I also think this is the lazy explanation made by out of towners based on juniors
he doesn't dig in the corners, he doesn't check is just a meme
he's a big guy who uses his body like Dwight King did, he's not fast but it's not a lack of effort or 'heart' or whatever nebulous bullshit criticism we want to keep heaping at the player instead of the org here
Yeah he's one dimensional, big whoop. he's not a flat out liability unless your'e playing him as a 4th line checking winger and starting him in the defensive zone with Englund repeatedly then going surprised pikachu when he's not scoring...brought to you by the same big brain org that put Kovalchuk on the 3rd line wing with hard dzone starts and the front of the net on the PP and then got shocked, or moved all their centers to wing and went out to get more centers that will likely end up on wing.
like why are we really doing this after years and years of puzzling big brain decisions by an org that thinks they're smarter than everyone else. Blaming Kaliyev against mountains and mountains of evidence is misguided AND f***ing lazy.
I always saw the Kings as a big body, hard working team.
We like to blame coaching and sometimes, they deserve to be blamed. But if they are asking a player to back check and put in an effort to cover their man or position, if they don't or wont, bench warming is in the cards.
My biggest pieve is that coaches tend to play safe and play the vets or their favorites. For thst they should be blamed and called out.
We had a situation with X, (Xhekaj). He got drawn into fights and checks, costing the team. He was sent down to the AHL and then back up to play basic defense first, mutilations second. Surprisingly, Struble took his place and did exactly that. Nowhere near the menace X is, but basic defense that won games.
That to me is fair coaching that puts all the emphasis on the player to work on what is needed...and movehis career forward.
Sooo...sometimes it's the coaching, but....too many times it's the players who need to fit into the system.