I can't agree with this because that's a whole other gear. You can't sustain that type of play through 82 game regular season and no player, not even Connor McDavid, can. Plus that theres been several games where Draisaitl has shown this type of play. Really all of 2019 he has been carrying this club on his back.
In this instance "that player" would be the best player in hockey. Those expectations are a little high.
It seems odd that Drai has to be better than everybody to receive no criticism. Where is the similar level of critique regarding other players?
For instance even as you allude Connor McDavid has not been nearly as good this season taking NHL pts increase into account. This season might actually resemble his 3rd best season. But no criticism of that is seen.
Larsson has been questionable for two seasons now. I barely hear criticism of that. I'm one of the few even noting it. Larsson played like a lost child the whole time Klefbom was missing and he still hasn't recovered. Not that he was good before the Klefbom injury.
No you're not. It comes up relatively often. Two things I think are different though:
1) there is not much pushback, if posters start pushing back more join the discussion. I am pushing back at times because I've seen him get crapped on even after playing good games, often on those occasions more join in the critisizm.
The consistency is not there though, which is strange seeing as it's been a strenght of his in the past. That is not good enough.
2) Many have way higher expectations on a $8.5M fwd and second best player in the team. Especially when we need scoring. It's much easier to get down on someone where the bar is set so high as it is for Drai.
I've said it before and I think many agree with me: Larsson, even playing up and down as he has been, is not the problem of this team (neither is Drai of course). Even if you think he belongs on the 2nd pair it's still a decent contract.
Personally I also see something is off with him. Cannot tell if it's injuries or in his head. OEL had his worst season ever the season after his mother passed away, now I know many deal with these things so it's not an excuse, but something is obviously wrong. His best play imo was 16/17 playoffs, followed by his last two seasons in NJD (14/15-15/16). 16/17 reg was also not bad, but below his normal imo.