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Originally Posted by SuperMatt18
Yup the short shifts and lack of cheating for offense are still so noticable to me.
It's still like he doesn't want to get caught in a long shift or being out of position and is heavily over compensating for it.
Not a bad thing...but it can be hard to create offense if you aren't cheating for offense or aren't willing to stretch a shift to get an offensive chance and go for a change.
The only worry is it's due to fitness...which would also explain lack of footspeed compared to Florida. I still wonder if he put on weight to be biggger and stronger (he looks noticeably bigger than he did in Florida to me) and it's come at the expense of speed and stamina.
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You can definitely create offense without cheating, guys like Mikael Backlund and Blake Coleman are the poster boys for that.
As for Huberdeau, I don’t think a few extra seconds here or there would do much for him at all. He’s played his last 200 minutes without registering a single point, what would another 15 minutes accomplish?
Lastly, his foot speed was always an issue, even when he was in Florida, it’s probably the first thing I noticed. He hid it better in the past because of the types of games he often found himself in, not a whole lot of stopping when you’re playing river hockey.
At this point, Danielle Fujita is his last hope. I thought Backlund could help save his season, but not even #11 could elevate his game. Hopefully Danielle can completely tear down his fundamentals and rebuild his skating like she did with Michael Stone.
Somewhere in that 6’1, 200 pound frame still resides a talented offensive player. He still has elite awareness, vision and some nice moves. I’m not one to believe it has just disappeared overnight or vanished into thin air; it’s just hidden through some really crap skating and a pair of stone hands.
If she can at the very least, help him close gaps better, play the puck with more conviction and up his overall pace, then all those attributes I mentioned above should become more prominent in his game. It’s maybe akin to that of an artist, you give da Vinci the right tools and he can paint you the Mona Lisa. Right now, he’s working with crayons.