Quote:
Originally Posted by waner
To me he is the laziest of all the forwards and shows zero sense of caring at all about the losing. He is soft as butter, has the double dose of not caring or understanding how to play defense and outside of one year with a crazy shooting percentage he has been an okay not great offensive player.
In junior despite being surrounded by other good players he had little to no success in terms of even making the play-offs, let alone playing in them so I imagine his show up in play-offs has to with him scoring a goal in which 3 other guys did a hell of a lot more to get him the tap in for Team Canada as the basis for you thinking he would do well in the play-offs? Because he has shown in the NHL when the physicality and defensive play is increased he has no problem taking games off.
Hall does everything better than him. Much better scorerer, better effort on defense, plays a physical game, gives a damn, has a history in junior of being great in the play-offs and winning.
The only reason I can think of wanting Eberle over Hall is if you think you can get him for cheap or that Edmonton wouldn't give up Hall because in terms of hockey play Hall is vastly superior.
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I alluded to the fact that he hasn't really seen the playoffs. He kept pace in his two appearances for Regina, but that is, of course, Junior hockey.
That's a major problem, but I just get this intangible sense from Eberle that he is a player you will want when a series is on the line. I can admit that the only real proof I have is that incredible showing during World Juniors a few years back, but it was impressive. That only strengthened my confidence in him.
He's not really that soft of a player, it's just that the infectiousness of the Oilers disinterested system has left its mark on him. Its exhausting to care about losing when that's all your organization seems to do and instill. I would bet Eberle turns it on in a better culture. Seasons of 78 and 65 points, with 34 and 28 goals respectively is not average. He's only 24...he hasn't even hit his prime.
And this was never a Hall vs Eberle debate for me. This was who I would want from the Oilers, and given the reality of who the organization would actually be willing to part with (they aren't trading Hall, Nurse, Draistl, etc) I would take Eberle.