Quote:
Originally Posted by AC
As I said, Monahan's lack of offense is a huge disappointment. But I see him battling out there to help his teammates, something that Gaudreau has basically not done at all from what I've seen. I definitely think Monahan would have had some success if he wasn't paired with Gaudreau through these 5 games.
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This is the thing.
Gaudreau has had some flashes with the puck on his stick where he looks like his old self, and those are more noticeable but that's maybe 5% of the time.
The rest of the time though I'm sure you could make a pretty long video from this playoff run of Gaudreau either bailing on a play in the corner knowing he might get hit, the puck going up the LW side on a defensive zone exit with Gaudreau not helping to clear the zone at all since he doesn't want to get hit, or Gaudreau just throwing the puck away at the offensive blueline since he doesn't want to take a hit.
With the puck on his stick the guy has been trying a little (mostly the past two games) but for the majority of this playoff he's just be completely unwilling to engage in any battle to win the puck back, hasn't worked hard away from the puck, and hasn't been willing to take a hit to make a play.