Minus the scraggly beard. Otherwise, when he opens his mouth.......yeah, the same.
I do think he has a really good chance of becoming better. His lack of speed will always be a detrimen, but thats not his game anyway. His big body and reach separates he from defenders, ice vision is excellent, but his decisions are sometimes bad and makes the same moves all the time!
There is ALWAYS an opp for him to shoot at some point, but choses to hold onto the puck too long and the opp is long gone with NO SHOT. EVENTUALLY, we all hope that he figures that out........and then we have that gem.
I truly believe Hayes is suffering the same fate as Miller and Grabner the past month. Due to injuries especially to Nash and being forced to play Top 6 minutes when your skill set is for being more of a Top 9 guy.
I can't emphasize more than I have on a few different threads that the injury to Nash has been THE most deflating for the Rangers offense than even Zibs or Buch. When Nash is in lineup, he immediatly makes whoever plays with him 2nd line top 6 worthy and that includes Hayes, Vesey or Miller.
So even with Zibs and Buch out, you have a top line of Step,Kreider and Zucc. With Nash healthy, you have him, Vesey and let's just say Hayes. Even tho Hayes is not a top 6 guy, if he has Nash with him and Vesey, he is plausable there.
You than can have a 3rd line of Miller,Grabs and lets say Fast. It's a whole domino effect Nash has on the lineup.
Obviously once we get Zibs and Buch back, Hayes, Miller and Grabner become that much more effective as a 3rd line facing 3rd line opposition which they are cleary superior than and showed they were when we were at full strength. Get Nash back in lineup and I feel strongly Hayes will be back to his productive self.