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

 

[McDonald19]

My worries about Z are still not going anywhere. Went from generating chances every shift to barely being noticeable.

Hope he was just going through the motions in the preseason, and wakes up for the regular season.

 

[Terry Yake]

have to wonder if cronin is the issue with zegras

 

[Hockey Duckie]

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

Eakins benched Z often. Eakins benched a lot of players if they weren't bringing it. Hell, Eakins waived Rico b/c Rico wasn't bringing his "A" game.

 

[70sSanO]

Eakins benched Z often. Eakins benched a lot of players if they weren't bringing it. Hell, Eakins waived Rico b/c Rico wasn't bringing his "A" game.

I wouldn’t say Eakins waived Henrique. Coaches can’t waive players.

Rico was waived by a “former” Ducks coach that had the 5th best winning percentage.

John

 

[2faded]

Zegras' problem is playing on the wing. He always sucks on the wing then starts producing again when moved back to center.

It seems that there is no shot at him playing 2c over McTavish so their solution is to turn a talented offensive center into a defensive wing. It's not going to work and it doesn't look like they want him playing 3c. So, unfortunately there is no spot on this team for Zegras anymore.

I don't want Zegras traded but I just don't see it ending up any other way. I hope he somehow figures it out at wing.

Watch if McTavish gets hurt and they move him to 2c. He'll look like a different player.

 

[WhyVerbeekWhy]

We can roll three scoring lines and should...but I don't think the coach agrees.

 

[Firequacker]

We can roll three scoring lines and should...but I don't think the coach agrees.

We are rolling three scoring lines, though. Vatrano-Strome-Terry is absolutely a scoring line, and arguably Vatrano-Strome-anyone is a third scoring line because what else are they gonna be doing?

I get the theory behind trying to turn Zegras into a wing, in a vacuum. I get it a lot less when the result is running Strome, who's even worse defensively (and obviously less effective offensively), as the center on a third scoring line instead.

 

[Ducks DVM]

We can roll three scoring lines and should...but I don't think the coach agrees.

Killorn Carlsson Gauthier
Zegras McTavish Fabbri
Vatrano Strome Terry

Which line do you feel is not a scoring line?

 

[Leonardo87]

Hey fellas, going to be locking this thread soon, since preseason is over, so would recommend to carry discussion into the roster thread. Thanks!

 

[Mr Rogers]

I mean there have been good offensive centres in the past who were just bad or even brutal defensively - Marc Savard and Spezza come to mind for me. They might have to alter their expectations if they let him play C because I agree it truly allows him to be most effective.

I’m worried they are pushing him go so far in one direction that it’s completely destroying his offense. Some guys can make the switch and make it work but not everyone and Zegs might be the latter.