[Huntingwhale]

Article from Francis about the struggles of Wideman. Normally I'm not one to take anything a player says to the media at face value. But Wideman had some interesting quotes...

“When you’re younger you get to see stuff (by sitting in the press box) but I don’t know what positive there is to take out of it,” said the 33-year-old defenceman Monday.

“But it’s not my job to do that. My job is to be ready when they ask me to play.”

When reminded he rebounded two seasons ago from a similar benching to have a career year that helped lead the club to the playoffs, Wideman shrugged.

“That’s the way you guys see it,” he said, unconvinced.

“That was two years ago.”

“Widesy will tell you he’s not the fastest guy out there but he’s a smart player,” said Gulutzan.

“He’s a guy that has to pay a cerebral game but those breakaways weren’t an indication of him per se. I think 97 (Connor McDavid) deserves a little bit of the credit there, because there were a few of our defencemen that he went past. A couple of them that Wides happened to be involved in were just turnovers at the blue-line there and you’re not going to win that footrace. Few guys in the league will.”

“I think it was just us learning when to be super aggressive and when to back off in the system,” said Wideman, explaining the glaring defensive lapses in their 5-3 loss Friday — his last game.

“We played them last year and didn’t give up five breakaways in a game.”

Gulutzan saw it differently.

“That wasn’t systematic breakdowns, that was blunders with the puck at the blue-line,” said the coach, whose 0-2-1 team tightened up those defensive lapses in Saturday’s shootout loss.

“That wasn’t structure, that was puck management.”

http://www.calgarysun.com/2016/10/17...es-defensively