About Bertuzzi
Nobody is happy about Todd Bertuzzi's lack of offensive production, nobody moreso than Bertuzzi himself. He's only got nine points (3 goals, 6 assists) and he's a minus-5.
The worrisome part is that he's gone from getting a ton of chances to hardly getting any at all. That shouldn't happen when you are playing on a line with Pavel Datsyuk.
Too often, it seems to me, Bertuzzi is out there skating around on the perimeter of things instead of going into the dirty areas. Mike Babcock has been on him all season to play big, to be hard on the puck and get to the net. He's doing that less and less lately.
But it's not for a lack of caring. He was the first one on the ice this morning for the optional skate. He was working with assistant coach Paul MacLean for about 15 minutes before anybody else got on the ice. It looked like MacLean was showing him various angles of attack around the net -- telling him, I think, to find more direct and disrupting routes to the crease.
He's still got some life in his legs, he's still a powerful force when he applies himself. He looks to me right now, though, like a guy fighting his confidence. Like Babcock said the other day, "Bert is a guy who needs to score to feel good about himself." He needs start feeling good about himself soon -- the team needs him to start feeling good about himself soon.
Comments
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About Bertuzzi
Hope so Bob... I have declined to bash Bert. I've been thinking the same thing. They gotta start going in for him sooner or later.
About Bertuzzi
He'll come out of it, all of a sudden he'll start burying the chances he gets and as he does that, his confidence will increase!
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