Could just be swagger (confidence).
Tiger Woods became very human as a golfer when his personal life fell apart, he totally lost his game.
Johnny probably scored at will in junior and college, and lit it pretty good for awhile in the NHL too. The game has gotten faster in the last few years, and the league has done nothing to favor a smaller (and let's face it slower) player like Gaudreau. He's not a fast guy, he's shifty. If teams figured out not just how to play him, but really how to play the Flames as a whole last year, and the goals stopped coming easy peasy, suddenly that swagger is gone.
We've seen Johnny go from a guy who you just knew was going to score on a breakaway, for example, to a guy who now you think will probably flub it, that extra move isn't there, the last second elevation, whatever, it just isn't working for him, and that stuff's taking its toll (see above videos). He's not having fun, not feeling it, not engaged. Are there other issues? Injury? Dunno. But the guy we are watching is no good without the puck, and .... not that good with it either. Right now.
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