Quote:
Originally Posted by moon
It seems many of the guys that are soft on the puck came from other organizations. Is it Heskeths fault that Wideman, Hudler, Butler, Russell are all soft on the puck and have been their whole careers? Is it the fault of Washington, St. Louis, Boston, Detroit, Buffalo who all had these guys at one point as well? Or is it that some guys are going to be softer on the puck than others and toughness hasn't seemed to be the biggest area of concern for Feaster other than throwing out goons like McGrattan and SOB.
I think if we saw guys that should be strong having issues it may be a concern but for the most those guys above plus Backlund, Baertschi, Cammy are guys you would expect to have trouble and always will because they are weak guys.
Glencross, Stajan, Gio, Brodie, Jones, Monahan and Stempniak, the guys that are more solid are all fine in terms of their strength.
I think it is a case of blaming a guy for a lot of things out of his control.
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Butler I think is a bit soft on the puck, but that is about it from the bolded list. Wideman surprised me at how physical he is and how he is able to remove players from the puck at times. Russel battles, even on the corners - for a guy his size, I wouldn't classify him as being soft on the puck. Hudler - I see him getting hit sometimes where I think he lost the puck, but still hangs onto it and makes a play. Hudler is not soft. He doesn't initiate too much, but he seems to actually do alright for himself.
Baertschi, Stajan (better this season and last though) and Billins I found pretty soft on the puck so far.
As for your 'toughness isn't an area of concern for Feaster' - why else trade Tanguay for Jones? Why sign Galiardi? O'Brien wasn't signed as an enforcer - he was signed to be that guy that pushes back when a guy takes liberties with the goalie (and he hasn't been fulfilling that role completely, which I think is part of the reason that Feaster felt he needed to obtain Smid) and obtaining Smid? Drafting Kanzig? Poirier over Shinkaruk? Feaster himself has said (before Burke was hired) that this team needs to get tougher and harder to play against. There is definitely very apparent concern from Feaster in that area I would say.