I just don't see lias doing enough to warrant more ice time. Feeding ice time to jids who aren't ready is a good way to ruin them.
Playing lias 8 mins with and against lesser players is likely better for him than feeding him mins against barkov and the like only to get buried in their own zone.
I also feel like often times were too quick to say a player played well even though they didn't because we want to justify them in terms of their importance to the team going forward.
People hate on
@Kovalev27 because he's super hard on lias..but I think sometimes people go too far in the other direction and aren't hard enough on him. Similarly I feel like
@nevesis will forgive anything Henrik does whereas
@SnowblindNYR will blame Henrik for everything.
I just feel like the truth is often in the middle..I feel like lias hasn't played near well enough to justify more minutes and better linemates, and I also feel like there are flashes of the player he can become but isn't there yet.
When chytil was playing 8 mins a night with the same scrubs, you saw enough strong play to justidy bumping him up in the lineup....he made good things happen...a lot.
Right blnow lias can't beat anyone one on one...he's not able to win even half of his board battles, he falls over for no reason constantly, and he's super floaty at times which for a guy with below average speed is a bit concerning.
I'd like to reiterate though that...he's a kid, he needs to develop and he's going through that process. This is all normal stuff...but I think he doesn't deserve bigger minutes with better linemates...Quinn is already doing that with howden and chytil....why? Because they earned it.
Lias has not....not by a long shot.