Has anyone thought about why certain players don’t appear at their best?
Take Linglet for example; phenomenal season last year but appears nowhere near this year. What has changed? Well quite a bit - his line mates. This year he is with Joey Haddad rather than Hedden, which technically should be a good thing for Linglet as Hedden wasn’t great but he was the main puck possession guy on that line. This year he isn’t - Joey Haddad is, who is having his best ever season for us. They both can’t have the puck all the time, I just don’t think it’s good for Linglet playing with Joey. But, it is probably good for the team.
We shouldn’t scrutinise individual players too much if the team is getting it done. Now we are playing 4 lines and the game is more technical than it was a few years ago, we have no idea what players are being told to do or roles to play. Years ago it was easy, first line were all scoring threats, second a mixture of physicality and secondary scoring, third a checking line. We now have one checking line and three other lines who’s role both as a line and individually changes depending on the opposition.