Man, a lot of your guys biases are showing.
Cronin started off by praising Z "great kid, everyone likes him, makes great play.... but then sabotages that...", and then touched on why hes held to a certain standard. "Ya but did Zegras even ask for that?" Uh, doesnt matter if he asked for it or not. Sometimes, most of the time, leaders are thrust into their positions, not asking for them. Some of the best leaders are they guys that never wanted it and had to rise to the occasion/position. With the spotlight comes certain expectation, like it or not.
"But Zegras isnt the only one making mistakes!" And you also conveniently forget different guys like McT being demoted and minutes stripped. McT has had plenty of games where hes only received 11,12,13 minutes of ice time. Theres also the way in which someone carries themselves through the different mistakes. Zegras has a tendency to throw tantrums, which then brings extra eyes and scrutiny. Part of this is a franchise looking at who is representing them and how their actions translate to the populous, regardless if they are a leader or just a really good player.
Also, Cronin is specifically asked about 1 guy here, why would he throw any other player under the bus to make a point? Hes speaking specifically to why Z is held to a certain standard while skirting some of the question because he doesnt want to, or to not give him too much credit, doesnt think to mention how hes held others to specific standards as well.
Another point here, when you are dealing with so many different injuries and not having a full compliment of players, you cant strip everyone ice time or bench every guy who has done something you dont like. Sometimes you have to pick your battles. Do you think Killorn is going to respond the same way Zegras may? Is there a big enough of a "change" factor there? Killer is who he is at this point, hes not long for the league and hes not throwing fits or anything.
As a coach/manager you have to know who is underneath you. You have to know their experience and how they will respond to something. A lot of you guys are asking for a one-size fits all approach which is quite frankly, dumb. That tells me you either havent ever been in a manager/leadership role, or you were bad at it. Sometimes a guy might need to sit on the bench to cool off and learn something, sometimes it could be a healthy scratch, sometimes a simple meeting to discuss what happened, or bag skates, or taking a letter away, or, or, or.
This is a long way of saying, this season needs to be over. We're all frustrated at this point and nothing makes anyone happy.