Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziggy Stardust
Here's the problem with replacing Mitchell... he logs over 22 mins of ice time, the only player to average more ice time during the reg. season was Drew Doughty. He was 2nd to Doughty during the playoffs as well, but he was seeing more ice time at 25+ mins. Sure, he played on the second pair with Voynov, but he was also the top defender on the PK (along with Greene).
If he's out for an extended period of time, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable seeing a fresh faced, inexperienced rookie, logging lots of minutes while the responsibilities and ice time of every other defender increases. We're not sure how much of a workload some of them can handle in a compressed schedule.
Hence the reason why it wouldn't hurt the team to bring in an extra defenseman who can step right in and play some big minutes (if necessary). I'm not comfortable in seeing Drewiske appear in a majority of the games.
As of yesterday, the D pairings appeare to be...
Scuderi-Doughty
Martinez-Voynov
Drewiske-Greene
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When it's printed out like that, our need becomes pretty apparent. It looks so much less brass-ballsy without Mitchell pushing everyone but Doughty down a peg.
Never thought I'd say this, but what's Sheldon Souray's phone number?