Lots of quotes from Staal since he signed up here about how his lack of production was basically because he was extremely unmotivated in Carolina because of the low budget of the team and the repeated losing seasons. Lots of assurances that he is going to play better in Minnesota.
You've seen him more than me. Any chance that's true?
I was a little taken aback by his comments, and based on what I saw of Francis responding to Staal's comments, he seemed taken aback as well. Frankly, it reeks of saltiness.
Here's my opinion on Eric:
- He followed Brind'Amour and Francis as the previous Captains. Huge shoes to fill. And to add to the pressure, both Rod and Ron stayed with the organization. Rod won a Cup. Ron went to the Cup Finals. While Eric was on the Cup-winning team, the expectations from the fanbase were pretty high for him to repeat what his predecessors had accomplished as Captain. Personally, Eric wasn't ready for that. He came to the Captaincy young and wasn't the same kind of leader as Rod and Ron were.
- Staal's production from the year he took over the Captaincy (2010-11) declined fairly dramatically (76-70-53 (strike-shortened season where he was better than a point per game)-61-54-39 (33 in CAR, 6 in NYR)). My opinion? He's not a guy who does well in the spotlight. Much better player when the focus was on someone else. Even in NY, he was expected to be a guy who could push them to the next level.
- There was always trouble finding someone to play alongside him. JR brought back Cole at one point because the two had some chemistry. But honestly, the number of players who rotated through the lineup to play alongside him was amazing. He even struggled to be productive with his brother on the same line.
- Now, I'm not saying there was anything specific about Staal and Skinner. Nothing ever came out in the press or anything. But to me, there was
something going on. Skinner came to CAR and was immediately the darling of the team. Scrappy. Young. Popular as fuck. I think Staal was jealous. Seriously. I don't think the two of them got along. They tried to throw them on the same line together and it didn't work. In fact, for the couple of weeks after Staal was traded, Skinner was on fire.
- Injuries. For a while Staal was an iron man, playing every game. But for the past few years he has missed game here and there. He obviously took that knee-on-knee shot in the Worlds a couple years ago. He also takes a brutal pounding for all that possession he maintains in the corners. It has affected his speed.
- I can agree with the comment about being uninspired. He looked lazy as fuck at times. If an offensive rush didn't work out, he'd skate to the bench instead of helping with the back-check.
I was quite happy to see him go and wasn't surprised he flopped in New York. I honestly hope he can get back to where he was (both in his head and in his game) when he was younger, but that was a while ago now, and there may be too much in his head to allow him to do that. While the team has certainly struggled to put a contending team on the ice, this past season there was quite a bit to be excited about with the younger guys playing so well, and yet in that situation Staal had the worst year of his career.