The team has 4 engines. Right now two of them are sputtering. Team is not going to win many games unless EP and Demko start to come back from the wilderness. It's a concern because EP, whether he's hurt or not wants to be paid like a superstar in the league, yet he doesn't have the consistency of one, like Matthews in TO. Team need to ride out this stretch as he will eventually come back from this and dominate.
Kuzmenko is not a right fit with Tocchet. He needs to be incredible offensively for the coach to stomach his lack of contribution on the defensive end. It's a team game, Boeser or Miller doesnt naturally play D either, but they have to for team success. Kuzmenko has to adjust, or he will star for a middling team if he just believes playing D is "not his game". He needs to look at Höglander, and may need to be deployed like him until he learns the other side of the ice.
Hronek is being played too much, the dilemma is whether Bear is the right guy to target or do they need a Pesce to play with Hughes. Wings fans warned us that he charges out of the gate and gradually lose effectiveness as the year goes on. Is he a top pair guy long term? Or is he more suited to be a PMD on the second pair? Z will water down his minutes a bit, but he's not exactly a top 4 with a bullet guy either. Right now, Cole, Soucy, Myers, Zadorov are all part time top 4 guys, and it's up to the coaching staff to deploy them according to the competition.
Speaking of coaching staff. Tocchet did not adjust to Jersey's speed. He's as responsible for this loss as anyone else. Myers should never be on the same ice as a player as cerebral as J.Hughes.
He will be mercilessly exposed in the playoffs, he needs to be out coached less. He even admitted that he was singularly focused on the forwards. I'm somehow reminded of him as a player. He zeros in on grit and compete at all times, and fails to realize the soft points of coaching like player day-by-day performance and dynamic matchups like some of the more cerebral coaches.
Love love Miller, how wrong I was about him. But they need to keep winning with him, you cannot lose with him for stretches.
Hughes is the rightful captain. Dependable game in game out like a true superstar. So nice to see him key the comeback in front of his little brothers. I hope they can keep his minutes down to 24 and under after aquiring another top4 defender.
I leave Myers last. It's not piling on, his long time teammates know his qualities, and so do we. After 5 years, he is who he is. When the match up is wrong, the other 5 guys on the ice with him seizes up. Because this guy just spirals, then everything everywhere falls apart around him. I blame Tocchet for this, as everyone knows he irrationally loves the Myers Zadorov types by now, but if your top 4 guy is that limited in usage, that erratic in performance, and does the opposite of elevating everyone's play, it's time to reconsider if he shouldn't be stapled to your bottom pair, and trot him out only in heavy matchups.... Like a DH.