Noel Acciari

...

Acciari's gonna be in the line-up, so like sorry Nikita, you ain't playing.

Yeah.

I very much agree.

... on that fourth line.

It's not like we have Garnet Hathaway anymore.

Like okay, Acciari, that's a, that's an upgrade.

But Sean Couturier, like is Sean Couturier gonna do what he did in the playoffs for 84 games? I seriously doubt it-

But let's get to your article about the guys with at least a chance.

And since we're talking about Luchenko, is it gonna have to be goes nuts, makes Acciari expendable?

Yeah, yeah.

Like, is that what he has to do?

Like, they think he's ready to be, like, a middle six center.

Yeah.

Where, like, oh yeah, he could score 40, 45 points in the middle of our lineup, not like, oh, he's better than Noel Acciari.

Like, I don't think they would put him on the li- on the roster to be a fourth line left wing.

Aciari? Uh-

Acciari, yeah

Yeah.

Acciari?

Acciari, yeah

Yeah.

I think that he will, uh, I think he's got promise there from what I've read.

Last one.

Noel Acciari.

Oh.

Ooh.

His nose [laughs].

Um...

Noel Acciari.

I think I know this one.

No, and I think it's like looking at-- and it's not as if they've made a ton of changes this off season.

Like Noel Acciari is basically the only difference in, you know, the forwards and the sixth spot on defense isn't gonna be Emil Andre, it's gonna be someone else.

[laughs] Like that's basically-

Yeah

I know they would like to have a center of left and right-handed persuasion in this lineup.

They would not if that, if Acciari isn't in the lineup.

Is, yeah.

They'd only have four lefties again.

I think they can live with that if all the other players are good.

Like, if it's Gurbaniun, Couturier, and one of the two other wingers that we're hoping is in the lineup, I'm cool.

If they decide, "Well, it's a fourth line, and we don't think that Bump or Barkey fits on a fourth line, so it's gonna be Couturier, Acciari, and Gurbaniun," then I'm like, "Oh.

Well, I'm unhappy." [laughs] But I, like, it all depends on the context of this, but I wanna see Gurbaniun establish himself, 'cause I think there's something there.

And I was looking at this in terms of, like, regular forwards last year, a 5-on-5.

Your fourth line of Lizotte, Dvorak, and Acciari was one, two, and three in terms of lowest percentage of offensive zone starts, and then Chynikov upon arrival, and Malkin were fifth and seventh or something out of 384 forwards in most-- or highest percentage of offensive zone starts.

And so I think that's pretty self-explanatory in terms of the roles that you envision for those players.

But I'm curious for if you have any other thoughts in terms of, like, how that execution actually happens on a game-to-game basis, and then just that whole process in general of, of having a plan for those players and then actually kind of seeing it out from period to period and game to game.