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Jiri Dopita scored 4 goals yesterday- admittedly against the Atlanta Thrashers- nonetheless his season may be facing a huge turnaround for the better as his Philadelphia Flyers begin their ascendency to the top. One probably shouldn’t read too much into it though: wait and see if things continue this way for Dopita.
However one of the proven superstars of this league has started to come out of his shell now that we are in the second half of the season…and no, it’s not Pavel Bure, John LeClair, or Jaromir Jagr: I’m talking about St. Louis Blues defenceman Chris Pronger.
Yesterday, against a quality and contending San Jose Sharks lineup, Pronger posted a goal and three assists, coming off his quite ordinary (by his standards) first half of the campaign. It begets the question: why? Has fellow blueliner Al MacInnis just been outplaying his teammate, notching all those early season goals and helpers, or has it just been that only now in this season is Pronger once again showing what he is capable of?
I think his input and quality production is very important for the team, not just because he is putting numbers on the board, but because he is leading by example, and we’ve seen now that when he plays well, St Louis does well.
A comfortable result yesterday against the Sharks may be a good sign of a pending improvement and potential consistency for the (at this point) underachieving Blues.