nbwingsfan
Registered User
- Dec 13, 2009
- 21,556
- 15,618
I do not know how people can say as a legit criticism that he was 'soft on the puck' at the WJC.
And the stats show he was consistently amongst canada's leaders on controlled zone exits and he rarely failed a zone entry, was mostly amongst the leaders there too except for the fair criticism that he dumped the puck a LOT (which seems like a coaching /request decision because it was not only excessive, it's typically not part of his game).
That guys' timeline has each game if you want to see it but that's a pretty typical statline and those are strong for a guy given limited minutes.
And again he was amongst Canada's best play drivers in the gold medal game despite his shit deployment, and one of the best in the tourney on faceoffs.
Some of these critiques make me feel like I'm watching a different game than others, especially when the stats also show such a stout performance from every aspect but raw point production. Yes, I know stats aren't everything and I'll be the first to criticize box score watching but all of that jives with what I saw. Dude embraced his role and played it emphatically well from that standpoint--it's just not what people expected (also fair). I'll even grant an uneven effort, especially since he looked gassed at times, and the criticism about giveaways/dumping the puck, because he was throwing it forward quickly a lot. But everything on his side of the puck was amongst Canada's best, backed up by damn near every stat.
You dont want a third/fourth line checker at 2nd overall...