We're a Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde team. It felt pretty good when we had the best line in the league last year competing with the likes of Kucherov and Company. The rest of the group was playing solid too. Then the All-Star break happened and like every year we pooched it up while somehow acquiring points in the standings.
I think we'll turn a corner on this year at some point soon and tear it up again. The only sucky thing and which is my yearly rant, is why can't we get close to playing well for 82 games and the playoffs? Year after year we've got a bunch of players - and we all know who - that take a third of the season off. Get distracted by whatever and play listless, uninspired, frustrated hockey. And then of course we need the group that showed against Vancouver in 2015 to show up again come April.
My gripe all along has been:
- Brodie is a top 4 guy not a top 2, plays small for his size. Puck mover and agile but coughs up the puck at the weirdest moments costing us regularly. He has small stretches of consistency but those seem to have been with Gio, otherwise he's inconsistent and not that trustworthy.
- Monahan is a 2c on any contending team. Have been waiting to see if he can take that next step and be a consistent, stronger 1c over say 72-75 games instead of the 50-55 games we see yearly.
- Johnny is who he is. My gripe isn't his effort, it's his size and though he is one of the most skilled players in the league, he needs to be with skilled sized players around him who will give him space with protection and taking the focus off of him. Otherwise he gets targeted and thrown off his game and then the soft, bad passes and such start to happen. I'd consider him in a trade, but only for real skilled top-end talent, which is unlikely.
- Janks is slow and immobile as heck. He took a step backward.
- Father time may be catching up to Gio as this year he has been making a lot of mistakes and looking a little lost. His speed and shot appear to be still there, so I haven't thrown in the towel on him.
- Andersson is a solid D and a top 4 guy for a long time, potentially. But I don't think he'll ever be near what we'd want as our #1 guy. His shot isn't anything to write home about and he isn't super fast either.
- Hanafin I'm okay with, but like a 3 D.
- Bennett is our energy guy along with Tkachuk but the experiment is old now and he just doesn't produce near to where anyone thought he might. And he takes dumb penalties, lots of penalties - sometimes at inopportune times and often leading to other team goals. Can he be a 3rd liner/4th liner for life? I guess if he's okay with it. But I don't think he's shown that he deserves to be anything more.
- Backlund . . . He is what he is too. A good defensive forward, but again, I hate to say it, he's shown some inconsistency too. And really, is he a true #2C on a contender? Probably not.
- Frolik is probably done.
- Tkachuk is probably our only untouchable.
- Lindholm, I'm okay with but sometimes I wonder if he's a true first line right winger. I've never been impressed with his right side presence on the PP, at the point or wherever. Pucks seem to get by him with regularity.
- Kylington is slow (I might be wrong about this one . . . May have been thinking about Fantenberg from last season; I have to see K play again).
- Hamonic is sketchy as heck.
- Stone is meh.
- I like Ryan and plays what we need from him.
Anyway, I'm up against a lunch break. Ciao for now.