- Mar 10, 2010
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No, I'm not underestimating Ehlers at all. He just is a left-handed shot and that is all.
For a line like this, everything feeds to the shooter. You want Laine to always be able to one-time off a pass. Passing to the left is by far the most comfortable for right-handed shots. You want the center, the right winger, and the right defenseman to all be right-handed so that they all can comfortably give a quality pass to Laine for a green shot one-timer high quality chance that crosses the middle of the ice(Those have like a 30% chance to score(straight in or off a rebound) on average and that is going to be much, much higher for a shooter like Laine). When you have an asset like this and the chance to maximize its impact, you in my opinion should do so.
A player like Ehlers would of course be -possible- if there is no alternative, but when someone like Wheeler exists and gives you a perfect "everyone-feed-the-shooter"-setup, there is no reason at all to go out of your way to stick Ehlers in there. Especially as I just consider Wheeler straight up better and he'll be useful in a leadership role for the young Laine.
Now, saying Ehlers is a better passed than Wheeler is debatable at best. Nevertheless, even if that was true, the handedness would certainly tip it in Wheeler's favor. He just had over 50 assists. I doubt he's all that bad at passing.
Also, Laine doesn't really need someone to bring the puck to the zone, Laine can do that himself.
I remember of few of the Caps fans were saying the main reason Carlson was on the point on the PP was because he was right handed and that made it easier to feed Ovi. The good news is the Jets have Buff bombing from the point on the #1 PP unit and either Trouba or Myers on the 2nd unit.
I heard an interview on RR today (on 1290) with Shawn Roarke who is in Finland covering the team (they don't have the podcast up yet so I am winging it here) and he said when he talked to Barkov today the thing Barkov marvelled at about Laine was that even if you send him a "wobbly" (bad) pass he has no problem hammering a great shot. Barkov was mentioning how Laine already has one of the best shots in the NHL (I know he referenced Stamkos as a comp) and he isn't in the league yet. This aligns with what Ferraro mentioned at the World Championships when he was talking about how big a target Laine is and that he can shoot off his back foot or front foot and adjust so well that the sweet spot to set him up is huge.