My theory behind OEL's lackadaisical play - He wants to model his play after Nick Lindstrom. Lindstrom was able to make it look so smooth and so easy. Very few people have that ability to make ice hockey look effortless. I think OEL is trying to play that way and his forced smoothness comes across as lazy, as well as leading to bad play/decisions. When I ran track I was always in awe (and envy) of the guys who could run a 50 second 400 meters and look like it was the easiest thing in the world. My 400 meter time trying to "look" smooth as silk would be about 10 seconds slower than my personal best of 56. OEL needs to play his own game. Trying to be Nick Lindstrom won't work.
Byproduct of the injury is that he's afraid of contact and can't pivot as well, so he is trying to be a 'technical' defender.
I see this rebuild stalling out real fast if he and Keller don't turn the corner. Kessel can be disappeared without much fuss.
Kessel is so bad that he is making his line a net negative 5v5. And his $6.8m would be better spent elsewhere, like on another strong defender to shelter OEL.
Starting to openly wonder if the room embracing Phil a lot is messing with OEL mentally on top of what he's already dealing with.
