Quote:
Originally Posted by Strange Brew
The question is how important is your #7 defenseman. It’s good to have an above average guy in that spot but as we saw last year, and every year, the top players decide a playoff series.
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I see that and I raise you the 2017 playoffs. Matt Bartkowski was a team-leading minus-5 despite a team-lowest 12:45 in average icetime. He basically acted as a handicap upon the likes of Giordano/Brodie/Hamilton. A lot of these were one goal games, too. We probably don't get swept if we had someone NHL-caliber in that role. Maybe even push it to a winner-takes-all seventh game even with Elliott's disasterous play.
Of course, if Treliving had just.. not acquired him and we kept Kulak in that role, or if Gulutzan had any idea how to run a bench, maybe that doesn't happen, but it's still a good case study in how your worst player can lose you a series.