bleedgreen
Registered User
I keep seeing this, it never adds up to the player I watched. I still don’t think I ever saw a player work harder for the puck than Jeff Skinner. He busted his ass off. He just never learned “smarter than harder” in the defensive zone through the neutral zone. He was permanently in “SQUIRREL!!!!!” mode. He’d get pulled out of positioning and get too deep, or he’d get caught puck watching. That isn’t a lack of effort. Few people work harder on their game in the off season than Skinner. There’s no workout for defensive positioning.40 goals are valuable, but that's about the extent of Skinner's value. If he's not scoring 35-40 goals a season, that contract is an albatross. Even Mark Stone, a guy who has only scored 30 goals once is a much more valuable 9 million dollar winger because he actually plays a complete game and is one of the best two-way forwards in the game. Maybe Skinner should at least try to become a more well rounded player when he isn't scoring.
Those problems are greatly muted by him playing with a good center. Which worked for half the season last year.
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