Russell had his warts but to me Russell was a great skater who was able to use this ability to get into shooting lanes and also take away passes. I saw him give separation with an opponent and 'goad' the other team into passing to his mark. Russell would then use his skating ability to close that pass off. He did that a lot.
I'm not challenging the areas where he struggles but he had some good defensive qualities - you had to look closely for them - but they were there.
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