Quote:
Originally Posted by CliffFletcher
What do you mean by "figure it out?" He's small and he's light. He's never going to be a Fleury or a St. Louis. He's not even going to be a Kane. The only way he can avoid getting rubbed out by opposing players is to evade them. Anad as we're seeing, he has less space and time in the playoffs because all players have less space and time.
Maybe if he dedicates himself to working out seriously, he can get a little stronger on the puck. But not much. He'll never be a guy who can beat opposing players one-on-one in a tight playoff game. So he needs the help of teammates to be effective, someone who can share the load of carrying the puck. Teammates who are my dynamic than Sean Monahan.
I'm not sure what else there is he needs to figure out.
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Lots of small players in this league right now are able to fight through this stuff...why is he a special case?
And I'm not talking the purely physical side of things, im more talking the mental attitude of fighting through things and fer chrissakes, STOP with the histrionics every single time a stick comes near his hands. It's embarrassing and as we are witnessing, actually can cost the club a PP when an actual foul occurs. The officials all knw this by now as he has been doing it for 4 years.
Its poor leadership from your highest paid, and most skilled player. Period. Other top players are also very skilled but they work/think miles harder than he does to fight for their space. Sure he could use some others that do the same, but that does not exonerate him from doing it himself. He had the worst shift any one player has ever displayed in the playoffs the other night, and that simply cannot happen.
If he is unable to play any other way, then damn right he can ply that brand of hockey somewhere else because it is not playoff mentality hockey and you wont and cant win with it.