I was thinking earlier about what Andy has changed since last season. One thing that I realized nobody has been talking about is his gear.
Last year during the regular season, Andy was using TPS Response Summit 7 equipment. He did pretty well.
For the playoffs, Andy got some spec pads, still from TPS, and he seemed to play awesome with them. He also used these pads for the preseason this year. Here's a pic if your memory needs to be jogged:
And then on opening night, he started using these pads:
Notice the difference? These are still spec pads. He keeps the no knee roll feature which he has always had. But take another look. For the first time in his pro career (3 years in the Hawks system, 2 seasons with the Hawks, 3 with the Panthers, and 1 with the Avs), he isn't using TPS equipment.
These particular spec pads are unlisted, so we don't know anything about them. But if these are stiffer than his previous pads, it could help explain the less-than-optimal rebound control and his apparent slowness when going into a butterfly. It can also just be a comfort or feel thing. If the pads are just a little bit uncomfortable, it can be really distracting during games.
I don't know why he would change to Sher-Wood all of a sudden, but if nothing else is working for him, why doesn't he just try going back to his TPS gear? At this point, it can't really hurt.