Oh Kulie. No doubt my favorite Leaf player, you'll be hard-pressed to find somebody that pumps his tires more than I do around here. The lack of love he gets from the casual fanbase is absolutely disgusting, I remember when I got laughed out of Real Sports for asking if they had any Kulemin jerseys. **** this world.
Getting back to his play, I'm not part of the "he's not being used right" or "he's a 20 goal man on a different team" boat. He's not a goal scorer, his one big season was a gigantic anomoly. 20 goals? He'll honestly be hard pressed to put up 15 goals. He is through and through a defensive forward and Carlyle has recognized that and is running with it. He's our defensively superior Lauri Korpikoski or offensive inferior Jannik Hansen. He can play spot duty in top six but he won"t be there to put up points. It'll be to cycle and to free up space.
Nobody really notices just how much Kulemin has changed his game the last few years. He finishes ALL his checks, you can tell Carlyle has encouraged him to hit as often as possible because he now hits everything. He led the team in hits last night, in fact. He also led our forwards in blocked shots last season and had four last night.
Kulie is not an offensive player on this team but I'm okay with tat, his defensive intangibles are hard-pressed to find in comparison to any of our other players. His Minnesota PK was fantastic. All that being said, even if he doesn't ask for a raise, I can see him walking onto Pittsburgh as well - him and Malkin just seem like too much of BFFs.
Getting back to my first point, I just don't understand why the casuals show no appreciation for him. Is it cause he's Russian? Or doesn't score goals? Or is our fanbase just dumb?