On a podcast before Mika said that hockey isn’t even his favorite sport and that he’d rather be a soccer player. That was the moment I would’ve traded himI hate to judge players based on anything other than on ice results, but even in his home opener hype video, this guy came across as distracted and lacking passion. He’s an extremely physically talented human, talented enough to be a really good NHL player while coasting, but he does not seem to have a burning desire in his belly to win and dominate.
For as much shit as he gets, at least Trouba has that fire. Who thinks Mika would survive a Mike Keenan style house cleaning?
Maybe he's just pulling a Pete Alonso and doing nothing all year only to come up big in the playoffs. I'd sign up for that.
Maybe he's just pulling a Pete Alonso and doing nothing all year only to come up big in the playoffs. I'd sign up for that.
He could be 1on1 with the goalie from the red line in and he’d try to pass it.the guy needs to start shooting the puck again. he never ever takes a shot on net at 5on5. his whole turnaround in the 2022 playoffs starting with him just shooting the puck. he scored some big goals and then he was probably our best player the rest of the run. last night early in OT he had a chance to just blast a slapshot on net but instead made a crappy pass to Kreider and turned the puck over.
He was good in the playoffs in 2022, but bad in both 2023 and 2024.Maybe he's just pulling a Pete Alonso and doing nothing all year only to come up big in the playoffs. I'd sign up for that.
But the reality is that it is game 2. Lavi is not going to upend the room after 2 games and cause a public controversy in the process. It might take 10 games. Hopefully it's Kreider who has a talk with him, snaps him into form.I hope people on this board stop making excuses for Mika. Last year the excuse was he just needed some time to get going and that he just had a child. He played like dog shit all season. I dont want to hear about his production on the PP. I think any forward would score 50+ points on a PP with Fox, Kreider, and Panarin. He was on the ice for 24 minutes and coasted the entire time.
There was a play where Trocheck? won a draw in the offensive zone. The play was for Mika to let it rip. Instead he coasted around and tried to make a cute little pass and turned it over.
The dude is cooked. He needs to be demoted. I dont want to hear that it's only game 2.
There were random people on Twitter citing analytics saying that Buch was carrying Mika all those years and that he was the guy to keep over him given his age, point rate, playdriving. It’s not a gamble if your GM is goodAll of sports is a gamble. You can’t predict how a guy will age. Sometimes they become elite like Igor and sometimes their best years are behind them like Zib.
The absolute last thing they should do is start mixing things up to try to “get him going”. They should be doing that with Chytil who is actually good and deserving of a way bigger role 5v5They need to commit and go one of two ways with Zibanejad: either try to get him back to a number 1 center offensively or turn him into the number 3 defensive minded shutdown C. He’s failed the last couple years trying to do both and at his age it’s unlikely to bounce fully back.
For the former, put him with Laf to see what happens. There’s been no chemistry w ith Panarin and Laf is our next best forward offensively. If it doesn’t work he’s probably done as a top line center and then move him to the third line with Kakko and/or Cullye