Just loved watching how easily he broke up plays and sent the puck the other way. Stats can't show enough just how great of a player he is, and how important he will be to us winning a championship.
Flawless angling and gap control on the Calgary attack, and the guy just has a knack for identifying the dangerous option and making sure he's in the right place to stop it. Very very smart player. Hard to tell from one game, but his skating might have improved a little over the summer as well. I know his one weakness last year was getting beat wide the odd time. Gaining a step would have definitely helped him in his only real weakness on the defensive side of things.
I feel like Larsson used the media to put the pressure on himself. I'm confident we'll see a totally different player next game, and then we just hope like hell he doesn't regress over the 11 day break
Yep. Guys like Larsson I don't worry about long term. He has shown a very strong NHL ability defensively, recognizes his issue and is at least saying he is going to fix it.Everybody has slumps. His has happened at the worst possible time but I respect that he recognizes the problem and it’s on him to figure it out.
lol this thread... his slump has lasted almost 2 years now
if it's really his back hurting him, then he needs to get that fixed ASAP. we're not making any cup runs this year so just put him on IR and get surgery or rehab or whatever.
The entire defence save Nurse (and even then...) went down and sunk him. He's a #2 at his best, and can't carry the load like a Doughty can.
Only a few forwards are able to take advantage of his passing, too, which compounds his issues.
He'll rebound.
I feel like Larsson used the media to put the pressure on himself. I'm confident we'll see a totally different player next game, and then we just hope like hell he doesn't regress over the 11 day break
Larsson playing well is a legitimate #2. When he is even average he is a very good #3. Periods like this are not the norm. BUt he makes $4.1M which is about what you would expect to pay a 3/4 these days. And I suspect he will always be cheap since he does not put up pp numbers.
Larsson was ordinary last season and sub par almost all of this season. Since X-mas this has entered into him being bad. Not sure how much is due to his back, his over use, but he's drowning. Of course we could expect fall back in his play, this is a difficult situation with D injuries, but oddly Nurse has looked better under the same strain and the team are riding Nurse more. The team rode Nurse more last season as well when other players, including Larsson, were injured.
Last year I am sure it was his back. Before it was reported that he was having issues I thought that he might have a problem. I was at 8 games last year and typically try to get tickets down low. As people might guess I am a fan of the way Larsson plays. Very old school. He's got a bit of a nasty streak and he really punishes guys. So I have made a bit of a habit of watching him from up close. Just shortly before it was made public that he was battling a bad back I saw him play twice and he looked very noticeably tentative. Much more passive along the wall and hesitant to mix it up.
This is not what I am seeing now. He looks like a guy who just expects bad things to happen but he does not look hurt to me.