Ryan Poehling: tools without a trunk
The Montreal Canadiens passed the blade on Wednesday, cutting Michael Pezzetta and Rafaël Harvey-Pinard, among others. Meanwhile, Ryan Poehling was watching from afar, as he is taking advantage of his status as first baseman to still be with the team at the time of writing this post. He should certainly start the season with the team, although he is still searching for his identity as an NHL player.
As Maxim Lapierre mentioned on 98.5, Poehling has a ton of tools, but he doesn't have the vault that comes with them:
"It has to start with him. He has to find his identity. What he wants to bring to the Montreal Canadiens. When you see him on the ice, you don't know what's going on in his head. You don't think that Poehling has decided to shuffle tonight or that he wants to skate with the puck or that he wants to get in front of the net. You have no idea what his identity is. We see the tools, but as we often say, the rest is missing!" said Lapierre.
In reality, Poehling, who had a very disappointing camp with no energy, is still with the team because of his status: a former first round pick. Last season allowed him to fill up his confidence tank, but that well-filled facet hasn't shown up so far. He needs to find a way to impress us, so that the criticism of him stops...
