Quote:
Originally Posted by Vulcan
Over-matched? I just never saw it. Despite everyone saying he had poor skills, he always played positionally well, made smart passes, was good on the pinch, and brought a physical aspect that none of our other defenceman had. I imagine you could find sometimes when he got beat outside but even the great skating Brodie gets beat outside sometimes.
To me he was a top six defenceman at least and he's proving it in Colorado.
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He really wasn't consistently physical. He had a couple highlight reel hits that everyone kept quoting.
Smart passes? We must have been watching different players. Sarich struggled to clear the zone at almost every opportunity. He was more likely to shoot it off the boards than make a smart pass. Brodie, Russell, Gio, those types of guys make smart outlets. Sarich really, really struggled at moving the puck up the ice either by passing or by skating.
His speed had him getting beat at the opposition blueline which would lead to breakaways or penalties. He'd also get beat along the boards by faster players and often had to bring them down.
Sarich much like Regehr was a slower, less skilled player that excelled in the pre-lockout era by clutching and grabbing. Both those two had less impact when the obstruction rules became more heavily enforced. Unfortunately Sarich was the poor man's Regehr and thus became a depth NHLer.