'ThAtS youRe STanLEy cUp.' Christ all mighty , expect that from Montreal and Toronto fans but believe it or not because someone is a fan of a bad team doesnt mean they dont understand the sport. How good the team you cheer for has absolutely nothing to do with someones hockey knowledge. What an individual has been exposed to in the sport absolutely does. Like playing at a high level and being coached by elite coachs and continuing to be involved in hockey.
I watch the Canucks a ton, I always stay up for late games. I go to bed late, I really enjoyed the Canucks this year and was routing for them in the playoffs. Hroneks play falls off when the games get heavy for a multitude of reasons including his ability to stay healthy because he doesnt avoid contact well. If you dont want to acknowledge that, its your own prerogative. There's a reason Vancouver doesn't want to pay him either. Quinn Hughes is an absolute super star the fact that you guys want to acknowledge that but not that he elevates Hroneks play is homer fandom at its finest.
Yes there's a concern about him staying healthy, because he cant heavy physical hockey it goes hand and hand. Great player dont get me wrong but he has his flaws and thats the big one.
I think in this case him saying 'that's your Stanley Cup' which is often needlessly derogatory, is him pointing out that you are using a tiny sample size of 2 regular season games between two teams who were barely on the cusp of relevance in said season (neither of whom made the playoffs) to draw far too broad conclusions.
Hronek played well in the playoffs other than the fact that it was clear he had an arm injury.
In the first half of the season, his heavy shot injured so many forwards it was crazy. His shot would either create a high danger chance, or lead to an opposing forward absolutely crawling off of the ice.
Now, the fact that happened a notable amount in the first 50 or so games, and then stopped happening entirely over the last 32 +playoffs, when his play dipped to just playing like a decent top 4 is either a wild coincidence, evidence of an injury, or 'pRoOf hE cAn'T hAnDlE tHe tOuGh gOiNg'.
His problem isn't that he can't handle physical play.
Occasionally he doesn't protect himself well enough from a big hit from a forechecker, but he never shies away from the tough stuff, and doesn't p***yfoot around because there are big players.
I know Detroit looked like a broken team in that two game set and I can imagine how exciting it was to watch your team do that to a rival, but drawing massive conclusions about a player based on that set is incredibly fallacious.
