He's looked worlds better than all of last year. Creates really nice chances on a nightly basis. His line spends almost every shift in the offensive zone. His progression under a new coach has been substantial.
I love that all three of these are legit points. Yet, you use them as negative talking points.
Dude, SO many people were saying the same thing when that happened. Or maybe it was the same few people, but a lot of times.
So maybe the point here is that patience is needed.
It's just going to take more than 2 games for him to change the narrative. Good for him for those two games, but he has a long way to go to move the needle. It's just a baby step at this point.
Also keep in mind, those of us who watched Boldy while at center, we saw him generating chance after chance too... I don't recall that being the case according to what you saw of Stramel at center.
Why does the narrative have to start or stay negative? He was our first round draft pick, we should want him to succeed. If he does, it means our system has done well of drafting and developing, you and others here seem to be actively rooting against that for reasons that are indiscernible to me.
I'll take that for sure. Hastings told him to his face that he would be getting more minutes going forward. More opportunity is always good. I'm curious to see if that means he moves up in the lineup or if that means power play time. Hell, make it both lol
I just think it's one of those that let's see how the season ends. You never know how long it will take someone to get caught up to speed on things. I specifically stated earlier in the year that it was almost like he didn't know where he should be positionally speaking. Like he would be occupying the same space as another teammate and almost in the way instead of helping. I also think there wasn't a level of compete there at the beginning that probably stemmed from the country club, loosy goosy style from the previous staff. The way I termed it early in the season was that I wanted him to be more aggressive. That was my biggest issue for at least the first 3 weeks.
We all want him to succeed. We all also wanted Zack Phillips to succeed. Doesn’t mean we have to turn off our critical thinking.
Of course we want him to succeed. That said, he was chosen as a clear reach from most everyone's perspective. That is why the narrative started negative. It will likely stay that way until he proves people wrong... if not? It will likely stay negative.
I know this isn't true for all people, but I personally find patience from the knowledge that, whether he becomes good or not, I can't change it. Nor could I change who we drafted, even if I had the knowledge of it all beforehand. Instead I'm just cheering for the guys we have, when we have them, because that's literally all I can do other than to stop following the team. But that's my view, as I said, and it's not for everyone.
Shut up! No we don’t! You ALWAYS do stuff like this!
Boldy and Stramel both had slow starts to their post-draft season. Both DID have a position change (both from center to wing) in that year, and it resulted in more offense immediately. I think that's about as far as the comparison stretches. There are some parallels between Boldy and Stramel, but they're very different players. I'm personally not under some illusion that Stramel has Boldy's skill, ceiling, or ability to generate scoring chances, and I haven't seen anyone saying he does. Everyone's words around it have been quite measured, actually.
