Seguin had an interesting playoffs this year. Even with his contract the kid couldn't buy a goal, but at the same time his defensive game has never looked better. He was hustling to get back on plays and backchecking. He also had second most shots for the Bruins. But, of course, he's supposed to be a franchise player for the Bruins. A high goal scorer. He should be doing at least as well as Kessel was at three years in and he's constantly being compared to Stamkos.
“He’s got to commit his mind and focus to the one task at hand. He’s got to become more of a professional. You know what? I can say that about a lot of 21-year-olds. I know he got criticized for playing on the periphery and all that stuff. He did. He’s got to commit to being a professional and focusing on the game. Simple as that. He does that, we don’t expect him to be crashing and banging. Just play your game.
"I hope it does. If it doesn’t, I’d be more concerned. We gave Tyler a big contract because he projects and he had good performance. I would expect that going forward.”
Seguin's name was tossed around as potential trade bait this weekend. Chiarelli said he needed premium a young player or prospect as the centerpiece. Apparently it didn't happen. If true, that should be a huge wake-up call for Seguin.
Tyler's always been known as a hard worker during on/off-ice workouts, so we're assuming this "be a professional" is probably social life related. If that's the case, Boston's gotta take some of the blame, too. You give a 19 year old millions of dollars and just let him run around without any solid supervision and you gotta expect maybe a bit too much partying from him. It's pretty much what everyone that age did, does and will do, and most of us are dirt poor.
It's interesting to think how the social life was affecting his play when you consider his defensive skill set improved and he had second most shots during the playoffs for Boston.
The bitchslapping isn't totally unexpected giving Seguin's performance this year, but it's uncommon to see anyone in the Bruins organization come out and call a player out by name. There were plenty of guys who didn't pull their weight — aka the two stiffs Seguin played with in the playoffs — but more is expected from Seguin. The 2013-2014 is a make or break season for Seguin. Especially with Horton unofficial gonzo. Hopefully he doesn't wilt under the pressure.
The maturity and professionalism has already started. Seguin approached his coaching staff during the playoffs to figure out what's going on wrong and what to do better. He's also completely bought into Julien's defense-first system. From CSNNE:
“It’s been a big learning curve and I’ve learned a lot about myself with trying to compete in an all-around game, and working on different things besides obviously scoring goals, and setting up players and getting points. I think I’ve improved on my game in other areas, competing with battles and working in my own zone.
So I want to keep going with that stuff, and it will definitely give me more confidence in those areas. Sometimes I would be looking at the game sheet and say ‘I had seven, eight shots tonight it was a good game,’ and then there was a time when it was ‘I had two shots tonight but I played a much better all-around game,’ I never really thought about that to myself before these playoffs. So I think that’s one thing I learned. I was disappointed [with his individual playoff performance], and will definitely get a lot better as next year approaches. I want to have an incredible off-season.
[I plan on] getting stronger and I definitely want to work on my conditioning, as well. I felt that as the later parts of the year went on and in the playoffs, I could have probably had even better conditioning. [To just] not get tired or anything like that. I think every year you have something that you’re focusing on. For me I think it’s about putting on more muscle and getting stronger, and trying to fill out my body – that sounded funny, I want to continue hitting puberty – but yeah, I’m excited for it.”
Do it, Seguin.
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