TSN: Coyotes @ The WJC - Team Captain and Leading Scorer Strome Fails, USA Prevails

[Palmer2Fitz]

I didn't love moments of Stromes game last night but I thought he was light years better than last year. Low panic threshold and more relaxed game. Didn't try too hard to make things happen. Let the game come to him and displayed some amazing creativity on some setups. Lots of positives. Can't wait for him to add more size. Another year and he will be extremely hard to play against.

I thought he was better last year because they used him more effectively. This year he was definitely more invincible then he was bad. Strome will continue to be scrutinized for two reasons. One is his obvious lack of burst and the other reason is probably 90% of posters that watched that tournament were Canadian and Strome will forever be compared to Marner. Strome was getting bashed for any little mistake, and when he did make a good play nobody said anything. I watched every single game of the tournament and I was not happy with Stromes performance but a lot of that was because the way they used him. Strome will be just fine but he is a project and needs time to develop. He needs to work on his strength and his overall skating is not bad, he just literally has 0 burst and plays with very little tenacity. There is no doubt in my mind that Strome is still our future #1 center. I just think he's a little further away then we started to think.

 

[PhoPhan]

I don't have any big problems with Strome's performance and agree that most of his criticisms stem from unfair expectations about his style and poor usage by the coaching staff, not to mention frequent rotation of his linemates. He could easily have been Canada's most effective forward, but even with those circumstances, he still produced well.

It's also worth mentioning how few games Strome has played this season. He's gotten into all of 7 OHL games and 7 NHL games so far. I don't have a problem with this for his long term development, especially now that he's an everyday player in Erie again, but for such a short tournament, he's at a disadvantage when nearly everyone else is already in midseason form.

 

[lanky]

I agree with the post above in full except for games played being a challenge from Strome. He was taking part in NHL practices between the handful of NHL games he played, all the while working with the world's best skating coach.

Strome doesnt deserve any excuses, though he doesn't deserve much criticism either.