Quote:
Originally Posted by Infinit47
You seem to think a player's output is 100% within their own control. And I agree Huberdeau had been hugely disappointing, but it's not 100% on him.
Kadri and Huberdeau do not compliment eachother at all. Completely different styles of play. But Sutter has tied them together at the hip and won't break them up.
Sutter seems very willing to use 1 or 2 games to write-off things he doesn't want to do (i.e play Phillips), but when it's his idea he sure is comfortable with 50 games of forcing the players to figure it out.
Lucic isn't an everyday NHL player, but Sutter is using him in that role, at absolute key times.
Why does performance dictate ice time for Huberdeau and not Lucic? That's the problem, and it sure plays into the bias many people believe Sutter has, which is "big =good".
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No, I don’t think it’s all on one guy, like I said earlier, I think Kadri’s game has dropped off a ton from earlier in the season and that has had a negative impact on his linemates. But it goes the other way too right? Sometimes the others aren’t too good either which hurts Kadri, so it’s symbiotic.
For Huberdeau though, i’ve said it a lot that I don’t think it’s his linemates that’s been the source of his frustrations. This is a guy who had a career year with Sam Bennett and Anthony Duclair, yet he can’t figure it out with anybody here? Are our players that much worse than Duclair or Bennett? Unlikely, it’s something else.
When it comes Lucic, man I don’t know. It’s a pretty tiring conversation and honestly, a lot of fanbases complain about it. I’ve seen this same conversation had around the NHL. Typically, fans don’t want to see their 4th lines get minutes especially if you can play the top 6 more, but every coach in the NHL uses them and they’re usually in the range of 10 minutes give or take which is about where Lucic is. He did play with Huberdeau and Kadri for a month which probably inflated his minutes as well, but Im not gonna bother doing the math.
There’s not much more I can say or want to say, I get the hate, but it’s not the biggest reason why the team is sitting where they are, not even close.