James Mirtle at The Globe and Mail comes up with Marc Staal being the top defensive defenseman during his statistical breakdown of which defensemen do the best job of keeping goals against down when they’re on the ice by looking at quality of competition, goals against at even strength and goals against while shorthanded. ...Staal may not be flashy but very seldom does he make a mistake.
...however, if I do have one criticism I've felt like he's flatlined this season. I was expecting a little more. Not sure if Torts is to blame for this.
2 comments:
After Henrik I think Staal is probably our best player. It is hard to compare a defensive defenseman (Staal) with an offensive forward (Gabby) but the kid is just a solid as solid can be. He is BY FAR the only defenseman on our team who doesn't make me nervous taking on a skilled player one on one.
I also don't see any "flatline" from him, and he has even stepped his offense up of late. I don't even need Staal to contribute offensively to think is the the most valuable guy behind Hank on our squad....You saw how the team responded without Gabby, do you think we'd fare as well w/o Staal?
I would agree that early on this season he flatlined, but I think he's picked his game up in the second half, especially lately.
Broadway Hockey Daily
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