Think that was only 1 season. He moved him to RNH's line the 2nd season. What happened to that guy anyways? Have barely even heard his name this series.
No, I think the other way. Mostly on Connors line.
RNH I think has been good this series. Ever since Eakins beat the creativity out of him, he's never really been a prolific 5v5 guy, but he's an above average low event forward. His rookie year was on pace for like 90 points before injury, but he just has hard committed to being a defense first player. He's kind of like a softer Danault or a Bergeron with less pace and more natural talent. Leads to him often being under appreciated, in my opinion.
The way our teams built he has a very specific role which is more or less to kill clock and not get scored on. Sometimes people call him Ryan Nothing Happens, often in a derogatory fashion, but when you look at the makeup of our team... if nothing happens without McDavid or Draisaitl on the ice we're probably quite likely to win on any given night.
He's also a Lynch pin for our special teams, plays the most PK minutes on the team with the best PK minutes and is also a huge contributor to our PP; Nuge is what allows our PP to be so adaptable and dangerous because he enables us to transition seamlessly between a capitals style Umbrella with the Drai one-timer threat and a penguins style overload with McDavid's speed threatening a 2 on 1. He's simultaneously an incredible defensive presence out their as the 4th forward in terms of collecting pucks and distributing the puck, by he also is McDavid's wingman in creating odd man rushes. Without him, our PP is just McDavid 2 on 1 looks or just Draisaitl one-timer looks... and obviously a PP can be very good with just those and beat teams even when you know they are just setting up those kinds of looks, but being able to seamlessly switch from one to the other is what makes the Oilers powerplay generational in that it's been the best in the league for so many years. I think maybe the only other guys in the league that could do that for our PP are like... Makar and Malkin? No one else has the hockey IQ to adapt from being hard offense, but also the only defensive presence, while also transitioning between being a point puck distributor and a quick and dirty one shot scoring threat with his understated but accurate wrist shot.
When Nuge is out, our PK is atrocious and our PP is pedestrian offensively while suddenly allowing tonnes of short handed goals. And then you note that he's a fairly low event player that fosters McDavid and Draisaitl to shine... He's incredibly important to our team. The biggest part of our huge losing skid in the middle of the year, in my opinion, was RNH being out of the lineup.
That being said, i agree that in this particular matchup, I think you'd want him to produce more and create more pressure. Certainly I think the kings are chasing power vs power with Kopi / Danault checking McDrai, and he should be a step up on the kings bottom 6. But I don't think he necessarily needs to drive the offense at 5 on 5 the way this team is constructed. I also think it's maybe unfair to expect him to do so when saddled with guys like Ryan & Archibald.
Is that how most of your board feels about Koala would you say? We had an another EDM guy drop by and said some positive things .. which was a shocker to me
I think so. Don't get me wrong, I think Todd is a good coach, but I've always seen him as the guy that prepares your team for the best coach to come in and compete rather than the go to guy to go out and compete for a cup.
Koala is great at creating buy in, and great at implementing a structure that allows your team to be successful. Maybe not even just great, but perhaps elite. He can get things out of guys like Moore or Maroon that many guys just can't.
But he has big downfalls in my opinion. For one, he isn't the kind of guy that can make adjustments on the fly; he's a big believer in chemistry, and I think he tailors his system to a singular ideal. This leads to a lack of shuffling when things aren't working, and a lack of being able to win when you aren't driving play. If another team finds a way to counter your style, you're kind of just out in the lurch.
Secondly, I think his special teams are just 20 years behind the curve. They have not really evolved since 2006, and even then... it was kind of an outdated style that was made successful by Thornton / Marleau / Cheechoo.
To win in the playoffs, you need clutch special teams and to be able to adjust to the team in the other side of the ice. And I think both of those are his greatest weakness. Honestly I think Todd is the reason the Sharks never won the cup despite being the winning-est team in the league for a span of 10 to 15 years.
