GDT: Anaheim @ San Jose, 7pm Pacific

[Zegs2sendhelp]

He has fewer defensive responsibilities at wing, but is less engaged on both ends of the ice. He is a natural center, best with the puck in the middle of the ice. I'd like them to play him at center, with less difficult defensive matchups.

Idk what you do with zegras anymore…. But he def doesn’t have the same swagger on the ice that he did his first 2 years

 

[Deuce22]

Idk what you do with zegras anymore…. But he def doesn’t have the same swagger on the ice that he did his first 2 years

No question. In an effort to make him more responsible defensively, they've clipped his wings a bit. It's now up to Zegras to find the sweet spot where he creates, but is still playable in his own end.

 

[Static]

Zegras must looks like he has lost confidence.

 

[Hockey Duckie]

Zegras must looks like he has lost confidence.

I don't think confidence is something Z ever loses, but it's how he is being used. Maybe he needs a quarter or half the season to process things defensively to make it more automatic to his game like his offense. It doesn't help that Z was put at LW in one game, C with AHLers the next game, and RW in this last game.

 

[The Midnight Burrito]

They're literally coaching the offense out of him in the name of "defensive responsibility". A man can do both.

As an aside, this is why I've always balked when people keep saying they want to see Z develop as a center. I don't think that's a good use of his abilities. He's such an offensive dynamo when he's mostly freed from big defensive responsibilities that any offensive-minded coach would have penciled him to a winger role and gotten a more defensively responsible center for him just to allow him to shine doing what he's the best at.

I think the coaches would say that it’s up to him to figure that out. I guess it’ll be a process but this seems like a pretty silly use of a powerful offensive weapon.

 

[ohcomeonref]

I f***ing hate what they've done with Z so far. Remove the creativity and what do you have? He's invisible.

 

[70sSanO]

I’m putting Zegras as the 3rd line center with Colangelo and maybe Fabbri.

The Ducks need to see him play against easier matchups where he can succeed.

With Carlsson, McTavish, and Zegras you can’t fit 3 true centers into the top 6. It then becomes either Z or Mac, because Leo is not going anywhere, or 3 lines.

John

 

[AngelDuck]

I would personally like to see:

Gauthier-Carlsson-Fabbri
Zegras-McTavish-Vatrano
Killorn-Strome-Terry

Yes, the 2nd line is bad defensively, but you can shelter them a little and it could be dynamic offensively

I like the idea of Terry having his “own line”. It fits his play style the best

 

[Mr Rogers]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1842425927277424864

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

I would personally like to see:

Gauthier-Carlsson-Fabbri
Zegras-McTavish-Vatrano
Killorn-Strome-Terry

Yes, the 2nd line is bad defensively, but you can shelter them a little and it could be dynamic offensively

For whatever reason they seem hell bent on putting killorn w/ carlsson…. Don’t particularly love it… but gauthier and carlsson do enough on their own that I don’t think it matters much.

I do like the vatrano strome terry line, hell on paper I like zegras mctavish fabbri…. Maybe just needs time to form chemistry….. I’m actually cool if they keep the lines the same as last night for a few games and see how it goes.

 

[Mr Rogers]

It’s a bad look for Cronin and even Pat if they can’t find a way to make Zegs productive. Even Eakins got back to back 60+ years out of him on bad to awful teams. They might need to just pull back on whatever defensive tasks they are asking of him but I’m not sure that’s the only reason he’s been invisible.

 

[anezthes]

He has fewer defensive responsibilities at wing, but is less engaged on both ends of the ice. He is a natural center, best with the puck in the middle of the ice. I'd like them to play him at center, with less difficult defensive matchups.

He's 100% a center. There are more plays to be made up the middle than on the wing. The only exception, IMO, was with Carlsson. They had great chemistry at the start of the 2023-24 season.

 

[Deuce22]

He's 100% a center. There are more plays to be made up the middle than on the wing. The only exception, IMO, was with Carlsson. They had great chemistry at the start of the 2023-24 season.

By trying to mitigate his defensive shortcomings, they took away what he does best. He’s pretty invisible at wing.

 

[AngelDuck]

I think he can be fine at wing, but Zegras needs dynamic forecheckers/possession players on his line if it’s going to work. I’m not sure we have those guys unfortunately

 

[70sSanO]

It isn’t easy for smaller centers to excel on top lines. Probably Datsyuk is at the top of the list. And I’m not comparing Z to Pavel. But little guys have to be tough and strong and not just creative. Datsyuk was a real stud.

On the surface I would never see Sebastian Aho as a #1 center. Whether you like or dislike him, he takes a lot of abuse, goes into dirty areas, and keeps coming back.

With bigger and faster players in todays NHL, Zegras has to become tougher and more durable. This might be in direct conflict with his fun loving style he has had for years.

Eakins may have been the best, and worst, coach for Zegras. Pretty laid back, even he had some issues, and let Z be Z on a losing team with few options.

John