Neal can shoot the puck. Always has always will. There should be no surprise, and guys who can shoot the puck are going to pop some goals playing with McDavid, Nuge and Draisatl.
Last year Rattie was being pumped up in training camp for the same reason.. didn't last the long haul. And make no mistake, the first few games arent a heck of a lot different than pre-season games as far as understanding long term trends. Chiasson has scored over 20 with them.
At the end of the day, the constant trend will always be McDavid and Draisatl. Until they find some players that score without their help, on different lines, long term they really aren't better.
Neal put up plenty of points with Crosby and Malkin. He has offensive gifts that allow him to finish off plays set up by top talents. But then he moved on, and Crosby and Malkin kept scoring. He's not making them better, or driving play. Its just a different allocation of points. throughout the roster, and perhaps allows more defensive abled players to fill a better role in Edmonton, rather than just riding shot gun... which is kind of what Neal's skillset allows him to be.
Let Neal have the spot light for a few days, but it doesn't mean a lot in terms of analyzing James Neal. The right fit didn't exist in Calgary. He was outplayed for the coveted top two line spots, and he wasn't a fit in Calgary with the role he had.
The Flames saved a pile of real cash in the deal, which actually does matter to league owners, and that money is spent in other areas. The immediate benefit is not as obvious as Neal is playing with those guys, but we need to look beyond the raw stats of Neal/Lucic, as it was quite obvious that was never going to be the benefit of the deal. That is why there is a draft pick contingency in the deal that goes the Flames way after Neal taps in a few goals with McDavid.
The goals will slow down. The Oilers will still have trouble in bottom 6 scoring, team defense, penalty killing, and goaltending. Neal helps zero in those key areas. Lets let the season play out rather than jump off ledges after 3 rando early season games.
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