I wouldn't be overly critical on Stanley shooting to much, and or missing the net. Unless I am missing something, he seemingly gets pucks on net as well and if not, better than any of our defenders. And some of his misses are by design, as he has placed shots in areas for deflections and or to maintain possession.
He always has his head up when shooting, uses his height to get shots through. That is a skill that I would never want to deter the kid from using. Forbort on the other hand struggles mightily getting shots through, same with Demelo. Many times they get blocked and put us on our heels.
It seems like Stanley is becoming a bit of a driver offensively for this team, regardless of his points. When he was on the ice primarily with Dubois's line against Edmonton, thought that line was our best line. Last night he was primarily on with Lowry's line, and I thought they were our best line last night.
He seems to have the ability to control pucks down low, iso's the puck from the offensive player using his size and strength , and either skates it out, or makes a smart pass. He is not spending much of his shift in the D Zone.
And sorry, not seeing an iota of an issue with foot speed. To date, I have only seen Stanely flat footed and exploited maybe twice this season?
Last night he was flat footed and was able to recover and dove, knocking the puck back to Helly. Any other player on our team would have been hooped on that play, but Stanley took 3 solid strides, stayed with his defender than dove using his length to save a breakaway.
This kid is turning out to be a very solid D man for us. Next season could you imagine a combo of Samberg and Stanley manning the second unit. That would be a scary tandem.