Quote:
Originally Posted by nmhen
All the fans who think he's not over-rated! Which represents a fair number of Wild fans, so he hardly only receives complaints.
It's not even Koivu that's the problem. It's Koivu as a first line center in the NHL that's the problem. Koivu doesn't challenge for the top center stop on any contending team in the league, IMO. But, dare suggest he's better suited on the 2nd line and a vocal subset of Wild fans goes bananas. He's a career .746 points per game regular season player. He has 6 points in 16 playoff games. I love his work ethic and his attention to defense. But I'd love him more if we had a viable first line center ahead of him. He has said that he will bail out on the offensive zone so that he doesn't get caught behind the play, even if it means giving up on a scoring opportunity. That's great - but I think you need more of an offensive mindset from your top line, and he's just not that guy. Maybe Granlund can be that guy, I don't know.
I think the Wild is asking Koivu to be something he's not by playing him on the top line. And, whatever you like about his game, you should still see it on the second line, no?
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Okay, so you'd like to have an even better center ahead of him. That's what you'd have in a championship team. Right. So you've had mediocre lineups for years and you're thinking that Koivu would ideally be a second line center - if the Wild were the Chicago Blackhawks.
And that leads to you call the player over-rated. The guy who other players keep voting as being one of the most underrated.
Size, playmaking, great faceoffs, great two-way play, plays against the top defenders every night, team leader even before he was made captain. Scores points on low scoring Wild teams. The Flames haven't had a center like that in a long time. But since he's wouldn't be first line center on the Penguins, let's just call him over-rated. Let's just always talk about him like he's a problem in the lineup rather than take two moments to appreciate what he does.
I can tell you that the Calgary media and fans wouldn't talk about him like that.