Lafreniere and Zibanejad have consistently been two of the most important players on the team this year and people cant continue to undervalue them. The amount of shit Lafreniere got last night for not finishing 1 hard pass is incredible, hes been the most noticeable forward besides Panarin the past few weeks and people will still say “bust” and “cant finish”..?? Zibanejad had 20 points in the prior 10 games before this recent 10 game stretch in which he has played suprisingly good defense on his line. Calling to trade them and saying we wont win with Mika as our 1C is extremely unrationable and not fair to say. Its a bad stretch and every team and player endures them. We know theyre good and thats probably why the frustration around them is so big. What are your guys’ thoughts?
by kravdangle
15 Comments
Mika looks awful, but at least he’s putting up numbers
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Laf is back to his usual self of not scoring
Both of them have been disappointing in their own ways, but I agree they are 100% not to blame as of lately.
This team as a whole has some sort of mentality issue. The fact they consistently give up 2 goals back to back in a matter of a minute or two says to me this team immediately feels snakebit after getting scored on – and that’s including Igor.
5v5 wins play off games – full stop. No one will argue or debate that. Mika is a special teams guy. He has (5) 5v5 goals in 46 games this season.
Eichel (a cup winning 1C) had (20) 5v5 goals in 67 regular season games last year. If you do the like-for-like math that means Mika has 36% of (mathematically) the offensive goal scoring productivity of a cup winning 1C.
I do not care about his special teams production when that is not what wins in the playoffs. He simply needs to be better.
Just to reiterate the point, Eichel’s 5v5 goal differential in 67 games was 21. Mika’s through 46 games is 3. Like-for-like math, Eichel’s differential was 4.8x TIMES better than Mika.
We need to expect more, and we deserve more 5v5 from our 1C.
Love these 2
Mika is just a shell of himself this year. Hopefully he can reset after the all star break
Laf, for better or worse, has the 1OA chain attached to him. He’s not overpaid by any means. Just a huge disappointment given his scouting report and draft position.
Mika March can’t come soon enough
Can we not compare a 21 year old player to a 30 year old player?
I think if Laf had showed us this level of play in his rookie year, the amount of hype we would be experiencing would be through the roof.
He’s a physical, strong, skilled puck handler, who also has a solid shot, isn’t soft around the net, and can produce at even strength which a lot of the team seems allergic to.
I think we might wanna chalk a lot of his stalled development to the pandemic and poor utilization.
Byfield had similar struggles from that draft class and aside from byfield being significantly more injured, they’re both breaking out now while being used significantly more.
Mika I’m not touching right now. He goes through cold streaks, but he’s looked bad for a few weeks now and that’s not good unless he somehow goes on an insane heater soon.
Mika looks hurt tbh. He’s shown no speed at all, super weird
Im fine with Mika being a very good defensive 1C who is streaky offensively. What that means is we need more scoring punch down the lineup and defenders who don’t turn the puck over 2 feet away from the goaltender to undermine his work.
Maybe chytl comes back and makes the 3rd line dynamic, but we can’t count on him. We need to add some pop, laf to find the back of the net, and ship Miller off for a defender with realized potential, not just tantalizing measurables.
I love laf but him not finishing isn’t just a narrative people choose to buy into. He’s ranked the 3rd worst forward when it comes to expected goals vs actual goals in high scoring opportunities
Laf is a bust. 1OA players aren’t drafted to be average players who are noticeable every now and then.
Mika is this teams. Mike Gartner He’s gotta go.
Laff is like the dumb kid who is constantly fucking up and everyone thinks he’s cute till that shit gets tired. Dude has at least 2 GLORIOUS chances every game and he never can finish them. Its not fucking cute anymore. He just does not have the skill. He plays on a line with 2 guys who are absolute monsters and where is he??? Oh, found him…Wide right
Mika is definitely playing below his potential and it’s concerning. Laf is fine and it’s really strange how quickly people go from praising how good he looks this season to all of a sudden he’s awful because he missed a shot on a hard pass last night
This fanbase wants 82-0 or blow up the entire organization. There is no middle ground.