Ville is getting Stan the puck? I'm sure it happens here and there but there is no consistency.
The question I'd ask is how is Ville getting the puck? He's not winning any battles out there.
What I see is Stan doing a lot of the heavy lifting and is usually the one who is passing it off to Ville - not that Stan wins all his battles.
If there was any success with this pair, it likely came from Ville being unmolested most of the time - he's not engaged so is usually open.
He gets to show us his great exit passes when someone gives him the puck - I notice most of those great passes come during line changes where Stan will usually pass off to Ville to give him that opportunity - and then they are both usually heading for the bench.
How these two were ever able to generate decent numbers as a pair, is a mystery to me.
One thing I am pretty sure of is that this is a trial by fire for both - setting up Ville on his off wing and expecting greatness - or - asking Stan to play with a guy who is playing his off wing and struggles defending.
Stan takes most of the heat though - how is Ville the wonder supposed to be great on his off wing playing with Stan? Actually, you can look at this from both angles.
Hope it gets sorted out soon -
IDK. You're watching the games more closely than I'm usually able to these days, but in the ones I've seen them do well in I'd say that they're starting to blend their skillsets a bit -- Stan taking on more of the knocking pucks loose and physical play on the boards and behind the net and being able to find an outlet in Ville who can then make an exit pass or play it up ice, which is often where Stan can struggle, esp under pressure. I also wonder if Heinola's positional nous means clearer paths and signals for Stan at times -- and, of course, he's the senior partner in the pairing.
There's also been plenty of examples of Ville covering back for Stan as he pinches and retrieving pucks to chip over to Stan with more time and space so he isn't panicking with the puck under pressure as he can do -- again, a useful complementary play between partners. We see versions of it with Samberg and Pionk and we saw it with JMo and Peak DeMelo also and with Samberg and Schmidt last season, who were terrific together for long stretches before being abandoned before the POs.
Heinola should get quicker and stronger as he gets up to pace from a longterm injury that affects pivots, stability in a board battle, first stride and so on -- if he doesn't, that's an issue for sure, and likely Heinola is moved on, but I think he's overall a better complement to Stan than Fleury, who has a similar profile to Stan, with better mobility.
Hopefully we're seeing learning curve where these two can start to play well off each other as a solid all-situations 3rd pairing with some special teams potential, which would be a nice win for the team going forward.
