Some doubts? You have... SOME doubts about his competence?
I don't agree with you but... okay.
Now explain why we didn't try it back in December. Explain why we used DD as our number one when he put up two assists and used Chuck in very limited minutes despite him being the only guy who scored consistently. We ALL screamed for it and it never happened. Then we watched as our top ranked team did a freefall in the standings and out of the playoffs.
No excuse. None.
I believe that understatement can be emphatic, in exactly the way you picked up.
See, maybe he would have stopped the freefall in December. But I don't know why we think that he wouldn't have struggled under the pressure. He's shown that before in the inconsistency. And that's natural. Putting that type of pressure on a young player -- the NHL MVP is done for the year, but you must save our SC hopes for the season -- could have been worse on him. Development of young precocious players can be weird and unpredictable. When they have a breakthrough, I just think we should rejoice rather than imagine an alternate universe where they may possibly have had a breakthrough earlier.
Anyway, I'm watching the game on a delay, and have only now seen the Subban neck injury. Let's hope it's just a burner and nothing else.