Quote:
Originally Posted by Rando
Matt Duchene was a big one this season. People swearing off him completely because failure seemed to follow him. Was great for the BJs in the playoffs.
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Small sample size though as he faded in the 2nd round and wasn't much of a factor. I feel we should be careful to christen players as playoff warriors for solid performance in the first round of the playoffs. The real challenge is to maintain it for four consecutive rounds. I hold firm belief that teams should always step back and take a look at the picture when it comes to evaluating players as the playoffs is a small sample size and highly situational. Lots of players have flashed in the playoffs only to never reach those levels again. Consistency in the regular season IMO is more important. You can't ignore that Gaudreau has not fared well in his last two playoff appearances but it can take years of playoff failure for teams before things click as we have seen in successive Stanley Cup playoffs with the Caps and Blues finally winning the cup after years of playoff failure.