I generally agree about staying positive, and if this game were an outlier for Zib, I'd 100% agree with you, but...there's a LONGSTANDING problem with Zibanejad.
Some food for thought. Going back to the playoffs, over the last 18 games (including tonight), Zibanejad has been spoon-fed nearly an hour of powerplay time (57:09 to be precise). In that hour of powerplay time? He has ONE assist. That's it. That's a pace for what, 6 or 7 powerplay points over a full season? While getting choice minutes with some amazing players? That's just not good enough.
Frankly, Kreider has been something of a problem on the PP unit as well (2 goals over the last 18 games). For as much as Lavi likes to say the PP1 unit has been succeeding, what he really means is that Bread (3G, 4A in the last 18 games) and Trocheck (2G, 4A in the last 18) have been succeeding.
On top of that, it's not even like Zib is on the top unit because he's a center. Trocheck takes the draws on PP1.
Zib is supposed to be balls on the defensive side of the puck as well. Well...no points again for him tonight, but he was on the ice for the ONE goal against--a goal where he made a dainty stick check on his man (the puck carrier) and then circled off to let someone else take care of him.
All of this is on top of the fact that Zib carries himself like he just doesn't give a shit. The whining to the refs all the time, the lazy plays on the ice. He has the talent. We've all seen it. He has the talent to be a top 10 center in this league. But he just doesn't seem to have the desire.
Again, don't get me wrong. I'm very happy that the team won. But they won a lot last year while ignoring the glaring issues with the roster, and how did that pan out for them? Mediocre teams are content to win. Championship teams fix what's broken. And right now? The supposed 1C is, and has been for a good long while, looking pretty broken.