AbsentMojo
F-ing get up and hunt! Cmon Todd!
- Apr 18, 2018
- 10,584
- 10,898
He may be having a rough patch but the causes could be many including his partner, the ridiculously conservative system, being demoted from PP1 etc. He needs to play through it and not be further blocked from development.. or we'll end up with another Kaliyev. This organization has proven it cant grow offensive talent time and again.. it devalues it. This is f***en terrible organization from top to bottom - anyone with eyes can see it.Pay attention to more than stats and you will see a kid shying away from contact, alligator arming pucks under pressure behind the net, getting beat from the wall to the crease, consistently getting outbattled in front of his net and giving the blueline on rushes with little effort.
He has clearly hit the wall. And he HAD to be called out early this year because his offense was coming at the expense of amateur shit show defense.
Growth isn't linear. He took a forward step this year to NHL regular, then hit a learning curve when he was getting abused in his own zone. Hiller was right to put the shackles on him so he can learn how to adapt his NHL offensive skill to meet the defensive requirements of his position. There has been absolutely nothing wrong with the way he has been handled this year.