Interesting to see him light up the worlds.
Fucking Kubalik.
Someone's gotta explain this guy to me.
I know, I know, IQ, whatever
But this guy scores 30 goals as an older rookie.
26 at ES.
His production drops in the shortened season.
His icetime drops the next year - but his production is down.
Comes to Detroit and scores 9-12-21 in 18 games. Jesus.,
5 ES goals and 4 PP goals in 16:19.
He has a bit of a slump with 2 assists in five games, and then he goes -2 to Vegas and after that he's chopped in icetime.
He averages 13:13 the rest of the way and produces Hawks like numbers...
10-10-20 in 56 games.
Which I don't really get.
Why did Lalonde lose patience with him?
David Perron 24-32-56 in 16:55
Dominik Kubalik 20-25-45 in 14:55
Perron rescued his numbers with 8-4-12 in his last 10 games, or he'd have had Kubalik numbers in much better TOI.
Kubalik wasn't an awful player away from the puck. He's certainly no worse than Perron, who's a liability on the ice half the time.
Kubalik isn't a heavy hitter, but he finishes his checks. He battles for pucks. He's not a great skater or anything. He makes some bad reads from time to time.
I'm just kind of shocked at how quickly Lalonde abandoned Kubalik after that start he had.
Midway through that Dec. 3 game Kubalik was removed from the Larkin line and replaced with Raymond. Kubalik played on a line with Rasmussen and Suter - a line that was destined to fail.
But a line that still outproduced the Perron-:arkin-Raymond line.
It felt like the team just viewed Kubalik as a flukey scorer - they rode his hot streak and then dumped him down the lineup.
Whatever it is with Kubalik - the man can shoot the puck. It doesn't look pretty all the time. He doesn't go down to one knee like Brett Hull and score with style. But he's got a rocket.
Later in the year, with nobody able to awaken Raymond at 5 on 5, Kubalik was returned to the line and he helped Larkin on Perron to strong finishes.
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