Mikheyev and Kuzmenko were terrible last year - what are you talking about?
They were a really bad line. They played themselves off the team. Mikheyev in particular looked really bad after his injury the year prior. Kuzmenko is a cherry-picker with no forecheck or backcheck.
Somehow after trading both of those guys EP still wound up with 89 points playing with 4th liners.
They started the year getting more points than the Miller, Boeser, whoever line 5 on 5. Most of Boeser's goals were PP goals.
Why only Kuzmenko, Mikheyev, Podkolzin who only got 30 minutes of NHL icetime, even Hoglander only got just over 11 minutes a night and now Brannstrom sits
This could be quite a list of Euro's dispatched.
Pettersson - on the cusp
Hoglander - in the doghouse for two years and a constant trade rumor.
Brannstrom - trade for him and now benched
Mikheyev - one of the fastest players a good fit with Kuz and EP, also one of the best forecheckers
Kuzmenko - traded with the treasue chest for a rental
OEL - league record buyout and then goes on to be key player for two teams.
Podkolzin - not as big but traded away for beans and getting icetime with a top line
Zadorov - touted as a bottom pairing dman by Tocchet and Allvin and not offered a contract
Lindholm - critiqued by Tocchet and not re-signed (IMO okay).
All have been criticized by Tocchet and that is just the Canucks see Arizona.
How is this aspect of Tocchet's bias not talked about? We aren't rednecks up here but there it is for all to see but never talked about by their media.
A coach can make a player look good or bad. But Kuz and EP had chemistry and Mikheyev was JUST getting over major knee surgery. Sometime the whole is better than the individual parts in hockey called chemistry and they had it BUT they didn't play dump and pray hockey, Tocchet's style.
If you followed the general consensus of EP's play you know his game has tanked for his level for 80 games including the playoffs..
As a rookie playing with EP and Mik they had Kuz - 39 goals 74pts, EP - 39 goals 102 pts, Mik- injured preseason camp 46 games - 13 goals, 28pts
I don't know what you think a good line looks like but that ain't bad
This is the gist of it for me as well. It looks like Tocchet is on Miller's side in this conflict, and, with this statement, Alvin is as well. So, that means Miller is staying put, and it's up to Pettersson to either please all of them, or get shipped out. I am expecting a trade to happen before July 1.
Maybe going back as far as Horvat being traded, Miller was Tocchets guy from day one,