Thursday 9 July 2015

Jarred Tinordi's summer, and beyond.

Good interviews with the prospects on the Habs’ website too. Mike McCarron is asked what his plans are for the summer. “Going to be in London, training with Tinner.”

Attaboy! Hope those two push each other to new, uhm, heights.

About Jarred Tinordi, in the past few seasons we've been anxious to know where he'd play, if he'd make le Grand Club, or if he'd need more seasoning.  There was pressure to have him up in the NHL, from the fans on HIO at least, if only to thwart the Bruins' thuggery to some degree.  We know those guys aren't so tough when they're facing off against, for example, the Leafs with Colton Orr and Frazer MacLaren and Mark Fraser and Mike Brown.  In that case, surprisingly, they're more interested in playing hockey than in their usual crosschecking extravaganzas.

Anyway, this year, I'm feeling that this particular area of concern, our Tinordi account, is settled.  He can't be sent down to the AHL because he'd have to go through waivers, he would be immediately claimed if we tried to pull that stunt, so he'll be on the 23-man roster, as the #7 or even #8 defenceman.

That's not ideal, we'd like him to play big minutes if it was possible, but by now he's probably done most of the learning he could have done at the AHL level.  Former Bulldog Assistant Coach Stéphan Lebeau told us that he was dominant there, that his presence or absence in the roster was a big factor in whether they'd win or lose games.

In my feverished imagination, I can see him getting in fourty games with the Canadiens next season.  Let's say we rest Andrei on every back-to-back game and put Jarred in, that's seven or eight games right there.  Give Alexei Emelin five games off during the season, maybe when his enthusiasm flags a little and he's not destroying opponents the right way, or maybe when he is and has a couple of bruises and ouchies to heal up.

Tom Gilbert would have been traded away for a non-protected first-rounder, so Greg Pateryn is the rightie on the third pairing.  He gets a dozen games or so off whereby either Nate or Jarred play the right side.

Add in some minor injuries, strains and pulls where the regulars have to take a few games off, and baddabing, Jarred gets his fourty games.  Factor in all the practice time and extra work with Jean-Jacques Daigneault during the 'optional' skates, and that's not a bad way to ease in our big project of a proto-Langway.

Of course, this would need to be the plan at the onset of the season, from which we wouldn't deviate unless stricken by a 'force majeure'.  As Brendan Shanahan said this spring, it's easy to have a plan, the hard part is sticking to it.  I know our GM and Head Coach are very cautious with youngsters, they love their steady veterans.  Michel Therrien is coaching to win games, he doesn't see the NHL as a development league.

The advantage Jarred would have in this scenario is that he's not Jonathan Drouin, a smallish flashy forward who has a lot to learn about how to play his position in the NHL, how to 'play without the puck'.  Jarred is a tower of a defensive defenceman, with the attitude that coaches love, so I'm sure Michel Therrien has a soft spot for him, wants him to succeed most of all, even though he loves all his children equally.  He might be more forgiving of mistakes when dealing with a player like Jarred.

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