Gary Nylund
Registered User
- Oct 10, 2013
- 30,241
- 22,914
He's the glue to that line and a big reason for Nylander's & Mathews early success so far. Take him away and that line becomes a line that get's hemmed in the d zone stuck playing defense and limited to an off the rush line that isn't winning team hockey.
There's so much positive with Hyman on that line that doesn't show up in point production. Frankly he's the only one currently on the team that provides the attributes to complement the other 2 to be at there SKILLED best.
When you look at precisely what the knock is with JVR is that he doesn't compete or play the game like Hyman does. If he did provide the grunt work Hyman does JVR would be with them but sigh! JVR and his other gumption less line mate have been put to play with Marner and no it's not to compliment Marner but more so to hide the lack of compete in them and hopefully Marner ( WHO'S EVERYWHERE AND COVERS A MASSIVE AMOUNT OF ICE) can drag some compete out of them.
Hyman's effectiveness is in the x's and o's of structured 5 man unit hockey. He doesn't have to be a huge point producer 5v5 with Mathews & Nylander just provide what he does because the result is what both Mathews & Nylander have produced.
It's not Nylander scored, or Mathews scored it's the TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS SCORED.
Yup. It's easy to look at the point totals and go hmm, get someone else in there but it's not that simple. Obviously he's the lesser talent on that line to put it mildly but he has his role to play, he's playing it well and isn't getting enough credit for his work. Well not getting credit on these boards I should say, seems like Babcock appreciates what he brings and that's what really counts. It's quite possible that at some point, Hyman's spot on that line is taken by someone else (maybe Soshnikov) but there's no reason to think it's a big mistake do not have that happen right away.
Nice post!
And back on topic, so happy to see Soshnikov back, not sure who I'm looking forward to seeing play more, him or McDavid!