Quote:
Originally Posted by ---Hatrick---
You'd have to think that Brodie is feeling a lot more confident going into this season. He knows he's gonna be paired with a capable second pairing partner, which takes a lot of weight off his shoulders.
Being paired with Wideman for long stretches I believe really took him away from playing his type of game. Instead of the mindset of jumping up and joining the rush he likely felt he had to be much more responsible as Wideman did not have the speed to get back to his own zone quickly.
I hope playing with a solid responsible stay at home type partner such as Haminic will allow Brodie to play his game
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I actually think that Wideman - with all his warts - was playing fairly steady hockey especially to start the season. Engelland, Wideman and then Hamilton were the first defencemen it seemed to start playing well. The wheels came off for Wideman again unfortunately, but I give Wideman credit where credit is due.
I don't know what was going on with Brodie. He looked bad with Wideman, he looked bad with Engelland (and he looked great with Engelland in the past) - Brodie just looked bad. I completely disagree with it being a 'bad partner' - Brodie was making terrible decisions out there in the first half of the season that didn't involve covering for his partner. His pinches were horrible for instance, and Wideman I thought covered for him too often.
I think it was the adjustment to the left side, and not playing with Giordano any longer. The system changes probably had an effect as well. There are a lot of excuses as to why Brodie was not playing well, but 'getting pulled down by his partner' wasn't one of them. Thankfully they seem fully resolved (and I thought Brodie was really turning his game around BEFORE the Stone acquisition anyways), and I expect to have him playing well again this season.
If he gets his game back to where it was before, the Flames D will be lethal out there in all the zones, and I imagine the transition game will give opposing coaches fits. You have 5 competent defencemen that can skate with the puck or make a tape-to-tape stretch pass, and who are all good in their own zone (so they can break-up plays more effectively and turn that puck the other way faster). That's really lethal. I expect the Flames to absolutely dominate the teams with a poor forecheck now like the Kings (they don't have the legs IMO any longer).