Fantastic write up, Cole. And, thank you for taking the time to do this, especially since I missed the last debacle.
Just wanted to add three things:
1. If memory serves, you and I were discussing about 10 weeks ago how this team needed a 'wake the **** up' trade that would strike at the heart of the extended family. We discussed Kunitz and Sutter specifically. Like Bylsma, we were ahead of the curve on this one.
2. Here's my problem with Adams: In the scheme of things, he's a career curtain jerker who means nothing. You had that **** with Malkin for which he was completely unapologetic. On some teams-- tight teams-- you can consider that water under the bridge. On other teams-- like the Pens-- you really can't, because the message sent by sweeping it under the rug is to reinforce this socialistic understanding of player worth. Call it something else if you will. The 'we are family' thing. Whatever. Adams, Kunitz, Sutter . . . really everyone outside of a couple of young players who have been easy targets for coaches feel 100% secure in their position. The complacency is everywhere, and on this team it's been poisonous. IMO, it's a good part of where the lack of heart comes from. They're just one big happy family, and, if it doesn't work out, the family remains in tact (yeah, JR traded Neal, but he never really was a member of the family). Even if Adams isn't the biggest poison and even if he's not trying to do it, how he plays on the ice, how he conducts himself off the ice, and how he is completely unaccountable for both undermines the team. He's like a smaller tumor. Not the biggest threat, but you still have to eradicate the ****** in order to cure the patient.
3. A pair of comments on Malkin that ties into what you observed:
-- You really need to find a copy of Dave King's book. King was a believer in the idea that Malkin's A game flowed from how he played defense and involving him in that part of the game. When he focused there, then the offense flows from that commitment to defense. When he's not, he cheats, like you'd always see with Bylsma (who encouraged it) and even with Johnston (who I think sees him as pretty one dimensional).
-- I remember a specific passage, where King was marveling about one of Malkin's hot streaks, and wrote something like 'he's getting a little cocky but he's so good and doing such amazing things, still we're going to have to reel him in'.
What happens with Malkin is that he can do such amazing stuff out there that he thinks he should be able to do it anytime, against anyone, and no matter how he's handicapped by his own coaches.
Arcobello on his wing, playing on Sutter's wing, wasted on the PP, playing anyone . . . if it suddenly isn't working, then in his mind-- and someone called this his MO-- he needs to try even harder, which only reinforces the problem.
It's kind of a fine line for him, which IMO is why a guy like King wanted the offense to flow from a commitment to defense and why he'd talk about 'reeling Malkin in' during a hot streak. It's something that needs to be managed proactively . . . King knew how to do it. Maurice did it well during the last lockout. And, for all of his faults, I think this is one thing Therrien got right (people talk about the 'top in the league' inspirational speech and people assume it was about scoring . . . I think it was about more than just scoring).
Kind of sad . . . Pierre McGuire once described Malkin's game-- the Malkin coached by Dave King-- as being like Ron Francis on steroids. It would help a lot if Mike Johnston took an approach to managing Malkin that is more like this than Bylsma 'get me a goal Geno' like. Like you said . . . I don't want Malkin going into every shift saying 'I've got to score a goal here and be the hero'. I want him playing his game, dominating on his side of center ice, and then letting the offense take care of itself.
