Quote:
Originally Posted by RoughRiderRowdy
Do you even watch the games? How is he playing defensively?
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He is alright, at least he is in position most of the time. However he could be stronger on the backcheck sometimes. I get that having an enormous 6'5 reach with a giant stick to match is an advantage, but he could really lay into some forwards more if he wanted to. Gio should be able to cover. Of course, the one time Gio lays a massive hit, Dougie 'clears' the puck right into a Stars forward... but in principle it should still work. People just don't fear the Flames physically and he's one player who has what it takes to change that perspective.
Dougie is also decent with the puck in his own end. However he gets victimized in crease scrambles because they get inside his reach and he's trying to swat a puck bouncing at his feet with an absurdly long stick. It makes him look like a doofus swinging away at a bouncing puck with repeated whiffs when some opposing forward just comes in and swipes it in first try.
He's also got pretty decent foot speed. Unfortunately sometimes forgets to actually keep his feet moving though. Particularly when containing the rush, which leads to some "WTF" moments where he has to turn to forwards skate and break up a rush rather than just angling the guy off like Gio typically does.
So TLDR: Dougie just needs to stop being a birdbrain and he's an automatic Norris winner!