Milan Lucic not fight enough
moncler jackets outlet The other day my colleague Bruce McCurdy was joking with moncler outlet sale me about the number of posts I written on the troubles and turmoil around Milan Lucic. McCurdy suggested it was something like 27, Lucic number. moncler jackets outlet
In fact, the number is 11 posts with Lucic in the headline, which is indeed a lot.
moncler outlet sale That said, I make no moncler outlet store apologies. I been fascinated by a number of major mysteries around Lucic, first whether or not he be traded and for what, second, just what went wrong with Lucic in the second half of the 2017 18 seasons when he scored just one goal moncler outlet in 46 games. moncler outlet sale
moncler sale outlet That an cheap moncler awful slump for any player, but especially for one making $6 million per and taking regular shifts with Connor McDavid buy moncler jackets and Leon Draisaitl. moncler sale outlet
cheap moncler outlet For readers tired of this line of inquiry, I can assure you I almost done. In fact, I think I close to having a final theory on why Lucic slumped so badly, and I going to write about that tomorrow after I dig into some video a bit more deeply. cheap moncler outlet
moncler jacket sale Today, I going to address one more bit of scuttlebutt about Lucic, that his levels of compete and effort dropped off in the second half of the season, that he didn work as hard and certainly didn fight as much and that why he slumped. This notion places cheap moncler coats the blame squarely on Lucic and in somewhat unflattering terms, as the least you could expect from a 28 year old veteran is for him to hustle. moncler jacket sale
I heard this notion bubbling up from both Oilers insiders and from fans, but it not something I believe to be true. Outside of displaying the hockey sin of Bad Body Language a few times, especially after he failed to score on near open nets, I saw no drop off in Lucic hustle. tthis is borne out in at least one key indicator, his hit moncler sale outlet totals.
He didn’t fight much, but he never doesWhat is one clear way we can tell if a power forward is powering, if a physical forward is physical ing?
cheap moncler jackets sale We could indeed look at how much he fights, but Lucic is a player who fights so little that that misleading. Yes, he only got into one fight in his final 46 games, but he only got into four fights all year. Those four fights aren out of line with what we expect from Lucic, an aging brawler. cheap moncler jackets sale
moncler outlet Brawlers tend to drop off in their frequency of fighting as they hit ages 28, 29 and move into their 30s. I found 18 players who are similar to Lucic, who has the unique combination of being both a hitter, a brawler and a player with some skill (though not ultra elite skill). Such players are rare birds indeed. moncler outlet
moncler sale For example, Gary Roberts had 16 fights as a rookie but was down to a few fights per year as a mature vet, just one fight when he was 28 https://www.kinkhost.com , two when he was 29, three when he was 31, up to eight when he was 32, and back down to two when he was 33. moncler sale
moncler outlet store Scott Mellanby had 13 fights one year as a younger NHLer but had cheap moncler jackets just four or five each year as a mature vet. moncler outlet store
The same goes with Lucic. He had 13 moncler mens jackets fights as a rookie, but settled down after that and had 13 fights as a 19 year old rookie, ten fights as a sophomore Cheap Moncler Jackets , but just four fights in his third season. Since that time he had between three and seven fights each year. His total of four fights last year is exactly what you expect from him, It nothing be alarmed about. It nothing to suggest he wasn hustling or wasn trying.
moncler outlet jackets If not fighting, how about hitting?If you want to rate a power forward hustle and physicality, I going to suggest a moncler outlet online better count to focus on is hit totals. If a big man like Lucic is hitting, it a sign he in the game, involved in the play, trying to make his mark. moncler outlet jackets
moncler outlet uk As a rookie, Lucic averaged just 2.4 hits per game, but as his playing time increased (going from 12 to 15 minutes per game), he got that up to 3.6 hits per game in his second season. In his last six seasons, cheap moncler sale Lucic has averaged about three hits per game and that about what he got last year, 254 hits in 82 games, 3.1 hits per game. moncler outlet uk
cheap moncler But what about during his slump? Well, in those 46 games he had 147 hits, 3.2 per game. So he was out there flattening opposing players and taking the man as much as ever. cheap moncler
cheap moncler jackets Of course, there are other ways cheap moncler outlet to measure hustle. How hard does a player forecheck and backcheck? How quickly does he bust his butt to get off the ice? How hard does he monlcer down jackets fight in front of the net and to protect the puck? How quickly does he close on his man in the defensive zone? I would say Lucic was lacking in defensive intensity too often in 2017 18, but I don believe that problem came on during his 46 game slump. It was there all year. It a feature of game he have to pay more attention to as he ages and becomes less of a physical force and relies more on his reading of the game. cheap moncler jackets
cheap moncler coats In the end, I don think a lack of hustle was Lucic main issue during that 46 game slump. cheap moncler coats
Yes, he could have been a more focused defender, but that more of an ongoing issue than anything that came up during the slump.
moncler outlet online Instead, my own theory is that Lucic suffered from a major drop in confidence during that slump, but I explain and expand on that notion in my final post in this Lucic series tomorrow moncler outlet online.