The Cozens Conundrum, 2024-25

[triumph_communes]

If we had an average PP right now everyone would be overjoyed with our progress

 

Cozens ain’t right since that fight gave him a concussion. No idea if he ever recovers. Sometimes concussions just screw you royally 

[mjd1001]

7 minutes ago, JohnC said:

I respectfully but strenuously disagree with the comparison where you put Risto in the same class as Cozens from a player and contract standpoint. Cozens is somewhat struggling and not producing offensive stats. But the effort and willingness to go to the dirty/tough areas is apparent. My suspicion is that he might be better suited as a winger. In the International Tournaments he has thrived on the wing against high end competition. That's one of my arguments why the Mitts trade was a bad deal for us. I thought putting Cozens on Quinn on the wings with Mitts centering made a lot of sense. 

I strongly recommend being a little more patient with him and even Quinn. The player that has perplexed me is Dahlin. He's simply not the same player that he was under Granato. Right now, it seems as if he is resorting back to the Krueger era being tied to a system instead of allowing his copious talent to take over. Maybe it is too much thinking and not enough free flowing???

The above bolded is exactly what Risto did too. He just went to those areas at the wrong times.  Like the forearm Cozens threw last night. He's willing to do that, but by doing so he took himself out of the play.

And as far as international tournaments, as stated above (or in another thread), in those tournaments the opposing teams (and his team) is slapped together, the guys don't really practice close to as much in the NHL, and there is significantly less scouting and system installs.  Its not "pond hockey" but it is closer to it the the NHL, and you don't get punished as much for playing a 'looser' style of hockey. Cozens thrives off of that 'loose' style. His one good year so far was the ONLY year where his coach openly said "go after it, score goals, we'll worry about defense later".

Again, Cozens could score 2 goals tonight and that puts him back on pace for 25+ for the year. Offense comes in bunches with a lot of players, I get that.  My biggest problem with him is just how bad he is away from the puck. I'm not an NHL coach, but in watching thousands of hockey games over my life, I have not seen a professional forward make as many mistakes, as many bad decisions without the puck as him.  I'm being serious there. I can't. And that concerns me because he is doing it a lot this year. He did it as a rookie, he did it last year, he has done it his entire career and I see very little sign of even a slight positive evolution in his game.

I want him to be better. I want him to start scoring obviously. I don't have a 'vendetta' against him because I want him to fail so my posts about him can be proven correct. If he ends up scoring 25-30 goals this year I'll be more than happy to have someone look up my negative posts about him and call me out. But I don't see it. I see a guy who is closing on 300 NHL games, going to be 24 years old soon and in his 5th year, with a LOT of prime ice time, and I don't know how much of a chance he has to get better than what he is now.

2 minutes ago, triumph_communes said:

If we had an average PP right now everyone would be overjoyed with our progress

 

Cozens ain’t right since that fight gave him a concussion. No idea if he ever recovers. Sometimes concussions just screw you royally 

The thing is, EVERY part of his game is the same as it was before the fight. He is getting the same number of shots (actually more). He is getting shots from the same part of the ice overall. Close to the same number of quality scoring chances.  Its just he's not scoring anymore.  His shooting percentage, on basically the same quality of shots, is less than half now after the fight than it was in the full season before. 

If it was lingering impacts from the fight, I can't square the circle of how it appears to have impacted no other part of his game other than his ability to put the puck in the net, his accuracy.