I'm not worried long term. A lingering injury could make a lot of sense and a reason why he hasn't been moved around or benched and I do understand they haven't been completely healthy.
I don't buy that he's the high forward and not adjusted to coaching so he can't get a shot off and gives the puck away too much. I think he's too smart and too skilled for that. I mentioned a bad summer but I think that would be way out of character as well.
Right...this is a big year for Quinn and he's falling flat on his face so far. I'm honestly shocked by this. I thought for sure he'd be our breakout player, not that it's too late for that. I'm seeing what I expect from Cozens when the games matter...fumbling, bumbling, missing empty nets to seal games and just looking like an overmatched schmuck. It'll all be fine when they're out of the playoff picture, he'll go on some point streak to give us all hope.
Quinn catches me off guard completely though. He's got one of the highest hockey IQ's on the team and elite ability to get to the middle of the ice for high-danger chances. Something has to be amiss injury-wise or the line just can't operate with it's center struggling so bad. If I were Ruff, I'd have tried Peterka on that line before anything else. Thompson and Tuch seem like they have their game right and can probably operate with just about anyone there. Kulich might be an option there until Benson is healthy and ready to contribute.
I like the 3rd line, I really do. But are we sure it's working well? Or are they scoring timely goals and looking good in small spurts?
Over the last 6 games, the trio has far exceeded expectation:
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The numbers below are going to regress, and when their PDO normalizes the trio is gonna go from peoples' good column to the bad column pretty quickly:
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Dang ... that really doesn't match the eye test. I've thought they've been dominant on the ice and haven't spent a ton of time in their own one. Clearly my eyes are deceiving me here a bit. I wonder if there were just a couple games in there that dropped them down. I'd like to see them together for a bit longer to see if that data stabilizes. But thanks for bringing this up and hopefully Ruff is paying attention to stuff like this and not resting on his laurels, which is what got Granato in trouble at times.