Quote:
Originally Posted by IgiTang
The issue with that is, if you notice Tkachuck likes to setup from behind the net, so does Johnny. They can't both be there.
Regarding Johnny and his woes, he is really suffering from not having Hartleys system. That stretch pass allowed Johnny to usually be entering the zone on an odd man break.
Also, Monahan is not driving the net hard like he did last year. He's not engaging physically at all and his shot is missing some mustard.
Add those issues together and you're going to have a mis-firing top line.
I believe Monny is injured still or concerned about re-injuring his back is on his mind.
GG's system could perhaps be the first in a very long time that isn't built around Gaudreau and Johnny needs to figure out how to be as dynamic without always being fed the puck. Problem is, he's not going to body players off the puck.
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I know its not an exact matchup. But with the football team that I coached, we had a kid at running back who badly shattered his leg last year and missed the season. He came back and he was tentative and afraid to take hits and was just unsure of himself, and I think in his mind he was freaking out and worried about any hit breaking his leg again.
After two games we were considering moving him to a backup or receiver role and looking at promoting our full back to half back, cause at least we'd get 3 bruising yards a carry. But in game three he took a hard hit to the leg, and he stood up and flexed it a couple of times, of course as coaches we're like "oh shyte man". But he stayed in and ripped a dive for about 5 yards, and bounced up. After that he was dominant for the rest of the year and looked like the player that we thought he'd be before the injury.
Sean looks like a guy that's focused on an injury and because of that he looks slow and tentative and he looks like he's second guessing everything that he does.
But I'll tell you what, I firmly believe that he'll get there, he'll find something to build his confidence, or he'll wake up one morning and feel like a different person.
Because frankly this team is what 5-6-1 without the top line being good or even near to last year.