It's been my contention for the longest time that many, many people were confusing a lack of "hockey sense" for Kreider simply being slow to adjust to new levels of play. Players don't suddenly develop hockey sense. It's either something you have, or something you don't. Comfort level, adaptability, experience. Those are things that players can improve upon over time. That's what we're seeing with Kreider.
I mentioned years ago that he basically went from Prep star to playing against the world's best in his age group to playing against NHL professionals all within one year of being drafted. That's a hell of a lot of hockey to process, and you could see that he really took a step back in his sophomore season after riding the adrenaline high through his post-draft year. He became less of a "toolsy" player that got by on skill and size, and more of a student of the game.
He's never lacked in the hockey sense department. What he has lacked is a natural ability to figure out how he fits into a system. He's such a smart kid, but in turn that means that he overthinks everything. The best hockey he played under Tortorella were the games fresh out of school where they told him simply to try and create scoring chances and chase down the puck. Then last year he just had so many things to work on, that he got away from just playing the game. I think AV has a style of coaching that's much better suited to Kreider and how he processes the game.
