It's well established that I can't stand Skoula. He makes mistakes that cost us goals or momentum at critical times, he doesn't score enough to justify his salary, and he isn't strong enough or consistent enough defensively to justify same.
I watched him when he came up with Colorado (I lived in Denver from 97-01) and he was maddeningly inconsistent then. But while you can give a rookie a pass for inconsistency, you can't do that for a guy that's been in the league as long as he has.
The only thing that gives me pause in my distrust of him is that JL seems to love him so much. Clearly I couldn't hold JL's jock when it comes to really anything about hockey, so the fact that he seems to have so much faith in Skoula is a little discomfiting to me.
PMB is a different case. My issue with PMB is that he's entirely one-dimensional, and he's small. Actually, his slight stature isn't the problem. If he was Theo Fleury it wouldn't be a problem. It's his apparent fear of contact COMBINED with his slight stature that's the issue. He's simply not a threat to shoot. He's fast, and that's a good thing. But how many times do we see him bust in on the rush ahead of everyone, realize that he's all alone in the offensive zone and wimp out and circle outside somewhere in the vicinity of the dots and look for a pass? Way too often.
To mark him your priorities are simple:
1. Try to make contact with him. Any kind of contact will do.
2. If #1 is unsuccessful, just play him to pass the puck.
I would like to see PMB dangled as trade bait while he's still young enough to be tagged with the "big time potential" label.
NiNY
1 comment:
Skoula is awful. I can say that quite comfortably, even though I've only seen him play for like a month. Stupid school being in hockey hell.
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