Quote:
Originally Posted by troutman
Let’s not blame the “system”. He is 32 and washed. All on him.
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He was washed literally the next year after putting up record points.
It is the system, it’s not JUST the system he has to take lots of the responsibility, but to argue against it being a factor is short sighted in my mind.
He excelled in a very loose defensively minded system, with no structure and having the full ability to play east/west high puck possession hockey in Florida.
That’s how that team played and it was great in the regular season, but faltered in the playoffs.
His decline is record breaking, and to blame that all solely on a guy somehow forgetting how to hockey is wild to me. He came to a team who was 200% different, both the team and the player acknowledged this that same year. “Long adjustment period” where they did everything they could to turn him into a 200ft player, and not just an offensive multi-tool with little defensive responsibility.
It just wasn’t a match, and now 4 years later he’s aged and the system remains low event/low danger hockey because our team isn’t built with any superstar power in sight.
So yes, he was washed literally out of the gates and now it’s not helping that he’s older. But you go back to his time in Florida and watch his 115pt season highlights and tell me he somehow forgot how to do that literally overnight.
Just was never going to work on our team under two coaches who drive home defensively sound hockey, it is what it is you can’t even be mad about it anymore.