Quote:
Originally Posted by Vagrant
He's still doing the same things wrong as he did the first time he ever played a game in this uniform. He watches too much. He's not proactive. I honestly think that the physicality of the NHL has him scared. Guys take more runs at him than they do any other forward on our roster when he's active and it must be because they sense his timidity. If he had ANY bite to his game in regards to defending himself, that confidence would spread into all three zones. The book is out on Boychuk that if you put a body on him, he WILL go away. We've seen it too much already. It's time to cut bait on this one.
And for a player that was drafted on the strength of his hands, those have gone backwards too. I think it's a direct product of the fear of getting hit. He feels perpetually rushed out there from the looks of him.
He's just not an NHL player in my estimation. You can't even play on the bottom lines when you play like a perimeter scorer down there. He's going to have to get his hands dirty and totally change his style in order to find some success.
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This sounds about right.
Boychuk seems like he wants results without effort. When it doesn't happen, he gives up and goes
invisible and ends up getting benched from it. We don't need a player like that anywhere near this team at this time. When you start a game on a line with 2nd half Eric Staal, you need to show that you can feed off his energy and channel it into some physical play and offensive success.
With that lack of offensive/physical ability, Boychuk is useless. It's a simple as that. Once he loses his chance on the top line or second line, there's no reason for him to be here. He cannot keep up to play defense against an NHL-quality offense on Sutter's line. He is wasted on the fourth line. There's nowhere for him to fit with his soft, uninspired, defensively-lacking play.
