Quote:
Originally Posted by Bingo
Don't get me wrong ... there's plenty not to like from the eye test.
I think Hanna Sniper pointed out he doesn't seem to have that extra ounce of give a rip in trying to get the puck back or backchecking ... hate that. And clearly he's not all that quick.
But when I started digging into this I expected to see a much bigger drop off in shot and chance rates, to suggest he's not getting into position at all anymore. Luckily that wasn't the case.
This was always a 20 goal 20 assist player, and not a high impact offensive guy. At the mid point of the season he should be 10/11 and 10/22 and instead he's just under half of that.
Still think he finishes near 15 goals and 30 points and then bounces back a touch next year.
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I don’t know quite about always a 20/20 guy. That is a little low on the goals side compared to his history and with scoring up this year, you’d certainly have expected more than that coming into the year. His worst season I think was 23 goals?
But to your point, he is not and never really was, an offensive juggernaut. Which is a double edged sword as he doesn’t really contribute in many other ways. There is the “leadership” angle but his history with prior teams suggests there are pros and cons there too.
I don’t think he gets to 15 this year but hope he might get to 10. There’s not a switch to flick for the playoffs and he needs to have atleast some confidence going in.