00:00Paul Hamilton with us on the West Her Hotline.
00:03You mentioned Kesslering.
00:04He goes in, hadn't played in about a month,
00:07and that it got better as the game went on.
00:09Do you feel like watching him, Paul,
00:11that that is still the best possible outcome is him to look good?
00:15He's the only one, I think, that's in that mix
00:19to be at the bottom of the D that has both the size and the skating, right?
00:26Like Shen, Stanley, we know they're big and physical.
00:30But you're losing a little bit of foot speed.
00:32Metz, you can move the puck, and there's some skating there,
00:35but he's not big.
00:38Kesslering, I feel like I'm hoping that looks good
00:40because he's the one guy that has both elements.
00:45He obviously feels better.
00:47He went like he was shot out of a cannon one time he was defending.
00:52He was kind of out of the play.
00:54All of a sudden, I saw him coming like a bolt,
00:57and he got back and made the play in front of the net.
01:02I go, that's the guy I saw in the World Championships
01:05and playing for Utah.
01:08And I would just say to the fans again,
01:11don't give up on this guy.
01:13Next year, if he comes to camp and he's healthy and everything,
01:17this is a good hockey player.
01:20He's had a rough time with injuries.
01:22He's never really had to deal with injuries before.
01:25And he's still not fully healthy.
01:30He said there was one injury that's going to nag him probably for the rest of the year.
01:37But I wouldn't take what you've seen this year and say,
01:41well, this is a bust or whatever.
01:44This guy is a good hockey player.
01:46And I think if he just gets a break and gets through a training camp
01:51and everything and is healthy,
01:52I think you will see a much different player than you saw this year
01:56because of injuries.
01:57They have won nine games in a row, by the way, when he's in the lineup.
01:59Did you notice, though, again, when he's in,
02:02usually this has been more a deal with Metza,
02:04that he wasn't really playing a lot with Timmons, right?
02:07Like they were doing the thing where they're mixing with the top four guys.
02:10Yeah, that's what they did because, you know, you had enough lefties
02:14and they'll line up in enough righties where you go lefty-righty.
02:17You don't do it with Darlene and Samuelson because they play so well together,
02:21two lefties together.
02:22But they did break up Byram and Power,
02:25who are usually two lefties together to give you so they could put a lefty
02:29with a righty, which Lindy Ruff does prefer to do.
02:32So it will be interesting to see, you know, how they judge.
02:38Because that's what Lindy Ruff said.
02:39He goes, we've got 9-D, it's not ideal, he said,
02:44but we've got these four games concluding last night to figure it out
02:49and how we will want to line up in the playoffs.
02:53So it doesn't look like anything's etched in stone, quite honestly.
02:56I think it'll depend on the opponent.
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