g00n
Retired Global Mod
- Nov 22, 2007
- 30,684
- 14,864
I wasn't just talking about people here, I'm talking about Laviolette, I'm talking about the beat writers (Tarik El Bashir in particular who noted that Schultz had a "solid" first season in Washington), I'm talking about fans that I interact with elsewhere who thought Schultz had a good season overall. So yes, I think a lot of people is accurate.
Of course I do not have access to Peter Laviolette or have him in my rolodex, so unfortunately I cannot ping him and see what his thinking was. Given the information I have, in my opinion he made a pretty big mistake by either not limiting Schultz's minutes, or not scratching him completely given a perfectly good option on the bench to replace him.
Here's a rolling 10-game xGD graph:
View attachment 447851
So he did start out pretty well, but tailed off quite substantially toward the end. Of course a lot of his uptick is playing alongside Dmitry Orlov, who is an excellent playdriver.
More concerning than his first year in DC is his multiyear trend and his isolated impacts over the years, which have been trending down:
View attachment 447853
Maybe it's because of injuries, but do we really expect this guy to have a healthy season next year?
That's a lot of "yeah, but", however you did prove my point that he was very good in the first half but fell off in the 2nd. So it's possible he was dealing with something and Lavi decided to roll with him, hoping for a return to earlier form. Coaches do that sometimes. Maybe he thought 70% Schultz was better than 100% TVR, who knows. I'd seen enough of him after only a few games vs BOS.