Brodie is playing much better than last year. His skating is sublime and he's just dancing on his edges once again.
Something I've noticed not just from Brodie's pairing but from all the pairings is they're giving a huge gap and subsequently giving up the blueline too easily. I think this is a partial reason for why there are high-ish shot totals against.
Last year Gulutzan had the defencemen try and kill plays right at, or just inside the blueline when the attack came down the wings. This year they haven't been doing it as much. You will notice that when the attack comes down the wing both defencemen shift over to that side - this is different then how Hartley had them play. Hartley had both d kind of stay in lanes and protect the middle of the ice. Gulutzan describes this in a youtube video about his coaching philosophy.
I listened to Loubardias saying this could be a hangover effect from 97's game against them. He said the same thing happened to a few guys last year as well and it affected the team for a while. Who knows? Could be.
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