Post-Game Talk: NYR @ EDM: RELAX, it's just the preseason

[Ola]

I agree, but a big part of being 'that guy' is that you need to know where to go when other people have the puck. Kreider seems to be spending a lot of his time in the wrong places, which is really odd. I think he came into the league with tons of confidence, but right now it looks like there are a million things going on in his head and he's not focused.

I hope he can put it all together, and I think he will, but I wouldn't be surprised to see him wind up in Hartford to start the year.

I don't know how much of this is AVs doing and what indirectly is pressured by upper management, but so far I liked Torts handling of Kreider a lot more than AVs handling of Kreider.

If Kreider could have piggy backed on BR and Nash, it might have worked. But he is not ready to play on a top line in the NHL. He really is not. And when his linemates can't carry him, the line he is on will fail.

We in NY especially know how extremely important confidence is and just how fragile it is. You just do not ever want a player to be in a position where expectations are higher than the players ability. The heart of an athleet is to be able to exceed expectations and get positive acknowledgement. Time after time we have seen maybe a, on a subjective scale, player with the ability "75" be signed as an UFA with the hype of having an ability of "90", and the said player is killed and end up playing like a "35"...

Kreider ends up being put in kind of the same situation.

 

[Boruto]

I think it'll be fine. The way our team is, we'll have enough of

1) talent
2) system
3) mind set

to allow our middle 6 guys to play with sufficient offensive gusto. Kreider needs to play a quiet game as a third liner for a while. Feed him 12-14 minutes to start, try him out on the PP since he's the only person who has a shot on our team and see how it goes from there.