The PP can work without Fox. It worked with DeAngelo and he's not that much more dynamic than Gus. They just need to figure it out sooner rather than later.
dangelo is a lot more dynamic than fox. fox is just so smart, initially they struggled without tony, he was phenomenal skating the puck up ice and gaining the line with possession. without him the biggest struggle the pp has had is actually gaining the zone and getting set up. fox is elite at qb'ing the pp obviously, and he has some great entries at times, tony was really good here at that...and we've had stretches since where the pp has been horrific at it.
will say this year the pp has really looked a lot better in almost all areas. they've been competent for the most part at gaining the zone, much better than the last couple years for sure. mika/fox/panarin have been moving a lot more around the top which causes a lot more coverage issues. the biggest thing though has been their awareness of mixing up the shots they take. panarin his been actively shooting so pk'ers are forced to respect it, which actually opens up the cross ice passes he loves, fox has been smart about mixing in some shots and very active roving all over the zone at times etc. the last few years they tended to really default to the same looks over and over so teams were often prepared and could jump them. the unpredictability this year has opened so much ice for them. love what peca has brought...i mean it wasn't rocket science that they had a bunch of ways to threaten and that they needed to force teams to respect all of them, but he's got them listening and executing in a way prior coaches haven't.