- Feb 15, 2005
- 5,274
- 4,064
Agree that Nick's puck protection - both along the boards and in open ice - is not as strong as it was, and his ability to win pucks is also diminished, He still has elite vision and can thread great passes, but he has fewer opportunities to do so because he's easier to catch up with and dispossess. Alternatively, the sluggish collective motor rate of a typical Backy line possession makes preventing solid entries pretty easy (another reason he should play with MoJo). And then his transition going the other way after he or his lineys are dispossessed has been hard to watch.
On the PP, you see glimpses where his little shimmies and fakes create more time and space for him, but you used to see that all the time. Last couple of years, opposing PKers have been pretty aggressive about just straight-up attacking him with when has the puck on the PK. and that doesn't seem to have slackened. And it's easier to attack him with both Ovie and Carly out.
I want all that to be different, but it ain't been thus far.
On the PP, you see glimpses where his little shimmies and fakes create more time and space for him, but you used to see that all the time. Last couple of years, opposing PKers have been pretty aggressive about just straight-up attacking him with when has the puck on the PK. and that doesn't seem to have slackened. And it's easier to attack him with both Ovie and Carly out.
I want all that to be different, but it ain't been thus far.
