Felt the same way about tonight's game. Nelson goes to the right areas but he's playing tentatively. Every time he gets the puck on his stick, he makes a touch pass to someone else half a second later. That's a little exaggerated but the point is he doesn't have the puck on his stick a lot. When Coyle was bumped up to 2C, he was carrying the puck and driving the play. Nelson still isn't playing with that level of confidence. Had the one great chance tonight though.
Nelson is more talented, but outside that first game, I think Coyle has outplayed him. Coyle hasn't executed on his shots much either, but he's been more engaged on the forecheck, and winning battles.
I loved that first game where Nelson just went out and played, but now he looks like he's overthinking everything. I think that's part of why Bednar put him on MacKinnon's wing, along with hoping to get him a goal for his confidence. He looked a little better not having to think about all his responsibilities at center in a new system, but not as well as they need from him.
Willing to be patient, but he needs to get back to just playing hockey. He's one of the best goal scorers on the team, and tonight he got the puck in the best spot possible in the slot, and his confidence looks so low, and he's overthinking so much, he took way too long considering to pass to both forwards near the circles, that the goalie read everything he was thinking and made a routine save. If he would have just fired the puck when he should have, he might have scored.
It's very strange how all three of Nelson, Val, and Drouin looked great individually, and together that first game, and since then they've all looked very off, except for Val tonight who was better finally.
Maybe they just need to get through the rest of these games, and take advantage of the extra practice days between the regular season and playoffs to help Nelson dial in the system, feel more comfortable, and figure out how they should play together. Hopefully they figure it out before then though.