Where is Mantha's effort? Time for another benching?

[Probert]

I get it, it's not fun to be in competitive sports and not well. That's a normal reaction. What's giving me fits was watching Mantha float up and down the ice against Dallas. Again, I get it, Tyler Bertuzzi has earned/taken Mantha's spot, and Mantha is seeing less ice time. He can't be happy about that, but it's no secret that hard work and "moving his feet" is what's going to keep him competitive. Why can't he figure that out and just put in the work?

Based on what I saw from him against Dallas I'd absolutely bench/scratch him. You know, give him the Spezza special, FFS. So much talent, so little effort, so frustrating. We've watched him absolutely dominate shifts against top clubs in the league; now we get to watch him Franzen-Float.

No thank you; ride the pine!

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[Redder Winger]

Mantha is rocking a 4-3-7 +5 in his last 10 games.

Strangely he has only 14 shots though.

Mantha played with Hank and Nyquist the last two and Bert's been playing with Larkin and AA.

Tatar with Nielsen and Frk.

I actually like these lines. Replace Witokowski....

Nyquist-Z-Mantha
Bertuzzi-Larkin-AA
Frk-Nielsen-Tatar
Helm-Glendening-Abdelkader

Looks pretty OK to me

To me - that's a decent forward group.
Not 100 percent sold on Frk and Bert yet, but still.
Bert, Larkin, AA, Frk and Mantha, you're going to have youthful mistakes. But it could be a lot worse.

Need a better D obviously

 

[Henkka]

Guy just had an injury. Maybe it's nagging him.

Maybe we should try less freaking out.

 

[Flowah]

Mantha is rocking a 4-3-7 +5 in his last 10 games.

Those are his numbers during this "low effort" streak? Wow.

 

[lilidk]

he is collecting points , but his game after the fight nose dived . The whole team with exception of few are not motivated. Blush needs to prolong practice , make them skate and drills and skate and that is the only way you can make this team work harder. I notice Mantha spend some time at defense which is good .

 

[turkleton85]

Guy just had an injury. Maybe it's nagging him.

Maybe we should try less freaking out.

IF he actually had an injury. it sounded weird to me. If it's bothering him, why not give him more time off. Groin and hip flexor injuries take such a long time to really heal up

But i agree, we should probably not freak out this much, myself included. He is still on pace for something around 55-60 points, which is what we all thought of as a very good first full campaign before the season started. Maybe he picks it up again. We saw what he's capable if during the fist quarter of the season, hopefully we see a lot of that over the next years

 

[Ezekial]

FWIW last game he was back with Z and Nyquist and Bert was with Larkin and AA. We'll see how Blashill tackles the situation when Helm and Abby are back.