Pulling up some comments and numbers here from around the web, and outlook is good for Dougie steadily improving.
Darren Haynes, Flames from 80 Feet:
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Games 10-18, 1* ES goal against in 135:22 of ES ice time (*excluding empty netter)
Games 1-9, 13 ES goals against in 160:11 of ES ice time
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Ari Yanover, Flames Nation:
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One last note on this. Alex Ovechkin had a number of dangerous scoring chances throughout the game. Two in particular stood out to me:
-When trying to cut through the slot, Hamilton calmly took the puck from him and created a Flames scoring chance instead.
-When coming up the boards, Russell tried to cut him off, and only succeeded in falling down.
It's not like I'm judging my entire impressions of two defencemen based on two isolated incidents, but it's kind of funny when you think that the guy who fell played the second most minutes, and the guy who turned a dangerous situation into a scoring chance of his own was benched in the period his team gave up its two-goal lead.
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You can already see how this is eventually going to play out. One game, Hamilton is going to be given real top four minutes. And he's going to do well enough with them to play the next game as a top four guy. And the next game. And the next. And suddenly, bam: Hamilton is actually a top four defenceman.
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