Comments from Sutter over the past few days has me thinking he is not pleased with the fitness level of some of the players.
IMO, the biggest culprit of lack of competitiveness throughout this season has been Monahan, but its interesting to hear Sutter indicate that it's not a work ethic that is the problem (something I've been pointing at on a few on this team) but rather an inability to keep up to pace for a full 60. That's interesting to me.
By his comments though, he's clearly not happy with the top players (namely Monhan and Gaudreau), but seems to be a bit easier on Johnny than Monahan (though he is choosing his words carefully). There were a number of times last night that his inability to check closely on the opposition allowed for easy breakouts, scoring chances and goals. On that Simmonds goal for example, he failed to tightly check the high man. allowing for an easy pass to the front of the net..I thought that plays like that were a competitiveness issue, but Sutter seems to be indicating that he simply can't keep up.
Honestly something I hadn't thought of.
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