Best center at shutting down chances for the better lines but hindering everything in scoring. You saying hes the answer to get more scoring vs sticking him in what he excels at is misleading to these teenagers and old folk.
I'm not saying Koivu is the answer to anything other than "who is the best center on the team right now?"
I get that Koivu is old and I get that him being our best center is a problem. I think everyone here thinks it's a problem. But playing him fewer minutes isn't going to fix anything. Eriksson-Ek isn't being held back developmentally by playing on the 4th line; he's had two years to show what he's got and thus far what he's got qualifies him for 4th line duty. Boudreau seems to like him and isn't shy about giving guys a chance; I'm sure he'd love to promote Ek as soon as Ek actually gives him a reason to.
And the 4th line isn't exactly an inescapable hell on this team. He gets a healthy number of minutes (5th most among the forwards, tonight) and Foligno and Hartman are better than your average 4th line wingers. Heck, if anyone on that line has been making a case for a promotion it's Hartman, who's been a pleasant surprise so far.
Hypothetically I guess they could take the "if you build it, they will come" approach and put him between Zucker and Fiala, but that's effectively what they've been doing with Kunin so far and the results speak for themselves. Maybe after 20 games of awfulness something will click, but it's at least as likely that he's just being miscast as something he isn't. It isn't doing him or the rest of the team any good and it'd be better for everyone to have him at RW, where he actually looks somewhat comfortable.
Bruce can't make these guys into good centers by fiat. They have to actually play well. And they haven't.
