It’s tough to say what happened to him this year. He came out of the bubble with confidence I would assume, got to start the season with Toffoli and it still didn’t click. He has gotta produce and become the same player he was in the playoffs last year if we want a shot at going deep. Still holding out hope he turns it on in the playoffs.
KK didn't lose Toffoli because they didn't click (they were producing together). He lost him because Julien wanted to get Danault to produce. KK was given a struggling recently health scratched Tatar in return. Then the coach changed and Ducharme never put Toffoli/KK/Armia back together except for the first two 2 games because he reset the line-up to the starting one. Then Toffoli was moved away to fill in for an injury and KK never played with Toffoli again after that.
This has been KK's entire season story: produce with linemates, lose linemate to get someone else line going or patch an injury. He even lost Lehk/Byron when their line was on fire. The last two months, he had to rebuild line chemistry every 2 games without practice time... People expect consistency when he has none on his line.
Now his confidence is in the shitter and he needs linemates stability but Ducharme clearly doesn't give a shit. In fact, going by the late game line blender last night, I'm expecting Ducharme to break Toffoli/Suzuki/Armia to give new wingers to Danault if Tatar doesn't come back. That's the only line producing in the team for the last 2-3 weeks...
In a year or two the same posters shitting on Kotkaniemi may well be doing the same to Caulfield, and they'll be blasting Timmins' for wasting another pick.
You won't have to wait that long, there was already people shitting on Caulfield on twitter last night.
