Bit surprised to see you posting something like this COO. I agree with others who are saying that Yakupov has not been significantly worse than other players. He has been significantly worse than he was at the end of last season, but that was a pretty blistering pace he was setting for himself. Probably got too many people's hopes up too high.
imo its clear that Eakins is giving Yak the Penner treatment. I don't like it - particularly when Eakins said that he was all about fair play for everyone, and handing out the icetime based on merit.
I think it's fair to say that Yakupov has consistently been the worst skilled forward all season. Granted, he's younger than the other guys but i don't remember any of the other young guys being this poor for this long. It just doesn't seem like Yakupov is buying into what Eakins is preaching AT ALL moreso than any other player on this team. It's very noticeable how lost he is out there, he just seems to be doing his own thing independent of the team concept.
Now, the other skilled forwards have had trouble playing a structured game as well but at least they produce offense, always have. Yak has been poor in every aspect and with the team up by 2 goals in the 3rd, I'm sure that Eakins was just looking to get a win by any means possible so he benched their most defensively inept player.
The one beef i had with the Yakupov benching was that he wasn't put out there for the 4 on 3 PP. A goal in that situation not only would have sealed the game but would have given Yak some much needed confidence.
It's really sad to see how lost he looks because he obviously has the talent and the passion to be so much better than this but at some point, the onus has to fall on the player to improve his game.
I see a lot of posters always blaming the coaches for playing him on the wrong lines, not playing him enough or blaming RNH, Eberle or Hall and now Gagner because they apparently refuse to pass to him. As i said, it's always somebody else's fault and never his own fault.
