I cant speak for everyone else, but I've been excluding Duchene from my lists because he gives an effort night after night. Same reason I have a lot of love for EJ, Mitchell, Everberg and Tanguay. Duchene definitely needs to be less careless with the puck and we could hope for some more production but at least he's giving it his all.
He only gives his all with the puck. Examples that have led to goals for the other team:
That 4 on 4 goal the rangers got, first he is slow in reacting to the turnover ( he should have started heading up ice as soon as the puck went by RoR instead of waiting till they actually got the puck) then doesn't bust ass to get down the ice and basically stopped moving his legs at the blueline.
Against Anaheim Lando turns the puck over behind the net and Duchene just watches a guy come in from the blueline for a wide open score. He saw the guy, but still just let him right into a great scoring area.
Against Florida he lets his man get by him at our blueline then slowly goes back through the neutral zone allowing a 4 on 2 (Iggy was beat down the ice from behind the net by a faster player) for a score. He needed to put on the burners a soon as his man got by him, but instead he just gave up on the play hoping Varly and the Dmen to bail him out.
That goal that Subban got where Barrie fell down and he was out front all alone with Pickard. Duchene made a lazy effort to get down the ice. He might have been able to at least hurry Subban if he was busting ass to try and help out. Iggy wasn't to far off and they took off down ice from basically the same spot.
And that's just plays that have led to goals. And it's not just defense either. Lando and RoR get crap for puck battles, but Duchene hasn't been any better. He isn't really willing to get heavily involved unless he can win a race to the puck. But he typically stays away from the physical aspect. Usually just waits for a teammate to do the dirty work and he tries to clean up the puck.
Again agree to disagree. ROR has looked like a vastly worse player than he has at any point before for us in my eyes. He's been awful in puck battles, and even his patented takeaways haven't worked cause he's giving the puck right back or dumping it in with no one flying after it.
I love watching ROR play when he's himself, even if the production isn't there and he's sloppy with the puck. But this year he hasn't even been good without the puck, and that is frustrating and a huge difference. If the only problem was bad puck luck, or sloppy passing I wouldn't mind, but that's not the end of his struggles.
Are you seriously disagreeing with the idea that there is a difference between looking like yourself and being terrible? Dude, there is a huge area in between. 3 points off the team lead and one of the most sound defenders on the team. That's not terrible. You are just disappointed based on what you would like to see and letting that emotion effect your opinion. He has had more of a positive outcome on the score than negative. That's "average" at worst, not terrible.
Everybody but Everberg has been awful in puck battles, until recently when we have been winning them quite a bit, including RoR.. It was the system. It's hard to win puck battles when you are constantly playing off your man and just staying between him and the net and the opposition is typically the first to the puck, and then we would even typically get outmanned in the battle while our support would just stand there hoping the puck popped their way. But now that we are in better position to actually make it a battle and we are not being outmanned most of the time we are winning more.
Define "without the puck". His defense has only led to 2 goals. That's pretty damn good play without the puck. He is still one of the top steal leaders in the league. His Corsi is one of the best on the team, though who knows how accurate that is. If he hasn't been good without the puck, well then that could be said for everyone on the team.