It's rare for us to comment on this kind of issue, especially since it's probably not intentional, but this time it's quite evident.
On the power play, Juraj Slafkovsky is often able to position himself well, but the pass from Matheson doesn't seem to come to him. A sequence from the game against the Penguins is circulating on the web, and people are starting to ask questions.
Is it that Slaf doesn't shoot enough, and Matheson has cooled off, no longer making passes to him? This has happened several times. After all, it's the quarterback's role to assess the game well and feed his teammates. It all starts from there.
In this sequence, Juraj could easily have scored a goal or at least created a scoring opportunity, but Matheson decided to shoot.
We understand that Suzuki and Caufield might be more popular options, or even the shot when there's heavy traffic, but in this case (and many others), the right play was to pass to Slaf.
We don't really believe there's a quarrel between the two, but there's certainly a lack of communication. Is Matheson truly a playmaker for the power play? Could the arrival of Lane Hutson change everything?
