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Top Forward
- Joined
- Sep 2, 2011
- Messages
- 4,907
i agree, but i think the difference is that Q seems to have fully bought in, and he simply has a better skill set for doing the things they asked him to do on the 1st line. You already have a great center and shooter with Kempe. They asked Byfield to keep working on his all around game by getting in first on the puck, battling along the boards, and making that first pass. And, no disrespect to Arthur, but Q's physical abilities give him quite a bit of advantage in all of those areas.The key to developing a guy like Kaliyev is you need to set him up for success. I mean Q has had a sh*tload of time and been shown tremendous patience to be let loose playing with Kempe and Kopi. Does anyone really think he'd be where he is right now had he spent all his time with Lizotte and Lemieux? The Kings had Q and Kaliyev though and for the sake of the franchise they picked the right guy to play on the first line and invest all that time into. No telling if it wouldn't have been better for Kaliyev to play in the A pounding one timers with Tynan but probably the answer is that it's confusing to a youngster to give em 4th line minutes and PP time.
What does AK bring to the Kopitar line when you already have Kempe doing the same thing, but better?
I think what Kaliyev needs, is a rebuilding team that can afford to put him with top players AND have lower expectations while they rebuild. Q brought something to the table being pushed up to that first line. AK is a detriment. He doesn't have the speed to get in first on the puck, which means Kempe has to do that. Which, in turn, takes him out of a shooter role. And while it may be somewhat confusing, i can see the other side of it... If teh Kings say, "play 4th line, work on those aspects of your game, but were also giving you pp time so you can do what you do best." That does make sense to me.