from Joe Haggerty of CSNNE,

Lucic started the season like a house on fire with anger and purpose while answering critics who said he was out of shape after not skating regularly during the 119-day day NHL lockout. He had eight points (3 goals, 5 assists) in his first 11 games, and sufficiently quieted those Looch naysayers with his strong, energetic play.

He clearly looked like he was ready to go.

Since that emotional start, there was been little more than a whimper out of No. 17’s game. He has one goal since Feb. 12, and three shots on net in his past three games show that the offensive chances have dried up along with the consistent goal production. It’s been startling to watch it transpire in a player that averaged 29 goals scored the past two seasons, and has been widely considered the most fearsome player in the NHL.

He’s gone without a goal in the last 15 games, is a minus-5 in March and trudged through one of his most invisible games in recent memory Saturday night in a 3-2 loss to the Toronto Maple Leafs. It’s his longest stretch without a goal since the end of the 2010-11 season and into the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup when Lucic went 20 games without a goal.

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