Quote:
Originally Posted by HighLifeMan
You are fooling yourself if you don't think those criticism's aren't commonly shared by nearly all of the top end offensive wingers in the game. Kucherov, Pastrnak, Ovechkin, Kane, Draisaitl, etc.. all cheat on the defensive side of the puck and receive favorable offensive deployments in order to create offense.
Do you know what the difference is however? They have/had coaches who understood their strengths and weaknesses as players instead of one that diminished their creativity and confidence by attempting to change them into player's they are not.
When you have a player with elite level offensive ability - it is actually a good idea to manage the matchups they receive and to allow them to exchange chances with the more exploitable talent(s) on the opposition side.
The need to always have to look for faults in a players game is ridiculous. That article comes off as a hit piece digging into a players season whom finished second in the league in scoring.. Is it at all necessary?
Huberdeau routinely win his matchups and has not had a negative goal differential at five on five since his second year in the NHL. We paid the man 80+ million dollars for a reason. Let him play his game.
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I understand the "let him play his game" rhetoric - there's no point trying to force a 200ft game out of him that he is just no good at playing. The trouble is that he's being paid to be a difference maker in more ways than just producing based on soft matchups and off the rush.
He still could have made a huge impact on the PP last year for the Flames, but instead he might have been the number 1 reason for the awful results the team had with the man advantage. You don't often see a superstar talent look so bad when he has time and space to operate with the most talented players on the roster as Huberdeau did last year.
I'm hoping for the best in terms of a bounce back year, but even if he does flirt with 80 points, I have big concerns that his play will decline in the playoffs when he simply can't compete or play through the tough matchups.