I'm not sure that type of production and consistency exists outside of a select handful of players, if at all. Usually you only get one. Asking for 40 goals more or less evenly spread out by month should be enough for anyone. Asking for in-week production consistency is a bit much.
The lowered expectations come from what Nash has given. Nash is brittle and now he is aging and brittle. Nash spent about 40 games as a Ranger before he had a series of concussions and became massively injury prone. He's missed a ton of games and played others nursing injuries, often as a huge liability. Most people understand that and realize that expecting more than what we know we are likely going to get from him is an exercise in imbecility.
You say "I've never in my life seen such a long leash" but frankly I've never in my life seen someones injuries so completely whitewashed. I guarantee in the next few pages someone will write something like "Wat about dat 2014 playoofs lol he sux!" pretending like the guy wasn't suffering from multiple traumatic brain injuries. There are literally people killing themselves over this **** and we can't even acknowledge this happened to Nash. And why? Because he's a boring Canadian cream puff with a cap hit that's too high that we traded a bunch of hometown favorites to get. That seems fair to you?
I don't think some level of offensive consistency is asking for the moon. I' m not looking for him to score every game, nor do I expect 40 goals.
But periods of 6, 10, 12 and 14 games without a single goal? Those are all very real stretches over last three years, not just this year. Especially in the 6-10 range.
I appreciate your arguments about his injuries, but the reality is that it doesn't make frustrations about his play and his production any less valid. The results are what they are.
If we're going to apply injuries to declining play, then we're going to have a very long list of players we can make that defense for and very few conversations about guys who, for whatever reason, are just not getting it done in the manner we need them to.
The fact that this conversation about Nash has now turned into a debate about CTE is exactly my point. We don't do this for ANY other player - not Staal, not Lundqvist, not Girardi, or Zibanejad, or any other player. Frankly, that is exactly why so many people push back like they do.
When there are more reasons for Nash's inconsistent play, then there are actual results, that's a pretty telling sign that something clearly isn't working very well.