wprager wrote:I never said "garbage" -- that was you. Michale looked better but hardly fantastic. Still couldn't score. And his skating getting to the 2-years-ago level was very, very recent. And even while he's been skating better he's still finding it hard to score -- it'll come, it's just taking time.
I disagree with the comment "No one is going to make Spezza a better player". Very early on in the season I noted how much time Turris/MacArthur were spending with Karlsson on the ice, versus Spezza. That's been rectified with electric results. Karlsson loves playing with Spezza -- they definitely have chemistry. That's as close as getting "a winger" for Spezza as we've come. Michalek coming around will help as well. And if they keep playing Zibanejad there, then you will see much better stats from Spezza's line.
I'm not going to sit here and pretend Michalek is earning his money because he isn't... that said with Zibenajad at least you could look at his game and say "yah, I'll take that if he isn't scoring 25-30 goals". They had the puck, cycled it well in the offensive zone, and controlled large portions of the play and weren't caught in their own zone the whole shift, every shift.
Spezza and Karlsson can look great together and score some highlight reel goals on a regular basis, no argument here. It's awesome to watch. The thing is in hockey they don't ask "how?" they ask "how many?". What good is a highlight reel goal if the other team scored 2 garbage ones because of guys (Spezza) not being hard on the backcheck or in his own zone. Sure, the goals they score look great but it's all for not if they can't figure out how to stop the other team from scoring more goals.
Point is no one other than a defensively reliable winger is going to help Spezza look or play better 5 on 5. He's either going to struggle to produce offensively or be a defensive liability... there's no middle ground, something will suffer be it his production or time in his own zone.
Everything right now is done in the hope Spezza turns it around, everything done is to for him. Moving Zibanejad to the wing despite the fact he's way better up the middle... done for Spezza. Going out and finding a winger and the cost of youth who might not resign... done for Spezza. Every decision being made at this point is done for Spezza when it's crystal clear he doesn't have the ability to play the 200 foot system that every other player buys into. I don't question his effort because I think he tries, he just doesn't have the ability to lead a team or the physical ability to play hard for 60 mins on every inch of that ice. He also makes it tough on the D.