KIRK
Registered User
- Aug 2, 2005
- 109,700
- 51,216
Fellow sympathizer of unbacked criticism of our elite stars. (Minus Kessel)
Well, I have seen you declare a message board jihad in the name of Kristopher Letang, once or twice or a few hundred times. And that's just against me . . .
Jokes aside, there really are only a few explanations . . .
1. The @DocEmrickSkitters LeCavalier fear. Not unjustified given Geno's age and the abuse he's taken, especially in the last 3 years.
2. Saving himself for the playoffs. Don't see this one. I mean, I get saving himself. But, no this bad for this long.
3. Hurt. I can see this. Thing is, in the 2014-2015 season, Malkin ****** up his ankle. And he kept coming back early and ******* it up further because the team was in trouble. He could barely skate in the playoffs. After that, I know for a fact that the team became a lot more proactive about sitting him when there was an injury (as the last 3 seasons demonstrate). So, I have my doubts here.
4. @ColePens vertigo theory (or a lesser 'eyesight' issue as I wondered). Certainly would explain all of the falling down and why it seems like he can't stop when he's skating.
5. Skates issue. Someone here told me he's been publicly (to the team) complaining about his skates for 3 weeks and trying different skates all the time. Probably means it's been an issue-- or he thinks it's been an issue-- for a few weeks beyond that. Would explain a chunk of the struggles period, but 11 weeks, which is how long it's been? Not sure. And, I wonder if the skates complaint is a real issue or a way to avoid confronting another issue (hurt, vertigo, whatever).
6. Family issues. This is NOT an assertion. A few people, Rossi included, have noted that Geno's wife went back to Russia to work and took his kid with him. Geno is naturally an emotional guy. Just that-- and especially if there are issues beyond that-- one could see it having a huge impact on him.
I honestly can't think of anything else that it could be, but I'll end with this note: Whatever it is, it's interesting that Sully is treating him with kid gloves. We both know Geno can take criticism and has been called out by name by coaches in the past. So, MAYBE it's just that Sully sees nothing to gain by criticizing Geno, but I suspect there's something there from the above list contributing to that decision.
EDIT: Forgot, because @ColePens mentioned it before . . . training. Geno actually trained harder this summer than he has in a few years. There were articles on that. Out of shape guys don't start the season like he did. They start slower and then ramp it up, like Geno has the few prior seasons due to a more limited summer training schedule. So, the only theory here is that he trained way to hard and came out flying and then just ran out of gas. BUT, I don't see that. The skating issues-- not being able to stop and always falling down-- don't flow from this theory.
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