Burakovsky was Washington’s first-round pick in 2013, drafted to be a scoring winger after piling up points his whole life. But that came harder at the NHL level, and in part because he’s had hand injuries the past two seasons, his production has declined. The stress of not scoring often had Burakovsky angry with himself, and his play away from the puck would suffer if he was in a scoring slump. But after consulting a sports psychologist over the summer, Burakovsky has tried to be more positive with his self-evalutations.
“I’m not drifting away from the game as much as I did maybe two years ago,” he said. “Even if I haven’t produced as many points as people expect or I expect from myself, I still think my game has been way better overall than in the past couple of years, so obviously that’s a good sign. If you look at my play in the [defensive] zone and the way I’m handling the puck, it’s definitely an improvement. I’m not worrying about putting up points here. As long as we’re doing good as a team, to be honest, I don’t care.”
