[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Galakanokis

My take on Brodie.

As an old school defenseman the biggest key between partners is chemistry and we are now on our third partner that has pretty bad chemistry with Brodie. Partners need to be able to read off of each other and Brodie is extremely tough to read. Long stretch pass, spin o-rama and reverse, dump into the corner, pass behind the net? You never know what Brodie is going to do and it's tough as the other D as you don't know where to be. With Giordano, he was the dominate of the two, Brodie fed off of him and away they went. Plus, Giordano is really, really good and could make up for Brodie's miscues. With Brodie's new pairings he is considered to be the dominate and Stone, Hamonic have to read off of him and it is just not working. No clue how to fix that part of it but that is my take anyways. I don't mind the Hamonic trade still as my gut tells me Brodie is the problem on the pairing.

I still want a Giordano-Hamonic top, shutdown pairing. I think they would be really good together. Stone and Brodie would be fine as well. Not sure a Hamilton-Kulak pairing is capable but I honestly don't mind Kulak's game but he is prone to pinch's and mistakes and there is no way Hamilton can cover. Something has to change that I am certain off, just not sure how you do it.

I would start by shrinking his minutes though. Giordano is still our best defenseman and should be played as much. Put him back on the top PP and get Brodie down to under 20mins a game.

Originally Posted by Gaskal

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!

Originally Posted by Galakanokis

His best D was played while he wasn't the man, playing with Gio who many considered to be in the Norris talk at the time. I think the hope was Brodie could carry a pairing but that hasn't panned out. I think, in general, Brodie is way to passive to be the "man", I don't think he is looked at as a leader by teammates but it feels forced from the coaching staff with the minutes and roles he is playing in.

I think Hamonic needs to step up and take control of the pairing but is unable to due to being new to the team. The dominate on a paring is natural and cannot be forced, it just works itself out. Think of how bad Regehr-Phaneuf were, just a forced pairing but Hamrlik-Phanuef had great chemistry.

These are just my feelings around it. Brodie doesn't look comfortable out there and hasn't for a long while now. Perhaps it is the left/right thing I don't know but something else needs to tried.

Strongly agree with all of this.