Big Friggin Dummy
Registered User
- Feb 22, 2019
- 24,581
- 23,211
Phil was always going to be a "get the most out of a few years" type of guy, I think. His inability or unwillingness to maintain a grip on his emotions and not let them dictate his play just drives coaches insane, and as we've seen, if he's not tearing it up offensively, he's a complete detriment to his line. It's time to move on, we got two Cups out of Phil but he's shifted from solution to problem quickly. Like you said, Phil's a guy you have to move a season too soon as opposed to waiting a season too late, because by then, he's an untradeable asset.I was calling for it to happen after the Caps series the most loudly here. Sometimes you need to be proactive and identify problems at certain time. It´s not too late for Phil to go, he could´ve go last year but I feel like this is still fine with him. Same with Hornqvist. The problem comes if we wait with them for too long.
As for Kessel. This team needs to be harder to play against. It was painful how soft and careless they were vs the Islanders and throughout the regular season as well. Phil is one of the main protagonists of this BS. This team absolutely needs some fresh concept.
I'm conflicted when it comes to Hornqvist. I think he's definitely a problem and I do think he's going to get dramatically worse as age/injury catches up, but he still brings some things to the table that don't show up on the scoresheet. His ability to cause chaos around the net, get in the heads of goalies/defensemen, bring guys down low to create more space for the other forwards, his ability to screen goalies, and his fire are still there, and they have an impact for sure, but my rational side says that kind of stuff isn't worth paying $5.3 million a year for when the guy is scoring 4 goals (2 ES, 2 PP) over the final 45 games of the season. That's unacceptable production, and puts him in a class with a guy like Lucic for being an absolute albatross. Now, I think he'll be able to bounce back a bit, but I do think when Horny starts to decline (he has, imo), it will be a precipitous fall and those final two or three years of his deal will be absolutely miserable.