Graves is just what he should been expected to be all along -- given Sully's utilization of him.
Like Dumoulin, Graves shoots lefthanded.
Like Dumoulin, Graves has good size -- VERY good size by Penguin-smurf standards.
Like Dumoulin, Graves doesn't use that size to his advantage whatsoever.
UNLIKE Dumoulin, Graves is not (and never has been) the "defensive" half of a successful pairing. He's always been the offensive half, such as it is, though his numbers don't exactly resemble prime Karlsson or Letang because Graves in his entire career NEVER has played on the PP and 100% of whatever points he puts on the board comes at even strength only.
Graves needs a coach who isn't an idiot and a RH partner who plays the stay-at-home role. He's had that elsewhere; he's never had that here unless you count a few games with (ugh) Chad Ruhwedel when Sully went insane and thought that AHL-level scrub POJ suddenly deserved top-4 minutes playing alongside Letang (which is right about the precise time Letang went off the rails and began playing like shit).
As I've said several times, if Doobie or Sully or both EVER thought that Graves was going to be Dumoulin-in-his-prime 2.0 then they are absolute morons. But we already knew that. They brought him in apparently without any clue as to what it takes for him to succeed. As if that's a first for this organization.
Like Dumoulin, Graves shoots lefthanded.
Like Dumoulin, Graves has good size -- VERY good size by Penguin-smurf standards.
Like Dumoulin, Graves doesn't use that size to his advantage whatsoever.
UNLIKE Dumoulin, Graves is not (and never has been) the "defensive" half of a successful pairing. He's always been the offensive half, such as it is, though his numbers don't exactly resemble prime Karlsson or Letang because Graves in his entire career NEVER has played on the PP and 100% of whatever points he puts on the board comes at even strength only.
Graves needs a coach who isn't an idiot and a RH partner who plays the stay-at-home role. He's had that elsewhere; he's never had that here unless you count a few games with (ugh) Chad Ruhwedel when Sully went insane and thought that AHL-level scrub POJ suddenly deserved top-4 minutes playing alongside Letang (which is right about the precise time Letang went off the rails and began playing like shit).
As I've said several times, if Doobie or Sully or both EVER thought that Graves was going to be Dumoulin-in-his-prime 2.0 then they are absolute morons. But we already knew that. They brought him in apparently without any clue as to what it takes for him to succeed. As if that's a first for this organization.
