He was inconsistent in the playoffs with RNH and Eberle. The moment he was put with Drai they dominated.
Lucic plays better with another big body with him to vibe off of.
You might be on to something there. It's one reason I want to give Slepy a long look at the 2nd RW position. He scored a nice goal on a great pass from Lucic last night...and now he's injured, so yeah, that's just great...
Hopefully Pulju can find his game and get going on that line (if Todd gives him that chance in that spot, of course). He's a big body with skill, though lacks the grit of Slepyshev (not that Slepy is super gritty, but you get the idea). Just hope like hell that line clicks, and we get consistent secondary scoring. Nuge is in full beast mode now, Lucic seems to be waking up. We just need someone relatively consistent on the RW with that line. JP doesn't need to be a superstar; just put up a 40-45 point pace from here on, and it should be good enough to help bolster our offense -- especially when Sekera is back.
Since the pre-season I thought Slepy was the best option on Nuge's RW. A couple people told me he's not skilled enough, but I don't agree. And this has nothing to do with the goal he scored last night, as that's his only goal thus far, so that doesn't prove a hell of a lot (if anything at all). However, it does sometimes take a while for a line to click; for guys to know each other's games and try to play within that and bring out each other's potential. If Slepy was fully healthy from the start until the end of the season, I'd bet good money that he would've scored 15 goals and 40 points, or there abouts. Which is good enough. Eberle didn't score much more than that last season, and we did just fine. We don't need a superstar there (though Neal would be nice; not a superstar, I realize) -- just someone consistent, and not a defensive liability (which I don't think Slepy is -- at the very least to the degree that Eberle was). Obviously that's all theoretical, and with his injuries that's not likely to happen now, but I think a line of Lucic-Nuge-Slepy would've been good enough after about half a dozen games, and then start to click the rest of the way. If the injury isn't too bad, and JP doesn't work out with his recent call-up, I hope Todd just sticks Slepy on the 2nd line and keeps him there. There's really no better options that I see, anyway, so why not? Two big bodies with decent shots, and Nuge giving them feeds. They're going to eventually click and score some goals, IMO.