I know it's early (very), but it's hard to ignore the play of our D, and how often they jump into the rush! Last year Calgary had the fewest points by defence-man in the league. Very depressing. This was an obvious weakness/problem that thus far, seems to have been addressed with the addition of Hartley's system & Dennis Wideman!
I have a few questions for this thread:
1. What % of our team goals will come from our D this year? (last years & this years % below).
2. Predict goal totals for our top-4 (Jay, Gio, Wide, Brodie)
I know it's early (very), but it's hard to ignore the play of our D, and how often they jump into the rush! Last year Calgary had the fewest points by defence-man in the league. Very depressing. This was an obvious weakness/problem that thus far, seems to have been addressed with the addition of Hartley's system & Dennis Wideman!
I have a few questions for this thread:
1. What % of our team goals will come from our D this year? (last years & this years % below).
2. Predict goal totals for our top-4 (Jay, Gio, Wide, Brodie)
Brent Sutter has five years as an NHL coach under his belt. In only one of those seasons has he had a defensemen on his roster that has scored over 33 points. Read into that as you will, but for me personally that is a very telling statistic about how he chooses to utilize his defensemen, and his capability as an NHL head coach.
Bob Hartely is doing a fantastic job so far. Having thar 4th forward jump into the play is giving us the chances we've never had before, thereby inflating our team.
We have the capable blueline as well. Wideman, Bouwmeester, Giordano, and Brodie are 4th forwards when we need them. Even Smith and Butler have played some commendable games in this regard.
Wideman has been great so far, 6 points in 7 games. Mind you, he gets a full minute more of PP time than everyone else but he has really delivered. He's not fast but his positioning is great, and he plays the body a bit as well (at least more so than all the other guys).
Brodie has also been a stud. He's very close to cementing himself as a legitimate top four defensemen. His skating is drool-worthy.
That's the difference between a coach who utilizes players to their proper abilities and strengths and one who tries to force a square into a round peg.
That's the difference between a coach who utilizes players to their proper abilities and strengths and one who tries to force a square into a round peg.
I think my favorite part of the new system is that our guys who can score like Gio, Bouw and Wideman (even Brodie) can now jump up into the rush when they have an opportunity.
Its honestly been a total 180 from the kind of D we had last year, and its helped the team a lot. If just one of those guys lights the lamp most nights, we will win a lot more games.
Wideman has been great so far, 6 points in 7 games. Mind you, he gets a full minute more of PP time than everyone else but he has really delivered. He's not fast but his positioning is great, and he plays the body a bit as well (at least more so than all the other guys).
Brodie has also been a stud. He's very close to cementing himself as a legitimate top four defensemen. His skating is drool-worthy.
I have been very tempted to bump his signing thread on the main board, to induce some well deserved servings of crow.
It is nice to see alot of offence from our D. I like that Hartley gives all our D the green light. They might of resulted in a couple breakaways here and there but im not concerned, it is a learning process to make the proper decision to pinch or not. Hartley really did a 180 on this teams style of play and im liking it
I always liked the Wideman deal, of course the salary he got was a little high but thats what many teams were gona give him as a free agent (if not more). What hes done to our powerplay has been fantastic. I agree that it is early so I won't judge yet but I will admit that im cautiously optimistic about how our D has been so far.
Now I don't know who is right.
