I don't understand the pass that Schenn gets for disappearing as often as he does. It's great that he says we need to compete and have pride, etc. He sure as hell hasn't
played like that in the last 3 games though.
In this 3 game team clown show, he has 2 shots, zero points, got bullied at the dot in 2 of 3 games, and went -3. The other highly paid players are getting blasted for not carrying this garbage roster, but he gets a pass and then praised for just saying we need to work hard? It would be one thing is this was an isolated incident, but he has a long history of disappearing for long stretches.
He had a 10 game stretch in January where he had 4 points and went -12. He had a 5 game pointless streak in December where he went -8. He had an 7 game pointless streak in 2021/22 where he went -4 and an 8 game pointless streak in 2020/21 where he went -8. There are multiple other 5 game stretches where he manages a single point to go along with a hefty minus.
He goes through long stretches of nonexistent production paired with spotty defensive play where he looks completely disinterested until he starts chasing hits and occasionally looks for a fight to try and jump start his game.
He has the worst actual +/- and expected +/- among all Blues forwards and his possession numbers are lagging behind most of the top 6. He doesn't get quite the offensive deployment of Thomas and he's noticeably below Kyrou in that regard, but he's still at 53% O Zone starts at even strength. It's not like he's been asked to be the shutdown center. I don't think he's prone to the same dangerous O zone passes that Thomas and Kyrou are, but he's noticeably worse at stripping pucks off guys, he gets lost in the D zone often and he's just as prone to the lazy back check (or jumping off for a change in lieu of backchecking) as anyone on the team. I think the stats look worse than he is defensively, but he's not a great defender yet he's basically never called out for it.
I really don't want this to come off like I'm being overly critical of Schenn. Tons of guys go through droughts and I like his style of play a lot. He's very good at handling the media and form the outside looking in he seems like a leader. However, pretty much every other player on this team gets crap when they slump except for Schenn who we laud as still putting the work in despite getting zero results.
I don't want to criticize Schenn and I really don't think we should take away anything from our 4-5 NHL forwards looking like shit since the ROR trade. I think the Buch and Saad injuries put them in an overwhelming position to fail. Again, I don't want this to come off as being too critical of Schenn, but I don't think him talking about working hard tells me anything either.
Edit:
@Linkens Mastery I hope this doesn't sound like I'm singling out your comment since I quoted it. The lack of ire toward Schenn has been kicking around my brain for a while now and your comment was good jumping off point for my post.
