GDT: Bruins @ Caps | 9.26.14 7PM | CSN

[MrGone]

Very very limited. He's a try hard player, but I just don't see much NHL talent there. Maybe a few stints while other guys are hurt, but I don't really see him as a regular unless he takes some serious strides. As much as I'd like to find our next Matt Hendricks, I'm skeptical that O'Brien is that.

Maybe I just have a thing for try hard players. I was such a big fan of Matthew Barnaby. It always seem like no one want to win as bad as he did. And makes sense with my hate for Mike Green. Who I will even say looked better at times so far. And completely lost at other times.

 

[Acallabeth]

Ovechkin put up 50-50 with Clark and Zubrus. Crosby puts up 100 every year with not much on the wing. Malkin produces no matter who he's put with. Semin scored 40 with Brendan Morrison at center (and guess who on his other wing). Mike Green put up 70 points with Jeff Schultz as his partner. Kopitar is basically a lock for 70 points no matter who is put on his line. There are countless examples of players that aren't anchored by their linemates.

As there are examples of players who are, like Datsyuk with Abdelkader and Bertuzzi or that same Ovechkin with Beagle.
Kuznetsov isn't Ovechkin, Malkin or even Kopitar as well. He isn't playing on the 1st line in the most comfortable situations with 10 PP minutes each game, and unlike the players who you mentioned, the coach doesn't look for building a line around him, he looks for a center between Laich and Brouwer.

Keep using the anchor ******** against Laich if you wish, but an agenda entirely derived from one 2-on-1 when he didn't pass to Ovechkin comes of as petty and personal. There's no history of him sinking a line.

It was you who started talking about anchoring or sinking a line, not me. Now, what did he achieve last year? 15 points in 50+ games with a lot of PP time on the best brigade in the league isn't sinking? Getting outscored by Erat? Our secondary scoring was Chimera-Ward. Even Backstrom couldn't make the Brouwer-Laich combination a decent line, but at least Brouwer is a valuable asset on PP and has a great shot.

What I'm saying is that his style is a horrible fit for Kuznetsov. The problem is that Laich tries to play like he's got some great skills: he tries low% dangles, far shots, coasts a lot, makes soft hits and holds the puck like it's his. While there's a player on his line who has superior puck control, vision, passing and 2 players with better shots. He could try to be a complimentary player for Kuznetsov and Brouwer like he did on the Semin line, but if he wants to drive the play, there's no reason at all for Kuznetsov to be there. Kuz is a highly skilled puck possession player, it's his job to be the primary playmaker and passer. Laich is now a maybe slightly above average soft grinder who thinks he's a top 6 center. Kuznetsov isn't going to develop if he plays with him.