Wheeler had 2 pp assists against Ottawa; on his second he set up Laine's hat-trick goal by driving the slot, forcing the D and goalie to commit, and making a patient, good, unselfish pass to Laine who had a wide-open side to fire it into. He pretty much got zero credit by anyone on the forum, and wasn't really even acknowledged as being involved in the play.
He (along with Copp) led the team with 6 shots last night against Chicago. Just as perspective (and not a hot-take on Laine's performance), Laine's only shot was his empty-net goal, something Wheeler would potentially be chastised here for performing.
Copp and Laine were lauded in this PGT for having 'excellent' games. I don't disagree with that, per se. Wheeler, despite scoring the game-tying PP goal, being a warrior this game going to the difficult areas, getting crotched and head-shotted and what not, only receives either negative or neutral comments in this PGT, naming him a 'has-been', and 'weakest link on the PP'.
People see what they want to see. So granted that I'm an abashed Wheeler fan, I tend to see his good play and overlook his bad. A few people go the other way, and are locked in a narrative that everything he does is terrible, and he's bad for the team, etc. I would hope that most people are somewhere in the middle. Unfortunately, the negative hot-takes overwhelm the GDTs as soon as we are behind by a single goal, and that's why I've decided not to participate in them anymore.
