What does this have to do with EJ's play last season? Nothing.
Actually it has a LOT to do with it--EJ was objectively terrible during the regular season. He stepped it up in the playoffs but IMO a lot of the difference was that he was holding himself back and trying to play a more cerebral game to to avoid injury. And he doesn't really have the type of hockey sense to do that sort of thing. Come playoff time he went all-out again and it worked (for the most part).
It also didn't help either EJ or Sammy that both logged a lot of minutes with Jack Johnson.