Quote:
Originally Posted by Erick Estrada
I can't recall exactly but I believe it may have been against the Stars last season but a player entered the zone on Russell and faked a shot to which Russell slid to block while the player simply shifted and walked in all alone on the goaltender to score. It looked really bad.
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I saw this happen several times last year when he was still on the Flames as well. generally, it's a trap to try an evaluate a player based on one or two really good or bad plays that stick out in your mind, but I did on more than one occasion get mesmerized by Russell frantically flailing around in the d-zone, trying to get the puck off forwards who were basically playing piggy in the middle with him.
and I'm always reading on here how the Flames have to get bigger and grittier, which is too simplistic for my taste, but how come that seldom seems to be applied to small Russell? I think this is actually one case where the dude's size is a real detriment to his ability to defend, in addition to the terrible decision making.