Brandon Pirri Bumped To Second Line
It looks like Brandon Pirri will finally get a shot at being a top-six player tonight when the Blackhawks take on the Wild in Minnesota.
Based on the new-look lines at practice, it appears that Pirri will be skating between Brandon Saad and Patrick Kane… of course, lines are subject to change if/when coach Joel Quenneville puts the blender into motion.
Here are the lines from the morning skate:
Sharp-Toews-Hossa
Saad-Pirri-Kane
Bickell-Shaw-Morin
Bollig-Kruger-Mills/Smith
Pirri has won 50 percent of his faceoffs in six games since joining the Blackhawks, and has worked himself into a more significant role on Chicago’s power play unit as well.
Good decision.
Lets leave the kid there for a few games and see what happens. It is still early enough in this LONG season to see where we stand with the Rockford kids, the time is now. Q, for God’s sake, please spread out the minutes…guys are getting gassed already, going to lead to injuries, guaranteed.
If this happens, Pirri does need a fair shake to start their for 10 or so games. I am less concerned about the line mixing throughout the games because Q does it so often and it just seems a gut feel to the flow of the game. Let’s see how this plays out.
I am fine with Pirri getting a shot at 2C, but do not like his linemates in this scenario. Kane is weak on D (as is Pirri.) Better if Hoss was swapped with 88 and then you have:
Sharp-Toews-88
Saad-37-Hoss
Bickell-Shaw-Morin
Bollig-Kruger-Mills/Smith
Q will likely get there anyway so we’ll see what happens..
Good grief. Brandon Pirri sucks. Period. Why we are dicking around with him as 2nd line Center is beyond me. He’s not good enough. He can’t skate fast enough…and he sucks offensively and defensively. I am so incredibly sick of this wondrous fascination shit with Pirri and Smith. But whatever…I know where Q’s head is on this stuff and that gives me great confidence that we won’t have to endure this Pirri shit too much longer.
Seriously, nobody can explain to me why Pirri or Smith should be given sample size to prove what they can do at this level. Nobody. Other than this useless horseshit that they put up nice numbers in the AHL.
Danault cannot arrive soon enough.
RTF- You obviously feel “strongly” about this guy, but his numbers are not too bad so far in limited action. In 6 games he’s +2, has pu 2 in the net and is winning 50%+ of his FO’s.. I can see he’s not as fast as we’d like (or as strong on D and/or along the boards), but that’s no his game. We have TT coming along in a year or 2, Danault/Broadhurst/McNeil are not ready, Zues is injured and showing age, so what choice does Q have but to give the kid a shot? Personally I think he’s showed well enough to get some more game time under his belt with a decent pairing to see if he’s a decent stopgap or better… Saad- Pirri- Hossa could work imho..
Good news IMO…and I agree with you Negzz, Pirri would be better suited with the 2 Hossa’s instead of Kane, who is struggling as a 5 on 5 skater…
Rufus, seriously stop with the outright name calling and put downs…you are a fan of a franchise that has won 2 SCs in 4 years…Brandon Pirri is a 21 year old that led the AHL in scoring…that has NEVER happened before, and he has worked his butt off all summer long to improve his strength and his 2 way responsibilities…here is his stat line as a Hawk so far:
Brandon Pirri, C 6 2 1 3 2 0 10:04 1 0 0 0 8 25.0
In 6 games with an average of 10 minutes of ice time, mostly buried on the 4th line, he has 3 points, 2 goals, is a PLUS 2 and has a shooting % of 25…these are outstanding numbers for a rookie…and you do nothing but call him out with words of hate…ENOUGH!
He is a Chicago Blackhawk, our team remember, and is deserved of our respect and support…and if this young man steps up to this lofty role and succeeds, you had better be the first one calling out his name for his success.
Take your anger out on the Canucks, Hawk rookies don’t need, nor deserve it.
As for Danault, a player I like VERY much, I have watched every Rockford game but one, and he is NOT ready to be an NHLer…IMO Clendening is, Hayes is, and the best of the Rockford rookies has been Mark McNeil, who has been a Centre his whole life and is built like a steel train…maybe he can help us in game 40, who knows, but it won’t be Danault…he will likely need a whole year in Rockford, IF NOT 2 YEARS…
2 pts each from Pirri, Saad & Kane. I’ll wait for Rufus to tell us again how much Pirri sucks…
To R.T.F-
how you can say an NHLer sucks is questionable (we could only hope) but to say Pirri sucks offensively is mind boggling. That goal top corner a few games back is something very few people can do and right now he’s fitting in pretty well with the best team in the world. Yeh he isn’t perfect but….Good luck Brandon!