Quoting: Wildwinswhen
Two different seasons. We have 13 postseason games and he vanishes
Not going to try to convince you Fiala has been good, just gonna add a little extra context.
In 2019-20, Fiala was our best playoff player on a line with Eric Staal.
In 2020-21, Fiala played with Hartman and Johansson, so is it any wonder he didn't produce?
In 2021-22, Fiala played with Boldy and Gaudreau. Gaudreau disappeared even harder than Fiala did, and Boldy LOOKED like a rookie out there.
So we didn't learn anything new that we didn't already know. The only difference is in the playoffs we seem to shift the blame from Guerin and Evason not putting him in a position to succeed, to Fiala. Despite the fact that nothing really changed.
Looking at those seasons statistically from a team perspective, the only guys in the last three years that have outscored Fiala in the playoffs are Spurgeon and Kaprizov. Notably, Zuccarello has one single goal in his three playoff runs here, and less points than Fiala does. And he's the one attached to Kaprizov.
Fiala needs to be better going forward in the playoffs, but we as a fanbase need to stop pretending Fiala is exceedingly bad. He is constantly used as a scapegoat by media (namely Russo) and fans (especially on Twitter, yes I realize it's a cesspool). It's tired and played out.
It is not a tale of two different seasons or players. It is the same player with the same flaws we already knew about. It's not the reason we're losing. If you're looking for the reason we're losing, look at the GM who constructed this roster and the coach who's in charge of deploying it every game.
Fiala will get traded, most likely to a team that recognizes that in order to get the best out of your players, you need to give them something to work with. And he'll continue scoring in the regular season, and he'll produce in the playoffs too with a competent GM and coach.