Tonight, Mike Green will help kick off the All-Star festivities by playing one game with the Pittsburgh Flightless Devil.... er, Eastern Conference young stars squad. I would complain about how Pittsburgh has the most players on the squad, but hey, that's what happens when you draft in the top five 700 years in a row. Not that I'm not happy for Greener (I am) or that I feel he shouldn't be recognized as one of the finest young talents in the league (I do), it's just that I was really hoping he would rest his injured foot during the break and be 100% healthy when the Caps make their run at the playoffs after the break is over.
Folks will argue that Green won't be pushing that hard for an all star event, and that the chance of injury is minimal. Very true. But having Greenie play at all on an injured foot certainly won't speed his recovery.
I'd feel a little less strongly about this if I didn't think we'd be seeing a lot more of Green in All-Star festivities in the future. If he was just having an out of this world season for an average defenseman I'd be all for him going. But Mike Green is going to be a perennial All-Star in the NHL. He has all the tools (physical and mental) to be the next Scott Neidermayer. If the Caps can get a hulking defenseman to play with him and release him for more offensive forays (like Scott Stevens did for Neidermayer), he'll get All-Star consideration every single year.
I know any recognition for a developing young star should be appreciated, but given Green's talent and how much the team needs him to be healthy after the break, I wish he'd have skipped this one.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
Young Stars game tonight
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3 comments:
From what I've seen of Mike Green, he'll turn out to be a CalleYo rather than a Niedermayer.
I think Greener has a higher offensive end than Calle, although it is a good comparison. Green should flourish when (if) the Caps put a banger back there, which will 1)give him more room to work his outlet passes and 2) cover him when he decides to make rushes into the offensive end. As it is, he's saddled by having to hold his line more than he'd like. Not that it's a terrible thing for a young defenseman to have to play a more complete game, I just think Green should be an all offense, all the time defenseman.
Well, it turns out that Youngstars game was a complete joke. Any resemblence to a real hockey game was pure coincidence. So no need to worry about Greener being hurt. Unless he brings back some of the habits from that disgrace of a display.
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