Guys I agree
It isn't just Kempny I'm worried about from an injury recovery standpoint, but Oshie too. Concussions are a dangerous thing, and Oshie might very well never be the same or even decide to call it quits if he gets another concussion.
In the meantime, I'm looking for...
1) Kuzy to have a bounceback season. He's not a bad player at all. He's good and a guy who a lot of teams would love to have. But last season his play took a dive. He didn't have the magic he once had, he sucked at faceoffs, and all too often he tried to dance through 5 defenders like a complete retard, often resulting in us losing possession. Who knew? We all know how important strength down the middle is. He's getting paid big bucks as our 1C. He's got to step up because Backy is getting older and slower.
2) Carlson and Orlov to play at a level we expect out of them and their contracts. Like Kuzy, neither of these guys are bad, but the fucked up plays and mental breakdowns they make are infuriating when you look at what we expect out of them and what we pay them. Carlson needs to get his head out of his ass and realize that yes, making $8 million a year means he better take an hour after each practice to perfect those one-timer passes to Ovi so they hit the wheelhouse 100% of the time.
3) Panik to fill Connolly's shoes. Conno was solid and scored way more than I would have expected for a guy in his role. His loss will definitely hurt, and it's up to Panik to replace a good deal of that scoring. Bad news is that he's a few years removed from his last 20+ goal season. Good news is he played his last few seasons with the garbage Coyotes.
4) Hagelin to continue providing the skills we acquired him for. Hagelin's supposed to be fast and good on the PK, plus he should be able to chip in offensively. But the guy is on the wrong side of 30 and we just signed him to a 4 year contract. We need at least 2-3 good years out of him to not feel like we made a mistake. If he starts the season being a slow defensive liability, I'm going to be concerned.
5) Gudas to be a physical defensive defenseman while not taking too many dumb penalties. That's all we can really expect out of him I guess.
6) Holtby to step the fuck up. Guy has been slipping ever since Mitch Korn left. True goalie whisperer that guy is.
7) Us to get some clarity on the Vanacek/Samsonov situation. Holtby will probably not play well enough to justify the $10 million a year he'll probably ask for. We need a backup in place, and I don't think Copley will be our #1
Hey Zero!
Lots of good points to consider in your post.
I certainly agree with the majority of your observations, but have a different take on a few of the points.
There is no doubt that we need Kuzy to bounce back from last seasons performance. I’m not optimistic that he will, at all. His OWN WORDS have helped us to understand more of what had been a bit of mystique, surrounding the WHYS of his declining performance.
He ACTUALLY said, (confessed accidentally, IMHO), that he “loses his motivation”, to play sometimes, during the regular season grind. It gets a little “boring”, for him!
He added that he had “hoped”, during some of these boredom spells, that “some of the boys” would help pick up the slack, to cover the voids left, created by his resulting lesser performances.
Now, I’ve partly paraphrased here, except for the quoted words, but the media articles,(very few of them), that commented on his post season, and exit interview comments, will easily verify the substance of what he said and meant!
Mind you, Kuzy made NO apology, not even the appearance of feeling any trace of disappointment in himself, when uttering his comments to the press! Made no indications that he thought this was a bad characteristic to have. On the contrary, he spoke quite matter-of-factly about it, as if he regards it as something that just comes with the territory, nothing to see here, let’s move on, type of attitude.
To me, this really says SO MUCH more about his real attitude towards playing here, about his character, and how he couldn’t give a flying fuck what we, the fans, or anybody else thinks about it!
Bottom line, (again IMHO, only), is that he is the Russian version of a pampered, and extremely spoiled, and entitled, millennial youngster, who happens to be blessed with the rare, and unique, talents of a potential NHL superstar!
Who just may end up joining the ranks of those shameful, “coulda beens”, had they been able to pull their heads out of their gifted asses, long enough to realize that their existence, in the NHL, alone, doesn’t make excellence, rather, disipline, hard work, and professionalism, go hand in hand, and can produce REAL excellence in the NHL!
Mr Kuznetsov should simply just ask his Russian mentor, Ovechkin. You practice right alongside of him!
Forgive me Zero, I got a little carried away!
Rush
