So I wonder if we need to take a step back on this whole situation right now and consider two different things that haven't really come up recently.
First is the overall lack of players that play with pace on this roster. I was thinking this morning that when I watch Mika I see a player that at this point it can't drive himself and almost needs the players around him to pull his game along with them. When he's allowed to he becomes lazy with his feet and lazy feet often lead to bad decisions. So next I think to myself who on the team in any roster spot is a good player to put with him that would play with Pace. You only player that I can think of is Berard. That's f***ing alarming. It also highlights to me what a poor choice Riley Smith was to become the winger for Mika because it was another slow player to go along with two other slow-paced five on 5 players. Kreider has a lot of individual speed but he is not a quick plan player.
Then the next thing that I really start to think about with Mika is whether or not he should actually be moved to the wing. I look at Mika and I see a lot of similarities to stammer. Stammer was a driving Center with a huge shot that eventually had to move over to the wing to take some of the responsibility off of him and allow him to do what he did best which was shoot the park without having to worry about everything else. Mika is having some of his worst moments in his own zone when he's down low trying to support the play. He just doesn't have a battle in him for the down low play and it's entirely possible that he's just aging quicker than people thought. I know a lot of people are concerned about his contract extension, I was one of them, but I never saw this happening so quickly. I wonder if moving over to the wing would take that off of him and allow him to just play instead of constantly turning into a mental pretzel.
So this then leads to another massive issue with this team that has been an organizational issue for well over a decade that nobody is fixed and that is the egregious lack of centered up in this organization. Right now this team should be doing everything it possibly can to find a center that plays with speed. Your best five on 5 Center is unfortunately always one hit away from long-term injury and your second best five on five Center is that absolute best the second liner that at times is forced into being a first liner.
Long-Term, if Mika stays here or if he's traded this team and organization is going to need another Center, so why not do everything you can right now to try to identify a mid-six Center that plays with speed and get them in here as soon as possible. This roster needs motor players, not the marathon players. And what it also needs is some personalities that are going to try to drive the room to be more than what they are rather them personalities that will constantly act like things are just going to be okay if they keep going.
Another of the most glaring issues is the absolute lack of leadership to drive the group. If you have a team in which you can't point to somebody and say that's our leader then you don't have leadership. Leadership can be shared for sure, but there's going to be somebody driving the bus that people gravitate to and that can pull people along with that. It might sound ridiculous there's a part of me that's wondering if Goodrow filled that role in the locker room a lot more than any of us understood. He was a grinder and it wasn't always pretty but that guy was involved, put his body out there on the line, stuff up for teammates, and did a lot of the things that can galvanize a group. I think too often some people on this board just want to slap a letter on certain players jerseys because they think that they should be a good leader but that's not how it works. I literally look at this roster and I have no idea who you would give a captaincy to you right now, not a single player on this roster. I think that says a lot about how they look like zombies with the way they're playing and how they're dealing with the last few weeks. There's just no leadership whatsoever within the locker room.
