Of course, he has passed his peak as he is going on 32 and he was never fast to begin with. Not a lot of players can put PPG of 0.70 or above so yes it’d be a big accomplishment if he could do it again.
While his numbers the last 3 seasons (including this one) haven’t been great it’s not that bad at the same time (2016-17 was bad though but he redeemed himself in the playoffs nicely), 0.53 to 0.56 PPG is lower end 2nd line production so the problem is not that he is trash like some idiots say but just that he is overpaid and injury prone. Also disagree that he is 1-dimensional, he is not a defensive specialist by any means but he is adequate and can play through a system effectively; as advanced stats suggest, although it’s almost impossible to do in a Boucher system.
So yes you’re right, there’s no problem calling him out, criticizing him that he is overpaid, injury prone, disappointing, declining or whatever deserved criticism but that isn’t the problem here (and overall on the internet and social medias). Some people are just not able to criticize, all they can do is disrespectfully bash like frustrated teenagers would do. Reading some of the comments, I am flabbergasted that any adult would have that kind of ******ed langage. I am totally open to criticism as I do it quite a bit myself but as usual on the internet, it goes way too far
That should go without saying; you don’t even need to be an « athlete », just someone who practiced some sports and had injuries; or even if you followed the NHL for years, you should have witnessed a lot of players careers derailed because of injuries as they were aging. Just for the Sens, many went through that.