A general lack of talent when the top two players are unavailable? There’s good youth obviously but not many kids can step in a run a PP and with those two missing nearly a full season each, how do you get your top PP into any kind of rhythm? Ideally you’d like the perfect setup, sure, but the NYR PP has been one of the tops in the league running almost 100% RH players. They make it work because they have 5 high end players on the top unit. CBJ has good players but you need experienced players as well, and ideally to be able to roll the same unit out consistently until they can gel and find their way. With your top guys always out, it’s impossible to do that.
It makes sense that 5 RH players would work well with each other on the PP, or 5 LH players.
You'll always have the RH QB to RH one timer option (A LHQB would need to pull the puck back to pass to his left, and the shot lane will close in that amount of time).
And the spin on the passes goes in the same direction, which makes it easier to handle. And it's the same direction as the spin on the shots, which speeds up the velocity of the one-timers.
Werenski was one of the highest scoring 5v5 D last year but he hasn't been productive on the PP since he was a rookie. He relies on movement to make space and score, but in static position on the PP, he's awful. He's the #1 reason the Jackets PP has sucked for years, I'm sad to say. There is a tunnel vision issue, he doesn't seem to know Laine is there to his left. It's hard enough for a LH pointman to tee up a RH one timer but especially hard if he doesn't see him.
Johnny and Patty are supposedly such great players, paid like superstars, and yet in order to suceed... need linemates better than each other?
They don't have chemistry. They're both puck dominant players. Gaudreau needs to have the puck most of the time and Laine thinks he needs to have the puck on his stick.
This would require linemates doing a bigger share of the things he's now expected of doing, like carrying puck over neutral to O zone and being the last forward out of D zone, staying back to cover for D rushes, making plays.
I think Laine letting players like Gaudreau carry the puck while Laine goes and gets open would be a very welcome thing for the team. I think it's been Laine's choice to play as the dominant puck carrier.
Is Laine trying to do too much because he's a great player, or could it be he's trying to do too much because teams are taking away his shot and he has to improvise. That's what I mean by one dimensional. He has his shot. Great. Take it away and suddenly he needs better linemates?
Most players play better when they get to play with better players. What earns players the big payday is the belief they can do it without players better than them.
When Laine isn't feeling confident in his shot he will pass up perfectly good shooting opportunities. He loves to feel it on his stick and carry it. He's played very well with players like Boone Jenner and Gus Nyquist. Laine fits with guys who fetch pucks and drive the net. He did not fit with Gaudreau who needs the puck more.
So either he's so great that he can indeed do it all (in which case this thread wouldn't exist, because what team would be dumb enough to trade a player that good?) Or maybe he's not actually as great as you say he is and that contract just might be a problem
Kind of odd that your question precludes any in between. There are only either problem contracts or players who are so great that no one would ever trade them.
The truth is that he was the Jackets best forward for a couple years, really the best two years of his career (though Jets fans hate that). But he is frustrated with the losing and the injuries and wants a fresh start, and after being in Columbus through a whole rebuild, nobody seems to be taking that personally. The team also needs to give those minutes to younger scorers like Fantilli and Chinakhov. They have so many young players that need the opportunity.