The offense was never in question other than the choices he makes with the puck. He’s been playing sheltered minutes the whole time he’s been called up and mostly has offensive zone starts as they’re setting him up for success as best they can. The offense looks like it always has other than now that he’s playing pro he’s a bit quicker to share the puck - which is a huge maturation point that you hoped/expected would happen.
So the negative effect he has defensively on a team has been highly minimized as he rarely plays much in his end. He was still getting Rod’s comments because the attention to detail is what passes Rod’s test. His defensive positioning and play around the net is what will allow him to stay or not be a highly limited 6th or 7th defenseman. Even on his goal he struggled in his end. The play went behind the net and his only job was to contain the forward he had up against the boards, that forward escaped and walked right in front of the net for a big chance that led to a scrum that Morrow just stood and watched which is a common issue. He often stands around the slot trying to figure out who he’s supposed to cover. If a puck pops loose he’s like a fat kid on a cupcake galloping up the ice.
You’d rather try to hold back a tiger than paint stripes on a donkey, so that’s great but his success isn’t dictated by the offense with Rod. It’s whether or not the kid can be trusted to not let forwards escape his coverage with the puck and walk right in front of the net.
His offense looks good and he’s someone that always wants to make a positive difference. Hes always been a bit of a Necas on defense. It looks great but you’re not always sure what it is.
I share all your concerns about his defensive game.
I questioned both. I figured some of the things he was doing offensively at UMass that they wouldn’t immediately transfer over and would cause turnovers and counter attack problems. He would have to find new things or find the subset of the things he was doing that he could still do at the nhl level that wouldn’t bite him and the team by him doing it. He couldn’t just skate through 4 or 5 NHlers and skate his way out of trouble as easily as he was doing there. That he couldn’t laser as many passes from deep to someone floating at the offensive blue line to spring for breakaways….he would have to use that much more sparingly and not try to force as many of those as he did all the time at UMass. He has toned that one down quite a bit so far in his most recent call up and that is a good thing…. but he is still constantly looking for it, just thankfully not trying to force it when it clearly isn’t there…. He Almost hit Jarvis with one but Jarvis couldn’t handle it..he tries to hold the puck too long at times at this level instead of taking the easy chip out and live for another day. But it is better than it was and he is finding his way on the offensive side faster than I thought he would. I figured he would need more time in the minors to get to this point. I’m glad that is coming along faster than I expected.
Defensively, I agree wholeheartedly that he is still a work in progress. Blowing assignments, looking lost and not knowing where he should be, making the wrong move or decision when he does stop standing there staring and does decide to do something…a good example was with about 8 min left in the third against Detroit. He was the only dman in front of the net because Ghost went to the boards and missed the puck coming down low. The puck went behind the net. Rather than wait for Ghost to come back off the wall and get underneath the other wings players, he decided to go chase the puck holder behind the net and leaves the net front empty, hoping the forwards check way down to help him. The Wings player passes it back out front to the wing player crashing the slot before Morrow gets near him.. so now he is in no man’s land and no one in front of the net at all. Could have easily resulted in the tying goal… thankfully got bailed out but I bet that was on the film to watch…
He doesn’t take his guy strong at times as well and lets them keep the play alive or get shots or keep whacking at rebounds, no stick tie up, no body tie up. It wasn’t quite as bad as how soft Roslovic was at tying up Rasmussen against Detroit that allowed him 3 or 4 whacks at it to score on Freddie.. I guess Rosey could try to use the excuse that he is a forward covering for the D and he is half the size of Rasmussen.. it was still awful defense.
I know it sounds like I am bagging on him heavy. It may not seem like it, but I really like the kid. I think he has oodles and oodles of talent and I’m really really cheering for him. I wouldn’t have watched so many UMass games if I wasn’t a fan and excited about him as a prospect. I’d love nothing more than for him to quickly develop into a game breaking elite 1RD for us for the next decade or more. Same goes for Nikishin when he gets here. But if Morrow wants to have top pair d minutes he can’t be too much of a drain on the top d pair… we can’t keep asking Slavin to cover for defensive shortcomings of his partner. We saw how amazing it can be at 4 Nations if we put a top shelf guy next to Slavin…. Burns rightly gets knocks for slowing down and not being quite as capable to handle the big minutes anymore or even as recently as when he first got here a couple seasons ago. But Burns still does things in his sleep they are so instinctual that Morrow hasn’t shown yet he can consistently do….. and until he can show he is committed to it and will do it every shift or try his best to do it every single shift then Brindy won’t trust him to be on that top pairing with Slavin every night permanently..
There is nothing wrong with bringing him along in a third pairing if he commits to doing it “the right way every night” ala Brindy demands. We just have to adjust the rest of the d pairings to account for that moving forward….. it’s going to be a fascinating off season to see what we do reshaping the d core for next year and beyond. I want 6’6” or 6’7” hulks of dmen that can flatten everyone and keep the slot empty while also being able to skate like the wind rushing the puck and can fire 110mph wrist shots bar down every shot….we seem to be missing a little bit of a physical edge so far this season. It hasn’t totally bitten us yet as we are putting up points…. I am just a bit nervous how it will translate in the playoffs….
Anyways enough rambling….. this may all be wasted breath if Orlov is back later this week and Morrow goes back to top pair minutes in Chicago until black ace time…