Are we getting ahead of ourselves? Drai had one good game by himself this year. He was far from impressive by himself without Mcdavid last year... at least consistently. I hope the heck that changes this year and he can be a great player game in game out without Connor on his line but we'll see. Things look pretty decent for him after game one, i'll say that.
That being said, if Drai can get on a roll and really build on it through the season i could see him having that Malkin vs an injured Crosby type year. It was obvious Connor was far from 100% despite the goal in game 1. I saw this from training camp.... he definitely did not look the same... i'm honestly not sure what the heck media and other people saw when they said he was looking 100% like himself skating wise. His foot work is definitely slower with odd bambi like moments (relative to his own 100% skating), he's stride power and crossovers are notably weaker, and you can see it in his confidence and mentality that he's not winding it up with the puck... he knows he doesn't quite have that power and burst he used to to fly by people. Hopefully he improves quickly but this knee thing could plague him the entire year at the very least. And very likely he'll never be the same as he could have been without the injury. (F U Gio). But even if the knee isn't the same he'll hopefully get used to it being that way and adjust and get confidence in it's sturdiness and still be close to what he was.
In a way, a bit of potential good can come from it being that if Connor isn't his otherworldly self for a while, that others will now feel greater urgency to step up (Nuge, Drai etc). Even guys in the bottom 6. Maybe this triggers greater scoring depth somehow. I felt the other guys get a bit too complacent watching Connor's dominance and might not quite have that same urgency to produce. We'll see, hopefully guys step up and hopefully Connor is back consistently doing Connor things in a short time.
That being said, if Drai can get on a roll and really build on it through the season i could see him having that Malkin vs an injured Crosby type year. It was obvious Connor was far from 100% despite the goal in game 1. I saw this from training camp.... he definitely did not look the same... i'm honestly not sure what the heck media and other people saw when they said he was looking 100% like himself skating wise. His foot work is definitely slower with odd bambi like moments (relative to his own 100% skating), he's stride power and crossovers are notably weaker, and you can see it in his confidence and mentality that he's not winding it up with the puck... he knows he doesn't quite have that power and burst he used to to fly by people. Hopefully he improves quickly but this knee thing could plague him the entire year at the very least. And very likely he'll never be the same as he could have been without the injury. (F U Gio). But even if the knee isn't the same he'll hopefully get used to it being that way and adjust and get confidence in it's sturdiness and still be close to what he was.
In a way, a bit of potential good can come from it being that if Connor isn't his otherworldly self for a while, that others will now feel greater urgency to step up (Nuge, Drai etc). Even guys in the bottom 6. Maybe this triggers greater scoring depth somehow. I felt the other guys get a bit too complacent watching Connor's dominance and might not quite have that same urgency to produce. We'll see, hopefully guys step up and hopefully Connor is back consistently doing Connor things in a short time.
