NYRFAN218
King
1) Yes. Yes.
2) No way of knowing that, we can only hope he scores some goals. Barry Bonds was terrible in the playoffs for years and then went off. Datsyuk too. There are a million examples of players who put it together eventually. We don't really have a choice but to find out if Nash is one of them. He's very green with playoff hockey.
There was also the notion that Gaborik was terrible in the playoffs. I remember 10-11 he had that awful, injury filled season. Shoulder injury and a minor concussion being the ones I remember. 22 goals in 62 games that season with most of those goals coming in hat tricks against bottom feeders. 2 points in 5 games against the Caps in the playoffs and I remember him being booed by those in the 400's during game 4 of that series. Lot of fans were done with Gaborik at that point and wanted him dealt. 07-08 was his most recent playoff performance before that and between that one and this one, he had 3 points in 11 games with only one goal.
He bounced back with 41 goals the next season and put up 5 goals and 11 points in 20 playoff games that season with a major shoulder injury. Still got criticized but I think that's pretty impressive in itself. Looked done after we traded him and then gets dealt to LA and goes off in the playoffs.
My point is unless some amazing option pops up out of nowhere for next season, the best option is to ride Nash and hope he breaks out. We all know the talent and skill is there and he's shown it at times too. I just think it's extremely foolish to sell low on the guy especially when he's the best goal scorer we have. Like I said, if it happens again or he has a disastrous season then you re-evaluate his spot on the team next offseason.