TBN: Toughest year ever behind him, Sabres' Okposo looks ahead

[Chainshot]

As a fan and a human being, i hope KO is able to turn it around. But i am not sure how much i buy into the "out of shape" narrative. Is it that hard for a player to train during the regular season? I can understand showing up out of shape, but by April shouldn't he have been able to address some of his concerns?
This is a legit question that i hope more informed minds can answer. Maybe it's hard to train (add weight, muscle mass, speed) during the grind of an 82 game season? I don't know

I've heard players talk of losing 15-20 pounds over the course of an entire season . They don't have the rest time to add bulk so they usually do maintenance and cardio stuff instead. He clearly wasn't right to start the season and he struggled with things that may have been concussion related like stick-work.

 

[Doug Prishpreed]

I saw Okposo was a lot of people's whipping boy this year and to me has was the least of our problems.

If we can turn this team around he will be a good top 9 player for us

His effort was always there but I frequently saw a player who made decisions too slowly and moved too slowly. I'm hopeful yet skeptical he can return to form.

 

[1point21Gigawatts]

I appreciate the feedback from informed posters. I didn't realize that much strength was lost during the course of a season. I mean, it makes sense, but still...wow. I really do think KO gets a reluctant pass on this season. If he is able to get back into shape and improve his speed, then we may see a return to form which would be great.

 

[Kyndig]

Was hoping he would retire before he scrambled his brains further.

Okposo seems like a good guy and was one of my favorite players in 2016-2017, so I guess all we can hope for now is he turns it around and doesn't take anymore headshots..but fat chance of either of those happening.

 

[La Cosa Nostra]

he just fell off a cliff. I expected a good 55-60 point top line winger not a 40-45 point middle 6 winger. He was bad. I'd gladly trade a team a 2nd+3rd to take his deal off our hands.

 

[valet]

sounds like KO is still traumatized from the concussion/medication reaction the way he describes not feeling connected to his body

from what i understand about these emotional/physical issues it's gonna be a lot longer than 1 summer of training before he is back to normal... and by then he might be too old to regain his former level of play

i hope he gets better, it's a pretty unfortunate series of events for him to undergo