00:00I do want to get to the James Higgins thing.
00:02Now, let's work backwards from that call.
00:05I wonder if Marco said to Don, I can't promise he'll be in our lineup every night.
00:13And maybe that gave Don Sweeney some pause.
00:16That's my only thought on the Marco comment more than the Don comment.
00:19We're trying to make the playoffs, right?
00:22You just brought in Reichel.
00:25He had a good showing, particularly in his first game.
00:27He's been okay the last couple of games as well.
00:30But you look at it and go, where does Higgins fit when we don't know what he's going to be
00:37yet at the NHL level right away?
00:39We can project what he's going to be down the road, but his first five, ten games in the NHL,
00:47do you know he's going to come in and score four goals and put up three, four assists?
00:51No.
00:52We have no idea.
00:54First game in Providence, you know, by all accounts, looked decent, didn't score any, you know,
00:59didn't put any points on the board, had a few shots, you know, made a few plays,
01:03got a chance to get some power play time.
01:06It's not the end of the world for a guy to go to the AHL and get a handful of
01:11games of experience
01:12before you throw him into a playoff race in the NHL.
01:16It's really not.
01:17Like, people, you know, oh, if they turn him into a grinder, they're not turning him into a grinder.
01:23If he's got some defensive deficiencies that they want him to take care of,
01:28or if he's not, you know, positioning himself well, if they feel like there are some things he can improve
01:33on,
01:33and that maybe going to learn the system a little bit before we toss you in with both feet,
01:40it's not that bad of an idea.
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