I think people are underestimating the effect the quality of linemates Baertschi has been playing with on his production. Not only are they unable to be in position and capitalize on any plays Sven makes (and there have been a few nice passes each game over the last 5 or so), but the style of game they play is totally unsuited to Sven's. Bouma and Bollig go bang bodies, muck it up in the corners, and crash the net. They have basically zero finesse, and Sven is a 100% finesse player.
I'm not arguing that Sven deserves any better ice than 4th line. He doesn't. He's been outplayed by Glencross (obviously) and Gaudreau (obviously), and, on a shift-by-shift basis, mostly outplayed by Ferland.
It's okay to be disappointed in Sven's play. But I don't think it's fair to be disappointed in his production. It's like asking two investors to earn some money, and you give one of them a million dollars and the other one $10,000, and then compare them on the total principal of the portfolio rather than their rate of return.
Personally I think Sven's game was looking a hell of a lot more NHL ready over the last 5 games he played than perhaps at any point in his career.
(Ironically, Ferland's game is better suited to playing with guys like Bouma and Bollig, but we apparently want to evenly distribute the "beef".)
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