Quote:
Originally Posted by dissentowner
Saying he is a better pker than Gio is beyond laughable!
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Dude, we have a bottom ten PK in the NHL this year with Gio playing the big minutes. He's not perfect and he's not above criticism. He misses his check sometimes because he doesn't cover space too well.
Maybe actually try to watch carefully instead of assuming that because Gio is great, that means he's perfect and his partners are just riding his coattails. Penalty killing is a team activity and Gio's style of penalty killing doesn't mesh perfectly with Hamonic, Brodie's style of penalty killing does.
I wish I could go back and show you the first faceoff after virtually every penalty that Gio puts himself in the press box, because Brodie plays those sequences very well and better than Gio. But go ahead, laugh at me and talk about "brutal turnovers" (which usually happen 5v5 because Brodie is trying to generate offense, not because he's too dumb to go glass and out) and "average" positioning as if Gio never finds himself out of position on the PK.
I do think Brodie is a little better at PKing than Gio. I believe our PK became better in 2015 when Gio got hurt, I believe our PK is better when Gio takes penalties than when other guys take penalties. It got better because Brodie took over Gio's role, not because Gio isn't a great PKer.
I don't think Brodie is better overall defensively than Gio. He was in 2016, but that was one season where Gio didn't play very well.
Gio is a damn amazing player and probably my favourite Flames defensemen since he was blocking shots all over the place way back in our stretch run in 2010 where we just missed out. But he isn't perfect.