Garbage. Absolute ****ing garbage.
Players like Higgins who have given their all night in and night out for years deserve the benefit of the doubt. He doesn't deserve for his effort level to get judged by you to the point of calling him pathetic. In fact, it was pretty pathetic of you to do so.
Foot injuries are very tough to come back from if you didn't know as it really limits your training. Also, some guys come back from injuries better than others. Doesn't mean that they care more, it's just the nature of the injury or their body."
Garbage. He's given it all, night in night out?? What planet are you living on. Do you even watch the playoffs???? I've rarely seen a softer effort in the playoffs.
Each year Higgins has stretch where he will make a few important plays (like a shoot out goal or get a late goal) but then goes into dormant periods of no offense and does little beyond get up and down his wing. Last year in the playoffs he was clearly AWOL and allowed Calgary to bounce him and his team mates around with zero response. I challenge you to go back and look at the playoffs and then come back and say he is giving it hard every night or that he somehow a comparable to Burrows or Hansen. He is no where near as good and never sticks his nose into any situation he doesn't have. Instead, he backs out and stays on the fringes. If you have any video of Higgins playing it tough I'd like to see it
I think this idea that Higgins is giving it up every night comes from the fact that he plays all the time. This somehow imparts the idea that he is this steady, hard working player that can somehow be moved up and down the line-up. But he isn't. He often can't be relied upon for a full effort since he has no physicality and he runs out of gas and disappears. And that is especially so when the going gets tough. Maybe people don't want to recognize that but the evidence to date is overwhelming that this true.
Moreover, it's a myth that somehow Higgins can move up and down the line up and can be used like in your top 6 or bottom 6 is the real myth. Higgins is a third line guy who has the skating and moxie to get by as a passable third liner most of the time. When he goes into one of his dead periods he becomes PB material. He brings very little grit and when you reach the hard sledding of the playoffs he's been a no-show.
Last night he was pathetic. If you don't like the word then find your own. Un-involved. Disinterested. Useless. Weak. But any honest assessment of his play would have to include such words.
Does he have an excuse. To an extent. But lots of those guys are playing hurt and they still give a go. They don't use the game as training session. They drop their heads down and get back on the back check. They get their bodies in a position to take a hit along the boards to get the puck out or keep it in. Dorsett seems clearly hurt and isn't playing well but he still fighting for every inch. I would challenge you to see any of this in Higgins play. Instead with Higgins I saw a very casual and un-sustained effort. In addition, you would have thought that he could have at least worked on his arm strength during his time off and not be so immediately dispossessed of the puck.
If this was the first time Higgins had played like this then you could just dismiss it. But it is far from that. He's is coming off a very weak playoff performance that was almost universally declared as such. You would have thought he would have made every attempt to put that behind him and show the determination to be a player rather than drift through the game. He could a fought for the puck. He could have tried to get to the net(rather than pivoting off to the corners). He could have got down in his end and fought to get the puck out. I saw none of this.
Lastly the idea that he should be given the benefit of the doubt is laughable. Why? What's he done lately that has shown much? Last year he was poor for long periods and only had few stretches where he was much good. And again he is coming of terrible playoff performance. Why so much so slack for Higgins? You thinking he has been this hard working, gritty night in night out player is trash. Only a person predisposed toward Higgins could see that as true. In reality, he is coming off a poor season, a miserable playoffs and last night was just an extension of this. You can sugar coat it any way you want but Higgins was bad.
