Gags1288
Registered User
You obviously don't understand the flyers and Ken Hitchcock. Hitch has sat Pitkanen a few times this year for defensive lapses. He doesn't care about hurting Joni's confidence, he cares about winning and if Joni doesn't play sound defensive hockey, he doesn't play at all. If Pitkanen played on any other team in the league, I think he'd have more points, because there is no other coach in the league, save Lemaire, that is as defense first as Hitchcock. Joni doesn't jump into the play as much as he wants because he's worried about his defense first. It just so happens that Pitkanen has the rare ability to attack at the right time and still not get caught. As for the leach part, think about the flyers pp. They went from being one of the worst teams in the league on the pp to being one of the best teams, the only thing that changed was Joni Pitkanen. He's far from a leach.Havlat said:Obviously you never watch Bouwmeester, because Florida gets no recognition !
Imgine if Pitkanen played for an awful team for 24 minutes a night, and was asked to play defense because he is about the only defenseman who can play defense, do you think he would join the rush as often ? That's the point that you don't want to understand !
Everybody called Tanguay a leach, so why Pitkanen isn't one... he is the future on D for the Flyers team so they are going to treat him well and let him develop by not hurting his confidence ! Pitkanen doesn't have the same role that Jay has on his team, and he wouldn't do better if he had !
You ought to watch the kid play a little more, he's a pleasure to watch and right now he's as good as Jay Bouwmeester whether you're willing to admit it or not.