What a difference a change of scenery can make.
Take Trevor Daley for example: It was November when his name really started circulating through the trade rumor mill while he was with the Chicago Blackhawks, the team that acquired him from Dallas in the Patrick Sharp deal last summer.
In 29 games with Chicago, Daley failed to score a goal. He had six points.
“You went from a situation in Dallas where you were getting a lot of minutes and playing in those situations to suddenly not getting them [in Chicago], and for me to say I didn’t lose confidence? I lost a lot of confidence,” he recently told Pierre LeBrun of ESPN.
Things changed for the better for Daley, when he was traded to Pittsburgh for Rob Scuderi.
Since then, his offensive totals from the blue line have increased substantially.
He has scored six goals with 18 points in 43 games. He’s averaging more than 19 minutes per game in Pittsburgh, compared to the 14:45 of average ice time he received in Chicago.
And the Penguins, winners of six straight and eight of their last 10, have worked their way into third in the Metropolitan Division with the playoffs approaching. A case of peaking at the right time, perhaps?
“When I got to Pittsburgh, I think I came into a good situation with the coaching chance and everybody looking for a fresh start,” Daley told ESPN.