So I spent this morning trying to figure out what old Willie meant here. To add some context, here is what he said about Kings forward Ilya Kovalchuk.
“When you’ve always been a top two line guy, for sure, all of a sudden somebody puts you on the fourth line, it’s going to be hard for him to find his game. So it’s not fair to him in some ways either, I’m making him play to his weaknesses… “
So let us try and figure out what “Play to his weaknesses” means with a quick Google search.
So I think Willie read the wrong motivational book. Ilya Kovalchuk came back to the States this year and is second for the lead in points on an abysmal, older Kings group. The other night he was benched for the third period and played around 6 minutes and 20 seconds total. Theres nothing like inspiring a 35 year old Russian superstar who has been known to leave a team when he wants by gluing him to the bench and letting him “play to his weaknesses”. People are wondering why the Kings are a joke this year and along with goaltending, I’m going to go out on a limb and saying the coaching change may not have put the team in the best situation to win. Unless GM Rob Blake is letting his organization play to their weaknesses. See what I did there?
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