get mad at MSL for that, but the fans reaction is way over the board and extremely unhealthy.
Hughes knew, Demidov knew, even the fans knew how much TOI he would get at the start of the season.
steeler2323
I agree that Rotenberg isn’t a good coach, like at all. Just ask yourself: What kind of coach put himself with Kuznetsov – Demidov during the intra-squad game AND hog the puck and always shoot and play at 100% (while the rest barely play at 50%. He look like someone with a huge ego and I wouldn’t be surprise to see him being extra rough with Demidov if too many article come out about him needing to play more, just to show “Who’s the boss”.
With that being said: It’s the 4th game of a 64 games (iirc) season. Demidov never played 50 games in a season. Playing less to start and getting his timing right isn’t a big deal. I’ll be the 1st to be angry if he keep playing 10-ish minutes after 15-20 games, but right now, there’s not much to be worried about. Demidov is playing great, his speed is much better than I expected, hands are elite even VS pros and he’s playing physical. He was already getting more shifts in the 3rd and will most likely be up in the line up next game.
Don’t forget: coaching a hockey club isn’t just throwing lines together. He’s dealing with egos and big contracts and most likely promises to his players to have them in his team. MAYBE he wants the team to see that Demidov absolutely deserve more playing time than anyone else since they can’t score. MAYBE he’s actually protecting him from backlash and ease him into a top position? While I don’t trust him (the coach), he seems to actually like Demidov and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s just sneaky in his method so he doesn’t get heat from his locker room for playing a 18yo, who will be gone next year, too much.
It’s all speculations, but let’s wait after a couple more games before jumping to conclussions.
RyGuy_CS
We should be patient a little, yes he’s giving little TOI but it’s better to ease him in the league instead of burning him out and getting him injured.
With Slaf, we definitely needed to be patient. People were so quick to call him a bust amongst the fans, it was ridiculous.
Let Demidov cook in the KHL. He’ll turn out fine.
The only thing I don’t like is him being on the same line as Kuzy because of his past but it is what it is.
eriverside
The coach was very vocal about giving Ivan ice time and a role on the team. It makes a lot of sense that he’s not starting the season playing 20 minutes a night on the top line when his previous experience was 2 leagues down.
It’s perfectly fine to ramp him up at a steady pace as Ivan gets used to the speed and physicality of the KHL.
If Ivan’s as good we think he is, the coach won’t want to keep a top asset buried. Coach wants to win.
Lastly, that team had the choice to keep Michkov for another 3 years. He already had a season with them, so he wouldn’t be some player without experience that’s waiting out the season to go west. They knew he could be a big asset commited to them and they chose to cut him loose and bring in Ivan instead knowing he’d be gone by summer. You don’t make those 2 moves if your plan isn’t play Demidov.
We’re well under 10 games. We got plenty of time. I won’t make comments about the coaching because I’m not watching those games, but I think we can safely say that we can wait a little bit and it’s a good thing he’s getting minutes vs men.
georgin_95
Rotenberg is a bad coach. But Grant’s ice time rant has been immediately shat on vs Traktor. Demidov played the whole game and was rotating throughout, including being the extra attacker at 6v5. But he ended up -1 and had a *bad* 1st period. And after that period, he still got plenty of ice time and chances.
SKA is trying 4 even lines with shake ups throughout, it has been the same last year. And last year they also sucked till November cause without a good coach chemistry takes a long-ass time to develop.
7 Comments
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Slafkovsky also played 9-10 mins when he started in Montreal, he didn’t even play that much early last season.
Don’t get me wrong, people did get mad at MSL for that, but the fans reaction is way over the board and extremely unhealthy.
Hughes knew, Demidov knew, even the fans knew how much TOI he would get at the start of the season.
I agree that Rotenberg isn’t a good coach, like at all. Just ask yourself: What kind of coach put himself with Kuznetsov – Demidov during the intra-squad game AND hog the puck and always shoot and play at 100% (while the rest barely play at 50%. He look like someone with a huge ego and I wouldn’t be surprise to see him being extra rough with Demidov if too many article come out about him needing to play more, just to show “Who’s the boss”.
With that being said: It’s the 4th game of a 64 games (iirc) season. Demidov never played 50 games in a season. Playing less to start and getting his timing right isn’t a big deal. I’ll be the 1st to be angry if he keep playing 10-ish minutes after 15-20 games, but right now, there’s not much to be worried about. Demidov is playing great, his speed is much better than I expected, hands are elite even VS pros and he’s playing physical. He was already getting more shifts in the 3rd and will most likely be up in the line up next game.
Don’t forget: coaching a hockey club isn’t just throwing lines together. He’s dealing with egos and big contracts and most likely promises to his players to have them in his team. MAYBE he wants the team to see that Demidov absolutely deserve more playing time than anyone else since they can’t score. MAYBE he’s actually protecting him from backlash and ease him into a top position? While I don’t trust him (the coach), he seems to actually like Demidov and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s just sneaky in his method so he doesn’t get heat from his locker room for playing a 18yo, who will be gone next year, too much.
It’s all speculations, but let’s wait after a couple more games before jumping to conclussions.
We should be patient a little, yes he’s giving little TOI but it’s better to ease him in the league instead of burning him out and getting him injured.
With Slaf, we definitely needed to be patient. People were so quick to call him a bust amongst the fans, it was ridiculous.
Let Demidov cook in the KHL. He’ll turn out fine.
The only thing I don’t like is him being on the same line as Kuzy because of his past but it is what it is.
The coach was very vocal about giving Ivan ice time and a role on the team. It makes a lot of sense that he’s not starting the season playing 20 minutes a night on the top line when his previous experience was 2 leagues down.
It’s perfectly fine to ramp him up at a steady pace as Ivan gets used to the speed and physicality of the KHL.
If Ivan’s as good we think he is, the coach won’t want to keep a top asset buried. Coach wants to win.
Lastly, that team had the choice to keep Michkov for another 3 years. He already had a season with them, so he wouldn’t be some player without experience that’s waiting out the season to go west. They knew he could be a big asset commited to them and they chose to cut him loose and bring in Ivan instead knowing he’d be gone by summer. You don’t make those 2 moves if your plan isn’t play Demidov.
We’re well under 10 games. We got plenty of time. I won’t make comments about the coaching because I’m not watching those games, but I think we can safely say that we can wait a little bit and it’s a good thing he’s getting minutes vs men.
Rotenberg is a bad coach. But Grant’s ice time rant has been immediately shat on vs Traktor. Demidov played the whole game and was rotating throughout, including being the extra attacker at 6v5. But he ended up -1 and had a *bad* 1st period. And after that period, he still got plenty of ice time and chances.
SKA is trying 4 even lines with shake ups throughout, it has been the same last year. And last year they also sucked till November cause without a good coach chemistry takes a long-ass time to develop.
It is Russia, what else is new?