Take it for what it is, but on one of his goals, you can hear the announcers talking about how surprised they were about all the talk of him playing away from the puck. They said that he’s one of the hardest back checkers and committed guys that particular game. Hopefully Pandolfo is teaching him, and I have no reason to believe he’s not.
Listen, I love a complete hockey player and all three zones but if a guy can be a legit 30+ goal sniper and possibly more I’ll take the sacrifice and some of the other areas. The Islanders have been desperate for a player that can just score goals when he wants to. Isles haven’t had that in a while. As long as he’s not giving up on plays and just letting guys walk into his own, you have to put up an effort, even if you don’t succeed. Not everybody is gonna be Patrice Bergeron, Pavel Datsyuk, Brad Marchand or Toews level defensively as a forward.
