I just feel like playing center is more complicated, plus the Habs have wingers with limited skill and almost no creativity, not the kind of players Gally can learn from considering his game.
But I felt like he struggled with the North-South game his teammates played. He thought faster than his teammates when it was him making the plays, but his decision making was not on par with what was going on around him IMO.
He was not put in a position to excel in this tournament, the fact that a player like Galchenyuk struggled in this situation isn't entirely hard to fathom really. He's playing on a larger ice surface and his acceleration isn't elite, that's a knock. He's playing with strictly north-south players, as you alluded to, whose game's are not exactly anywhere near Galchenyuk's in terms of vision or skillset, so that's a knock. He didn't get a lot of ice time relative to the guys that did outproduce him (who were older), so that's a knock.
The first game Gally looked dominant, then we saw afterwards his play tailed off for a while. He's been extremely used to being the coach's #1 player, the go-to guy when the game is on the line and offense is needed. He was not that guy for Housley, he wasn't even a Top 5 guy for Housley. It's not hard to think this could have had a negative impact on his psyche. The positive to draw from that is that he'll be accustomed to that now when he's in the NHL, because his first season (or perhaps longer) he will not be the Hab's #1 offensive weapon and he'll have to learn his place in these situations.
He had a mediocre tournament. He was the most dominant player in the CHL prior to the tournament. How many points could Galchenyuk have put up if he was playing with Scheifele and Drouin/Huberdeau? Would we still be having this conversation?
People are blowing this WJC out of proportions.
