Player Discussion Mika Zibanejad

[WojtekWolski86]

Mika is the obvious weak link on the PP. Everyone else serves a purpose... Even Tro, with the faceoffs and gaining possession.

He's been horrible on the left wall. Either take him off the unit or move him to the bumper, force him to use his wrist shot. I remember all the shit I got saying his One-Timer is over-rated last pre-season.

Tro is the lunch pail guy that takes a ton Abuse in the slot and tries to cause havoc to free up the cross seam. His downside is he's a bit streaky goal scoring wise.

Anyways back to Mika. Look Stamkos and Ovi are force fed obvious 1Ters and it still works (mostly). But that's because their shot speed and accuracy are HOF level. Come playoff team teams have neutered Ovi because the rest of the unit couldn't manage a 4 on 3.

When the PP is rotating and not trying obvious Mika 1Ts they are more successful. Joe keeps saying Mika needs to shoot more to open other things and I just don't that's true. He's lost so much accuracy that if the shit isn't landing square in the logo it's rimming off the glass and out.

Hard conversation needs to be had with Mika. This isn't a today revelation. Sit down with him and say let's focus on the defensive side of the game. Dial back some of his minutes. Time for him to figure out what kind of player he's going to be in the back 9. He doesn't look like a 40 goal scorer.


Additionally, if he keeps making business decisions and avoiding hard work along the boards then his A needs to be taken. When this team mails it in, Mika and Kreider are the biggest culprits.

 

[McRanger92]

How does it look to the rest of the team that when Laviolette throws the lines into a blender, the only combo he keeps together are Mika and Kreider? How does it look to the rest of the team that a guy wearing and A and 2nd longest tenured player on the team won't ever get his hands dirty? Mika has played absolutely gutless hockey consistently since the the start of the 23 season. That's 2+ years.

 

[Jack Hanson]

Mika, bread and kreider are all highly skilled but too soft. They dont want to bang up an opponent and battle in the gladiators arena. How can they get tougher and meaner? Theyre just afraid of contact. The same old sad story.

 

[KirkAlbuquerque]

i'd rather have Roslovic

 

[Rangeri]

Our start has been very nice, so major changes are not imminent right now for the coach. Problem is we fans know Zibanejad can turn to net negative for the team if he doesn't score on powerplay and it seems like matter of time. We all know he very likely catch hot streak at some point in the season. But collective fear is, dry streak going to happen in the playoffs. Margin of error is so tiny there it actually can cost us it all. Mika can't be ghost at the powerplay and be liability at the same time getting major playing time against top competition. I'm all for it to make players getting what they deserve by play, and it's pretty much clear to everyone Lafreniere has earned fair try in PP1. Youngster is scoring at will, hungry, clutch. When Mika seems passive, lost, unmotivated.. Situation with Mika seems rather difficult. His attitude and whole demeanor lacks passion. Like there is no dog in him. So I think giving him tough love has chance to backfire. if he indeed is fragile, respond to it could give more negative outcome. Still thinking Lavi has to do it at some point. This is contender roster, they have to be pushed to the limit.

 

[TominNC]

How does it look to the rest of the team that when Laviolette throws the lines into a blender, the only combo he keeps together are Mika and Kreider? How does it look to the rest of the team that a guy wearing and A and 2nd longest tenured player on the team won't ever get his hands dirty? Mika has played absolutely gutless hockey consistently since the the start of the 23 season. That's 2+ years.

It looks fine to the rest of the team. They're hockey players. For the same reason they all love Lindgren and follow Trouba. There's more to the locker room than CF% or whatever. It's going to take a longer down stretch of the season for Lavy to really shake things up. It's not happening at 5-1-1. And we've all seen Mika have slow starts then get red hot. He may or may not still have that in him. While the team is rolling they will be patient.

I think it would be fine to dial back minutes for that line given their PP and PK time. Especially when Chytil's line is rolling. Use the young guys more 5v5 for now.

 

[CTTribe73]

If you look at Mika’s HR page he really was not bad last season. Scoring down a bit 5/5, but all his rate stats were right around Average Mika.

One thing I noticed was that his dZone starts went way up vs. historical norms FWIW. Suggests Lavi is using him a bit differently which we don’t talk about a lot but could be the source of some of his ennui. Maybe asking him to focus on defense more than he’s comfortable.

https://www.hockey-reference.com/players/z/zibanmi01.html

 

[CasusBelli]

View attachment 916350

I got him to waive in mine but I couldn’t make a deal work with anyone (either no cap room or lack of interest). Ended up with:

Panarin - Z - Dach
CK - Trocheck - Michkov
Guenther - Bjugstad - Vesey
Cullye - Dellandrea - Brod

Druzi - Fox
York - Schneider
Lindgren - Korchinski

Hart
Asakarov