I think, in regards to Rantanen, aside from the injury vs falling to the moment conversation we have to think that maybe the young guy was simply tired. He’d slowed down as the season progressed and it just seemed to come to a head in the playoffs. They’d battled all season. Landeskog looked like he’d lost 15lbs by the end of the playoffs. To a good extent, I think he was just burned out from being a young, still growing guy playing minutes that are over his head for that age running out of gas during a long, hard-fought season.

I’m not saying it’s the entire reason as the whole team looked nervous in the first game and even carrying on a touch (lots of panic passing, etc), but I think it has a lot to do with it. We’re talking a barely 21 year old guy playing the heaviest minutes he’s ever seen. Normally, I’d be less prone to make this argument as it’s not his first season of action, but it’s been a big step in usage regardless. Additionally, this is a guy that is barely grown into his body. He’s only just mostly shaken the puppy legs falling down portion of coping with his athleticism. As a similarly sized dude, I had my last growth spurt at age 23. I’d hit peak height well before that but the overall frame growth doesn’t necessarily stop in the teens. Pair a (literally) still growing boy with one of the most tasking endurance runs in professional sports and you have to imagine he runs out of gas playing heavy minutes.

This argument works with why he’d have an uptick in worlds. The guy got a few weeks to rest, sleep, and let those muscles heal up. Even one week can do miracles for a guy that young.