So the first two games of the WHL season are in the books. PG is looking like they are going to have lots of issues this season (expected) considering their roster turnover from last year, and are deploying a very young group. Headaches will be had, heads will have shaken but expectations need to remain low.
I'm going to start with what I feel are his negatives, then we can finish on a good note with his positives.
With that being said about the Cougars being young, Popugaev is considered a leader now, as he is an older play on the team trying to guide this young team to be competitive every single night. Now, you'll learn over time as I give updates on his progression throughout the season that I will not be sugarcoating anything and I say this because I believe throughout the season I may come off as hating Popugaev, or having a personal agenda but frankly I don't.
I'm not very high on Poppy - in the slightest, to be honest. I think he has really good offensive instincts, a hard/accurate shot, good hands and great size but I believe his flaws will drag him down as a player, especially as a complete player, until he figures everything out.
These two games have showed me, so far, he is the exact same player I saw in the backhalf of the season when the Cougars acquired him. He has been soft in the corners and hasn't been asserting his physical dominance I know he has when he wants to use it. With his big frame, even though it is not fully filled out yet, should be dominating on any aspect of the rink offensive or defensive and I simply don't think he is. At least not enough.
He hardly hits anyone and when it does, it's about as effective as a player who is 5'9" trying to hit someone in the WHL. It almost looks as if he's scared to hit someone whether he is afraid he'll get a penalty, take him out of position or ignite the player to start a physical confrontation I really don't know, but he doesn't play like his size indicates. I've always thought to myself even if he was 5'9", he would be playing the exact same kind of game he does right now. However, I saw him play a stretch of games last year where he was an absolute beast - he asserted himself physically, he was hitting hard, he was all over the ice but it seems to never last long.
This weekend, he did a lot of floating - in both ends of the rink. Luckily for him, with this team being young, is that there may not be any real threat for him to lose his minutes however Head Coach Richard Matvichuk is not shy to demote veterans - he was adamant in his post game presser tonight that the veterans cost him the game tonight - he's not afraid to call them out/bench them etc. It may not take long before Popugaev is seeing less icetime.
It seems with all the good players gone from last year, it has gone to his head that he is now one of their best because he is taking far too many extended shifts, and a couple of those have lead to goals against or really good chances because he isn't able to keep up with the play. There was a play I can recall where he looked off his linemate, who was wide open in the slot, and Popugaev would rather to try and deke through two defenders and take it to the net himself. He loses possession a lot trying to stickhandle in defenders feet. He needs to learn to use his linemates a lot better otherwise this won't be a productive season for him - opponents are going to key in on him specifically, so he needs to dish the puck off and make his linemates more dangerous...doing it all himself is not going to work.
Now...the positives.
As I mentioned above, when he gets this mean-streak of "I want the puck, and I'm going to get the puck" he becomes a really effective player. Obviously only two games have been played so far, but I haven't seen that player yet. I saw it last year and he really stood out. When he uses his size, he is a very good player. He definitely needs to fill out more but he is still capable of manhandling defenders along the boards.
While I think he tries to be fancy a little too much, he does have really good hands. He is able to stickhandle in traffic on a semi-regular basis, which in end creates tons of chances. He had some plays this weekend that left you in awe of his skillset.
He is currently being used on the point/halfwall near the hashmarks on the PP, to use him as a onetimer option, as he has a very good, hard accurate shot. He is being used correctly in this situation and will likely be the best option here with his shot. He's really elusive with his passing, is able to lay it on a tee for others, and is great at getting it cross seams over/under defenders sticks.
If you are stat watching this year for him, you may end up disappointed because as I said, this Cougars team is very young and learn each and every day therefore, he will not have the highly skilled linemates he had last season. They are not use to this speed, size, skill or physicality yet. They are going to be overwhelmed this season, but it's a learning curve. I mention this for the stat-watchers because I'm not so sure how many points Popugaev is going to get on this team with the inexperienced roster, but ultimately it is up to him to dictate his personal success in production. He is going to be put in every situation to succeed, but he also needs to workout his flaws, otherwise other players may be used in that capacity for a bit.
Popugaev always leaves me wanting more, and knowing he has more in him. He leaves me thinking he can be an effective player who can progress greatly this season because he is a very good offensively minded player and has all the abilities/physical attributes, but he has a lot needing to be worked on.
I'm going into this season with tempered expectations on his overall game, but I am expecting him to lead this team offensively up until the end of the season, or perhaps when he is traded at the deadline if PG is out of it.
