Look, I love Roo. His skill with the puck is so much fun to watch and the jawdropping dangles are awesome. He's fantastic. He can get himself or his linemates into scoring positions almost effortlessly.
But let's not pretend that he is anything but barely adequate defensively.
Who cares? Giroux is being paid not to be a defensive stalwart. He's being paid to put the puck in the net and make the players around him better. He's done that and has done that in spades.
Richards is gone. Get over it. He's not coming back. Besides, if you really want someone on this team to be a Richards clone, look no further than the 19 year old who did something Richards could never do on his best day - shut down Malkin and make it look easy.
I loved Richards when he was here, but it's time to move on.
When his career is over, he'll be a Hall of Fame candidate and his number will hang from the rafters along with those of Clarke, Parent, Barber and Ashbee.
Taking nothing away from the year he had, it's a little premature to declare him HOF worthy. Can we at least see a 30 goal season? His 65 assists last year were stellar but 32 were on the power play.
As good as last year was, it will take 8+ years as good or better than 2011-12 before the HOF talk can even be taken seriously. Very long odds of it happening.
i have my fingers crossed that this happens soon... i have the belief that you need 2 "stars" on your top line to be a truly dangerous team. if carolina makes a move and lands nash, they would be a very dangerous team wouldnt they??...with this being said, i wouldnt mind having parise either,but if the money is close ill take nash....
Taking nothing away from the year he had, it's a little premature to declare him HOF worthy. Can we at least see a 30 goal season? His 65 assists last year were stellar but 32 were on the power play.
As good as last year was, it will take 8+ years as good or better than 2011-12 before the HOF talk can even be taken seriously. Very long odds of it happening.
Of course it's premature. Then again, that's the point of, you know, projecting and predicting things. I'm just expressing my personal opinion about Giroux here, and it's one I've had for over three years now.
Who cares? Giroux is being paid not to be a defensive stalwart. He's being paid to put the puck in the net and make the players around him better. He's done that and has done that in spades.
Richards is gone. Get over it. He's not coming back. Besides, if you really want someone on this team to be a Richards clone, look no further than the 19 year old who did something Richards could never do on his best day - shut down Malkin and make it look easy.
I loved Richards when he was here, but it's time to move on.
I don't care how offensively talented a player is. There's no excuse to coast back and not even try on defense, which is something we saw Giroux do too many times this year.
Re: Richards and Couturier. Couturier reminds me kind of a clone between Richards and Carter. Not as naturally offensively talented as Carter offensively and not as physical as Richards, but he's able to use his body to shield the puck well and has a pretty nice shot (Carter) and has great defensive acumen (Richards).
Look, I love Roo. His skill with the puck is so much fun to watch and the jawdropping dangles are awesome. He's fantastic. He can get himself or his linemates into scoring positions almost effortlessly.
But let's not pretend that he is anything but barely adequate defensively.
Giroux's defense IS decent. I won't go any further than that though. The effort is certainly there. The natural prowess is not. He'll get better. Because he's not Mike Richards or Jeff Carter doesn't mean his defense is terrible.
