I wish Eriksson Ek was even half the player that you think he is.
Honestly, in that game that Granlund played C I thought he looked really good. I've long though that now that he's gained his offensive confidence he could probably transition back to center pretty seemlessly.
Although, I'm very concerned with JEE's development … I would have to agree that Nino is the guy I'm most disappointed with. I expect more after that nice contract he signed last year. There's all kinds of things wrong with this game these days. I don't know where to start.
You could be right, but I think it's near insanity to mess with him now. The correlation between him playing wing and his increased production is too obvious to ignore.
I know it's satire but the truth lies somewhere in the middle haha. The guy was rewarded with a contract and he is failing to keep his exchange with that contract. But, the whole team is not playing well. Can't just single out...btw isn't Nino the new whipping boy?I wanted to update the whipping boy situation. My original post listed what I thought were the most likely candidates (determined from preseason discussions) and who I speculated it would be. From these players, Brodin has played well and removed himself from the discussion. JEE has been sent down and although there is residual JEE angst, he has also been removed from the discussion. Coyle has been one of, if not the top player on the team recently, and Foligno has met expectations for the most part.
This leaves....................Zucker. Yes, at this point JZ is the whipping boy! Due to his recent downturn in production (coinciding with the whole teams lack of scoring), he seems to be the main target of this board's vitriol. He seems to be known now as a "one trick pony", that trick being speed, which confusingly, many seem to think is one of this teams biggest needs. According to some, because he's soon to turn 27, his legs will be gone and he'll lose that attribute and become completely ineffective. He is no longer the fast, dynamic player of the past. He's now getting the Brodziak treatment for failing to score on breakaways. He is frequently being discussed as the person whom we should be trading for prospects, like Jesse Puljujarvi, he of the 33 points in 122 games.
Jason Zucker, your most recent whipping boy
The whole Zucker-Staal-Granlund line has been the team's biggest problem recently, so the degree to which Zucker's been singled out is a little extreme.
One of those is on pace for 78pts, another is on pace for 53, and the other is on pace for 43pts.
I'm just talking immediate issues and performance, not big-picture stuff. Big picture I'm sure all three of them will be fine, but over the last half-dozen games or so they've all been bad. Getting almost zero production from our "first line" at a crucial point in the season has really hobbled the team, especially with Dumba out.
Also, even in the last half dozen or so games...
Yet he still has 13pts in 14 games since then.
I think Nino has almost become an after-thought for us. It's like nobody even expects anything from him any more.
Maybe Zucker would score more if Granlund would stop turning the puck over. All three are weak on the puck. Zucker has always been weak keeping the puck. Staal and Granlund I expect better.
Except Granlund has only been doing that in the past couple weeks, that does nothing to explain all the time prior to that.
First 27GP Zucker had 9g 9a 18pts. That’s a 27+27 82GP pace. The last 2-3 weeks he has 11GP 1g 1a 2pts. That’s a 7+7 82GP pace.
First 11gp, Zucker had 4g, 5a, 9pts, 67pt pace. The last 27gp he's had 6g, 5a, 11pts, 33pt pace.
