Quote:
Originally Posted by Bandwagon In Flames
By no means am I an Engelland apologist, but you have to give him credit for stepping up when Giordano went down. If he was 'hanging on by a thread' we would not of made the playoffs
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I don't believe I have to give the biggest liability on the ice for over two months credit for being overplayed.
Let's look at some goaltending stats between Feb 27 to April 9 in wins + OT/shootouts:
Jonas Hiller with a save percentage of 0.944 / 7W / 1SOL (15 Points)
Karri Ramo with a save percentage of 0.921 / 5W / 1OTL / 1SOL (12 Points)
In those 12 wins and 3 tie-losses out of the 19 vital games, we got very, very good goaltending.
Let's also look at some (5v5) defense pairing stats in the games between Feb 27 to April 9:
Wideman-Russell on the ice for 22 goals for, 11 goals against
Schlemko-Diaz on the ice for 7 goals for, 3 goals against
Brodie-Engelland on the ice for 6 goals for, 12 goals against
You can look at the contrast between the stats and draw one of four conclusions:
A)Brodie was a liability in that role
B)Brodie
and Engelland were both liabilities in that role
C)These two got
really bad puck-luck.
D)Engelland was liability in that role
Well, I know Brodie was nursing an ankle injury, but my eye test didn't tell me Brodie was costing the team. So I don't think A and B are the right answer.
C's a possibility if the on-ice play wasn't one-sided. But
additional stats show this pairing had possession stats of 36.6%. That's spending 2/3rd of the TOI stuck defending. They scored 1/3rd of the goals. I see what appears to be a correlation.
As for D? I saw it with my eyes when it was happening and I continued to see it with my eyes. But maybe I'm just crazy.
At no point last season did Engelland's pairing outscore the other team last year, whether it was with Brodie(middle pairing), with Diaz (bottom pairing), or with Smid(bottom pairing).
I get that people like what he brings in a #7 role, and I don't blame you for it. But I just think any team sport's objective is usually to outscore or
at least tie the other team when you're out there.
I'm not asking Engelland to be a great puck-mover. I'm asking him be able to make the simple clean outlet to our forwards (something Nakladal, Wilson, Sieloff and Wotherspoon have shown they can do infinitely better in this preseason).