Quote:
Originally Posted by mikephoen
Well it's documented that he was told to get in better shape in the summer, and he is having an even worse year now... so it's a fairly reasonable assumption. There aren't a lot of out of shape NHLers in the league at all, so it wouldn't take much of a slip up to drop to the bottom ranks.
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That's a terrible assumption to make. I believe somebody posted an article from the view of a skills coach that Richards has always been a top 6 player who relies on his vision and instincts with skating as a general weakness. Those strengths aren't being played in the best scenario because of being put in a bottom 6 role, while at the same time his game is starting to fall apart because of age.
For a guy who had an extreme style, losing half a step was killer to his career. Let's not add to the whole "still out of shape" dialogue.