Quote:
Originally Posted by FanIn80
Fair or not, I put a lot of that on Ferland. Anaheim is a punishing team to play against, and Ferland's role in this series should have been to make sure Johnny had room to play out there.
If we were playing the Hawks or Oilers, then for sure, try to be an offensive threat... but against the Ducks, we needed someone riding shotgun on that line in a big way, and it just didn't happen.
Johnny is the #1 LW on this team, and is the biggest offensive threat we have, but he's 5'9 150lbs. It is what it is, and guys like that need to know that they'll have the time and space they need to do what they do. If he believes he's got the time and space, he'll light the other team up, even if he actually doesn't have it. The inverse is also true though. Hit him a few times and he'll start to believe he doesn't have any room, even if he does, and that's when he starts getting rid of the puck instead of holding on to it.
In fairness to Ferland, it might have been a coaching thing, but regardless, Johnny knew he was going to get hammered if he held on to the puck, and that just can't happen.
Edit: Also, playoff Brouwer was slightly better than regular season Brouwer, in much the same way as the smell of your own cat's litterbox is slightly more tolerable than the smell of someone else's.
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that's really going out of your way to find an excuse for Johnny.
He is paid to be a front line player that produces. Period.
He is paid to drive the offense on that line.
He wasn't good enough. Not by a long shot.
No need to give him excuses. He just needs to be better.