I counted at least 4 terrible own zone giveaways in last nights game from him. I do think he’ll get better in our system though, but it’s a bit worrisome to see from a veteran who you expect to be an upgrade on a younger D or Russell.
To me, even though he plays quite differently than Jones, at their worst they end up in the same place. Jones will make terrible plays with extreme urgency while Kulikov seems to make terrible plays with very relaxed play.
Hoping to see improvement as we play out these final few games.
Funny enough I see that in reverse.
In my eye the biggest difference is when Kulikov doesn't seem to know where to move the puck, and the pressure gets to him, he'll cough the puck up in the worst ways but when he looks like he knows where his safety valve is, even if it's a quick read, he executes the play correctly more often then not.
Jones on the other hand has a nasty habit to skate himself into bad situations that he could have avoided. He struggles to make that quick read.
Basically imo, Kulikov is liable to get burned when put under pressure, but Jones has a tendancy to spontaneously combust when everything seemed under control...
But that's with the puck; without the puck Kulikov is leagues ahead when it comes to defensive play, due to far better positional and physical play.