Quote:
Originally Posted by St. Pats
Yep no thread on Gio and he has been beyond brutal for how long? A long time. He needs to go back to 2nd pairing. Butler is useless and should be bottom pairing. Smith was where he should be last night. Sarich is a solid 3rd pairing guy. Brodie at max is a 2nd pairing guy. Wideman is a guy you most certainly do not want on the ice too often except on the PP.
It's a crappy group and one that REALLY needs the forwards to come back and help.
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I was going to mention something like this.
Bouwmeester has hardly been the ideal UFA signing since we got him, but the last two years, I struggle to think of many of the defence have earned their salary (Brodie, Hannan, and Smith come to mind...but two of the three also played really light and easy minutes. The last one looked like garbage by the end of last year). Giordano isn't hitting as hard, is getting beat out of the corners more often (and it's not a strength thing either. He used to be able to hold his own), is making bad shots, and definitely isn't the same player we all fell in love with when he came back from Russia (which I'm not entirely unconvinced was a contractual thing...that this is where we should expect Giordano to play. I mentioned this in the GT last night, but that hard working ball of energy we saw could have been just to get a good contract and this is more his regular level). Butler is in no man's land right now, where I can't fault him heavily because of the fact that he routinely gets stuck on the first pairing, a level he's obviously not suited to play (while there's statistically insignificant game count of him being on anything lower in a Flames jersey), Sarich is still slow and is still being sheltered in minutes, and Wideman is a bit of an adventure handling the puck 5 on 5. And he's looking good compared to the rest of the team.
It's not just Bouwmeester at this early point in the season - it's a systemic issue. Too many back end players are getting too much money for what they're returning. At this point, one may consider having to begin a firesale on the team because there just isn't any defensive depth to go along with the at least somewhat promising forwards and lotto tickets that are the goaltending prospects. I can see why people want to target Bouwmeester - he's the most expensive and therefore should carry the team. It just seems strange that he's the only guy being singled out.