Yah, he seems a little behind the play with the puck in and around offensive threat zone. I actually see not much more in his productive ability than what Marcus Foligno shows. Similar style player crashing and checking but little actual finish when close.
I mean ideally you'd want them to be in the offensive zone most of the time to avoid having to defend their own zone, which starts with the forecheck and winning faceoffs (yikes). That's tough to do with Staal being slow and Donato coasting and not being able to win a board battle. I didn't say anything about neutering lines or having Foligno on the top line with Staal and Fiala. I don't think there's an ideal situation with the makeup of our team, which is why I said hopefully they can find something that works with all the hopeful player movement this offseason.
staal can win faceoffs to help hold the offensive zone and as weak as donato looks a lot of the time he still wins board battles. having an offensive line would help us greatly rather than trying to role 4 equal lines with mediocre offense and mediocre defense. that's why we get called the mild. that mindset needs to change we don't need to go full Colorado and be fully top heavy but it wouldn't hurt to be top 6 heavy.
Let’s hope Staal can win more FOs next year.
by no means was he great this year with faceoffs but 50% isn't tragic. its not ideal but he can still win faceoffs and those 3 working the offensive zone together could actually be a beautiful sight to see.
I'd rather conform the lines to make them effective rather than just throw all the one dimensional players on lines together. Putting all your best shooting players together doesn't mean it'll be the best offensive line a team can muster. You need some sort of balance and complimentary play for a line to work. What good is an offensive line if they give up more goals than they score? The Wild are called the Mild because they play good defense and don't have high end forwards.
