But Buffalo is just an awful place to try and judge things in. It's where hockey success goes to die.
And 17-18 was a really bad year for Sid, or at least the first half was. Everybody could see it, everybody suffered from it. We finally found out how much hockey and success it took to sate the Sidbot that year as he was visibly not trying. Perimeter player.
We all recognize that Crosby had a down year in '17-'18, and Buffalo sucks. What we disagree on is whether Sheary was a victim of those circumstances or a contributor to them.
Is Sheary going to start leading the league in p/60 again? Probably not, but there's a huge gap between that year and the next. There's a lot of space in the middle, and maybe that's where Sheary lives at a non-awful hockey club.
Anyway. In 17-18, Sheary had
14 points in 528.28 minutes with Sid - 1.59 p/60
5 points in 222.21 minutes with Sheahan - 1.35 p/60
3 points in 70.19 minutes with Brassard - 2.56 p/60
2 points in 77.19 minutes with Malkin - 1.55 p/60
And non-C
8 points in 283.07 minutes with Hornqvist - 1.69 p/60
Thanks for calculating those, much appreciated.
These numbers do undermine one of the main arguments for Sheary though, that he produced in the top 6 and Kahun didn't. It's true that Kahun was much more productive in the bottom 6 than he was with Malkin...but he was still more productive with Malkin this year (1.89 P/60) than Sheary was with Crosby in '17-'18 (1.59 P/60).
I mention Horny because I'll be pushing that a lot. Sheary and Horny have chemistry. All this talk of Sid liking Sheary makes me a little nervous (although I can see it working). But Sheary and Horny as a 3rd line wing pairing? That's got potential.
Realistically I don't see why anyone should be happy with Sheary's 17-18 here. He blew it. The extent to which it is predictive of today I don't know though.
I dunno man, these justifications only seem to get more wobbly.
People should be nervous about Sid liking Sheary, and Sheary being put on the 1st line during his initial line rushes. This is in all likelihood going to be a regular thing, with an exceptionally long leash, like the last time he was here. That's why he was so frustrating and that's why I was happy to see him go the first time.