[Red Slinger]

Great write up.

While it's not in the theme of the article I'd like to suggest that the eye-test disagrees that it's confidence, luck, teammates or ice-time that are the primary culprits.

Watching Neal play in previous stops he was a pain-in-the-butt to go against. It was often said that he would "drag other players into the game". What I've seen this year is a guy that is timid going into corners, often gives a half-hearted effort in one-on-one battles and is not putting up much of a fight generally. He always seems to be playing on the "back foot". Maybe some of that is due to ice-time, teammates, confidence and luck but effort is something that is largely independent of those. I'd say the vast majority of games we've seen Neal be a participant rather than someone who drives play. He certainly hasn't been pulling anyone into the fight of the game.

Maybe he's dealing with an injury, maybe he's unsettled, maybe he has no confidence. A veteran of his caliber and experience should know that to pull out of a funk the first thing required is the paradigm of a little extra effort and letting the game come to him. Instead, it looks like we're seeing a guy resigned to knowing that his season sucks. Hopefully, he pulls out of it when the team needs him most.